Although, to many, Steel City Terrace in Farrell is associated with drugs and crime, L. DeWitt Boosel said others have more positive feelings about the doomed public housing complex.

"Steel City has many memories," said Boosel, executive director of Mercer County Housing Authority. "Families live here. Children were raised here. It was a home. It is a home. There is history here."

Perhaps, the legacy of Steel City will be more firmly rooted to families, children and homes when the place is leveled and rebuilt with new houses.

The authority held a ceremonial groundbreaking Tuesday for the monumental task of remaking, not only Steel City, but the entire neighborhood.

Although Farrell officials have not given their OK for the construction, the first heavy equipment could be in within two weeks to knock down the first four barracks-style public housing buildings, west of Spearman Avenue.

Farrell officials have granted demolition permits -- residents are moved out and utility service has been cut and capped -- for the four buildings, and the project is a few weeks away from council approving construction.

The Farrell Planning Commission approved the project for a second time Tuesday.

"On the 20th, we should be able to wrap it up and we can talk building permit," said city zoning officer Mark Yerskey. Council will hold a public hearing on the project that day, then approve it, he said.

Council has been supportive during several years of planning, and Mayor William Morocco referred to a phrase from the Declaration of Independence -- "a decent respect to the opinions of mankind" -- when talking about the Steel City plans.

"I don't know of anything else that could fill that definition of decency," he said.

The project is heavily regulated by the federal government, and developers have yet to officially close on the deal with the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

"We just received a nine-page memorandum to a document that is not nine pages long," said developer Ralph A. Falbo.

The initial phase calls for the leveling of the 100 apartments and replacing them with 53 rental units, some of which will be for public housing, and others to be rented at closer to the market rate.

Ultimately, the authority and its development partner, Falbo/PennRose Joint Partnership, plan to build 74 public housing units, 45 apartments rented at closer to the market rate and 26 homes for sale.

Some of the work will be done in the surrounding neighborhood.

National City Bank has stepped in to provide a good chunk of the first phase funding, which has a budget of $9 million.

The entire project will cost closer to $30 million, and National City hopes to fund much of the rest, said James A. Gutowski, vice president and community reinvestment officer for the bank.

National City, which is a member of the Federal Home Loan Bank, also has agreed to act as the project's sponsor in an application for an FHLB grant, Gutowski said.

The project was started with a $9 million federal HOPE VI grant, which was used to attract other funding.

James Cassidy, director of public housing for the Pittsburgh office of HUD, said he has received "hardly any complaints" about the project, which he said is rare for a project of this scope.

"There's going to be hard knocks and disputes and problems," he said, adding that they're expected from something that is designed to "turn public housing on its head."

"You're really going to be happy with the product presented here," he said.

Joani Harris, president of the Steel City Terrace Resident Council, said the cooperation of many people has made the project possible.

She also praised the Community Support Services program, which is HOPE VI funded and seeks to improve the lives of Steel City residents through education, job training, employment opportunities, child care and transportation.

Authority board President Carol Gurerra said the authority wanted to move residents toward self-sufficiency and home-ownership, which is why it decided to apply for the HOPE VI grant.

"We felt it was important to our residents," she said.