In thinking about the Opportunity Corridor (OC) as a piece in a sustainable transportation puzzle for Northeast Ohio, we wondered, who stands to lose or gain from building a 2.8 mile $100 million four or six-lane road from the I-490 spur to E. 105th Street? Does a new connection for commuters to and from the West side and University Circle come with a higher opportunity cost than a mix of road building and urban redevelopment that includes a village concept wrapped around train stations?

We question why a $100 million investment shouldn’t include passenger rail. Certainly, the answer will be influenced by current land-use factors, including the industrial uses of the land where the OC road alignment is being proposed. Toxic contamination fills 49 ‘super fund’ sites along the road’s proposed path as it hugs the Norfolk Southern line right of way and the remnants of residential areas of Cleveland's Wards 5 and 6 near Grand Avenue.

We’d have questions if this doesn’t leverage the RTA Red Line which also runs in NS' right of way. Opportunity Corridor offers a more direct commute from the West side heading to the Circle whether by car or train. It can also help with the acquisition and clean up of contaminated industrial land that has clogged up the Forgotten Triangle for decades. Clean land for new industrial parks and a new connection to the Interstate highway will raise opportunity for new business and local residents. The road will add value to land and, if more funds were available, could help direct aid from state and federal brownfield remediation programs.

The Federal Highway Administration would also get to fulfill its new mandate to build ‘multi-modal’ transportation projects. ODOT and its partners at the city and county could create a new investment pool that greatly enhances the feasibility of transit-oriented developments, i.e. a dense mix of housing and commercial within a ¼ mile radius of train stations like E. 55th and E. 79th streets.

“Consider instead what Portland, Oregon did, which was to change land use rather than expand the capacity of the roadway network,” All Aboard Ohio’s Ken Prendergast writes on the Urban Ohio blog. “In the late 1990s, Oregon officials wanted to build a new freeway, but advocates redirected the process to develop land around a new rail transit service. Using Portland's model here, ODOT could establish a link deposit program or a revolving loan with that $100 million or similar funding for the (OC) and target it instead for residential development downtown and at Red Line stations on the East and West sides, while still providing a matching funds for environmental cleanup.”

Urban Design Associates has plotted out the development potential in the study area of the Opportunity Corridor. UDA estimates 55 acres are available for residential development, mostly in Ward 12 due south of the I-490 spur. More than 1,000 townhomes or 368 duplexes could fit in this area around Slavic Village’s Hyacinth Park including a swath within the ¼ and ½ mile radius of the E. 55th Rapid station. They figure some 2,449 townhomes and millions of square feet of industrial property in the Forgotten Triangle would be available a result of reinvestment.

GCBL reader Mike McGraw wonders, would the Red Line track absolutely have to be elevated out of its trench for TOD at E. 55th to work? (GCBL) compared this to the Cleveland EcoVillage, yet the track is in a trench when it comes through the W.65th station; TOD was designed around that there.

He adds, “Is there roadspace available where the mooted Opportunity Boulevard would be for a parallel Red Line, whether median- or side-based? If we want to get this as a part of the O.C. planning throughtstream, might we not be wise to start getting this "meme" into people's heads ASAP?

GCBL reader Susan Miller’s version of an opportunity to get to the Cleveland Clinic from I-490 and E. 55th is slower, greener and has more street frontage retail and residential. “It is tree lined and interspersed with parkland. It would have bike lanes and sidewalk wifi café’s,” she writes here.

Jeff Buster’s ideas posted at RealNeo.org envision a boulevard that could bring opportunity to invest in affordable, green housing, as a lab for new 'radical' designs within walking distance of transit.

It’s unlikely that the route could perform as required and be a street with meaningful frontage development, Steve Rugare at Cleveland Urban Design Center responds. It is, fundamentally, a bypass/truck route and (according to ODOT) has to be engineered in a way (truck turning radii, lane widths) that is not going to make it an attractive site for residential or storefront development (even if there were development pressures in the neighborhood). The question is whether it will (further) blight the surroundings. Can it be a greenway or parkway with industrial and service employers who need road access and ample parking?

So, what is the vision for Opportunity Corridor? ODOT hired consultants who identified an immediate need for a community master plan that engages residents and businesses and plots out what they want. RTA has already started designs for its E. 55th station but hasn’t revealed them yet. Can you help RTA and the Opportunity Corridor Steering Committee bake in a transit-oriented village and eco-industrial park to current efforts?