In 2004, the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) retained a consultant, HNTB, to conduct a study to improve access between Interstate 490, the neighborhoods in southeast Cleveland, and University Circle.
With $1 billion in planned improvements and limited land available for development in the University Circle area, there is a need to improve access to this and the surrounding areas. Nearby neighborhoods and businesses have suffered decline over the past 60 years due to loss of manufacturing jobs, shifts in modes of transportation, and isolation from the Interstate system. As a result, areas such as the “Forgotten Triangle” have a large percentage of vacant properties and land banked parcels which will require investment for future development.
ODOT estimates it could cost $200-300 million to build a new road — possibly a six lane boulevard with a grassy center median, in what has been termed the Opportunity Corridor.
While former ODOT Director Gordon Proctor believed that the road will stimulate Cleveland's economy, he acknowledged that ODOT will not finance the Corridor's construction (it will only commit $5 million to plan the route). Proctor hoped the business community and TIFFs will fund the road.
However, unlike an I-90 interchange at Avon, Richard Jacobs doesn’t own 200 acres of land in Central and is probably not willing to invest $10 million in the Opportunity Corridor. So, serious questions remain about which businesses would be partners in the Opportunity Corridor? Also, the corridor runs through Cleveland's Ward 5, where reportedly residents are opposed to adding a road to primarily serve truck traffic.
The study corridor runs generally parallel to the existing railroad transportation corridor containing Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority’s (GCRTA) Red Line and freight tracks owned and operated by Norfolk Southern Corporation and CSX.
Because of the proximity to the Red Line, some transit advocates would like to study ways of combining the Rapid with the Opportunity Corridor, possibly bringing the rail line up to street level and creating transit-oriented developments around stations. The first step might be to look at the new E. 55th Street Red Line station currently under development — will proposals to move the station further south help align it with a future Opportunity Corridor?
Another issue, says Cleveland Councilman Joe Cimperman, is that the Opportunity Corridor road should be taken into account before ODOT decides which exit and entrance ramps should be closed along the Innerbelt, particularly the closing of exits at Prospect and Superior. How much traffic will be diverted away from downtown needs to be more closely studied, Cimperman adds.
What other issues does the potential Opportunity Corridor raise? The biggest is this road building project may be putting the cart before the horse. The residents and businesses in the 'Forgotten Triangle' have not been asked what they want the area to become, HNTB concluded in its study, and so a Forgotten Triangle Master Plan is the first step they recommend:
The core of the study area, the Forgotten Triangle, does not have a master plan (this was very clear during the meeting with Tim Tramble. Ed note: Tramble is Executive Director of Burten, Bell, Carr a non-profit development corp. that works in this part of town). The boulevard will have a major impact on this area; however, there is no master plan to guide any revitalization efforts. Residents have not determined what the future of this area should be. Residents need to be engaged to determine the future of this area; but that is not within the scope of our study. We have just identified a need.
ODOT's consultants add that the Forgotten Triangle's 900 acres of developable parcels of land can include a mix of residential, industrial and open/green space in a transit-oriented development plan. They write:
- By giving the Forgotten Triangle a “main street,” a framework to create a place is established where none exists today.
- The boulevard will provide improved access to the neighborhoods and link the industrial opportunity sites to the regional distribution network.
- The boulevard appears to provide the opportunity for the area to go back to what it once was - good jobs and strong housing which historically follow good access.
- A resident driven master plan needs to be done for the Forgotten Triangle and adjacent areas.
- With the upgrading of the train stations, there may be an opportunity for transit oriented development at 55th, Buckeye, and 105th, and 79th.
Resources
- HNTB study seeks input of 'Forgotten Triangle' residents
- Cuyahoga County Greenprint map (planning for green space) in Opportunity Corridor (pdf)
Updates
The Ward 5 Master Plan (36 MB pdf) calls for a renewed sense of neighborhood to this mostly ‘forgotton’ industrial area. While the plan doesn’t address how the Opportunity Corridor would reshape the neighborhood, it does offer insight as to where it would like to concentrate revitalization efforts, including:
- Kinsman Road—Attract more infill residential like the new market rate housing at nearby Colfax and Minnie, and retail redevelopment along Kinsman.
- Urban agriculture such as a city tree farm on land-banked lots
- Revitalizing the famous Kingsbury Run bridge to create a connection to Marion Motley Park
- Transit-oriented developments around the Rapid Transit stations (the E.55th Red Line and the E. 79th Blue line, which is within walking distance of the proposed Opportunity Corridor).
From the plan:
In many ways, the Forgotten Triangle is well-suited for residential uses. The neighborhood areas are situated in close proximity to Downtown Cleveland and the Midtown Corridor, as well as to I-490/I-77, providing easy access to Greater Cleveland and the region. Red, Green, and Blue Line RTA stops provide quick, direct transit connections to most of the region’s major employment centers, including downtown, the airport, University Circle, and the Chagrin Boulevard corridor.
The surrounding neighborhood has a high concentration of public housing, but recent investments and planned improvements by the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority will give the public housing a more neighborhood-oriented, less institutional character, creating a better setting for market-rate residential development. Neighborhood design guidelines could be developed to articulate the community’s vision for the Triangle.
From the August, 2008 Mayor's Bike and Pedestrian Advisory Committee: The Opportunity Corridor would accommodate bikes in some way—either bike lanes or a bike path that parallels the road. City Planning Commission is going to be working on a “Complete Streets” resolution over the next year. "If that comes first, then, I assume we would be looking for a complete street on the OC," says Marty Cader of city planning.
an opportunity to consider
Susan Miller Says:I have been prompted by my college freshman son who came home last night looking for info on Brownfields to look again at the Opportunity Corridor map that ODOT has posted. I then looked for a Brownfield map and then back at the County Greenprint (my favorite of all these images). I spoke with Marc, and he reminded me of the southern rail bypass idea.
It seems it might be prudent or at least interesting to see an overlay of all these possibilities for that area of the city. If we were able to see how these plans and ideas interface (or don’t), we might have more data with which to make informed decisions. Not that I get to make any of them. It would further be interesting to see what wards, what CDCs or other governmental layers intersect with these parcels. If some party owns a particular right of way, has a development plan for it underway, what the zoning for certain parcels or chunks of land is, etc.
I am very skeptical of more pavement and high speed roads through neighborhoods. I do not trust that they will bring economic development to the by way. I doubt if any clinic doc rushing to the hospital or Case prof will be lingering at the intersection of E79th and the highway for a mochaccino. But maybe I am wrong.
I traveled the area yesterday from E89 along Quincy to Playhouse Square – not bad (though the road could use resurfacing in some areas). Coming back to the Heights, I traveled Woodland. Woodland is beautiful in the areas around the cemeteries and St. Hermon’s. There is some new housing across the street there which is hideous and some commercial property further east that is an eyesore, but for the most part, developing the open parcels along these existing thoroughfares seems like it might be more cost effective than building another highway through what could be a green corridor. I have read that juvy has plans for the 93rd and Quincy and 93rd and Folsom parcels. Are there others?
My version of an opportunity to get to the clinic from 490 and 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. OK, dream on you’re thinking, but why not a different version (a more populated version) of the showplace now traveled by folks coming to the circle (Innerbelt and Shoreway to MLK greenway)?
Look at these maps side by side: http://www.innerbelt.org/OpportunityCorridor/OC-ProjectOverview.pdf, http://cpc.cuyahogacounty.us/docs/green/grid08.pdf, http://www.ecocitycleveland.org/ecologicaldesign/blue/rail_bypass_map.html
I am hindered by switching between Google maps hybrid, and the above separate plan maps. I am not trained in GIS mapping, but have poked around in the county Brownfield GIS with addresses along that corridor.
Perhaps this composite already exists in someone’s sophisticated GIS mapping. If so, could you direct us to that online resource? If not, can it be done? If it can, who would do it? If done, how could interested parties utilize it? How about a charette called “remembered plans for the forgotten triangle”? Sometimes it is just hard for a lone taxpayer to envision the big picture. What do the forgotten people who live there want? Did the folks along 1-90 on the west side want that highway in their backyards? What effect did it have on property values there when it was built?
Given today’s government, the costs (both monetary and environmental) associated with highway building; the many considerations that need to be applied, it is increasingly difficult to just sit back and trust that things will be fine.
These are my questions today. I hope one of you will reply next week with the “oh duh, it right here” solution I have overlooked.
Opportunity Corridor needs careful study
Marc Lefkowitz Says:Below is the reply from Steve Rugare of the Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative:
We did have a student look at a true parkway concept for the corridor last year. She did do some useful GIS mapping of the sort you’re talking about, and I could probably retrieve that. In the meantime, here are a few points to consider:
1) It’s unlikely that the route could perform as required and be a street with meaningful frontage development. 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?
2) For similar reasons, a rail alternative might not make sense. The clinic-related economic development envisioned along the corridor is not retail services for the commuters. It’s back office and support functions for the hospitals (laundries, call centers, data processing, medical waste processing) that could happen on lower-value, off-site land AND potentially employ people from places like the Forgotten Triangle. So we’re talking about big, faceless single story buildings with loading docks. They need good truck access and parking for employees. Is it a viable vision? We’d need to study that, as it’s the only justification for ramming this thing through a part of the city that has been mistreated too much already. I’m pretty sure that it is a more realistic and actually progressive vision for places like Ward 5 and Union-Miles than doing a charrette that produces yet more pretty New Urbanism that will simply stay on paper.
3) Given the volume of vacant or tax delinquent property in the vicinity of the proposed route, how do we convince ODOT to think beyond the near term and beyond the edge of the pavement. Beyond near term meaning, for example, leaving right-of-way for a future rail option or leaving open space that could become part of a future landscape-based stormwater management system. Beyond the pavement meaning at minimum, very careful attention to crossings, intersections, trail networks and connections to the surrounding fabric. (They haven’t done very well on these counts with the west shoreway, so one can only shudder to think what they might perpetrate in this part of town.)
opportunity to plan
Susan Miller Says:Wouldn't a master plan for the corridor in question be better? If there is one, doesn’t this have to be part and parcel of it? What, we plan and then throw away the parts that the highway blasts through while maintaining everything else? I guess I just don’t get planning, never mind master planning when something this huge is not addressed as part of that plan.
I hope that with the announcement of county sustainability we will see the county saying – "You must provide stormwater management, no ifs ands or buts." I know I know, home rule, no green building codes. But, hey, what about the guy who just got elected as Lt. Governor whose agency serves those poor people? What does he think of blighting more urban neighborhoods with oversized Sears backyard sheds with truck bays?
What causes for safety and security concerns does this pose for the people traversing the area or living in it? Long stretches of block-long buildings with no windows does not a safe neighborhood make. I think that is Jane Jacobs 101. If I lived in the neighborhood, I might prefer land based wind turbines surrounded by green space, but I guess this might impair the view for those living in the big houses along the portage escarpment.
Either way, a frank discussion is needed. We see what the engine of ODOT gone wild can perpetrate, has perpetrated. People are supporting this because it has a nice name – “opportunity”. My pointed question is opportunity for whom? Show me the money – the money going out and coming in. Who sows and who reaps?
When talking about this corridor at a recent public meeting, John Motl (ODOT District 12) is paraphrased as saying “this is an opportunity to spend $____” (I can't remember the amount) and “the city owns most of the land already, so we may as well build a road through there – nothing else is happening there anyway.” I suggest we propose what could happen there instead of a freeway. Just my 2 cents. First off we need to see that mapping. If it disrupts cemeteries and or St. Hermon’s there could be a hue and cry. I just can’t see it right now to know whether or not to hue or to cry…
"Opportunity" to pave another piece of land
amycorson Says:This conversation ended last year, around the same time I had stopped researching the proposed corridor, but now I think it is time to start paying attention, again. I read this PD article pushing for it.
First, Who is this being built for? Not the people who live in this community. These people have commuters traveling through their neighborhoods on Woodland and Kinsman now, and it is not bringing them any econmomic development. Busy roads degrade the surrounding properties in Cleveland - look at: Pearl Rd, Brookpark Rd, Cedar Rd. Ask real estate agents, they know it is true. I wonder if the people working on these plans know one single human that lives in the area they are discussing the future of. Asthma rates are rising in urban communities and we want to trap them with more single-vehicle transportation. How is that for environmental justice!
Second, there is clearly a mode of transportation between the 55th Exit and University Circle and it is the train tracks. What about connecting the green-blue line to the red line with a light rail on this "oppurtunity corridor". Light rails can be very useful to low-income families for commuting and encourage high density housing. Lastly, these are some of the largest parcels of under-used lands in Cleveland. For more than a decade, I have been imagining the potential of this area. Pouring cement over this land caps over all the economic and community potential that could be propigated on these lands.
remember the triangle - forget the "opportunity corridor"
Susan Miller Says:Right on Amy. Take a look at this as an option that is being planned for the "forgotten triangle" area.
I also suggest that the escarpment south of Cleveland Heights and Shaker along E93rd street could become a place for very high-end pied a terre estates (gated with live security and razor-wire topped fences, of course) for the very rich. I mean, after all, with the amount of culture that is in the city, many late nights will one day not lend themselves to driving all the way home to MOREland Hills. Great views of the city from here. Put those young architects to work designing something awesome! This would be what we call "mixed income development".
One challenge is the northeast flow of Mittal's plume. With prevailing winds in our region coming from the south southwest this triangle may have been forgotten because of the intense air quality issues there. Just guessing.
Please post your good ideas and vision. Check out the Ward 5 plan linked in the post above and note that it ignores the "opportunity" corridor and Brent Larkin. There's plenty of frank discussion on this at realneo.
Opportunity for affordable, green TOD housing?
Marc Lefkowitz Says:Thanks Susan for sharing Jeff Buster's comments on RealNeo that we need to evaluate the cost-benefits of "opportunity corridor" with the neighborhood in mind. Yes, the Clinic and University Hospital stand to gain greater access, but what about the residents of Ward 5, will a road in and of itself offer opportunity?
I also enjoyed reading Jeff's ideas that the boulevard could bring opportunity to invest in affordable, green housing, as a lab for new 'radical' designs within walking distance of transit.
I think the corridor could benefit from a planning process that identifies the ˜synergies" in land-use and transportation plans for Opportunity Corridor, the county's Greenprint map, and even RTA's TOD desires and the Norfolk Southern lakefront bypass study.
Opportunities Abound
curatorius Says:Would building the Opportunity Corridor leave service on the eastern half of the GCRTA Red Line intact? The Red Line now provides seamless one-seat service from University Circle to Hopkins, which would not be true of a Silver Line/Red Line combination.
Is there any way the work to be done on the Opportunity Corridor could be leveraged with a little more work to improve transit access to University Circle?
ECTP/Silver Line improves transit access to UC only from the west along the Euclid corridor. I've been trying to advocate for a Shaker Square-UC train connection for a few years. Some track exists, but trying to link up the two districts involves technical obstacles that would take some determined mayors and legislators to break through.