A pair of public meetings tonight begin to shape the future for two of Cleveland’s prime destinations: The Flats and University Circle.

First, Ohio Canal Corridor and the City of Cleveland will introduce the Canal Basin District Plan. The focus of the plan is on “connections”—trail, bikeway, public transit and pedestrian boardwalks—to and from a new 21-acre urban park at the last oxbow in the river with major redevelopment activity in the Flats. Canal Basin Park will serve as the destination or jump off point for the Towpath Trail, but beyond that goal, how it integrates with the boardwalk along the river to Flats East Bank and to public spaces in and around the Flats and Cuyahoga Riverfront are still up for discussion.

Going on at the same time, uptown, is the continuation of plans to find a higher purpose for the sea of surface parking lots along Mayfield Road—the main artery connecting Little Italy and University Circle. Last year, an arts and retail village idea was floated along with RTA’s plans to move a Rapid Transit station to Mayfield and E. 119th (from its current location at E. 120th). Tonight’s meeting will introduce the city’s streetscape planning project for this stretch, begin to analyze traffic circulation and set goals to improve pedestrian friendliness.

The Clean Ohio Program has invested more than $138 million toward brownfield assessment and cleanup projects in the past four years (leveraging $1.3 billion in private investment). Governor Ted Strickland has proposed renewal of the Clean Ohio Fund through the bi-partisan job stimulus package. This issue is expected to appear on the ballot in November 2008.

In the meanwhile, House Bill 496 recently provided $47 million in capital re-appropriations for the Clean Ohio Revitalization Fund program. Twenty percent of the net proceeds for the Clean Ohio Revitalization fund are dedicated to the Clean Ohio Assistance Fund (COAF) for brownfield redevelopment in Eligible Areas. The Urban Development Division will begin accepting applications for the COAF program beginning July 1, 2008.

Read about the brownfields portion of the program here and about the natural areas preservation portion of the program here.

Making sense of vacant land—which properties are ripe for redevelopment and which are better suited for preservation—is coming into focus for the City of Cleveland. Freddy Collier, a planner for the city of Cleveland, recently outlined how the city will make those decisions:

A vacant property with the right size and characteristics, such as proximity to parks and green space, might make the first cut toward preservation. If it makes that cut, the city might consider a menu of green development approaches, such as a tree nursery, community garden, or maybe even an urban wind farm.

Otherwise, proximity to the city’s Core Development Areas are among several factors that will determine its development potential as ‘strong’ or ‘weak’. Either way, the city has a path for that land which range from short-term holding strategies like lawns-and-fences to a test plot for bioremediation.

“This begins to frame how the city will look at criteria for evaluating (vacant) land,” Collier said. “If development potential is weak, such that it will take five years to redevelop, there may be short-term greening opportunities.”

The process is detailed in this decision flow chart, which relies on existing tools such as Cleveland Department of Community Development market typology data. “We might cross reference that with the data on the land they have targeted for the land bank,” Collier added.

Re-imagining Cleveland will build from this decision flow chart to detail strategies based on an analysis of market feasibility for the greening vacant land options.

Location(s)

Learn a tested system to identify and cultivate donors who love your mission—donors who will give for operations, capital, and endowment. Find out how to grow your organization’s visibility in the community and engage your board in the fundraising process without requiring that they ask for money. This entry level workshop is designed for board members, executive directors, CEOs, and fund development professionals. By the end of this seminar you will have the fundamentals to embark on the path to sustainability and grow your major gifts programs year after year.

To register: Go to http://sforce.benevon.com/intros/midwest.htm and fill out the registration form. RSVP Required! Space is Limited.

Questions: Contact Alaina Szlachta at 206-709-9400 ext. 132 or alaina.szlachta@benevon.com

Vegetative cover in Cleveland (border shown in black) and Cuyahoga County.

Data provided by The Northern Ohio Data & Information Service (NODIS) and mapped by Urban Design Center of Northeast Ohio.

Foreclosures (red dots) and sheriff's sales (blue dots) in Cleveland as of 2007.

Data provided by The Northern Ohio Data & Information Service (NODIS) and mapped by Urban Design Center of Northeast Ohio.

We’re five years into the modern green building era—as defined by the birth of U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED rating system—and in that time America has seen exponential growth in green building, which has had a measurable impact on energy use, USGBC Vice President Tom Hicks told a packed house at Levin College yesterday.

Hicks talked about the impact of expanding LEED to encompass neighborhood development. Cities like Cleveland, as well as counties and states, are leveraging their pilot projects to blaze a path for more green neighborhoods. It begins with finding and removing the regulatory obstacles, but the larger goal, the big prize, is being an early adopter of green building standards, both in government buildings and community wide.

Read more.

We’re five years into the modern green building era—as defined by the birth of U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system—and in that time America has seen exponential growth in green building and measurable impact, USGBC Vice President Tom Hicks told a packed house at Levin College on Feb. 6.

Out of 9,000 projects that have registered for LEED in the U.S., only 1,200 have been certified, Hicks says, adding that more will be as the group catches up to demand. To do so, USGBC formed a new group, the Green Building Certification Institute, to run its certification process and deal with the rising demand.

Environmental benefits of LEED-rated buildings include a 35-50% energy savings, a significant figure for a country that pumps more than one-third of its carbon into the air from buildings, Hicks says.

USGBC, the largest green building group in the U.S., is expanding its reach to 55 countries including India and Canada. The U.S. needs to set the example and share its lessons, Hicks said, with developing nations like India and China.

LEED for Neighborhood Development will help: Northeast Ohio’s four LEED-ND projects join 240 from six countries in a pilot program where design in and between private and public spaces encourages biking and walking to work, shop and play.

Expanding the scale of LEED to neighborhoods is starting to have an impact on urban design, Hicks says. It’s influencing how cities and states are dealing with regulatory obstacles, and, in some cases, its leading to incentives, green building policies or new efforts to encourage green design.

Location(s)

Meeting to discuss the reauthorization of the Clean Ohio Fund.

For questions, please contact Bill DeMora of the Ohio League of Conservation Voters at 614-481-0512 or bdemora@ohiolcv.org.

Location(s)

Technical workshop topics include: Storm Water/Phase II, conservation development, comprehensive planning, compact development, Riparian setbacks and more. Led by Kirby Date, AICP, The Countryside Program at CSU.

Part of the Ohio Lake Erie Commission’s Balanced Growth Program.

RSVP required at least one week prior to session: 419-245-2514 or lakeeriecommission@ameritech.net