Public input to help shape Downtown Cleveland’s lakefront at North Coast Harbor will be gathered at 4 p.m. Aug. 5 at Mall C, just west of City Hall. Lakefront planning and development leaders will be on hand to provide updates on what work has been done and what the next steps will be (KJP). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
Input sought on North Coast Harbor plans
Mayor Justin Bibb and his lakefront development team are inviting the community to a Lakefront Future Forum scheduled for from 4-7 p.m. Aug. 5, on Mall C in Downtown Cleveland. The site is located between City Hall, 601 Lakeside Ave. and the old Cuyahoga County Courthouse, across from the entrance of the Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland.
This free and family-friendly gathering will feature interactive stations where attendees can provide input on plans for the proposed North Coast Connector project and North Coast Master Plan. There will also be a live band, food truck offerings and free ice cream.
The city has applied for $268 million in federal funds for the North Coast Connector, a redesign of Ohio Route 2 (Shoreway) as a boulevard and planning for a new multi-modal transit center for buses and trains.
Planning for the lakefront has reportedly been slowed by the uncertainty surrounding the fate of Cleveland Browns Stadium and what might happen to the 31 acres of lakefront land on which it sets. The open-air stadium could get reconstructed for $1.2 billion or it could be demolished in favor of a new $2.4 billion domed stadium in suburban Brook Park.
A recent map showing conceptual plans for Downtown Cleveland’s North Coast Harbor area of the lakefront. These plans may have been further changed and could be refined further based on input given on them at the Aug. 5 forum (FO).
“Community engagement is the driving force of this project, and we look forward to continuing the conversation with residents and stakeholders,” said Bibb in a written statement. “This event is about coming together, celebrating our progress and further refining our collective vision for a more accessible, vibrant and sustainable lakefront.”
Starting at 4:30 p.m. Mayor Bibb will convene a panel to present updates, including the city’s recommendation for the North Coast Connector — a planned pedestrian land bridge that will connect Mall C to the lakefront. Debbie Berry, deputy chief of integrated development for Cuyahoga County, will give introductory remarks.
Panelists will include Cleveland City Planning Director Joyce Pan Huang, Assistant Director Keshia Johnson Chambers at the Mayor’s Office of Capital Projects, North Coast Waterfront Development Authority Executive Director Scott Skinner, and Mordecai Cargill, co-founder and creative director at ThirdSpace Action Lab.
Planning for the Downtown Cleveland lakefront will be greatly affected by whether a renovated Cleveland Browns Stadium is part of it or not. If it isn’t, it will open up another 31 acres of land for redevelopment — but it remains to be seen if there are contingency plans for that (FO).
“Cleveland’s lakefront has been inaccessible to Clevelanders for decades,” Chambers noted. “The North Coast Connector — a reimagining of OH-2 (Ohio Route 2, the Shoreway highway), a pedestrian bridge, and a new transit station — is a critical piece of enabling infrastructure that will unlock Cleveland’s lakefront for both public access and economic development opportunities.”
As a city and as a region, the lakefront has been underutilized and inaccessible for years. The North Coast Connector and the North Coast Master Plan represent a comprehensive and actionable strategy to fundamentally change how Cleveland interacts with our great lake.
The planning process for these projects has been, and will continue to be, developed through community input from every neighborhood in the city. To learn more about the projects and plans and to register for the forum, visit ClevelandNorthCoast.com. City officials also said they encourage attendees to carpool, bike, walk or take transit to the event.
END
