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.

In December 2003, the effort to create Canal Basin Park—a new urban park in the Flats combining historic tourism and recreation—got a big boost. The city of Cleveland received the approval from the U.S. Senate Finance Committee for $3 million in land acquisition funds for the park.

The money will be used to assemble parcels from more than two dozen landowners who are sitting on mostly vacant parking lots in the 20-acre area under the RTA bridge (at the bend in the river between the east and west banks of The Flats). Topping the list, planners and developers are eyeing a two-acre parcel at the river’s edge that is a failing parking lot. The lot was once considered a possible home for the Hulett ore unloaders, the giant crane-like lifts that were salvaged from the lakefront.

The park will also include a home for the Western Reserve Rowing Federation and the final destination for the Towpath Trail and the Cuyahoga Valley Historic Railroad—creating new links to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and Akron.

Certain developers are also eyeing the possibility of redeveloping some abandoned buildings in the area and creating new infill development that supports the expected influx of tourists (the Towpath Trail, for instance, attracts more than one million visitors annually).

See Ohio Canal Corridor (OCC) for more information.

Updates

1/5/08—OCC and the city of Cleveland secured the first piece in the puzzle of the proposed urban park that will serve as gateway to the Towpath. John and Mary Coyne were the only parking lot operators so far to take the city up on the offer to sell their surface lot, located next to the Flat Iron Café. The city will use part of its $1.3 million federal grant and $434,200 from the Clean Ohio Fund for the purchase of the 1.4 acres.