April 26, 20196 yr When you say "this" which parcel do you mean? I don't know anything about a property transfer like you've mentioned. NOACA has a good TOD study but it considered West Boulevard instead of the 117th station (https://www.noaca.org/home/showdocument?id=19934).
April 26, 20196 yr Author It always saddens me to travel east on Madison in Lakewood, past all of the terrific mixed-use density including a 10-story apartment building, only to see it open up to parking lots and single-use buildings near the Rapid station. I don't expect anyone from the George family (including Tony who owns the building just west Coutant) to pursue anything remotely positive to support the Rapid station and vice-versa. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
April 26, 20196 yr If i am correct George bought the directly north of madison, the old buildings that are really an eyesore and have extensive deferred maintenance. I do not know of any projects that have even thought about this area, but i think it is really underused.
April 26, 20196 yr The discussion of the Madison/W. 117th area isn't really a project, just a personal, "what if". I have merged it with the TOD Discussion page.
April 26, 20196 yr 1 hour ago, G00pie said: If i am correct George bought the directly north of madison, the old buildings that are really an eyesore and have extensive deferred maintenance. I do not know of any projects that have even thought about this area, but i think it is really underused. the parcels that ken is talking about are currently being used as a place to rent a car if you want to be a driver for a car sharing company. including parcels 315-15-017, 315-15-021; iirc, he's intending that to become a medical marijuana discrepancy Edited April 26, 20196 yr by skorasaurus clarity
April 26, 20196 yr It's not surprising this area lacks any vibrancy and is not top on the list of development sites. The area around the station is cut up by the railroad tracks, lacks any sort of grid, and is filled with sprawling industrial uses and some big box retail. Residential use is almost non existent. These are not the ingredients for a successful urban neighborhood. Anything built here would be on an island by itself.
April 26, 20196 yr Author 2 hours ago, JSC216 said: It's not surprising this area lacks any vibrancy and is not top on the list of development sites. The area around the station is cut up by the railroad tracks, lacks any sort of grid, and is filled with sprawling industrial uses and some big box retail. Residential use is almost non existent. These are not the ingredients for a successful urban neighborhood. Anything built here would be on an island by itself. Densely populated neighborhoods are immediately north and west of here. And industry, especially light industry as well as self-storage facilities, can be relocated. Have you seen the two cities' development masterplan for the West 117th corridor, and how well this area would mesh with the neighborhoods north and west of here if the two cities actually adhered to their own plans? I have copies of them somewhere and will look for them. For now, this is all I could find, but this will suffice since it addresses the more difficult southern and eastern sides of the station.... Edited April 26, 20196 yr by KJP "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
April 26, 20196 yr Author This was my own musing for the West 117th station area. I think offering an apartment in the Lakewood school system that's across the street from a rail and bus station and is a short walk-bike-Uber/Lyft ride to Target and a 24-hour Giant Eagle would tap an important segment of the market. Edited April 26, 20196 yr by KJP "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
May 2, 20196 yr Author Cross posted in the lakefront developments thread. I think these kids have come up with better ideas than I've seen from many of the high-paid planners and architects out there.... "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
July 6, 20195 yr Author Cross posted in the Random Cleveland Developments thread..... "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
September 11, 20195 yr Author And in Cleveland... "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
September 11, 20195 yr Indeed. Banks finance projects that meet zoning requirements, have high enough appraised values to meet LTV requirements, and have sufficient cash flows from rents supported by marketing studies to meet coverage ratio requirements. I don't think lenders really think or care about parking except how it ties into those three things.
February 29, 20205 yr Author "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
May 1, 20205 yr Not CLE, but a great example of ToD. And it’s from the developer that we thought was going to be funding the development north of the Browns stadium, before that whole partnership fell apart. TX: Apartment tower in the works at DART's Mockingbird rail station https://www.masstransitmag.com/technology/facilities/news/21136214/tx-apartment-tower-in-the-works-at-darts-mockingbird-rail-station Apr. 29--Developer Trammell Crow Co. is giving more details about its plans for a high-rise development at DART's Mockingbird Station transit stop. Called Mockingbird Station East, the project would include four towers built on what are now the parking lots for the commuter rail station. The first phase of the development, which has been in the works for more than a year, would be construction of a three-level underground parking garage to replace the surface lots that will be used for the new towers. After the parking garage is finished, Crow's High Street Residential division would build a 22-story apartment building on the east end of the site next to the Kroger supermarket. ... Chicago-based developer Convexity Properties is already building a 28-story apartment tower as part of its 12-acre project adjoining the DART line. When is the last time I-71 turned a profit?
May 26, 20205 yr Author "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
September 5, 20204 yr Author 37 minutes ago, walkability said: It would greatly increase the utility of the red line imo The city will argue that it is already subsidizing development so it should be up to GCRTA to add any additional layer of subsidies to attract more development to its stations. Fortunately, the Federal Transit Administration is providing additional funding tools and policies that encourage station-area developments. And GCRTA just undertook a very unique and, for it, an innovative approach to station-area developments -- it formed a jointly owned corporation with a developer, in this case Carnegie, to pursue the development of its Ohio City station on the Red Line. That doesn't just mean developing next to it or even above it, but also building a totaly new station too. I wrote about it last March: http://neo-trans.blogspot.com/2020/03/ohio-city-transit-oriented-development.html This kind of effort could be repeated elsewhere, but it helps that this station in the middle of a development area. It's possible that similar joint developments could be pursued elsewhere along all of the rail lines and potentially **someday** to help develop new infill stations (ie: Fulton Road, East 9th Extension, Canal Basin Park, etc) and possibly even new rail lines. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
July 19, 20231 yr Author "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
July 22, 20231 yr Author Perhaps one of the most important ordinances City Council could pass in a very long time "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
July 23, 20231 yr 9 hours ago, KJP said: Perhaps one of the most important ordinances City Council could pass in a very long time Might anyone want to post a sample letter that we can all send to our respective members of council?
July 23, 20231 yr Author 13 hours ago, Cleburger said: Might anyone want to post a sample letter that we can all send to our respective members of council? @Cleburgerfirst, in all letters and communications, refer to the legislation as File # 801-2023, available here https://cityofcleveland.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=6283377&GUID=F8EBCBDE-93AE-4C7F-8F93-76FC88FD72E4&G=2EB18EF1-2C21-4D1D-85C9-B38100AB8FFD&Options=ID|Text|&Search=801-2023 Say something like... As a resident of/person who works in Cleveland, I believe that the proposed Transportation Demand/Transit Oriented Development ordinance (File # 801-2023) is one of the most important pieces of legislation in a long time for rebuilding our city. Walkable, transit-oriented neighborhoods made Cleveland great and making their development legal again can restore greatness to Cleveland. It can reduce the cost of housing, put more quality, affordable housing along existing transit corridors, and address the physical disconnect between jobs and job-seekers which causes poverty and crime. It will also address intersecting issues like public health, climate, municipal finance and human thriving. I urge you to support this legislation to restore the fabric of what made our city great so that it can be once again. Sincerely, (Or something like that) 🙂 "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
July 24, 20231 yr Author We should be building something like this but larger at all Cleveland rail stations. Get grants to build the base including structured parking and issue RFP's to developers to build above them. https://www.wfmj.com/story/49131106/wrta-receives-raise-grant-for-renovation-of-federal-station?fbclid=IwAR1jVsGK_eqSRHrbsY4SOo1QjXzPRXCBxwGjb4yPQFgZHTQx1SX05fdvgFU "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
July 24, 20231 yr 9 hours ago, KJP said: We should be building something like this but larger at all Cleveland rail stations. Get grants to build the base including structured parking and issue RFP's to developers to build above them. https://www.wfmj.com/story/49131106/wrta-receives-raise-grant-for-renovation-of-federal-station?fbclid=IwAR1jVsGK_eqSRHrbsY4SOo1QjXzPRXCBxwGjb4yPQFgZHTQx1SX05fdvgFU Excellent project for Youngstown! The news video segment is excellent, check it out at the link Ken posted. It includes a nice interview with WRTA executive director. When is the last time I-71 turned a profit?
August 3, 20231 yr Author Posted in the Random Cleveland Developments thread.... 17 minutes ago, KJP said: Cross-posted in the TOD thread... GCRTA stations: lots of opportunity By Ken Prendergast / August 3, 2023 A COMMENTARY In recent months, the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA) has served notice that its rail system isn’t going anywhere. That could be interpreted in one of two ways. In one way, GCRTA plans to invest $540 million by the end of this decade to rebuild its 34-mile rail system including a new, standardized light-rail fleet plus rebuilt tracks and stations on the Red, Blue and Green lines. Greater Cleveland’s “Rapid” is sticking around for decades to come. But taking it another way, there are no expansion plans while ridership on GCRTA buses and trains fell nearly 60 percent from 2013 to 2021 “led” by its rail system which fell even farther, from 9.3 million boardings in 2013 to 2.9 million in 2021. MORE: https://neo-trans.blog/2023/08/03/gcrta-stations-lots-of-opportunity/ "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
August 21, 20231 yr Author Cleveland getting national attention "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
August 22, 20231 yr 16 hours ago, KJP said: Cleveland getting national attention Hopefully the reform can be extended to the entire city eventually versus just by rail stops, baby steps though.
August 22, 20231 yr Author 23 minutes ago, MyPhoneDead said: Hopefully the reform can be extended to the entire city eventually versus just by rail stops, baby steps though. @MyPhoneDead All stops on high-frequency transit routes are eligible. It includes these areas shaded in green. Blue-shaded areas are those with transit-supportive housing densities (30+ units per acre).... "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
August 22, 20231 yr 22 minutes ago, KJP said: @MyPhoneDead All stops on high-frequency transit routes are eligible. It includes these areas..... The west side has a nice loop. Need a loop to the southwest and south, connect the blue-green lines to complete a loop, but man look at that big empty zone on the east through Cleveland Heights!
August 22, 20231 yr 19 hours ago, KJP said: Cleveland getting national attention Glad for the national attention, but would also be glad if it was getting local attention. Not even a retweet from RTA. Their feed is only filled with rail line service disruptions :(
October 29, 20231 yr Author New federal guidance for TOD funding could boost Cleveland-area projects -- cross-posted from the Random Cleveland Developments thread "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
November 4, 20231 yr Author Ronayne on TOD "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
March 11, 20241 yr Author "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
April 4, 20241 yr Author Lorain Road corridor wins transit planning grant By Ken Prendergast / April 3, 2024 In a continuing effort to create more affordable housing and transportation choices for Americans, the Biden-Harris Administration and the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration (FTA) yesterday announced $17.6 million in grants going to 20 communities in 16 states to support equitable Transit-Oriented Development (TOD). Greater Cleveland was among those communities. MORE: https://neo-trans.blog/2024/04/03/lorain-road-corridor-wins-transit-planning-grant/ "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
April 5, 20241 yr Step in the right direction, but Cbus just got 42 million to actually build BRT. And here we are once again studying it. Just do the thing!
April 6, 20241 yr Author 6 hours ago, noname said: Step in the right direction, but Cbus just got 42 million to actually build BRT. And here we are once again studying it. Just do the thing! There's a difference between a study and a plan. This is a plan. Columbus had to do the same planning in order to get the federal funding to build it. In the same announcement by the FTA, Columbus also got planning money to develop an additional route. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
April 6, 20241 yr Just expand the rail system and quit messing with BRT that will probably be half assed like the Health line.
April 6, 20241 yr We can get more BRT miles than rail miles for the cost and new or extended BRT corridors are economic drivers, as we saw on Euclid. These BRT projects also don't preclude expanded rail service in the future. I think it makes sense for the RTA to take on the projects it can now instead of waiting to get the funding together for rail expansion.
April 6, 20241 yr 1 hour ago, JB said: Just expand the rail system and quit messing with BRT that will probably be half assed like the Health line. That’s double the money. In a perfect world we would expand rail. Given the way our rail line is set up (legacy industrial routes) our rail isn’t really set up to expand in a clear way. Most of the lines do not have a high population around them and run along mainly industrial areas… especially when you start looking at expansion. A few rail extensions might make sense (Waterfront Line Loop, and a redline extension out to Euclid) but generally speaking BRT is the way. We can get much more population close to high frequency transit this way.
April 6, 20241 yr 8 hours ago, KJP said: There's a difference between a study and a plan. This is a plan. Columbus had to do the same planning in order to get the federal funding to build it. In the same announcement by the FTA, Columbus also got planning money to develop an additional route. Oh I know… it just seems we’re behind the curve again. Presidential admins aren’t a given and we’re only working on a plan just now (or in the next year, when RTA finally decides who they want to hire)
April 6, 20241 yr Author We're not the only ones. Mass-transit mecca Toronto keeps making plans, scrapping them with a new government, makes new plans, scraps them again with a new government, and so on. My friends up there are going very frustrated but it looks like they may finally have settled on building the Relief Subway and the Scarborough extension. Back to TOD -- I do believe that rail does a better job of attracting/encouraging TOD, however. We just don't have the dynamics to justify rail investments except in a few places to fix what's wrong with our rail system and to adjust it to better serve fast-growing nodes (like UC). Most of that can be accomplished with 2- to 4-mile extensions here and there. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
April 6, 20241 yr 46 minutes ago, KJP said: We're not the only ones. Mass-transit mecca Toronto keeps making plans, scrapping them with a new government, makes new plans, scraps them again with a new government, and so on. My friends up there are going very frustrated but it looks like they may finally have settled on building the Relief Subway and the Scarborough extension. Back to TOD -- I do believe that rail does a better job of attracting/encouraging TOD, however. We just don't have the dynamics to justify rail investments except in a few places to fix what's wrong with our rail system and to adjust it to better serve fast-growing nodes (like UC). Most of that can be accomplished with 2- to 4-mile extensions here and there. Chip at it piece by piece as you suggest. Is there anyone promising at RTA that can help right the ship? Do the new board members do anything?
April 6, 20241 yr 6 hours ago, JB said: Chip at it piece by piece as you suggest. Is there anyone promising at RTA that can help right the ship? Do the new board members do anything? T.O.D.! T.O.D.! T.O.D.! -- expand the usefulness of the existing corridors, and build dense urban neighborhoods along a route to justify incremental improvements from buses, to BRT, to light rail, to subway (a dream for my great-great-grandchildren, perhaps).
April 7, 20241 yr 13 hours ago, JB said: Just expand the rail system and quit messing with BRT that will probably be half assed like the Health line. When they have the chance to save millions with half-assed BRT? We know what direction the agencies prefer.
April 7, 20241 yr Author 12 hours ago, JB said: Chip at it piece by piece as you suggest. Is there anyone promising at RTA that can help right the ship? Not that I'm aware of. There's some good people there. But no one is going to stick their neck out unless told to. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
April 7, 20241 yr 8 hours ago, KJP said: Not that I'm aware of. There's some good people there. But no one is going to stick their neck out unless told to. Well that’s depressing.
June 6, 20241 yr Author Terrific TOD presentation was given today. Some compelling data and helpful guidance. You can view it here..... https://www.countyplanning.us/projects/tod-zoning-study/additional-studies-resources/ "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
May 14May 14 Author Cross-posted in the random developments threadCleveland-area TOD projects reach high in 2024By Ken Prendergast / May 14, 2025An annual report by the Cuyahoga County Planning Commission released this week showed that Transit Oriented Development in the county reached an all-time high in 2024. But 92 percent of countywide TOD activity is occurring in the city of Cleveland. And only four of 26 communities along high-frequency transit routes and walksheds, called TOD corridors, had a TOD project in the past six years indicating a lack of suburban activity.MORE:https://neo-trans.blog/2025/05/14/cleveland-area-tod-projects-reach-high-in-2024/ "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
May 15May 15 Good article. Are there any financial policy incentives for TOD? Other than the indirect incentive of not requiring as much parking? While I agree with the policy, I'm skeptical that parking reductions are much of a motivating factor for developers in the Cleveland market (or most US markets for that matter). I can see it being a thing with hotels, but folks who are paying high (for Cleveland) rents are going to want off-street parking and the developers know this. I do appreciate the density and form-factor requirements to qualify.There should be so much more emphasis on TOD since Cleveland has, you know, an actual rail system.
May 15May 15 Author 13 hours ago, Rustbelter said:I'm skeptical that parking reductions are much of a motivating factor for developers in the Cleveland market (or most US markets for that matter).After a year or two of Cleveland's Transportation Demand Management program going into place, which is a program developers can employ to reduce their amount of parking below the city's parking mandate, it will be interesting to see how many projects take advantage of it. I recall that a number (a dozen or two) of projects have already done so -- some before the program was finalized.I wrote here about some of the constraints on investment from requiring too much parking to allow deals to get done....https://neo-trans.blog/2023/07/22/city-considers-re-legalizing-the-city-again/ "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
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