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Mooncrest Redevelopment Plan
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Mooncrest, a residential neighborhood located on a bluff above the Ohio River in Moon Township, Pennsylvania, is the oldest residential development in Moon. Originally built in 1943 by the Federal government to house workers in the shipyards located on Neville Island below, all of the units were sold to private parties, many of them to the current residents. As Moon grew, Mooncrest became less central and more peripheral to the greater community. At the same time, larger patterns of American residential life led to the marginalization of the close-knit and pedestrian-friendly community, with modest townhouses on small lots. Largely as a result of these broader trends, Mooncrest has declined: higher income residents have moved out, residents with no investment in the community have contributed to both physical and social deterioration, while those who are deeply invested in the community often lack the means to counteract these tendencies. But the picture is far from bleak.
Today Mooncrest is a neighborhood rich in economic, social, racial, and generational diversity, full of close neighbors and long-established families. These forces have chosen to come together to work with the Township and County to improve their community: in some ways to return it to its heyday, but in many ways to make it better than it ever has been. This vision is the guiding spirit of the redevelopment.
Hanson Design Group was selected by the Redevelopment Authority of Allegheny County (RAAC), Moon Township, and the Mooncrest Neighborhood Association to create a redevelopment plan for Mooncrest. In order to do this, Hanson Design Group conducted a survey of existing conditions in Mooncrest, mapped those conditions into a GIS database, met with the community to determine wants and needs, developed preliminary responses to both physical conditions and residents' expressed interests, and worked closely all of the involved parties to produce a final Redevelopment Plan that will guide Mooncrest to the greater future that everyone envisions.
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Owner
Moon Township
Budget
$750,000
Status
Completion, July 2002
Location
Mooncrest Neighborhood, Moon Township, PA
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