Pittsburgh Use Amendments 2021-2024
By Carolyn Ristau
Our guides to Pittsburgh’s zoning districts include the uses permitted in each district. Since we started publishing these guides, the City of Pittsburgh has adopted several amendments to simplify, streamline, and clarify several uses. We have updated this information in our guides. Below is a summary of these amendments and their impacts.
Additional amendments relating to uses and other zoning regulations have or are expected to go into effect in 2025. We will provide summations of those at a later date.
Restaurant Amendment - 2021
Before
Until December 2021, Pittsburgh’s zoning ordinance had four different restaurant use types:
Restaurant, Fast-Food (Limited)
Restaurant, Fast-Food (General)
Restaurant (Limited)
Restaurant (General)
The distinctions between these use types, where they were required, and their supplemental requirements were cumbersome and did not align with modern food establishments. Beverage-centric establishments and walk-in, quick service places, in particular, often fell through the cracks between these definitions or were unduly burdened with regulations geared toward reducing impacts that were not part of their business model.
After
With the amendment that went into effect at the end of 2021, the four restaurant uses have been condensed into three uses with clearer definitions.
Restaurant, Fast-Food, was made a single use type and the distinguishing feature of this use now is that it provides drive-through service. In conjunction with this revised definition, the districts where this use is permitted were updated to limit it to car-oriented zoning districts.
This is a significant change in the definition as before a drive-through was not required for a use to be considered a Fast-Food Restaurant. It makes it easier to identify where drive-through restaurants are permitted and what are the requirements they must meet. It also provides clarity that walk-in, quick service places are not subject to the same regulations intended to mitigate the impacts of drive-through businesses.
Restaurant continues to have two subcategories, Limited and General, in the same districts as before, but the parent definition was made infinitely simpler. A restaurant is now any business focused on the sale of food and beverage and that does not have a drive-through.
Again, this brings clarity to the beverage-centric establishments and walk-in, quick service places that used to fall into a regulatory tangle under the old definitions.
The parking requirements for all the restaurant use types were also amended.
The full amendment is available on the City’s legislative website.
Child Care Amendment - 2024
Before
Child Care is a minutely regulated use between the State’s licensing requirements, the zoning regulations, and the building code. The zoning regulations were prohibitive by limiting where and how child care facilities could operate above and beyond the regulations administered by the other applicable codes.
After
With the amendment effective February 2024, Child Care is permitted in more zoning districts with fewer burdensome requirements.
The full amendment is available on the City’s legislative website.
Sidewalk Cafe Amendment - 2024
Before
Until May 2024, zoning regulated sidewalk cafes as an accessory use.
These regulations were largely duplicative of the regulations sidewalk cafes had to meet in the right-of-way and building codes, and they were written in a complex and burdensome way. The impact of the sidewalk cafe regulations was to prevent over half of the applications for sidewalk cafes from reaching approval. Several years ago, the city had amended the right-of-way regulations to make sidewalk cafes easier to approve, but since the zoning regulations were not amended at the same time, this had negligible impact.
After
The zoning amendment that went into effect in May 2024, removed sidewalk cafes altogether from the jurisdiction of zoning. They still need to comply with the right-of-way and building code requirements to get permits.
The full amendment is available on the City’s legislative website.
Attached Single-Unit Amendment - 2024
Before
Pittsburgh’s zoning ordinance contains many exceptions to reduce the burden of the residential setback requirements by-right. Among them is an exception that permits the side setback to be reduced to 0 feet where the building wall abuts that of the adjacent building regardless of the zoning district (Section 925.06.C.2). This provision was in direct conflict with the use regulations that prohibited Attached Single-Unit Residential uses in the R1D (Single-Unit Detached Residential Zoning District). When there is a conflict in the regulations, the most restrictive applies. So while the setbacks permitted an attached house, the use regulations did not and a use variance was necessary.
After
With the amendment effective May 2024, this conflict in the regulations was resolved. An attached single-unit home is now permitted by-right on narrow lots in the R1D and by special exception on large lots in the R1D.
The full amendment is available on the City’s legislative website.
