Friday December 6th, 2025, The University of Pittsburgh’s Appalachian Collegiate Research Initiative (ACRI) cohort comprised of (Urban Studies, Sustainability, Political Science and Business) returned to Fayette County to present our final deliverables to the community. In our continued partnership with the Fayette Country Cultural Trust, these findings we presented to the community members as well as to our co-collaborators and hosts Dan Cock and Michael Edwards. Community members who had been involved with the project in previous years, or new to us community members that we worked with this fall, were all invited to attend the presentation and luncheon at the Connellsville Canteen.

This presentation was the culmination of extensive interviews, research, collaboration, and brainstorming, organizing, and synthesizing information from the Business, Sustainability, Political Science and Urban Studies cohorts. This project at times seemed impossible to organize and collate into a format that was easily understood by community members. The depth of involvement by these teams was completely immersive and great care was taken to ensure the work we presented would add value to the community and to Fayette County.

Unfortunately, attendance was low, I would attribute this to the scheduling of the presentation itself. Community members that participated did so whole-heartedly and were deeply engaged in learning about the work that was done. Moving forward, I think the scheduling should be revisited and additional options like live-streaming or recording the presentation to send out to community members to view when their schedules permit. A live-stream option would also give members the additional ability to post questions in the chat and/or provide valuable feedback for the cohort moving forward. Recording the presentation also provides an oral history of the project that community members can view and follow throughout the course of the project.

Our cohort (Urban Studies) conducted 7 interviews focused on tourism and tourism development in Fayette County. Unfortunately, none of our interviewees could make it to the presentation, we did, however, get to meet new community members and have meaningful conversations that helped to enhance our knowledge and understanding of Fayette County and its community members. Their additional insights provided fresh perspectives that will be passed on to the future cohorts who are lucky enough to work with this community. The difficulties in this project emerged as soon as we engaged with community members, our focus was tourism and transportation as a possible mechanism of economic development and quickly learned there were unaddressed consequences to a pandemic fueled tourism surge. The housing crisis in Fayette County was voiced and echoed through every interview and conversation with community members, business owners, and local leaders.

Our team spent considerable amounts of time wrestling with economic development, tourism, and the health and well-being of the community. Fayette County and the community did not plan for, market, or invite the pandemic tourism surge, and they have been left to manage its growing demands on the community and infrastructure. Tourism has already arrived, and our goal was to find ways to manage and turn tourism into a resource that enriches the community and economic development of Fayette County. This means acknowledging that tourism must be closely followed and reported in real-time, in an effort to manage or reduce the negative impacts on the community and the infrastructure of Fayette County.

The Urban Studies team created a final set of deliverables for Fayette County centered on three areas of focus that would provide growth opportunities within tourism in Fayette County. While tourism has already firmly taken root in Fayette County attracting regional, national and international visitors, these areas of growth are substantial and actionable strategies that the community in ongoing collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh can actualize in ways that enhance tourism in Fayette County,

The first focused growth area would target Fayette County’s housing and accommodation shortages. Our findings across all of our interviews and conversations revealed the burden and in some cases opportunities, that short-term rentals have placed on the community. This pandemic tourism surge provided a mechanism of opportunity, and some residents sold their homes and left Fayette County. As homes were converted to short-term rentals, options for young people and families wanting to move to Fayette County disappeared. These shortages are not relegated to accommodations for visiting tourists, more so this is centered on residential homes, and residential rental units. Residential housing is a significant barrier to the growth of Fayette County, without available residential housing the community faces possible stagnation or the added burden of families leaving the area in search of more opportunities.

The short-term rental boom in Fayette County is not without opportunities, tourism lodging taxes are collected from all tourist accommodations establishments, however, our interviews revealed these short-term rentals are not paying this tax. Lodging taxes are collected, then directed into a tourism marketing account that is used to advertise and bring more tourists to Fayette County. The revenue lost from short-term rentals avoiding this tax could be used to invest into infrastructure, or in building affordable housing to ease the residential housing crisis.

Our cohort has several recommendations for the University of Pittsburgh and Fayette County to explore moving forward. Additional studies should be conducted on the impact of short-term rentals on the community as well as conduct interviews with business owners in the tourism accommodation sectors. This would include stakeholders at hotels, inns, campgrounds, as well as interviews with the Housing Authority to ascertain and understand the scope of need in terms of low-income, accessible, and affordable housing. Further investigation should be conducted on the lodging tax, its enforcement and the potential to require short-term rentals to be inspected for safety and require annual permits payable to local municipalities of the county to offset the lost revenue and burden placed on the community. The University of Pittsburgh along with our partners in Fayette County can work together and develop strategies for implementation.

The second identified area for focused growth is supplementing and expanding the tourism infrastructure. Fayette County is home to considerable tourist attractions, these assets unfortunately operate independently of each other, with little communication, collaboration, or organization. These assets should be sharing information, advertising local communities like Connellsville and Uniontown, advertising local businesses and restaurants, driving tourists deeper into Fayette County.

Moving forward, Fayette County through continued partnership with the University of Pittsburgh, can collaboratively develop and facilitate community design contests to design, brand, and create signage and marketing materials that reflect the identity of the community and its vision for tourism moving forward. We would also suggest the formation of a Tourism Council to conduct regular meetings to share information, brainstorm ideas, address potential issues, and create a strategy that supports and fosters the growth of the community alongside the growth of tourism. The Tourism Council could eventually be transformed or work alongside the formation of a Business Improvement District (BID) to encourage growth around natural asset connectors like the GAP Trail. This is an actionable item that can be pursued by future cohorts that work closely with the Chamber of Commerce and small business owners.

To conclude our recommendations, the final area for growth we identified is the need for community investment, participation, and partnerships. Building relationships with and for the community will be vital in the continued success of tourism in Fayette County, as well as the success of the community. Local leaders and county commissioners have served the community for as long as 25 years, moving forward, community engagement is necessary to identify future leaders that are committed and invested in the future of Fayette County.

The University of Pittsburgh looks to explore additional opportunities to engage with large numbers of Fayette County’s’ population, the Fayette County Fair will provide a substantial opportunity to speak to a large and diverse group of people from all over Fayette County in a relatively short amount of time. This would not be a departure from the community level interviews we have done in the past, but serve to supplement, inform and expand our understanding of Fayette County and the community.

If I was suddenly accepted into Hogwarts and could wave a magic wand to implement just one of our proposed recommendations, it would have to be the regulation of short-term rentals like the Airbnb’s’ we uncovered. This involves the identification of each short-term rental, the implementation of health, accessibility and safety inspections at the cost of the owner. Failed inspections or failure to submit or renew inspections would result in a substantial fine to the municipality, additional fines and fees would accumulate until the inspection has been completed and passed, as well as all fees and fines are paid. An annual permit would be issued to the owner with after the permitting fee has been paid. Short-term rental owners and operators would be required to sign annual contracts acknowledging their responsibilities in terms of tax schedule, inspections, and permitting. Additional clauses would provide mechanism for revocation of permits for any short-term rental that violates community standards. This would include but not be limited to: noise complaints, violation of occupancy standards, trash and snow removal, landscaping, any unlawful activities, parking complaints, etc. These fess for permitting and inspection are in addition to the traditional lodging tax and would be supplemented by additional taxes applied to rental contracts. Additional taxes would be divided amongst emergency services, Fire, Police, EMS, as well as providing additional funding for local schools.

The revenue generated from this regulation could be used to immediately address the needs of the Fayette County community. By making short-term rental owners and operators responsible through inspection, permitting, and additional taxes passed on to potential renters, we can ensure an investment in the safety of the community as well as benefit economically from the entrepreneurial spirit of the short-term rental model.  While I acknowledge that my stance on short-term rentals may seem a little on the extreme side, our time in Fayette County illuminated the burden placed on the community. This problem is not a rural problem, the housing crisis has permeated the urban rural divide. It can be seen in New York City where studios the size of a closet are rented for $2000, or in cities that have begun to relax zoning laws for tiny home construction, places like Pittsburgh where hard-working young professionals can only afford to share an apartment with two other young professionals, or in Fayette County, where people save their money for years hoping to buy a home in a safe community and there is nothing to buy. Housing means at the end of the day, you have a place to go, to feel safe, and to recharge your battery so that you have the energy to make the world a better place tomorrow.