Earlier this year, me and two partners from KSU worked on a conceptual study of what to do with Burke Lakefront Airport. We did a thorough, though not exhaustive, look at the current conditions at Burke, including current soil conditions, flight paths, wishes of the director, the City's Waterfront Plan, existing  and proposed transportation infrastructure, plant life, and others.

 

What follows is the result of our collaboration.

 

REMEMBER - SCROLL >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

 

We developed a boundary that we called Greater Downtown. I compiled all of the major planning projects as of Fall 2006. This include the Waterfront Plan, the Innerbelt reconstruction, CSU, Flats (east and west), Ohio City, Avenue District and many others.

 

In order to make all the plans equal visually, I eliminated the details of each plan and gave each plan its own color.

 

To better understand the time frame involved, the plans were broken down into time frames.

Green representing near term -> Dark Blue -> Red -> Light Blue

The Waterfront Plan was advertised as a "50 Year Plan" - thus the Long Term identifier.

 

One of the KSU students analyzed the size of the airport spatially with large, random land uses.

We wanted to see if, concluding Burke should close/move, where could it be relocated and what should replace it.

Oner of the sites we first identified as a place Burke could move to was Randal Park Mall and Thistledown Race Track (assuming the race track would want to relocate). That idea was quickly eliminated.

One thing we found that was interesting was the size of the Burke footprint in comparison to Central Park in NYC and Ceder Point.

 

Analysis looked at mass transportation relatively close to Burke. (RTA, Megabus, Greyhound)

 

As well as traditional road infrastructure.

 

We asked the question "Is Cleveland a 'shrinking city' or a growing region? How do we plan locally to regional changes?

It was here we determined Burke should act as a regional Transportation Hub.

 

Although not part of the original study, we added an expansion of the Waterfront Line as part of the Innerbelt Project that would create a loop for Greater Downtown.

 

A site plan (w/landscaping) soon developed. Highlights include: moving Burke Terminal east; moving the proposed ferry terminal from west of Municipal Stadium to the current approximate Burke Parking Lot location; down grading and reconfiguring the shoreway into a boulevard; reconnecting the city street grid north via East 14th and 18th Streets;moving/relocating Greyhound, Amtrak, Megabus, to the site; add infrastructure for the Ohio Hub Rail Line and Lorain/Cleveland Rail Line; cap portions of the existing rail line (where air rights can be obtained) to create a pedestrian greenspace connection; retail, residential and commercial space; and sufficient parking for the entire project.

The spaces on Burke currently being filled would be kept as greenspace. Some trees could be grown (a type of tree unfriendly to birds was identified, but I cannot remember the name).

 

There is currently a giant north arrow on top of Aviation High School. We thought a nice element would be to create a large landscaped North Arrow on the far northeast corner of the site. Careful consideration of types of plants was researched in order not to create aviation hazards. Also considered: remediation factors and aesthetics.

 

A closer view of the site plan.

In this drawing, south is up (sorry).

 

Complete site plan poster

 

Sections

 

Landscape plan

 

Intermodal Center Diagram

Due to conversations with the director, the need for hotel and conference space was determined to a crucial part of the development.

 

Intermodal Center view - Level 2

 

The remainder of the pictures are from the Sketchup Study.

We took careful consideration of site lines, view corridors and the sun.

 

Missing: the land use diagram. This shows were the different proposed land uses are located. When I find it, I will, post.

 

A 3D modal was made also, but I have no pictures of it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Outstanding! And great graphics! I'll post more in-depth comments later.

Yum!  (No promises of more in-depth comments from me, though)

KJP, I knew you would be the first and I know you will. :-D

hmm

With Burke remaining as an airport, is there a way the northern edge could be utilized as a park, or at least a lakefront bike/running and walking path?

superb. however, i cant help thinking what you could do if you used burke as something other than an airport. even if it stays as is in 50 yrs, im not sure if i can see all that office/housing right up next to the airport like that. kinda scary.

hmm

 

Indeed!

 

With Burke remaining as an airport, is there a way the northern edge could be utilized as a park, or at least a lakefront bike/running and walking path?

 

No. Federal regulations prohibit any civilian access. That is why the golf course proposal died. Besides, the ground is so unstable there (this includes all of the areas to the northeast), it is completely unsafe for users. Vehicular traffic occasional gets stuck on the grassy areas of the runways - imagine if one accidentally went into the NE area.

 

 

superb. however, i cant help thinking what you could do if you used burke as something other than an airport. even if it stays as is in 50 yrs, im not sure if i can see all that office/housing right up next to the airport like that. kinda scary.

 

The office and housing elements would be marketed primarily to the traveling business set. It would be its own neighborhood where a person could live in the city without the need of a car. Other businesses closer to the ferry terminal (to the west) would actually be more suited to tourism. We envisioned this as a great place to have dinner while watching the ferry come in and out. At the same time we were careful to create the view corridors so users could also enjoy the views of the lake and air traffic.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t talk of expanding Burke a popular idea several years ago.  If the airport is to be kept, and pedestrians can’t use the land to the north, then all of the land is a waste.  What good is keeping it at green space when people can’t access it and you have to find ways to keep wildlife (birds) out of it.

 

Why has the idea of expanding Burke been scrapped?  Once the landfill is complete it seems like there will be more than enough room to built an extra taxiway and runway.  Then maybe the airport will have a more legitimate chance for successful commercial travel, which would create jobs.

 

Here’s my idea of how the an additional runway and taxiway could be arranged.

 

We looked at that as well, including taking the current configuration and moving it north, similar to where you have it shown. After many interviews, it was determined future technology in aircraft engine design will make obsolete the need for extended/expanded runways.

I can't recall the name of the engines or the acronym.

 

I got your Burke expansion right here... This is my concept of expanding and relocating the port of Cleveland. With the worsening tightness of affordable oil supplies, water transport will be increasingly important and air transport less affordable. But I'm still not willing to sacrifice Burke...yet.

 

Oddly, this might be the most likely scenario, especially considering the City's interest in industrial development in the I-90 corridor

<a href="http://crainscleveland.com/article/20070917/SUB1/70914043">Port could advance concept</a>

 

The corridor concept also may receive a boost from the expansion and relocation plans studied by the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority.

 

The Port Authority would like to expand its role in economic development and to grow its cargo-receiving operation. It also will hear from a consultant later this year about options for moving port facilities away from its current docks that fan out along the lakefront from the mouth of the Cuyahoga River.

 

At recent Port Authority meetings, port president Adam Wasserman has said one of the relocation options the Port Authority could consider is moving the port’s docks east of Burke Lakefront Airport, which sits along I-90. That move would make I-90 corridor properties even more attractive to port-related businesses.

 

The corridor concept also has come along at the same time as a new effort to unify economic development within Lake County.

 

Last February, Lake County commissioners created the Lake County Port Authority as a quasi-public organization to take over the economic development activities of the nonprofit Lake County Economic Development Center and many of the individual municipalities.

 

The center had been the advisory group that reviewed tax abatement proposals for the commissioners. The new Port Authority will continue that role but also will have a broader role to assist in economic development in all but four cities in Lake County. Those communities — Eastlake, Fairport Harbor, Grand River and Mentor — have their own port authorities.

I love the Waterfront line layout.  That makes way too much sense so unfortunately that probably won't happen..  Did you figure in ferry operations?  It seems like this plan is highly reliant on rail because I don't see where you're going to get any volume of people flying in or out of Burke.  So perhaps this could be a 20 year master plan.  Very nice vision..

The ferry is figured in the project. It would be located (as shown in the diagrams) roughly where the current terminal is located.

 

Rail is only a portion of the project. There is the ferry service - just mentioned - two bus lines and, of course, air. There is a current need for conference services at the airport. The spaces they have there now are small and lacking in many amenities. The new multi-modal center would have a new conference center, hotel and support functions.

 

Thank you

I also think we should really consider moving burke to the near east side...between E 55th and the clinic, Between Chester and Carnagie.  It would then sit between our 2 employment axis near rail, near the Euclid corridor, near the highways and OFF the lake.

 

Is there enough land there?  is there anything monumental that would prevent this?  like perhaps the building heights downtown?  could you solve that by orientating the the runways from the northeast to the southwest like hopkins, instead of E/W like burke?

 

On the satelite map it looks like their is enough land.  Setting aside the purely political issues involved, like the people living there are not going to want to move.  is there anything else that would prevent this?

 

Sorry to be off-topic, but this needs to be addressed.  I understand thinking out of the box.  I understand that an "I'm speechless" response isn't that helpful.

 

But the Burke runways alone, if you placed the west end of them at E.55th between Carnegie and Chester, would run through the heart of the east side all the way to the Clinic indeed, and obliterate a little road called Euclid Avenue.  It wouldn't sit near the Euclid corridor.  It would eliminate it.  Such a project would cost something like eleventy trillion dollars, destroy the Euclid Corridor BRT, and the benefit would be... putting ANOTHER marina or park on one of the least ped-accessible patches of land in the city and putting a lightly used airport 7 minutes closer by car to University Circle.

 

To bring it vaguely to the topic: The Burke land is the most overrated land in the city.  Imagine an Edgewater Park-like amenity at the current Burke location.  It shouldn't be that hard because they are almost the same in that a multi-lane highway, railroad tracks, and a bluff serve as a barrier between the location and the people that want to GET to the amenity.  The only difference is that with Burke, it's 8 lanes instead of 6, there's also an enormous interstate interchange there, and there's no real neighborhood to speak of to the south that would even be served by such a park.  Why there is so much obsession with developing this horridly composed and located plot of land boggles my mind.  Connecting the people to Edgwater would look like child's play compared to figuring a way to connect a neighborhood/park/whatever at Burke to the rest of the city..

Thank you, that was what I was looking for.

 

It wont work because of A, B, and C.

 

There is a reasonable access point at the western edge, E. 9th st.  right off the shoreway  along with a light rail stop, so a marina/park would probably make more sense than lots of housing, how about one of those suburban style office campuses that everybody seems to leave cleveland for?  either out in the eastern burbs/independence/westlake or another state?

 

I think the obsession with it is that it is

 

1) on the lake, arguably our best asset

2) empty ie not currently occupied by housing/industry or anything else that sticks up out of the ground, so it is easy to imagine whatever you like on it.

3) seemingly (not that I necessarily agree with this assessment) a waste of space...an airport that strictly serves the corporate elite and not that heavily used.

4) so gosh darn visible,  everybody on the shore way sees it every day...they don't live on the lake, rich people do, and there is a big empty field with lake views and access, that the rich/elites use to park their airplanes.

 

much easier talking about putting it to a better use than say annexation or going "Detroit"  sorry slavic village and Hough we will no longer maintain your infrastructure you will need to move somewhere else

 

Personally I think we are better off trying to turn it into a Midway in Chicago.  Can we get Airtran or somebody to work a flight to NYC out of there on a weekday basis?  Plenty of people downtown/east side would be happy.

 

The stuff we have been doing for the last 40 years or so isn't really working out so well....

 

I would bet that a wind farm would work pretty good there, right next to the non-operating CPP power plant that has all the heavy duty electrical infrastructure (at least I think it is not operational).

 

I don't claim to have any answers, but am willing to participate in making it better.

 

Is there a thread somewhere to discuss "theoretical" solutions?  There are some bright people here maybe something can come from it.

Is there a thread somewhere to discuss "theoretical" solutions?  There are some bright people here maybe something can come from it.

Yes, try here, here, or here.

To answer Matches' question I think the Burke "obsession" results, like many others, from a fundamental distaste for what Cleveland is and was.  I don't think the place is all that bad.  Planning and zoning mistakes have been made over the years, but Cleveland still has an authentic urban charm that is rapidly being lost to demolition and inner-city suburbanization. 

 

Yes, even stuff like Linda's Superette contributes to a charm I find totally unique on earth and totally irreplacable.  This is why I suggest treading more lightly with our Sim-City bulldozer icon.  Even when the goal is progressive and well-intentioned, even when the target falls short of being an architectural gem.  While I have some ideas myself that involve leveling entire blocks of woodframe housing... I am opposed on both logical and emotional levels to any further degradation of Cleveland's historic commercial and mixed-use corridors. 

 

I realize the character of Euclid Avenue has evolved over the centuries, and has always been controversial, but the idea of relegating it to NIMBY uses just about gives me a heart attack.

Thanks grumpy...but I was looking for something more non-specific and not really discussing any actual projects or proposals.

 

how about some place to maybe talk about completely new and off the wall stuff. 

 

The cleveland area used to be covered in greenhouses, growing lots of tomatoes....that whole galleria thing.

 

and the guy raising worms over in collinwood I think???  maybe start some hydroponic farms inside some of our abandoned factories?? 

 

one thing we have in abundance is fresh water, how do we leverage that? 

 

How about we build and ice hotel on edgewater beach, and have some sort of festival,  we have a bit of ice a couple feet away.  See if you cant get Stolichnya or some other vodka brand to sponsor it.  Get some positive energy flowing.

 

Cleveland can be better, but it isn't nearly as bad as people seem to think (a lot of them haven't been away from here methinks), and it will be hard to get back to it's gilded age(s) if that is even possible. 

a lot of this random stuff would probably best go here:

 

http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,19103.0.html

Well then the closest I see is this thread

 

EDIT: Mods can we merge the thread I just mentioned and the one McCleveland just mentioned?

As I understand it, the airport serves an important function as a reliever field for Hopkins.  Ricky Smith I think suggested shutting down the Cuyahoga County Airport in Richmond Heights, which would probably bring more air traffic to Burke.

 

It is on the lake, but it's fake land.  It can't be used for much in the way of development.  I'm not really sold that putting low-density, suburban style industrial/commercial park stuff there would compete with the suburbs.  Companies choose places in the suburbs for reasons relating to safety and perception.  They pick those industrial parks precisely because they're in the suburbs, not because they just want to be in an industrial park.  I could be talking out of my ass though on that one.  Probably they're also cheap. 

 

Burke Lakefront Airport is a swath of land made of industrial river dredgings that is, let's not forget, the size of a freaking airport.  There's nothing remotely human-scaled about the place.  Every marina currently in the city could fit at Burke with room to spare.  Speak what you will about the usage of the airport, but it obviously has some value.  Rich people need to park their planes SOMEwhere, and honestly, I think that's a better use than turning it into a giant field that no one will use.  Again, there's no neighborhood in the area.  There's already underused greenspace in spades in the downtown area.  I don't see the sense in obsessing over adding 450 more acres of it.

 

Wind farm is not a bad idea though.  Would be a cool sight, a great visual statement for the region and actually useful.  Probably not enough to be more useful than an actual airport, though.

Wind farm is not a bad idea though. Would be a cool sight, a great visual statement for the region and actually useful. Probably not enough to be more useful than an actual airport, though.

Especially not more useful when you consider there's a lake nearby that could be used for an offshore wind farm.

But there are considerable costs associated with Wind farms out on the water rather than on land...water and electricity don't go together so well.

 

plus it is pretty close to the CPP plant with its heavy duty electrical infrastructure.

 

 

The region could always revisit the Lake Erie International Jetport project, proposed five decades ago. CLE is landlocked, but Cleveland still has a unique and great location. Airports bring revenue and growth (ie; CLT, DEN, BWI, DTW, SLC, ATL, MIA, SEA), all medium-sized cities, with much larger/busier airports that have contributed to the growth of their respective communities.

Edited August 20, 20195 yr by Frmr CLEder

4 minutes ago, Frmr CLEder said:

The region could always revisit the Lake Erie Regional Jetport project, proposed decades ago. CLE is landlocked, but Cleveland still has a unique and great location. Airports bring revenue and growth (ie; CLT, DEN, BWI, DTW, SLC, ATL, MIA, SEA), all medium-sized cities, with much larger/busier airports that have contributed to the growth of their respective communities.

Kucinich killed the idea. What these cities have done has required incredible vision and determination, but the result has been an average city (there's nothing extraordinary about most of these cities) doing something phenomenal to foster growth.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/airlines/a28576498/nasa-jetport-lake-erie/