Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon everyone. Afternoon. Nice to see you. Um, welcome to the Kyog County Planning Commission meeting for uh, Thursday, October 9th, 2025. Mayor Bwell

here. Deber here. Mayor here. Fields here. Mayor Mayor here. Council person Simon. Thank you. Mayor Rice. Mayor Willow here. You have a quette. Do we have anyone here for public comment? All right. We'll move on to item number three, the approval of the minutes from the August 14th, 2025 board meeting. Make a motion to approve. Second.

Okay. Motion made and seconded. Is there any comments or questions on changes? I have a triple. Seeing none, all those in favor say I. Those opposed. That motion carries. All right, we move right into the resolution. Thank you. The first item requiring board action is resolution number 2510009- A requesting approval of the clean Ohio green space green space conservation program cost agreement with Ohio public works commission and the district one which is part of the county natural resource assistance council. Mike Cheney senior planner will be presenting.

Good afternoon everyone. So I think most of you have heard this uh spiel before but I wanted to give um a little overview of the clean Ohio program um how it fits into other state programs and what we do administratively. So the clean Ohio green space conservation program helps to fund preservation of important ecological areas including open space sensitive areas um and repairing corridors. The um Ohio Public Works Commission was uh began in 1987 and was tasked with the implementation of the state capital improvement program, the skip um and then and then later was um authorized to implement the clean Ohio program in uh 2000. OPWC administers both the skip and uh the Queen Ohio program with localized guidance and that localized guidance comes in the form of these 19 districts and these 19 districts um have boards that serve to administer both the skip that is the district one uh public works integrating committee doick which I know all of you are aware of as well as the natural resource assistance council the ENREC that administers the clean Ohio program district um and I know the text is small on this but this just illustrates how it all fits together. OPWC oversees both programs um and then approves the methodologies and the policies that are created for both of these uh programs and then ultimately a awards project funds. Um DOP and uh ENRA both create the district methodologies, the approval processes, selection processes. Um those all have to get approved by OPWC. The one thing is that uh DOPWIC does appoint members of the ENRAC. So all appointees

to the ENRACH have to first get approved by DOPIC. So county planning has been uh providing administrative assistance since the program's inception in 2000. Um and these administrative ser services generally include the creation and distribution of the work plan, application materials, manual development of the selection process, uh evaluation of applications uh preparing materials for meetings and then also providing assistance to applicants as well as ENRACH members.

Um it's a very successful program. Uh clean Ohio is uh popular statewide and just here in our urbanized county um more than um roughly 3,300 acres have been protected and 6,700 lineal feet of repairing corridor has been protected. And this is kind of a low ball um representation of all the good that Clean Ohio has done in the county. This doesn't include um areas that have been for restoration purposes only. Sometimes cities uh own land that um doesn't need to it's not newly acquired, but they apply for restoration funds. Um so for just this past fiscal year, we just wrapped up um uh fiscal year 2026 with two uh applicants being awarded. One was the uh Orange Village for the Headwaters Preserve and that preserve 35 acres with uh quality three uh wetlands or category 3 wetlands. Um and then the other one was for West Creek Conservancy for the headarters connector uh in Solen and that was 58 acres along a railway and you can see that's it's a long stretch. It's that red one and um they're high quality uh tree canopy there and uh important uh habitat for migratory birds. So since 2015 um OPWC, the ENRACK and county planning have entered into a program C uh cost agreement. Um with the understanding that um county planning will provide these administrative services for up to $15,000. Um it's also understood that any costs above that uh county planning just pays for. Typically we do not go above that 15,000. So, we are seeking board approval for uh the OPWC, ENRACK and county planning cost agreement for the fiscal administration of fiscal year

2027. And that would run that um from March 1st, 2026 through February 28th, 2027. That's it. Any questions?

Okay. Thanks, Megan. Questions from the board? Seeing none, I'll make a motion to approve the uh the agreement between space conservation program or should I say it's the whole Ohio public works commission. Is there a second on the motion? Sorry. Thank you. Any other comments, questions? Seeing none. All those in favor say I.

I. Next.

Thank you. Um that was the only um item that needed board action. So we thought it was appropriate since we've had a full agenda on other days to give you some updates on projects that have been recently completed. So we're going to stick with Megan here um about the Richmond to do a presentation on Richmond Shardan Roadscape and business revitalization. Um so as Mary said we wrapped this uh project up shortly uh ago just about a month ago and um wanted to just discuss uh the the planets in its entirety. So you see there um those uh five pictures are pictures of the five focus areas that uh really uh comprised uh the plan. So the planning staff, I was project lead for this one, managed by Jim Sonhalter. Other planning staff included Moren Riley, Eric Engel, Luke Olds, and our information team included Dan Meini, uh Kevin Le and uh and Liam Lo for Richmond Heights. Our uh project team included Mayor Thomas, um staff from the city including Chelsea Kovar and Rachel Gardner from economic and community development, staff from the recreation service department, building commissioner, and then representatives from area businesses and institution including the local school districts, university hospitals, flexjet, and the Richmond Heights DEI. The um project was uh started in we entered into contract with the city um on May 30th, 2024. Um and then Richmond Height City Council just adopted the plan in uh August 26th. It was wrapped up just about that year point in late May. It just took some time over the summer to work its way through city approvals. Uh so the project objectives, one, create a vibrant business districts, improve walkability, bikeability, create safe, attractive streets for all. Um, and then part of

what uh we were tasked with was to create site renderings um to help illustrate the recommendations that we developed for each of these focus areas and then back that up with specific updates to the zoning code. So these focus areas, one is Chardan Road East is that eastern portion of Chardan Road um east of where it intersects with Richmond. Um and that area um was Part of the impetus of this plan was um when University Hospital's Richmond Heights Hospital um they decided to close that and then the resulting vacancies created by that um hospital closure as well as the um vacancies of the medical associated medical offices. The north side business district is the intersection of Chardan and Richmond roads. Um and that serves as the the northern gateway into the city. The airport corridor is that stretch of Richmond road by the county airport. Um and as well as Integrity and Critter Right Parkways, we also consider that. Um the city center district is the intersection of uh Richmond and Highland where a lot of the city services are. Um and then the town square business district is the intersection of uh Richmond and Wilson Mills where Richmond Mall used to be where the current Bell Oaks uh development is. So we the process of this plan followed a very similar process to most of our plans. We started with uh with data collection and the current conditions uh a visioning process with the project team recommendations and development scenarios and implementation and final uh documentation. Um the this plan did differ somewhat because we created five separate vision statements for each of the five focus areas and five different um sets of recommendations and development scenarios. We really wanted to make this a very usable plan. So as the city goes through and focuses on one area, they

could very easily just take that portion of the plan and focus on that. And then throughout this process, we were guided by the project team. We had monthly or semionthly meetings. Um and they were in charge of reviewing the materials and providing feedback. We also had community engagement in terms of a survey, um public meetings and stakeholder interviews. So the current conditions, we um pinpointed where each of these focus areas, kind of the central area was or the central line. Um and then created a 10-minute walk shed around these areas. Um and that really gave us a a snapshot of what the demographics with the characteristics of the neighborhood is around these areas as well as the environmental and uh land use landscape. Um so we looked at demographic and social economic data, environmental data, land use and zoning, uh business analysis was conducted in each of these. Um and we looked at traffic and crash data to really give us a good picture of what these uh the different opportunities and the challenges that each of these areas was uh was facing. So although we kind of made five mini little master plans for each of these, there were recurring themes and some guiding principles that are threaded throughout uh each of the recommendations. So promotion of walkability and bikability, reduction of parking in favor of um putting land to more economic and ecological productivity, creation of vibrant uh streetscapes, promotion of development that not only encourages robust economy but a resilient economy. And then emphasizing the social realm um to not only promote quality of life but also as an economic driver. Um, so this I could talk till like 900 PM on all. So I'm really gonna I'm really gonna try to zip through these and we can go back and discuss. Mary knows to give me the high sign if I start getting too longwinded. But so

Charton Road East had some interesting characteristics. It was the densest, the most residentially dense area of the five different focus areas. It had a very large concentration of children, especially very young children under five. Um it had the lowest household income and highest percentages of households with no access to a vehicle. Um and then also com combined with the departure of the uh hospitals, those were all things that we really wanted to consider and incorporated that into our vision. So, we really looked at walkability and the safety of the area in terms of connectivity. Um, and then figuring out how to make recommendations to address those vacancies in a way that really served the surround the immediate surrounding community. So, um, as I said, renderings were developed for each of the the focus areas and we kind of did approach them in two different ways. So, this one is kind of the pretty one. It's the aspirational one that we called the visioning graphic. It goes with the vision and and the uh the goals. Um so we wanted to illustrate how these areas could look as a desired future state. Um so you see their buildings are moved up to the the street. There's a lot of trails uh really focusing on green space and connectivity um and creating a a very walkable corridor. Um, and so I'm not going to read all those goals, but um, they reflect they they further refine um, and pinpoint that broad vision statement um, from the previous slide. Um, and then for each of these goals uh, or for each of these focus areas, the last goal is going ahead to update zoning regulations to reflect all the the previous goals in that section. So just an example. So and then we have another set of graphics and this is a little bit more nitty-gritty. It's not quite as pretty, but um these graphics

are the recommendations graphics, and we really wanted to drill down um as kind of a uh incremental steps and recommendations to eventually achieve that desired future state. So, you see there the bubbles, they correspond with the action item. Um and we got very specific on the potential ideas um and interventions that the city could do for these sites. So taking the university hospitals as an example of one of the um goals and strategies and action items, we suggested taking the current infrastructure that's already designed for medical spaces and using that either to attract a satellite college program like they did at South Point Hospital in Warrenville. Um they coordinate with um Ohio University and um another potential option would be to convert some of those medical office buildings into mixed use. So preserving that first floor of medical space and then having potentially senior housing on top. And then here's uh that last goal is updating the zoning regulations. We found that the public facilities district that occupied a lot of the land use in that corridor was very restrictive in terms of permitted uses and also required huge setbacks. So recommending that they expand the uh number of permitted uses to create kind of more opportunity and also reding setbacks. So more infill development could occur for the north side business district. This area is characterized there um has highest percentage of senior population. Um it does it serves as the northern gateway. There is also a good number a high percentage of of youth in this area. Um it was the location of several uh very serious accidents over the last 10 years of um between pedestrian and cars. So we really wanted to make sure that we looked at safety, walkability, making sure that those those high youth

and high density residential populations in this northern part uh could get to the services located centrally. So there's that graphic we showed build up towards the front of of the streetscape parking and rear. Um, one of the biggest and most successful um uh recommendations that the people really rallied around was the removal of slip lanes. So, um I don't know if you can see from the previous one, there's that one slip lane. This is currently um there on the eastern side. There's a corresponding one that goes off to the west as well currently. So we are recommending to take out the one on the west entirely to create new opportunities for economic development and then a low hanging fruit was just to um include a barrier halfway through that other slip lane so it can um remain a residential dead end for access on Desardan Road and then the southern part of that slip lane would become a shared uh access drive for the non-residential uses in that area. So and again updating the the zoning code to to uh to reflect these uh desired. Um so the city really wanted to have this area kind of act like a small town traditional business uh district and that would also help with pedestrian safety. So we wanted to make sure to um include recommendations to that zoning district that would help achieve that the airport corridor. So this is a lower um residential density as you would expect, but it has it is the biggest economic driver in in um Richmond Heights with the highest number of jobs and highest number of really well- paid jobs. It also serves as the spine of the community. So you have a lot again a lot of those kids living into the northern area of the city travel this corridor to get to the school down by Highland. Um

but there is little and entice people into this corridor. Workers don't have workers in this uh around the airport don't have many places to go. There are very few services for them. Um so we wanted to make sure that the vision included this becoming a regional model of a healthy office park that has robust economic development and does so in a healthy way. So this shows a lots of infill development um lots of green infrastructure. Looking at this area was interesting because it had very impervious surface which is great but it also had very little tree canopy largely because of you know flight plats with the the airlines. Um so we wanted to make sure to include pollinating gardens, bio swailes um things that were compatible with the activity of the airlines but um also featured a lot of um ecological benefits. Um, and then another thing that the community really expressed wanted to, there used to be a restaurant, I think they said it was called the Red Baron, um, that was located here, and people really missed that. So, we wanted to include that as a as a recommendation, maybe a modern take, like a brew pub, to take advantage of those cool sight lines of the the airport um and the the airlines for a minute. Um, there's also an opportunity to um do sports venues. you see those big like the junkyard and sky zone and a lot of industrial complexes. Um with the amount of youth uh traveling along this corridor that would seem to make a lot of sense as well.

Can I can I ask a question? Yeah, the previous slide talked about number five ecological benefits. What what what did the community get in mind?

They and we spoke with the county airport on this and they were very receptive. So um taking away some of the turf because it's all just turf. Um It's it's intensive in terms of resources um and time. You know, the the county airport spends a lot of time mowing um having people mow that area. So, they were very receptive to converting areas to bio swells that were lower um uh implementing pollinator gardens so long as they weren't we made sure to include don't attract birds. Um that would be a danger, but um butterflies and bees they were okay with. Um Um, and also you see those little lines we made? Um, there's wide open spaces that have to remain wide open spaces would seem to really be conducive to um, solar panels.

So, yeah. Um, and considering the amount of kids and cyclists that traverse this area, there is potential for a lot more trees. They would just have to be out of out of the the flight path. Yeah. Oh, okay. And then um again with the zoning district um there it's this area is currently zoned office industrial. Um when we started the process that was the entire the entire county airport was zoned to that and it was incredibly restrictive. So our recommendation was to of course update that to include a lot more permitted uses to reduce the setbacks to allow smaller um services to come in. Midway through the process um Chelsea Kovar who was the ED um introduced the B3 district which was um designed to be a lot more expansive in terms of uses and uh encourage a lot more investment. Great job.

Um the city center district. Am I doing on time, Mary? Okay. Um, so again, this area had a lot of um, uh, services. It has the school, the library, the park, um, post office, the m municipal center. Um, wanted to make sure that this was a very walkable area, and it really is not right now. It's characterized by a ton of curb cuts, very wide aprons. It's not a very uh, pleasant walking experience. So, we really wanted to focus on accessibility. Um, so there's the the kind of the grand vision graphic and then we really got very specific. We identified specific parcels businesses to work with to either encourage shared parking or taking away um one of the access points into a parking lot. These drive aprons were huge and could easily accommodate 2A traffic. And then lastly, the town square business uh business district. Um this area had um a lot was had the highest um uh household me uh median income and um it had a a base of young workers. So we really wanted to focus on creating the social realm um people this has the highest concentration of retail jobs um and and retail stores. So we really wanted to focus on encouraging the social realm um and that community in this um this area. So that's those building footprints are the current Bell Oaks uh uh drawings that we got and incorporated into those areas. But then you see the more recommendation focused graphics just building in those green space those those areas for um interaction for photo shoots for um for social media things like that that kind of low hanging fruit that really make a big impact. And then this is the implementation matrix. So once we have developed all those, we go ahead and assign priority, time frame, cost, funding sources,

potential partners, just really trying to make it as easy as possible for the community to start implementing these these things. Um, and then again, it was adopted in uh in August of this year. So any questions? Thanks for bearing with me. I know that was No, it's great. And that was an example of a project that was funded through the community planning service program. It was a very small investment from the community and more in kind from our team. And I think the beauty of all of this is we say there's no point in planning just plan. But the fact that it was done in a year and already adopted this year, I mean that's what you want and now the next step would be you implementing those recommendations. So

I was just interested to see that you put on the first suburbs consortium when they're not a first suburb. They're not in the consortium. When where did I put that? At the end. Oh, really? Yeah. saidial funding potential funding. Oh, yes. Oh, that was it. Y they're not in the consortium, you know. That's okay. That's a good point to let you know. We should um we should talk to either Jennifer Kousma or Rachel about that. Thanks for pointing that out.

Yeah, sure. All right. Thanks, Megan. Y can take a break. Um and then the next um project we want to give you an update on, we talked about this a while back, but the East 22nd Street small area plan that we partnered with the city of Cleveland on and Alex Long is going to present that to you where we were and how it all came together. Hi, this is my first

Yeah. So, um I'm a principal planner. Um I've been here probably like a year and almost a half But it is my first time. I think I was supposed to present Bedford uh approval and I got sick like 10 minutes beforehand. So apologies. Um Patrick had to do it for me. So I should apologize to him. Okay. Um okay. So East 22nd Street current conditions assessment. You guys don't know anything about this. A lot of you because we haven't forgotten about it. Um so this was done through anou with the city uh the city of Cleveland. Um because the county had a ve vested interest in the juvenile justice center within this area and those conversations kind of came about organically about this large study or kind of small study area but the larger picture um involved with it between all the different partners that were involved. So, it's centered on East 22nd Street, but we expanded it to East 30th, to the east, Prospect Avenue to the north, the interstate on kind of the west, and then Broadway to the south. Um, that is the general study area, and I'll talk more about kind of why in a second. Um, so it was managed by Patrick. Mary was also heavily involved in it uh throughout the whole process because of the high level of coordination that was required among all project partners and stakeholders. Um and then we had Nicole and Laura also and the information team provide a lot and we work very closely um with our project team at the Cleveland City Planning Commission. um especially with with Adam and Kenya were um very very helpful in continuing kind of

this effort beyond uh where we left it off essentially. So background city planning commission engaged county planning to perform a current conditions assessment of the east 22nd street corridor and surrounding area. The project grew from a desire from both the city and county to coordinate many current highly consequential planning efforts by a wide variety of stakeholders within a small area. Um an image I show after this that explains just how many stakeholders there were within this area. And um I mean they ranged from you know the juvenile justice center so the county to St. Vincent which is now being torn down um in addition to the juvenile justice center and then TRIC CHA. So just a whole bunch of different very kind of large organizations that were doing a lot of stuff within a very small area. The primary goal was to identify opportunities to collaborate on some of the efforts that all these different entities were undertaking at the same time. um because it was um really affecting the area and um the area was particularly small and there wasn't a ton of coordination among the different plans that were happening um as well as coordinating implementation to make sure that things were aligned uh schedulewise. So CHA uh their old cedar estates were undergoing some planning and you know those residents would have to be moved out before some demolition of different things like the interstate and JJC things like that that would affect the quality of life of those residents. Um, our actual assessment involved reviewing the existing plans, pulling data, asking stakeholders for insight,

and then using all that to identify the different opportunities that we'll talk about. Okay, so this is what I mean when I say that there's like a lot of stakeholders in a lot of plans within a really small area. Um so this was one of the first graphics we put together for our own understanding and found that it was highly effective in explaining this to people. Um so 15 different plans within this area and then not pictured because there weren't any illustrated concepts yet were at least two three four five six seven other projects that were being undertaken or um planned. So, some of these involve the St. Vincent charity um community health center partial demolition um as well as Sisters of Charity building their women's religious archive center potential proposed Cleveland Soccer Stadium in the bottom left um CCG3A, you know, interstate replacement project. Um TRC had just underwent a brand new master planning. Um phase I guess or well it's a very significant plan a whole facilities plan for revamping their facilities the CHA old Cedar Estates also underwent master planning um the East 22nd Street Bridge was being placed as part of the CCG3A campus district um also at the same time that we were starting this planning process uh issued an RFP master plan of their own which this study area would is included in their campus district master plan and I'll explain how that ties in. And then in addition to that, W five Councilman Star

had hired um CSU to do an asset mapping study for his school board. So the whole idea of this was to coordinate all the stuff that was going on at once in this area to be like, yo, do you guys know Sorry, I should say to be like, do you guys know what each other is doing or not? Um, and how can we make it all work together? So, some of those already had timelines. Um, we laid that out for people like, look, there's all these overlapping things that are happening. Some of it's demolition, some of it's construction. Um, some of it's very long-term. Uh, this is kind of how it lays out in terms of looking at it on a timeline. In addition to that, so everyone had already done their own little planning projects for their individual properties. No one had looked at the area as a whole. Um, so we undertook that, conducted an assessment of what was going on with the infrastructure in the area, the land use, all of those kind of typical things um that we would look at in a planning process to identify if there were either additional opportunities, things that were missed or um that were just uh not not coordinated, I guess. Um the interstate was a really big thing. Obviously it's a huge barrier that was a consistent thread throughout all of this throughout all these conversations and the analysis. Um bicycle network was also cut off by the interstate um had transit opportunities. RTA was stakeholder a road network and safety high crash areas that we identified um and talked with about human condition ratings were paired with

potential for lane reductions. So looking at traffic volume and the number of lanes currently and then the roads that were in poor pavement conditions so that those could potentially be paired with road diet concepts. So for instance, um what is that? Cedar Cedar Avenue and Cargi and then portions of Orange and Broadway were also in very poor condition and those were also areas that had a excessive number of lanes. terms of land use over 50% of it was institutional um which is you know another part of the stakeholder conversation like um these were all kind of you know like CSU and TRIC and even the postal service we actually talked to someone at the postal service which was really difficult to do um but these are you know you know Salvation Army is there um some other folks so it's uh it's a lot of nonprofits a lot public sector entities that own a lot of land that have a lot of opportunity to make something happen here. Um that's very intentional uh with all of their efforts and planning. So you can see all the blue is institutional. Um the gray to the south west southwest was all ODOT land too that they were trying to sell. Um, and that part of that was bought up by the Cleveland Sophie/Metrop Parks for their stadium planning effort. And then zoning uh completely mismatched from everything that was happening unsurprisingly. Um, we also did like kind of a workforce analysis being like, okay, so what are the conditions here right now? A lot of people are coming here and working at St. Vincent, for example. Where are they coming from? where they what else uh can

be provided here to continue to capture that uh workforce base. Um as well as who is living there and where they were working and where were the opportunities to assist them in potentially commuting to work and things of that nature. But to be fair, um it is a very small study area, so some of this stuff is statistically questionable. Um but nonetheless, we did our to verify a lot of these conditions that were um revealed through the data. So I mean the biggest employer like you said was safe. So that was a huge loss in terms of the workforce in this area. But um see in the news they've been continuing to make plans and partnerships with a lot of different uh facilities and healthcare opportunities. Um which was encouraged through this effort too. also did an on the ground kind of housing analysis. I mean CHA had has a significant amount of land there and um housing there that they have redeveloped all of Sangopa and they're planning to do it for old. So these are all of the stakeholders who engaged. Um you can kind of see like it's a it's a really big laundry list of some um very you know significant public sector and nonprofit folks. Um some of the other things that were happening the CBNP the scenic railroad study uh extending that to downtown was occurring too. So they were brought in. Um the workforce development board was also within that study area. Neighborhood family practice was located there or had just located there. um the scouting America was located there and was looking for a new opportunity and that was something a new facility and

that was something that was revealed through the process too. Um so kind of all of these people were brought together in one space and they all actually showed up which was awesome. Um, one second. Yeah, just I have a question. Um, was Kyaka County at the table where uh there's Annie Peas is in there and then we had who? Oh, the transportation transportation um she's right there. She's in a picture but not listed as a stakeholder. The county we should be. We own juvenile, you know, we own the court. They were they were there. We were there and we we had a

probably one of the partners because City of Cleveland's not listed here either. I think it's council. Well, okay. I'm assuming we were, but I didn't see it. And then we did do a briefing with um county leadership relevant to the area. I remember at some point Mary um as well as with and council council president what council president Jones at the time

yeah um so everyone was gathered there um and we went through you know activities but really the biggest outcome from this huge kind of workshop that we put together was just getting people talking to each other about what they were doing um and the potential for working together, creating partnerships. Uh this is some of the stuff. So it was really, you know, some of their outcomes were kind of visioning what they wanted this area to be and uh looking at what was working and what wasn't working. So the map on the right was something called a retain and reimagine map where they would place dots on things that were working they wanted to keep and put uh purple dots where things could be reimagined. Um so the vision statement ultimately came out to be the East 22nd Street area will be a safe and secure home through a collaborative network of institutions uplifting the neighborhood and region through integrated social services and focused community development. The really big focus was just that this is a high concentration of service providers um between Salvation Army, St. Vincent, um TRIC can be considered a service provider. There is a St. Joseph's St. Mary's home, Sisters of Charity, um and a lot of other social and healthcare facilities including the William Patrick Day Center, which we operate. Um cute. Okay, great.

Oops. That goes not that go through something. I think you're almost

Kevin's got it maybe like third to last slide of mine. There you go. Okay. So, this is ultimately what the opportunity mapping ended up looking like. It was kind of overlaying everything um together on a single map. So, uh what was identified as underutilized or if folks were looking to uh grow. Um so kind of in the dead middle there, those teal buildings, I think one was one was Salvation Army, one was um Life Works Autism Center, and then one was Scouting America. They were all looking for larger facilities because they were growing and they wanted to offer more services. Um whereas some other places like the Wolin Center um and the uh the Tri building that's kind of like a standalone building um on the left over there it's called we had a meeting there Jerry Sorton Center. Yeah. Um underutilized buildings were not being used to their full capacity. excess parking um wherever there were existing plans or projects uh wherever there was vacant land demolition etc. Looking at all these overlapping things together to identify opportunities for coordination. It was then broken down into infrastructure and development. So these were all the infrastructure opportunities that were identified in large buckets of improving streets, reducing barriers, enhancing connectivity and ensuring safety with a key opportunity identified for Orange Street Woodland Woodland I think. Um but basically that interstate that would eventually be replaced and redesigned and then the sorry I know this is very

small. This is just what it looks like in the report. Um, development opportunities broken down into separate blocks because physically you tend to do stuff in in kind of blocks and not scattered. Um, so looking at all of those opportunities together at what could all be conducted at once along with another identified key opportunity. Um and as I said the campus district master plan was undergoing at the same time they are finishing up their master plan this month. Um so all of this we worked with them very closely throughout this. It was um it's used to inform their recommendations within their campus district master plan because we we stopped here um to help them. Any questions?

Okay. Any questions?

We talked about that a lot because um it was difficult to get everyone together, you know, and on the same page. um the city. So I I talked about Kenya and Adam um we you know specifically or very kind of explicitly were like look um you guys need to be the ones to continue moving this forward um as well as campus district as they continued in their master planning process. So those were the two entities that we kind of tasked with moving it forward. We've been brought in here and there for different that are happening. So, for instance, St. Vincent, I know you talked with a couple weeks ago about some of the developments happening on their site and what they're doing. Um, we kept lines open, but ultimately it's up to the city and um this CDC to continue moving it forward.

Campus District Inc. Campus District Inc. Yeah, we did engage Midtown and BBC also who were very supportive of it, but they were like, "This isn't really our But we are happy to help however we can

and we hope it continues. I mean that time we got everybody in the same room it was like the first time some people had met each other and then made a connection with someone and shared contact information. We heard things like I need a commercial kitchen. I need a commercial kitchen. I need a commercial kitchen. It's like well we don't need three commercial kitchens in this area. Oh William Pate has a commercial kitchen. You know there are things like that that happened. Um so they were neighbors but they didn't know each other. And so, um, and Mark, I know you participated in some of these, too. And it was really just that convening of the campus district goes all the way up to Superior. So, it's such a huge district that this is like one major piece of it. But, they continued on with their consultant for the majority of the northern portion and then wrapped this into it. But, um, I mean, I think a good example is CHA knowing what was happening with the county, uh, the former juvenile court building, they kind of waited and said, "Let's see what everybody else is doing before we start going forward with the plan." So, it it was a really good opportunity for people to coordinate and take a pause before they jumped into their planning, not knowing what other people were doing. And I know those conversations still continue. Um, with that,

I would recommend just this is really great work here. I don't know if you have the overlay of what the new uh what's the remodel of the interchange is being taken place incorporate that because our parcel will be sliced in half. Yeah, I talked to campus district about that and uh they have included that in their um site plan, their illustrative site planning.

I think we did in the very beginning, one of the graphics had somements on that. But I think that was the good point and why this really started was because all of a sudden everyone was talking about the county's property but not talking to the county. um people were trying to think of plans for that site and it was going to be much much smaller um than it currently exists once that interbell project came in. So was trying to get the coordination with everybody on the same page on this It's going I know Alex is invited to the interbel

for the next phase the CCG4 but the CCG3 is pretty much it's funded. It's fully funded at this point. I think it's outdated actually. Yeah. So I mean those plans are pretty pretty solid like um they'll probably I think are starting plan to start construction next year the year after or at least demolition or whatever they're doing. And then our building is already debated, right? The GJC.

Yeah. So things weird. Yeah. That was the thing is that things were moving while we were doing this too, right? So we were trying to catch up with some things and coordinate along the way, but there's still going to be plenty of opportunity beyond that.

There's There's five acres there. ODOT's going to be utilizing part of our property for lay down area, staging area for the project. So, it'll probably be more like 2030 or so before really there's any opportunity to do something there because the road project itself is going to take three and a half years.

Yeah. And um that was talked about that site what was left over for that site was talked about within um our work but campus district or I guess their consultant is actually taking our input and then making a visual for it of what should happen at that corner more or less. So that should be coming within the next month like actually publishing that plan so that folks can have a look at what they are suggesting. So to your point, Councilwoman, the council will have what's going on. things are happening but you don't know

we'll keep you up to date on what's going on specifically with our par soon as it comes down it's going to be dor until 2030 sometime thanks Alex Okay.

Okay. Next. Next item. We'll move right along because I know we've got solid waste after this. So, I will be quick with my director.

Obviously, you can see the team is very busy working on many projects. We've got a lot of other projects that are wrapping up and new ones that are underway. Um, just a quick few things to touch base on. Um, that I wanted to make sure we cover today um back in um earlier in or late September. I was part not switching sorry switch my screen not um so I was part once again for the congressional flyin with the national association American planning association the national chapter of the advocacy group um and went to DC to really help move forward these issues with around the housing crisis um and the barriers to housing and so that is it's a great trip for county planning commission for me to go APA play pays my way there in my stay and so it's really the work getting um on the ground. I was able to meet with staff from Senator Marino, Senator Houston, and Shantel Brown's office. And so, unfortunately, they were all very busy. Um and so, you know, really trying to push from a planning perspective what needs to happen with zoning and other things to get housing moving more quickly. Um so, really a great group to be part of. We continue to um communicate with the offices there. Obviously, the government shutdown was not anything we expected and get something through still this year. But um really I also think the piece is not just the political piece but you know as all of us going from across the United States we're all the constituents for those people who are in Washington and so to hear what things are happening on the ground is very important and so we as planners have the tools and the knowledge of which things that you know need to happen locally in order to move things forward. So great experience again this year. Um we um also had the APA Ohio conference. Uh that was just last week, two weeks ago now already. Um but it was amazing. The very first session was the keynote speaker, Gabe Klein, who was formerly

with the Biden administration. He gave a shout out to the county to loan program that was brand new, launched. Um and then as he went through his slides, um our benefits of todd wheel was in his slides that was created by our team. So that was pretty awesome for a national speaker, uh does TED talks to have remarks about county. There's a lot of us there represented. Um, Megan Cheney and Nicole Lair both presented at the meeting and it was a really good opportunity for our team to go to a local conference. It was in Toledo. We did a lot of car pooling. Um, but we get our credits for certification, maintenance um, and the reporting year. So, it was a really good timely um, event to go to again this year. Um, for our board appointments, so we had three terms that were going to expire at the end of this year. I just want to Big thanks to um staff upstairs at the executives floor. Oftentimes, as you guys know, we're waiting and waiting and waiting for reappoints and terms have expired, but we are ahead of the game this time. So, both Mayor Willow and Mayor Curts uh were before HE committee last week, so they will go through the council process um full reading since we don't have to have an emergency here. So, pending council approval, they will be reappointed. And then Mayor Dailyy Jones also um she will be in front of the H committee on November 4th and ing council approval. We should have everybody lock step in before the end of the year so we can move right into the new year with appointments being um confirmed. Um budget discussions obviously this is now Q4. We continue to have conversations about our budget um with OBM and protecting where we will be before the end of the year. So um we have identified with them some shortfalls in the budget um personnel services, salaries and benefits um and then controlled services which are chargebacks. So things like printing and the garage and mail that we can't control that are um over budget

where they're you know expected to be um so you know knowing where we are that we will likely have to have an additional appropriation at Q425. Obviously, this is a very sensitive subject given budget deficit and where we are planning for the banual budget. Um, but this goes back to, you know, I've talked about this before. In 2024, we had a request additional $150,000 appropriation because we had two people hired after the snapshot and our merit raises were not in um the snapshot time frame. So, we were short on that. So, that was approved for 24, but it didn't go into 25. So, we knew this year we'd be for it. We're trying to cut cost everywhere else that we can, but you guys can see by people presented today and every time we come here, u my talent and my superpower is my staff. And so, um, make sure that we take care of them as well. And we're working through all of that. Um, that the bannual budget draft has just been submitted to council. So, that will be I think full council first reading next week. Um so we have this is all just very draft numbers right now in terms of our budget. Um so this is the bianual budget for 26 and 27. Operating budget is coming in a little over 2.4 for 26 and 2.4 almost 2.5 for 27. The program budget is right around $685,000. That's for HSY the urban tree canopy reimbursements. So, as you know, those go over multiple years. And so, that's not really in the general fund. The way they're looking at it's really for those program grant dollars that communities were awarded, that would be the 24 reimbursements. Um, and so if you look at the total budget appropriation at this time draft, including that program budget, it's a little over 3.1 million for our agency. And then we have a budget hearing in front of committee of the whole council on November 10th. So each department will be building before council. Um and we have not

gotten yet our um itemized budget. This was just the big roll up. So we will be getting that hopefully by the end of the week to just drill in and see where where things are. But um you know we're working every day to try and make sure we're saving money where we can. Um and obviously know that things are tight and working through that going forward. Okay. All right.

Question. Just wanted to let you know um from all the hard work with Southland and the planning commission, the Akran K County Board of Realtors have um awarded Southwood home for all award, which is a huge award and a lot of it comes from the actual planning that we did with the K County Planning Commission. And I brought that up. Didn't get you an invite, I don't think, but I tried. But it really it's because all the work um that your team and our team put together and I know Michael also presented on it recently at the conference and um it's really gotten a lot of um I think it's got a lot of communities thinking so hopefully you won't be overwhelmed with more questions.

Thank you and thank you for your words at the H support for us and how zoning has really resulted in new homes being constructed in South

I was trying to explain to them because of the we get new homes brings in new tax dollars. So to constrict this, you know, budget so severely, you are just really constricting the fact that you're not communities aren't able to, you know, bring more resources into the county. It really is true. I mean, if you look at the planning and what we did and how we worked specifically over probably the last seven to 10 years, uh, it It's amazing to me. And so I say to myself, if you gave if you gave him a little more money, I'm not asking for a lot of money, but a little more money, what more could you bring into the county? 2023, 2020 2030 to 2035, this county will be totally built out. So if you do not start planning now and it's 2025, where are you going to be? So for me, I think that um it's short, but that's just me. Yeah, they bring more money.

Listen, um if I can, you know, the strength of the county is the strength of our communities. We don't invest in communities on a regional this that that's the demise that's urban sprawl. everything we need to do to strengthen what we do on any level at cities and I'm a firm believer of that comes from planning the planning of the mayor way back when when we tore down these these homes and had vacant lots um sitting there we got a lot of but the planning started way back with that vision and the support that brought us here

but being on the planning commission in South eight years I learned a and we we got a couple grants back then in the 90s. Um, but people weren't thinking big enough. And I think that's what's happening right now. I know that there's restraint, but if you don't start thinking big enough, we're just going to be left. And it's true. I mean, it's just zoning didn't used to be sexy, but it is um, you know, it's one of those things that zoning didn't used to be sexy. Now everyone's talking about zoning,

but it is true because it's results driven. It totally is results driven or I mean communities around me are deficit spending. South people it is not and we have reserves that we never had before. So what does it tell you? Zing's archaic you know that's just even from Meg's presentation. I mean every recommendation we do we're doing a master plan comes up to update the zoning. So, we can plan and then you have to be tough enough to do it.

Any other comments, questions? So on that point, so we saw the presid I think they approved initially when they did it. They put it for county. So what happens when city big city of course we saw the 20 you know 22nd corridor but what about then how do we get them integrated into some of these neighborhoods that need

I mean you can speak to it obviously you're talking How do we cases kind of

Yeah. So I mean we do this either or it'll be city typically in the process of getting ready. So all these small areas that might be coming like We'll continue to do partnerships with the city of Cleveland. I mean, the form based code is a great example of citywide and different districts and how they're trying to attack that. We look at West 117th Street corridor that we're discussing right now with the city of Cleveland and the city of Lakewood and public works and everybody else that this is a corridor that needs to connect neighborhoods to the lake. And so looking at how it operates now, what are the future opportunities for and as businesses come and go or re rebuild buildings they have forbased code has helped get those up to the street and safer and more landscaping and other things. And so continuing partnerships like that for the big corridors, but then the neighborhood level is really going to be at the neighborhood level. It goes back to zoning on some of this.

We have done right now.

Thanks Mark. Anything old business? None. None. Motion to the meeting. Made second. All those in favor say I. I. Thank you everybody.

All right. Solid waste is going to jump right into solid waste now. Okay, I'll call this meeting to order. Everyone's all right with that.

Yeah. All right. Uh, this is the KY County Solid Waste District Policy Committee meeting for October 9th. Annette, can we call the roll, please? Mayor B here. Council person Conwell Mayor Daily Jones here. Director Deber here. Mayor, she's here. She just stepped out from Markfields here. Mayors here. Mayor here. Council person Simon here. Mayor Willow Weber here. We have a

Thank you. Um approval of the minutes from the June 12th, 2025 policy committee meeting. Can I have a motion? So moved by Mayor Burke, second second by Mayor Jones. Any uh any comments or questions or updates? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. I. Those opposed. That motion carries. We'll go right into district updates.

Thank you. Um but we have been on our plan update journey for 28 months at this point. And um we entered that back on May of uh 2023 and this chart green star on it delineates where we are in our journey. So we have managed to submit our draft plan which was back in August of 2024 to the EPA. We had our um public hearing public comment period. We completed our ratification over the summer. That's what we did for our summer vacation. And um and we are here before you today to present the findings of our ratification journey and to ask you to please um consider passage of a resolution that would certify our ratification process which would then allow us to submit our final plan to the EPA u by November the 25th. And um At which point then the EPA has 90 days to review that final document and issue our findings orders which gives us our marching orders to implement it. So we hope to get that no later than February of 2026. There's possibility get those findings in orders even this year hopefully. Um I wanted to share with you this is and in your packet there's this same table. So, um, our ratification process requires us to ask each of our 59 communities to consider passing a piece of legislation in support of the plan. And um, statutoily, we have 90 days in which to

do that regardless of so schedules for councils. Um, our ratification period concluded on August the 10th. Happy to report that um, we got out of 59 communities as August the 10th. We were also required to get an affirmative vote from county council which we did as well as the city of Cleveland which is our largest political subdivision. We too got an affirmative piece of legislation from them. Um we did receive from East Cleveland a resolution on September 3. Unfortunately we can't count that towards our ratification because beyond our statuto deadline. So, we concluded our um our visits with all of the communities obtaining 58 yes votes. Um if we don't obtain action in that period of time, we have to count it as a no vote. We have one no vote and um all of that totaled up 98.9% of the population of the district. So, we have concluded that. Um and then for you. We have the resolution is a rather lengthy one. I apologize. It is a page and a half. But um we are asking you to please certify table that we just presented and in doing so then we will um actually create a document with this front on it. It's the same document we've had. just officially put on it and send it to the EPA by our deadline which is in November and then they will review it like I said and send this back orders

by Mayor Gallow. Any comments, questions on that? Just great job. Amazing work. Thank you.

And being on with Commissioner Petro to actually the solid waste district back in the 90s. It was really exciting. I kind of reached out to him. You know, he actually went to PTA anybody that would hear us and because people didn't understand it. to see us. I mean, this was for me personally, it was it was it was great to be on it. Thank you for the honor. Any other comments? All those in favor say I. Those opposed. That motion carries. All right.

And just quickly, some quick announcements. Um, we are coming up on our last second Saturday of the month, which is this Saturday. Um, so come and bring us whatever you may have. Got, you know, Halloween lights that didn't work when you got them out this year, bring them to us. Electronics. We also on this Saturday are conducting our uh television. It is free. You just simply make an appointment. You bring the televisions in. It's your opportunity. If you still have one of those very large tube televisions or console, um you can't think of anything console, bring the whole thing to us and we will have it recycle. Um we then have on the 15th another learn to compost um webinar that Karen will be conducting and um actually it'll be at New Point Community Development Center in the evening. So want to hop on the composting wagon and learn the season. We haven't had too many leaves come down, so not too late. And with that, that is concludes my report.

Anybody else have any comments, questions? Television. Oh, yes. Computers were open 9 to um 1 um on that second Saturday. We have staff there. And if you come into our front lobby area, if you've got computers, we'll be collecting the televisions on the side of the building. You'll kind of follow the signs, but if you have old computers, it's right in our lobby area. We have a large cart in the lobby label electronics. Just put them in there. Did you get all your new audio?

They are working on running the lines as we speak. So, we have holes and we have plywood. So, I That is a good step. It's coming along. Okay. If there's no other questions, comments, there's none. I'll make a motion to adjourn the meeting. All those in favor say I. Thank you everyone. Thanks for coming.