You Can’t Build That Here - The Eaglemoor

For our fourth entry in our “You Can’t Build That Here!” series, we’re back in the East End - this time in Highland Park.

Each entry in this series highlights a currently existing building that would be illegal to build under the existing zoning code. The purpose is to highlight how flawed our zoning code is.

Today, we’re looking at 1137 N Highland Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15206 - an apartment building currently called The Eaglemoor.

The building that exists there now was built prior to the 1903-1906 set of maps, but after the 1890 maps.  At the time, the three buildings were called the “Norfolk”, “Delaware” and “Howard”, owned by an E. M. Kenna.

From the 1903-1906 maps, The Eaglemoor, then called the “Norfolk”, “Delaware”, and “Howard”.

It appears to have been used as an apartment building since it was built, with 21 apartments arranged in 3 buildings. Each building is 4 floors (bottom floor being a half basement), with two units on each of the 3 upper floors, and 1 unit and a laundry room on the bottom floor.

All units are 2 bedrooms/1 bathrooms and range from 953 square feet to 1,350 square feet.

Here is a sample floorplan:

The buildings are, in total, approximately 30,000 square feet (give or take a few thousand). The lot it sits on, parcel 82-M-167, is 16,543 square feet, roughly 120 feet by 135 feet. It is currently zoned R1D-L (single family detached low density housing).

Under the current zoning code, R1D-L requires minimum lot sizes of 5,000 square feet, and only one housing unit can be built per lot.  They also require minimum front, rear, and exterior sideyard setbacks of 30 ft, interior side yard setbacks of 5 ft, maximum heights of 40 ft (not to exceed three stories), and, of course, a minimum of one off street parking per unit.

So obviously the four story apartment building with some 20+ units on a 16,000 square foot lot, with essentially no setbacks and no off street parking, could not be built today.

Instead, the maximum that could be built on this parcel, if it was subdivided into 3 lots slightly over 5,000 square feet each, would be 3 single family houses, none exceeding three stories, each with at least one parking spot.

I have heard people say wistfully, in regards to old apartment buildings like The Eaglemoor, that “we can’t build like that today.”

We can build like that. We choose not to. And it’s not architects, developers, builders, or residents choosing not to. It’s the city making that choice for us - by having a zoning code that bans the construction of reasonable, missing middle apartment buildings in residential neighborhoods.

If the city got rid of the restrictions on setbacks, minimum lot sizes, how many units could be placed on a lot, and parking minimums, we would see apartment buildings like this one being built all across the city.  The increased density would mean that coffee shops, bakeries, and small groceries could be opened nearby, supported by customers within easy walking distance - like Tazza d’Oro, the charming cafe next door to The Eaglemoor.

What a shame that instead our zoning code chooses to say “You can’t build that here!”

By Jack Billings with contributions by Vlad Kaplan and Clayton Manley