A company in Cleveland is trying to re-zone some of it's excess land from residential to commercial, but there is a long list of things that a company must go thru to make this happen. I have seen projects not happen as a result, others delayed (Flats East Bank) while at the same time, some move forward and jump over the biggest hurdles in the world: Somehow the houses that got built on the Cuyahoga Valley's land in Independence and Brecksville. Now that story's in the news again that private land in the CVNP is for sale near Blossom and Brandywine. And of course, the CVNP can't afford the land.

 

Somehow the CVNP had 140 million or so to originally buy the park land in the 1970's but doesn't have a few more today. I am surprised cities like Boston Township and others on the CVNP aren't preventing this land from being developed. Re-zoning it from residential to something else less likely to happen would make sense. This stuff happened to us a while back in NE Ohio and the smallest projects are fought by environmentalists whereas somehow these big projects somehow slide thru (e.g. Aurora's shopping center in the marsh land).

^Wow, that must be very, very frustrating.  I wish I knew more about Cleveland's zoning procedure- does an objection from the pubic trigger some sort of review process that is slowing things down?

I'm not sure what to say without knowing who this person is or what their claims are. And in my 2 1/2 years of coverage of city news, I've seen very few controversies involving projects getting approved (rezoning, fencing, landscaping, etc) by the Board of Zoning Appeals. It's usually a pretty simple process. I'm not sure why your company is having such trouble.

I don't think environmentalists are that anal to worry about a scrub patch of land in Cleveland being rezoned for commercial use.  I would say the person is more likely a parking lot owner that may have an eye on that land and just saying they are an environmentalist.

It slowed the process but did not stop us.

Never heard of the guy. If you want, contact me via PM and let me know who he is.

I don't know who they are. This was just word of mouth.

It still smells to me like a parking lot developer.  Figure out who the parking lot slumlords in Midtown are and I bet you'll have your man.  He's environmentalist because he likes a lot of green in his wallet.

Does this person have to go to BZA meetings in person to file the complaints?  If so, that would be a good way to catch them.

bizbiz, I appreciate the fact that you didn't let this person frustrate you to the point of giving up, like many in this situation would. I, personally, am not a disbeliever in conspiracies. I'm not overly paranoid but I wonder how many businesses have experienced this same problem?