gg707

The fact that we have parking garages in Cleveland that are considered historic structures says a lot about how incredibly car focused development has been for the past 100 years.... Hopefully the SW headquarters doesn't run into issues to preserve the historic warehouse district surface parking lots! Cleveland landmark!

I was a fan of the original black and gray palette, but this turned out to be a very attractive building that fits into the area well.

Using the Medical Mart certainly makes a lot of sense to me. That would give that building a purpose finally. Any idea if that is still actively under consideration?

The one on West 25th is called Choolah (https://choolaah.com/). Super excited about the addition of all this Indian food to the area.

Nobody really seemed moved by that at all, which I found odd. That seemed a pretty easy way to mitigate the impact of this building. Not a long-term solution to the amount of parking that should be required going forward, but I wouldn't be surprised if we found a significant number of spots around the city that could be freed up and that would reduce the impact of low or no parking developments. I also didn't realize that they have overnight parking for all the required spaces, so this is purely daytime spaces at issue.

What do you think is driving opposition to this project but not others? Is it a parking thing? Is there something about this developer that they don't like?

One of the best ways to counteract that is for pro-walkable development people to start speaking up in favor of buildings so that there are at least a few voices on the other side that the various review committees are hearing. The address for BOZA is: [email protected]. The city code is very outdated on parking. Although it reduces parking requirements in urban overlay areas, it still requires a significant amount of parking for buildings. Much more than is generally accepted as conducive to good walkable neighborhoods. There are also much more creative ways to address the parking issue. For example, we could require developers to include units affordable to different income levels or provide subsidies to RTA in exchange for removing parking. I also think that reducing the number of committees that have broad discretion over approval or denial of developments would help to limit NIMBYism. People should have their voices heard, but all of the difficult to predict committees make developers less inclined to invest capital in the city.

I agree with you around the consistency of that bus line, although public transportation is a bit of a chicken and egg thing. If there are more people living in neighborhoods that aren't meeting all their needs by car, it is more likely service will be increased.

It would go on the empty lot at the corner of Kenilworth and W14th next to the Byzantine church. The developer was going to knock down the rectory, I think, but was denied by landmarks, so they came back with a smaller footprint with no parking. However, that needs a zoning variance, which has been met with significant pushback. I don't know if this is the most recent image or not, but it was posted before:

1415 Kenilworth is back on the BOZA agenda for Monday. I'm not optimistic about the odds of this one given all of the community pushback to the lack of parking.

Lots of people in Cleveland without reliable access to food unfortunately and it has only gotten worse due to COVID.

I saw somewhere else that they are turning it into a permanent green parklet. Should be nice!

100% agree on making voices heard of people who support development. In the Waverly & Oak meeting, they even noted with surprise all of the supportive letters/emails they received and it seemed like those moved the needle.

Unfortunately, despite all the benefits of this new updated design that you point out (and that I agree with), the NIMBYs in that area are still trying to stop this from being built. They are posting all over the various facebook groups for different neighborhoods trying to rally support against the building. I think it is pretty clear that many of them are opposed to essentially all forms of development in that location and would be happier with an empty lot for cars.

All of those office locations nestled back off of Rockside Road just seem so depressing. Like working in the movie Office Space.

Looks like BrewDog is moving ahead with the Avian location! https://planning.clevelandohio.gov/designreview/drcagenda/2021/PDF/DF-DRAC-agenda-04-15-21.pdf

What are the odds that the revised design is able to go forward?

I’ve been to parks in Europe that have great beer gardens or cafes in them, and this totally could be something like that done correctly.

Additional housing in that area will really help to turn Scranton into a more walkable commercial corridor. I think it is hard for any businesses that depend upon foot traffic to stay open there. This should also help with the transformation of Willey Ave from weird country wasteland road in the middle of a city to a city road with stuff on it. The fact that there are large development sites like this still sitting vacant in the middle of popular areas really goes a long way to explaining why businesses in Cleveland have such trouble staying open.

You are correct in that recollection, but I'm also not sure if they were just piling on or if the height is an actual concern. If a taller building is not appropriate at that location -- on the biggest non-highway roadway in the neighborhood -- then they are essentially saying no larger buildings are allowed in the area.

Yes, thankfully. And a request from the developers that supporters of the project send comments to city planning and landmarks: https://courbanize.com/projects/wandoak-/updates UPDATE #5 Show Your Support - Help Make Waverly & Oak a Reality! Thanks for all the participation and input on shaping the plans for Waverly & Oak. We’d like to ask for your support to encourage the Cleveland Landmarks Commission to give final approval to the Project. The most impactful thing you can do to make Waverly & Oak a reality is to share your support directly with the Landmarks Commission, via the contacts below: Donald Petit, Secretary of the Landmarks Commission: [email protected] Karl Brunjes, Senior Assistant City Planner: [email protected] If you’re available to attend, the Landmarks Commission meeting is Thursday, April 8th, beginning at 9:00AM. The meeting will be live streamed on YouTube at this link. Thanks again for your participation! Posted on Apr 6, 2021

If only there were more residents within walking distance to help support local businesses...or Fulton House residents driving all four of their cars each there

The kind of people who are willing to be more than 50 floors above ground do not fit the character of the gateway community!

The overall form is a pretty standard Cleveland apartment from an earlier era (the two-story 4 apartment building), so I'm glad that this kind of housing is starting to crop up again, but no defense from me either on the actual exterior design. Kind of looks like apartment housing near a large university. They would have been much better doing a brick facade over the whole thing.

To be clear, I said "more white" and "more affluent," so you are changing what I said. Your stats are relevant if you are looking at Ohio City as a whole. The parts of Ohio City that are primarily owner-occupied historic victorian homes, which is exactly the "character" opponents to these projects are trying to preserve, are predominantly white and more affluent than is typical in Cleveland.