New plans for development are reviewed
CRANBERRY TWP — Officials at a township planning commission meeting last week for the first time reviewed new plans for the Cranberry Springs development, which will include the proposed UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex.
Schematics and plans for the sports medicine facility, a joint proposal between UPMC and the Pittsburgh Penguins, changed little from several months ago when they were unveiled.
Otherwise, almost everything about the location and design of the development has changed in a matter of months.
Officials in July announced the entire development, complete with retail and office space as well as a hotel, would be moved from the initial Cranberry Woods development to the new spot on the northern side of Route 228 near that road’s intersection with Interstate 79.
Now called Cranberry Springs, what was seen at the planning commission meeting on Tuesday was the “first real look” officials had of the new development, according Ron Henshaw, the township’s director of community development.
“The only true common part is the UPMC/Pens facility,” said Henshaw about the differences between the old plan and the new. “That facility is strikingly similar with very little change from the original.”
Perhaps the only change is that there will be 100 fewer seats in one of the two proposed ice rinks, which will be used by the Penguins as a practice and training facility. One of the rinks will be for community and other public events, while select Penguins practices will be open to the public.
The rest of the Cranberry Springs development will include five restaurants, a 100-room hotel and retail and office space. The area will be designed to be aesthetically pleasing with a landscaped roundabout for traffic and a 10-foot waterfall next to pedestrian and bike lanes.
The entire development will be on 90 acres owned by developer Gary Sippel, the same site that was once pegged as the spot for a shopping mall.
Henshaw said it will be a five-phase project likely starting early next year. The site is expected to be in use in 2015.
But that doesn’t mean anything is close to a done deal, Henshaw said.
“We’re talking about building a future underpass under Route 228 to link to Cranberry Woods,” Henshaw said. “The timing of that and who’s paying for it and how it will be built, none of that’s been resolved yet. So we have a lot of work to do yet.
“We have a long way to go and a lot of things to figure out between now and the next meeting in October,” he said.
