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Annual benefit of the Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization.

For ticket information, call 216-961-4242.

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Come explore the Bridge Square Townhomes, one of the newest additions to the Cleveland EcoVillage, and hear Chris Kious from A Piece of Cleveland (APOC) discuss deconstruction and “upcycling.” Michele Anderson from Progressive Urban Real Estate will be on hand on to answer all your financing and tax abatement questions. See first hand, the many sustainable components of the two-bedroom townhome, including beautiful bamboo floors, a super high efficiency furnace, and durable granite countertops. If you’re not looking to buy, spread the word and take advantage of our $500 referral incentive. Refreshments will be provided and innovative designs by APOC will be on display.

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The Green Cottages is a one-of-a-kind housing project in the City of Cleveland. These homes offer environmental sustainability through green design and significant energy savings; they sustain the healthy mixed-income character of the near West Side by allowing moderate-income families to purchase high-quality homes and they are universally designed, life-cycle homes that allow aging in place.

Tuesday (9/9) is the groundbreaking for the Cleveland EcoVillage Green Cottages, and, in addition to being the largest concentration of green building, it marks another historic moment for the area.

It will be the first affordable development in Northeast Ohio to achieve the LEED for Homes certification of the U.S. Green Building Council, which promotes the design and construction of high-performance green homes.

The five cottages continue the momentum of the Cleveland EcoVillage, where 20 ‘green’ townhomes were built in 2004 and completely sold. The Cottages are right across the street from the townhomes, and both are within walking distance of a rebuilt W. 65th Street Rapid station.

The Cuyahoga Community Land Trust ensures they will be permanently affordable. ‘Green’ features include recycled and recyclable-content products, water saving products and a smaller (1,225 sq ft.) home which will cost less to heat and cool (also helping the affordability!).

An ecovillage has a dense mix of housing, shopping, and promotes healthier living because streets are comfortable to walk and bike, and there's plenty of public places to play and even grow food. It supports the necessities of life in one place. And when you need to visit somewhere else, links to transit are within easy walking distance.

Green Cottages to Break Ground

Construction on the Green Cottages of the Cleveland EcoVillage will begin with a groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday, September 9th at 5pm. Developed by the Cuyahoga Community Land Trust, the Green Cottages is a one-of-a-kind development, offering homeowners significant energy savings, healthy indoor environments, and accessible features .

The project will meet Enterprise Green Communities standards, and will be the first affordable single-family development in Northeast Ohio to achieve LEED for Homes certification. The groundbreaking ceremony is open to the public. It will take place at the first homesite, at W. 58th St. and Pear Avenue in the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood of Cleveland.

The Green Cottages will be permanently affordable homes that support the healthy mixed-income character of Cleveland’s near west side. Through the Land Trust, homeowners purchase the home at a substantially reduced price. When they sell, they agree to allow a portion of the increase in the value of the home to stay with the home in order to bring the sale price down for the next moderate-income buyer. Applicants need to meet minimum and maximum income eligibility requirements, which are based on family size. For example, the maximum eligible income is $34,800 for a one person household and $49,700 for a four person household.

Cohousing is a form of cooperative housing that engages residents in the design and management of their community. Cohousing encourages community interaction, consensus in decision making, and shared common spaces. By sharing facilities and helping each other, residents of cohousing communities can often lead more sustainable lives.

The ongoing foreclosure crisis, shifting demographics that include more single-parent households, an aging population and the associated cross-generational living, and growing interest in alternative housing options all combine to make cohousing an increasingly compelling housing choice.

Cohousing has been developed successfully in many states in recent years, but there are few opportunities in Ohio. However, there is growing interest in developing a cohousing community in Cleveland. The Cleveland City Planning Commission is organizing meetings on cohousing. For more information contact Kim Scott at 216-664-3803 (kscott@city.cleveland.oh.us), or Trevor Hunt at 216-664-2212, (thunt@city.cleveland.oh.us).

Resources
Cohousing Association
Cohousing books

 Please join us for an evening of great ethnic food from across

Greater Cleveland

And help support the crucial work of providing affordable housing at the

4th Annual Cuyahoga Community Land Trust

Fall Fundraiser

Saturday, October 13, 2007     

At the home of Jane and Seth Rosenberg

28129 Belcourt Road, Pepper Pike

5 pm-9 pm

Posted by Mandy Metcalf, EcoVillage Project Director 

When the Cleveland EcoVillage updated our community plan, we learned that residents wanted to see green building principles used in single family homes that a typical, moderate income neighborhood family would be able to afford. This is a challenge Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization, one of the EcoVillage’s parent organizations, is taking on through a partnership with the Cuyahoga Community Land Trust (CCLT). CCLT will retain ownership of the land while selling the fee-simple homes at an affordable price to moderate income homeowners. We have also partnered with the Cleveland Green Building Coalition’s Emerging Designers Program (advised by Jim LaRue and Bill Doty, and represented on our design team by Jim Ptacek) to design the homes. The result is a five- unit new construction project, with two-bedroom and three-bedroom designs, known as the Green Cottages. More information on the project and how to buy a cottage is available here.

In the months to come, as we build the homes, I’ll post information and pictures of our progress and of the green building methods we’ll be using.

Green Features

Wake Up! to Green Building: A Case Study of the W. 65th/EcoVillage Rapid Station
1.5 AIA CEU

Registration:
$30 Members of Cleveland GBC, AIA Cleveland, Hard-Hatted Women, GCREO, National Association of Women in Construction and Cleveland Engineering Society
$40 non-members
$55 includes a CGBC Membership

The W. 65th/EcoVillage Rapid Station is the heart of the Cleveland EcoVillage. The building itseft encourages the use of alternative transportation not only because it is a rapid transit station, but also because of its accessibility to pedestrians and its available bike storage. Efficient radiant heat is used to condition the space in cool weather, while no air conditioning is used in warm weather. Rather, the structure is designed to stay cool even on the warmest days, even while the interior space is flooded with daylight. The project also made efforts to be a good community partner by providing a community garden, using a significant amount of locally produced materials, and by reducing light pollution around the building. While the West 65th Street Rapid Station did not seek LEED Certification, it's use of sustainable building design and products cleared the way for future RTA projects to be green and attempt LEED Certification.

Michael J. Zone Recreation Center has the potential to be much more than an aging facility connected to a vast stretch of mown lawn on Cleveland’s Near West side.

For the past five years, Ward councilman Matt Zone, a group of residents and visionaries worked on a plan to transform Zone Rec — located in the EcoVillage neighborhood — into a national demonstration of how an urban park can best contribute to sustainable living.

Just one of the innovative ideas of the Zone Rec Greenspace Plan is a biofiltration swale to capture stormwater running off the roof and parking lot. The swale keeps stormwater on site and filters it into a natural landscape of wetlands, meadows and lowland woods dotted with paths and boardwalks.

The plan recently won the American Society of Landscape Architects Ohio Chapter Honor Award, the highest recognition given by the chapter to a project every year. ASLA recognized it as “a balanced solution to the divergent needs of the community.”

Now the groups shepherding the Zone Rec plan are tasked with finding funding to make this urban park a reality. Share your ideas on the design and opportunities.