West End hillside

Elliott (near West End) landslide plan advances
==Background==
:Source: P-G on May 18, 2006. 
The City of Pittsburgh wants to seize, using its eminent domain powers, two properties on Corfu Street that stand in the way of a $3 million plan to prevent further landslides on a slope in Elliott.
City Council tentatively voted 4-0 yesterday, with five abstentions, to take the property of Douglas T. Blair for up to $240,000, and of Lawrence Miedema for up to $76,000.
Public Works Director Guy Costa said those properties were needed as part of the plan, which first involves diverting water that runs through the hillside onto the Norfolk Southern Railway Co.'s tracks below. Then the city will remove the dirt from the hillside, leaving bare rock, he said.
"We'll have a $3 million rock hillside," said Councilman William Peduto, who abstained.
Tiny, dead-end Corfu Street was plagued by landslides from May 2004 through January 2005, according to lawsuits filed by homeowners there and Norfolk Southern. The railway has alleged that the hillside was destabilized by city actions, including reconstruction of the West End Overlook, completed in 2003.
==Links==
* Eminent domain
category: finance