The docks and storage facilities of the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority occupy a large and strategically located portion of the lakefront north of downtown. Thus, lakefront planning always ends up confronting the question: What do we do with the port?
This question must balance the need to provide greater public access to the lake with the need to maintain a viable maritime port to serve local industries. In addition, a working waterfront is part of the character and soul of the city.
Currently, the city's lakefront plan calls for port facilities to move from their present location on the east side of the Cuyahoga River (around Browns Stadium) to a new site at East 55th Street. This new location would be created by filling in the lake with dredge material north of the current E. 55th Street pier. By moving the port eastward, land on the east side close to downtown and the Warehouse District would be opened up for development. A new waterfront neighborhood with boardwalks and greenspace could take the place of port warehouses.
This plan raises lots of questions:
- Who will pay to develop new port facilities?
- How much land does the port really need? Could the port simply downsize at its current location and allow development to happen around it?
- What is the future of the port at a time when heavy industry continues to shrink in the region?
To answer such questions, several studies are planned as of April 2006. The port intends to hire consultants to evaluate a move . The county will conduct an economic study of shipping trends to determine what facilities the port may need in the future. And the Army Corps of Engineers is studying where to locate the next "confined disposal facility" along the Cleveland lakefront for disposal of dredgings from the river and harbor. (The disposal facility now being used is along Burke Lakefront Airport, and it will be filled by 2009. A recommendation of the city's lakefront plan is to be strategic about siting new disposal facilities, using them to create new land areas where they will enhance the lakefront.)
Links
How do we make Cleveland's waterfront a livable place?
city, county, port
Susan Miller Says:2004
The port authority files for eminent domain to buy part of Whiskey Island with hopes of filling in a marina to expand shipping operations. Ten months later, the county buys the land for $6.25 million, thwarting the plans.
The city adopts a waterfront master plan that shows port facilities moving onto an artificial land mass north of Whiskey Island's breakwater.
2005
County commissioners vote to spend $100,000 on a port study of their own.
March 2006
The port board elects lawyer and developer John Carney as chairman. He vows to prioritize the port's westward relocation and expedite the move if possible.
July 2006
County and City of Cleveland will participate in port relocation study. This study will consider 7 potential locations including the westward Whiskey Island plan. Given that grassroots support is rising to thwart plans to move the port to Whiskey Island and will certainly swell from advocates for keeping another greenspace port location target, Dike 14 from port operations, the no brainer is Burke Lakefront Airport. http://www.ecocitycleveland.org/ecologicaldesign/blue/ideabank/danek_pla...
The good news is that now politics can come into play. Finally we may have accountable elected officals to whom we can complain if the port decides to take greenspace away from our almost nonexistent public lakefront.
Port votes to move to E. 55th "island"
Marc Lefkowitz Says:A committee of the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority recommended that port operations relocate to a man-made peninsula north of the East 55th Street lakefront, the PD reported today. The committee's recommendation is expected to go before the board at a meeting at 8:30 a.m. Dec. 21. The move—from its current 80-acre site at the east bank of the river and lakefront—could displace a state-owned marina. Port officials said the 200 acre site would be less expensive and offer more business development opportunities than the proposed man-made island off Whiskey Island.
Does the Port and the county's maritime study indicate a need for 200 acres?
How could this be advantageous for the city's east side, i.e. how will it be planned to insure the inclusion of the industrial backbone of the St. Clair-Superior neighborhood which counts E. 55th as a main thoroughfare?
please explain the port's authority
Susan Miller Says:According to this article, the Port Authority can use eminent domin. This is because the East Bank is considered blighted?
Read about Ohio's moritorium on the use of eminent domain for economic development.
Can you please walk us through the process whereby the Port Authority (which does not hold public hearings? is not a public body?) can do this?
I don't think I am alone in not understanding the role of the Port Authority in Cleveland's redevelopment. Any light you can shed would be most helpful.