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Earlier this week, PublicSource reported on two groups in Manchester applying to receive Registered Community Organization status through the City of Pittsburgh in response to the Esplanade development plan. We shared about how one of the groups has been approved while the other awaits a decision and provided a timeline of the competing applications. 

But, what does recognition as a RCO afford a community group? The presence of an RCO forces developers trying to plan projects in the neighborhood to, at the very least, listen to a community's thoughts or concerns. Still, observers said the program is limited in scope and approval of multiple RCOs in the same neighborhood could lead to division.

Read more below. ⬇️

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How do Pittsburgh neighborhoods weigh in on development plans? Through a system that's sometimes divisive.

Pittsburgh’s five-year-old Registered Community Organization Program gives communities voice, but has also allowed some neighborhoods to “splinter,” observers say.
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