Suburban officials hoping for help curbing sprawl

 

Thursday, February 10, 2005

Thomas Ott

Plain Dealer Reporter

 

Cleveland's older suburbs don't expect to stop construction of a freeway interchange that they say will drain more people and businesses from Cuyahoga County, but leaders hope to win similar battles down the road.

 

In a letter sent last week to the county commissioners, the First Suburbs Consortium says projects like a proposed third I-90 interchange in Avon, just across the Lorain County border, disperse Northeast Ohio's population. The shift consumes farmland and saps older communities, says the letter, which also went to the county mayors' association.

 

The group of 15 cities predicts that the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency will recommend the interchange to the state. The regional planning agency represents Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain and Medina counties.

 

But First Suburbs wants Cuyahoga County officials to press NOACA for help in the future. Some of those officials sit on the agency's 38-member board, which votes on road and other projects.

 

"The big picture includes more than just opposing X interchange, then Y interchange, and then Z interchange," said Kenneth Montlack, who is chairman of First Suburbs and the vice mayor of Cleveland Heights.

 

The letter notes that NOACA guidelines call for limiting the effect on older cities.

 

But the letter says the interchange also will hurt newer Cuyahoga suburbs like Westlake.

 

"We have to save ourselves," Montlack said Wednesday. "We are all in this together."

 

Avon, which had 11,446 residents in 2000, grows by 300 to 400 homes and 1,000 residents a year. New stores and factories have popped up as well.

 

Avon Mayor James Smith said the interchange is needed to ease traffic and improve safety.

 

He said it also would aid the region's ailing economy by opening land to industry that might otherwise leave the state.

 

"Everybody wants regional as long as it's a positive for them," Smith said. "If it's not a positive for them, they stick their heads in the sand."

 

A consultant's study will assess the need for the interchange and determine whether Avon roads can handle the extra traffic. Construction could be years away. Howard Maier, who heads the agency, declined to comment on the First Suburbs letter but said all road projects must fit into NOACA's long-term transportation plan.

 

Cuyahoga County Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones, a NOACA board member, said he worries about the loss of population and jobs because he lives in Shaker Heights, an inner-ring suburb. He said he had not taken a position on the interchange, but weighs other counties' interests in such situations.

 

"I really do think you have to strike a balance," he said. "These are not only black-and-white issues."

 

So the countryside becomes a city, and the city becomes a countryside. Makes sense to me, except that we all pay taxes to maintain urban-level infrastructure (sewers, streets, utilities) for both. And, so we would rather pay taxes to build new interchanges in the country to disperse a stagnant regional population than use that money to change land use in urban areas by redeveloping seriously contaminated, vacant industrial sites? And, lets pave over more soil in the most productive farmland in the world, rather than rebuild infrastructure so we can take more jobs out of the city to keep the inner city residents on public assistance, that we all pay taxes for.

 

We destroy our cities bit by bit, gradual building our suburbs and eroding our urban neighborhoods, shifting the wealth farther and farther away from the old urban core until some parts of Cleveland resemble rural areas only 50 years after they were bustling communities.

 

Our state's policy toward urban growth is to create a 100-year lifecycle for a given community in a metro area. The first 25-50 years sees the growth spurt, thanks to an abundance of greenfields, with new development paying for rising costs in local public services (schools, garbage collection, emergency services etc). After 50 years, the community ultimately is fully built out and, since there is less state help for redeveloping communities than there is for building new ones, the built-out community's principal recourse is raise taxes to keep up with the rising costs of public services. The higher taxes drive out those who can afford the large, new homes being in the next new urban fringe community. More taxes are needed on the remaining middle-income residents. Home values stagnate or start to fall, as homes and buildings start to decay. Lower income residents can afford to move in. More taxes are levied because the housing values aren't rising anymore and the average income levels are falling. More people move out. Jobs are lost with the loss of wealth, crime increases and more homes and buildings decay, with some having to be torn down. Some redevelopment occurs, but it's akin to bailing out the Titanic with a bucket brigade. After 50 years of this, the once-proud community is in fiscal emergency and becomes a blighted area. This is the way of things in Greater Cleveland and most other older, industrialized cities across this nation. It's time to put a stop to this institutionalized policy of the 100-year community lifecycle.

 

This state, and this nation, is so ass-backwards sometimes, I wonder why I still live here.

 

KJP

Its a very depressing cycle.  Even more depressing is that so few care or even understand.  These things have been weighing on me as of late also.  But if we all move to Canada, who will change this?

We know its wrong but yet we do nothing about it, in fact most of us contribute to it. 

 

X- don't you live in Avon Lake?

Yes.  Not by choice (living with the 'rents to pay off the old college hangover).  Anyway, we live in a 150 year old farmhouse-older than most homes in Ohio City or Tremont, or most of the buildings in the Warehouse District.  So I guess it would be hard to call it sprawl.

Avon Lake is my hometown. My parents moved there in the 50s. Our house predated most of Cleveland's older suburbs, though it was new at the time. Spwawl hit that neck of the woods 50 years ago! We lived off Lake, and all was developed from there to Cleveland.

 

Avon was pretty rural though, sorry that's gone...

So I guess it would be hard to call it sprawl.

 

so everything around you?

"in fact most of us contribute to it."

 

That's one minority I'm happy to be part of  :-)

 

I can't believe they refer to "Downtown Avon" in that aerial... I'll never forget the first time I went through there on an antiquing trip with friends. We saw signs for "French Creek Historical District" - when I think historical district, I expect a little more than a few old homes scattered about along Detroit Road.

 

The stupidest thing is that by opening an interchange at Jaycox, they'll flood all those secondary streets with far more traffic than they were ever intended to handle. Honest to god, I've never seen such p!ss poor planning as I have in Lorain County. The saddest part is that people complain that "ohh, that area's getting built up" - as they're sitting in their 90s-built McMansion  :roll:

Honest to god, I've never seen such p!ss poor planning as I have in Lorain County

 

hey now, dont blame lorain. they built a station and pushed for commuter rail until dennis "the menace" kucinich shot it down. maybe when old coots like him fade off something innovative will be allowed to be done (the lorain mayor is a young harvard mba). also, elyria revamped their train station too.

 

so dont lump the whole county into that rant!

 

Fair enough, Pope.  Everything around me is sprawl, a fact that I am continually aware of.  I'm saying we didn't contribute to it (my parents bought this 1850's farmhouse in the 1970's and still use it as a little hobby horse farm).  We were a part of "old" Avon Lake that existed before the sprawl really took of in the post 1980 "Bucky Kopf" era.

What is the difference between Avon and Avon Lake?

I was under the impression that most of the sprawl was in Avon, and Avon Lake was an older, more established community.

They were the same township, originally.  The French Creek District in Avon was the village center starting in the early 1800's.  As the interurbans were built, Avon Lake (originally Avon-on-the-Lake) developed as two separate resort communities-Avon Lake (village), and Beachpark (which was formed around a small amusement park) along the lakeshore line.  Those two villages incorporated away from Avon, and took everything south to the North Shore (I think?) tracks with them.  Avon Lake developed moderately throughout the rest of the century, seeing some development in every decade, including up to the present.  Avon remained largely rural until the mid to late 90's. Now it is an insane boomtown and traffic mess.  It is predicted that population will top out at over 70,000.

"It is predicted that population will top out at over 70,000."

 

Which means that other communities in Greater Cleveland will lose about 70,000 people. Most of them will likely come from Cuyahoga County since they often cannot find the kinds of homes with today's amenities in their existing, built-out communities (where housing surveys show most would rather stay). Too bad we don't have local and state programs that make it possible for communities and developers to afford more tear-down/rebuild or renovation/expansion projects for contemporary housing.

 

KJP

X your description is right on.

KJP, you're right, of course.  The real question is how they are going to handle the traffic.  Avon is a horrible mess already, and I'd guess its only a quarter or so developed.  Avon may, quiet literally, choke on its own traffic, finally answering once and for all the question, "just how auto-dependant can a place really be?".  Sadly, I think that is the best we can hope for any time soon.

this sounds something like the animated billboards over the subways, tunnels and highways here in nyc area. it's distracting, but not all that distracting. anybody see them in action yet? whadidya think? from the peedee:

 

New billboards provide side-of-the-road show

Advertising display changes every 8 seconds

Thursday, May 12, 2005

Henry J. Gomez

Plain Dealer Reporter

 

Gridlocked commuters take note: Road rage hasn't warped your brain. If you think that billboard just blinked, you could be right. Clear Channel Outdoor began flipping the switches this week on seven digital billboards in Greater Cleveland, the first region in the media giant's vast empire to debut the advanced highway advertising tool.

 

If successful, Clear Channel plans to launch the concept in other national markets. The company estimates that 1 million drivers a day will pass the billboards. Each 14-by-48 foot unit - think of it as a huge flat-panel television - will change ads every eight seconds.

 

The billboards, which will occupy heavily traveled stretches of Interstates 77, 90, 271 and 480, will be connected to computers. South Dakota-based Daktronics Inc. created the boards and will manage their content from its Copley Township office.

 

MORE: http://www.cleveland.com

what's exciting is that they're not "hacker proof," as they say here.  Just think if these were up a few months back during the heat of the presidential election season...muckraking galore!

so C-bus cant have distracting large billboards, but Cleveland is OK with roadside T.V.'s?

it's not like they're overseen by the same authority...oh, wait. yeah, they are! 

There's one of these on 71 by Walnut Hills high school here in cincy.

^ Ahh been there done that.  We have one in Cincinnati off I-71.  Come down and spent your money in our city to see it. :)

 

EDIT: edale beat me to the punch.

They are not fundamentaly different that the ones that flip adds, thats why the're isnt a problem with them. I think in the colombus case is becasue they are too large. Personaly I think they are distracting, I drive by them, I spend all my time trying to read across the freeway and then its gone too quick for me.

yes, if there is anything drivers need, it is more distractions. :lol:

 

i still hate odot

They can be awfully bright at night or when it's dark and overcast, and I think 8 seconds ends up being pretty frenetic - I always seem to glance up, start processing the data, and then it's gone on to something else...but all in all, it's not that big a deal.

Article Publication Date: 10/6/2005

 

Ashtabula lift bridge slated for big face-lift

$2 million project ahead for historic span

 

http://www.starbeacon.com/?MC=NEWS&NID=1&AID=9286

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

By MARK TODD

Staff Writer

[email protected]

 

ASHTABULA - The historic Ashtabula Harbor Lift Bridge will enjoy a major overhaul in 2007, according to the Ohio Department of Transportation.

 

The bascule-type bridge will see $2 million worth of upgrades, Paula Putnam, ODOT District 4 spokeswoman, said Wednesday. "It will be a total rehabilitation," she said.

 

More at link above:

Oh...Ashtabula and their bridges!

From the 10/6/05 Brunswick Sun Times:

 

Cities try to untangle traffic Boston Road Interchange is too costly to go forward; officials look at other ideas

Thursday, October 06, 2005

By MELISSA MARTIN

Brunswick Sun Times

 

BRUNSWICK - Plans for constructing an interchange at Interstate 71 and Boston Road may be on hold indefinitely but that isn't stopping state, local and county officials from generating alternate plans for alleviating traffic woes along streets in that area.

 

City Manager Robert Zienkowski and members of his administration met last month with officials from the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency, the Ohio Department of Transportation and the city of Strongsville to discuss plans for moving the interchange project forward. After tallying up the costs, officials concluded the project could easily top $26 million, with Brunswick and Strongsville having to fund at least 50 percent of the bill. For that reason, all parties involved agreed the project is still not within fiscal reach.

 

Construction of the interchange is estimated to cost between $12 and $13 million. But in order to put in the interchange, Boston Road would have to be widened to five lanes, Zienkowski said. That means we'd have to acquire all those homes and right-of-way, which puts the final price tag way out of reach.

 

Read More...

Studying ways to move more traffic more smoothly doesn't sound like a proper use of TLC funding to me. If they want a serious use of TLC funding, use it to study how to reduce Vehicle-Miles Traveled. But that would cause them to begin questioning that their sprawling, sub-divided, auto-dominated land uses are actually the problem. To fix that would cost much more than the $26 million for the interchange and associated road widenings.

 

Memo to Brunstucky officials -- you made your auto-bed, now sleep in it before peak oil rudely wakes you up to its unsustainability. That being said, I don't expect NOACA to give them an early wake up call by denying the grant. It will probably get approved under political pressure. Of course, it won't solve anything. Only gas prices rising and staying above $5/gallon apparently will.

 

KJP

You don't like your tax money to be spent to facilitate the flow of people and money out to the sticks?  What kind of American are you?  :drunk:

A temporary one, if things keep going the way they are.

 

KJP

O Canada.....

I wasn't aware that the lack of an interchange at Boston Road was such a problem.  Traffic on 303 isn't really all that terrible, and virtually nonexistent on W 130th.  This seems like an unnecessary waste of money, not to mention the disaster that would actually be created by widening Boston Road to five lanes and dumping thousands of cars a day onto it.

 

Livable Community, my behind.

 

First, I think a few people will find the following link helpful: http://familydoctor.org/x1913.xml

 

Second, "Memo to Brunstucky officials -- you made your auto-bed, now sleep in it " - I couldn't agree more  :clap:

From the 10/27/05 Brunswick Sun Times:

 

 

Boston Road will be widened as planned

Thursday, October 27, 2005

By MELISSA MARTIN

Brunswick Sun Times

 

BRUNSWICK - City and county officials are moving forward with plans for a $20 million road widening project on Boston Road despite the fact that plans for an interchange at Interstate 71 and Boston Road remain on hold indefinitely.

 

City manager Robert Zienkowski said Brunswick and Strongsville city officials have agreed to turn over control of the project to the Cuyahoga County Engineer's Office, which will be responsible for seeing that design plans for the project are completed in an effort to secure costs estimates and an overall timeline for the project.

 

We know this project is going to be an expensive one, Zienkowski said. But in order to budget for the project, we have to know exactly how much federal aid will be available and what it's going to cost the city.

 

Read More...

 

From the 12/2/05 Lorain Morning Journal:

 

 

I-90 options in Avon mapped out

SCOT ALLYN, Morning Journal Writer

12/02/2005

 

AVON -- Building a new road in Avon to accommodate an additional Interstate 90 interchange could be one way to relieve traffic congestion, according to a transportation consultant hired by the city.

 

This and other options for adding a I-90 interchange in Avon were presented last night to between 60 to 70 people at City Hall.

 

Susan Swartz, project manager for TranSystems, who is studying where a new interchange might go on I-90, discussed pros and cons of possible locations.

 

Upgrades of existing exits were also discussed, as well as the consequences to the city by 2030 of doing nothing at all.

 

 

More at

http://www.morningjournal.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15679238&BRD=1699&PAG=461&dept_id=566374&rfi=8

 

"We don't want to see a bottleneck like the one currently at the SR 83 interchange.'"

 

Well, that's what you get when you take a formerly rural area and expect the existing infrastructure to accomodate every Suzy SoccerMom and her family's 3-4 vehicles. And of course, don't forget zoning which eliminates any chance of walkability.  :roll:

ahh go ahead and build the freakin interchange, it's too late now.

It's never too late. Like MayDay says, when your land use puts residential, retail, office and other uses so far apart, allows cul de sacs which limit movement to cars exclusively and has stores sitting behind massive parking lots off crowded roads with no parking lots, then an interchange is not going to relieve traffic. It's only going to make it worse.

 

Greater Cleveland would be a much better place if every candidate for elected office was required to take a Planning 101 seminar. There's enough talent on this forum to get some "instructors" together to offer free or low-cost seminars on an ongoing basis for city council members, public officials, chamber of commerce leaders, community activists, etc. Candidates can then put on their brochures that they've taken the seminars and understand how their communities fit into the regional picture, and how their actions continue to cause the whirlpool at the urban center to spiral ever wider.

This is disgusting.  Why does the Ohio have to continue to subsidize sprawl and quicken the decline of Cleveland?   

 

Study recommends new I-90 interchange in Avon

Saturday, February 18, 2006

V. David Sartin

Plain Dealer Reporter

Avon - A consultant's study paid for by Avon and property owners recommends that a third interchange be built along Interstate 90 in the city.

 

It would be at Nagel Road, between the existing Crocker Road/Bassett Road exit in Westlake and the Ohio 83 exit in Avon. The nearly two-year study was a necessary step in the process toward winning approval for a new exit.

 

No interchange can be built without approval from federal and state officials and the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency, a five-county planning group.

 

 

More at www.cleveland.com

Maybe development (er, economic dislocation) needs to be strangled, Mr. Twining. If I were running the city of Cleveland and the First Suburbs Consortium, I draw a line in the sand right now. File a lawsuit under the U.S. Clean Air Act, or cite NOACA's Statement of Principles, or simply threaten to withhold Cleveland water to any suburb whose representative on the NOACA board votes to approve the Avon interchange. It's time to put an end to this madness.

 

By the way, here's NOACA’s Statement of Principles, which the board made its use mandatory in deliberations by its governing board, its advisory committees and staff. These principles specifically require NOACA to:

 

 Comply with ISTEA and the Clean Air Act;

 Enhance the natural environment and quality of life of the NOACA region by minimizing the adverse impacts of incremental transportation investments on the environment and existing communities (italics added), requesting staff to identify the anticipated impacts of the proposed projects;

 Support the planning activities of counties and communities within the region by having staff consult with these agencies when evaluating incremental transportation investments;

 Solicit all funding that is available for the region and use it prudently on the transportation needs of the region;

 Maximize the efficiency of the existing transportation system by requesting staff to identify and evaluate transportation systems management (TSM) alternatives;

 Encourage the use of public transportation;

 Ensure that decisions regarding TIP amendments are fully informed and deliberated by requiring that all necessary information regarding proposed amendments be provided to the staff for evaluation;

 Encourage efficient, compact land use development that facilitates mobility, saves infrastructure costs, preserves environmentally-sensitive and agricultural lands and enhances the economic viability of existing communities in the region; and

 Ensure that transportation investments enhance racial and cultural harmony.

 

Also see my message at:

 

http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?topic=7669.msg78638#msg78638

 

The metaphor in that message applies equally to this discussion as well

Does anyone have info. on the Bessemer Road extensions? It's pretty new, not sure when it was built or why. What's the story on this? It seems that the goal was to make the Bessemer Road industrial area more accessible and desirable, as much of that area is rundown and vacant. Well anyways, it runs from E. 65th to E. 55th and runs alongside the railroad tracks. Now Bessemer runs continuously from E. 55 to E. 87th where it ends.

It was built in the past 1-3 years and actually was well needed as an east west thouroughfare.  I worked down there years ago and wished that it did go through to 55th.

  I work on the CFD, and one thing that amazed me about that extention.....there are NO fire hydrants!  How did the city let that slip by?  Also, from what I understand, the eastern part of the street is to be realigned as well to get rid of the two 90 degree turns.

the re-allignment on the east end makes sense. it dead ends at e. 87 and then begins again at e. 88 and continues to e. 102. if they do re-allign it, bessemer would then run from e. 55 to e. 102. something good happening in the kinsman neighborhood for a change!

This has been progressing for almost two years and is about to wrap up.  Sorry I don't have any images!

 

Rebuilt span over Cuyahoga eases into place

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

James Ewinger

Plain Dealer Reporter

 

Muscle and machinery guided the West Third Street Bridge home Monday morning, nestling it on steel-bearing blocks on opposite sides of the Cuyahoga River.

 

It won't stay there long. The 2.1-million-pound bridge will be hoisted up on cables so ore boats and lesser vessels can make their way as far up the twisting river as their hulls and the narrowing banks will allow.

 

www.plaindealer.com

here is an image from the PD:

 

Any idea if ODOT will ever widen I-77 from 2 lanes to 3 lanes between Pleasant Valley Road and Bath Township in Summit County? It's a 2 lane stretch for about 15 miles, and to be honest with you, if I-77 didn't have to go from 3 lanes to 2 lanes between Rockside and Pleasant Valley, there wouldn't be a traffic congestion issue every evening. It wouldn't be as difficult since the median and most bridges were setup for future widening/expansion back in the day..  :|

Funny you should mention it - from newsnet5.com:

 

ODOT Project Will Reroute Traffic At I-77, I-480

 

Repairs Part Of State's $5 Billion Jobs, Progress Program

 

POSTED: 12:52 pm EST March 7, 2006

 

CLEVELAND -- The orange barrel season is approaching again, and the Ohio Department of Transportation is mapping out its reconstruction plans for the spring, summer and fall,

 

 

The latest projects are part of the state's 10-year, $5 billion Jobs and Progress Program.

 

More at cleveland.com http://www.cleveland.com

Any idea if ODOT will ever widen I-77 from 2 lanes to 3 lanes between Pleasant Valley Road and Bath Township in Summit County? It's a 2 lane stretch for about 15 miles, and to be honest with you, if I-77 didn't have to go from 3 lanes to 2 lanes between Rockside and Pleasant Valley, there wouldn't be a traffic congestion issue every evening. It wouldn't be as difficult since the median and most bridges were setup for future widening/expansion back in the day..  :|

 

The traffic congestion issue would just move further down the road as everyone sprawled out even more.