jws

Yes! I'm hopeful that this development creates enough pressure to bring the Cudell/West Blvd rapid station TOD into reality.

Investing in schools is the only way you'll induce more people to sending their kids to those schools. That lot is easily accessible which is important since so many CMSD students rely on public transit to get to and from school. I would say that parcel hosting modern, quality education facilities will probably have a net community impact far greater than 70 tax abated Luxury Urban Townhouses.

The talk of tenants and the "business park" wording has me hopeful there could be some office space fronting Madison/Berea. If this thing can have decent facades with minimal setbacks along Berea and Madison with all parking and truck access in the rear then I'll be pretty satisfied.

Being Weston, what do you think are the chances we'll get something that isn't just a suburban industrial park like the hypothetical development on that Madison Corridor Study?

I'm curious to see how people react. I've noticed that once you start moving further out into neighborhoods past me (I'm in Cudell) the general view of almost everything just becomes "this project = Frank Jackson = BAD!!!" followed up by "but the DIRT BIKE TRACK" so I honestly don't foresee some of these meetings being very productive. It's actually impressive how quickly people relate things back to dirt bikes.

Just received this in the mail. Anyone else? NO IDEA WHY THEY KEEP ROTATING PLEASE FORGIVE ME. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I think they could fit with the vernacular, too, as long as the massing is significant enough. Just straight up copy these, honestly: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.5017912,-81.6616064,3a,70.9y,4.26h,107.17t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1svyQsSkyrHm1IWFIxlc-c5g!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 My biggest reservation with this type of construction right in Downtown is how little confidence I have in a developer to built an aesthetically worthy product.

I imagine that they'll repaint the building at some point, but the way it looks right now with the colorful bricks mixed in, is pretty awesome. It would be cool if they actually took a design note from the re-used bricks and did multi-colored accent bricks across the entire facade.

The murals are one of my favorite components of OTR.

Yeah, I'd love to see more done with the upper floors. Any idea how much of that space is utilized in some capacity (storage, etc.)?

I'm sure they'd be fine, but I think the fact they do a decent amount of local business and also have no need to relocate means that it isn't necessarily in their interest to move for now. I'd still be interested to know how much business they generate as a result of proximity to Great Lakes Towing and the Lafarge/other bulk terminals that connect directly to the Flats. A fair amount of vessels discharge at these locations and don't move further up the river.

I second the sentiment that Samsel belongs in the Flats. Also I use it periodically and it's convenient. On a more practical note, Samsel is still pretty unique for the area as far as what they have in stock. I'm not sure exactly what shares of their business come from which customer demographics, but the location is still logical because of proximity to Great Lakes Towing, the bulk terminal, and the Port of Cleveland. It probably wouldn't make a ton of sense, logistically speaking, to move the store.

I really hope these get to stay: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.5051515,-81.6421548,3a,90y,73.74h,102.86t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sm8HmQvFP-DqPXCRPSVj8QA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Isn't there some level of a community-driven initiative to restore Franklin Circle? Or am I making that up?

I grew up in a 1970's "colonial" tract house that had storm windows attached to the outside of the primary window frame, causing them to protrude and look generally kind of weird. The windows on this building look very similar.

As I understand it, everything is owned by RTA save for the Berea Rd plot. I'd really encourage everyone to attend the meeting, as this doc is only a portion of the overall (very cool) study: http://www.noaca.org/modules/showdocument.aspx?documentid=19934 I'd love to see more emphasis placed on density. As mentioned above, concept B could be denser. They're asking that attendees RSVP to [email protected] (there is an optional trolly tour).

In my personal observation on the block of W81 between Franklin and Detroit at least four houses have either been extensively restored or painted/fixed up/lightly renovated within the past year. Listing prices for houses in the West Eighties also seem to be bumping upward, so there are some growing undercurrents in that area.

:clap: :clap: :clap: http://www.noaca.org/modules/showdocument.aspx?documentid=19934

I think it really depends on the scale of the operation. I haven't been to the existing Gateway 105 open-air market, but it looks like the size of this new facility marks a pretty significant scaling up of the current market. (https://www.facebook.com/Gateway105/). There also appears to be enough room to grow in size. Location-wise I think they want to keep it within relatively close proximity of the current market site. I'm not sure if the structure is intended for all-year use or if this will still be a seasonal thing. As I understand, this entire project is designed by and for the existing Gateway 105 farmer's market (through Famicos), so I assume it's in line with their needs and long-term plan.

I wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment. The point where we diverge is that I objectively do not think that this proposed building is bad, and I'm not sure your concept of what should be built aligns with what a community farmer's market actually is. As I pointed out above, it seems you want this to be a full-out market which is just not the scope of this project.

I'd also add that this rendering is just a SketchUp model. You can't infer the quality of the materials. If this structure is built with suitable quality materials it will be very nice and akin to any equivalent permanent farmer's market you'd get in a much wealthier area.

I guess my primary question would be what you see as a proper design for a farmer's market?

Perhaps modular containers?

:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

This site is the new city kennel. Groundbreaking is pretty soon. I'm pretty universally pro-development, but on this matter I think people are missing some key reasons that this site is well-suited to remain an education facility. If you split the site and constructed high-density apartments on half and then a more vertical school on the other half I think that would work well. However, barring that high-density scheme, we'd be getting more townhouses. If you just copied the ones on Tillman you could maybe cram 85 to 90 units on the high school parcel. One of those Tillman units currently has an annual tax bill of under 7k according to the auditor's site. Even if these theoretical new units would be contributing proportionally more in property tax, the payments wouldn't start for fifteen years because of the tax abatement. I would argue that the tax revenue beginning in 1.5 decades from 85 to 90 townhouses is not equivalent to the net positive impact of a brand new, quality high school. The only open parcels I can think of in Cudell and West Blvd that can handle a project of this scale are industrial sites that would need pretty significant brownfield remediation that I doubt the project financing would quickly, easily cover. Also, there have been rumblings that someone may be tentatively lined up to start developing those brownfield sites, so you have to consider the overall future tax benefits of light industrial sites of that scale. Also, I really hate the argument that "kids don't need nice lake views from school! Let them look at some neighboring warehouses instead!" The "radius" argument is good on the surface but not as persuasive when you consider transit access. A significant amount of CMSD students rely on RTA to commute to school. The accessibility of a high school on Detroit Ave is far superior to one that’s plopped somewhere within Cudell. I'm not totally sure of the reason West Tech was shuttered, but if I had to guess it was probably at least partially because there wasn't a significant enough student population in Cudell and West Blvd to support the facility. Also, back to transit access, it would be harder to get to if you have to rely on an RTA bus. So while I think this WSHS design could be better, I think the situation is way more nuanced than it's being portrayed.