What is the Mellon Park Action Plan?

Do you use or live near Mellon Park? If so, you might want to become familiar with the Mellon Park Action Plan to learn more about the future of the park!

The Action Plan is designed to create a vision for Mellon Park by taking the input of residents, park users, city partners, stakeholders, and other interested community members. The plan will serve as a guide for future projects in and around the park, ensuring the needs and wants of the community are prioritized. 

Some of the challenges faced by this iconic park include a lack of safe pedestrian access due to its borders to Penn, Shady, and Fifth Avenue, as well as amenities having fallen into disrepair. This disrepair includes pathways that are no longer accessible, historic walls at Terrace Garden deteriorating, and insufficient park lighting. Restoration and improvement of these features is necessary for public safety.

During future improvements, the Parks Conservancy, the City of Pittsburgh, and the Friends of Mellon Park want to ensure we  take various elements into account, including the park’s history, parking and transportation access, the ways the community will use the park, potential for programming, possible new amenities, public art opportunities, and the inclusion of green and eco-friendly infrastructure. 

“Mellon Park is a vibrant public open space with even more opportunity ahead,” says Brandon Riley, our Capital Projects Manager, in a video on the Conservancy’s YouTube channel. “The goal of the action plan will be to bring together all of Mellon Park’s users and all of its spaces to make sure it’s functioning as a whole. It’s also going to identify and leverage other projects that might be happening nearby that could bring potential benefit to Mellon Park. And lastly, the goal is to outline guidelines for improvements. In order to do all of that, the action plan really needs to be developed and led by the community.”

If you want to engage with the project, read the draft of the plan, provide comments, or just follow along with the progress, check out the City’s EngagePGH website now!