Cleveland Real Estate News

I know I sometimes post futuristic ideas for housing styles. But this time, I am excited to talk about a house built by an urban planner in the Washington D.C. area.  He built it for himself and it’s gorgeous (see photo). I love the clean lines, I love how it fits into the style of the neighborhood. It’s only 500 square feet per floor but it’s three floors. It made excellent use of an odd shaped lot. It also broke some barriers by challenging the whole idea of necessary parking when new homes are built.

I agree with Mayor Jackson about one thing.  This is Cleveland and we don’t have to be like any other city. But I think there is a lot to take away from this idea. We don’t have to have homes that look exactly like this, but the concept would make good use of spaces that don’t fit the typical 40×120 foot yard spaces. We have a lot of areas plagued with vacant homes; the City is tearing some down.  We have more work to do on that score. But the issue in my head is, what will we put in place of these torn down homes?

The other issue is, why not encourage people to put up homes that exist near RTA transit stops on small spaces. I know there is a triangle of land or two near the W. 25th street station and supposedly condos are going there.  Okay.  What about W. 150th’s Station? Or the Puritas Station? I know the Bellaire Puritas Development Corporation staff spoke to me a while ago about plans for public art and walk ways, and that developers were being consulted about some housing there too. If you go here on the Bellaire Puritas DC site you can see plans for revitalization of the W. 150th area. There is a 4.1 million dollar investment planned and underway. It seems like a great opportunity to promote some green, money saving home building with some design interest (to me that means not more of the same), and a possibility to promote even more interest in no parking needed ‘ride the RTA’ housing.

What a fabulous concept.  No need to filter in parking for the homes because it’s near an RTA stop. This also cuts down on the expense of building a home. True, Cleveland doesn’t have as functional of a commuter line as some other cities (yet!), but we do have stations and this could work.

Linda Hales writes the article in The Wash Post featuring Jeff Speck and his house. Here is an NPR article about The Specks  and the concept and how what they are doing is “rethinking the wisdom of ’50s era parking standards.”

We also have neighborhoods that could use a boost of transit and also new urbanism design. Here is an article from WTOP on Milwaukee’s and Chicago’s take on this issue:

Milwaukee, one of a small group of cities that has eased minimum parking requirements, did so because they were impeding redevelopment of struggling neighborhoods, said John Norquist, the city’s mayor from 1988 to 2004.

Norquist, who today heads the Chicago-based Congress for the New Urbanism, described a lot that sat vacant for decades after a historic building burned down. The required parking made it unfeasible to build anything new there, he said. After officials relaxed the parking requirement, a thriving restaurant sprang up.

We have the whole issue of land bank property in Cleveland. Wouldn’t it be nice if, instead of what they have decided to do in Tremont (they required all remaining land banks be bought in twos so a driveway could be included in the middle) we were able to increase our RTA transit lines and bus lines and not require parking at all. True, at this point in time, the 81 Bus doesn’t cover every area of Tremont — but what if we could change that?

From the NPR article: “Opponents say making parking more scarce will only make the city less hospitable. Commuters like Randy Michael of Catharpin, Va., complain they are already forced to circle for hours in some neighborhoods.”  On the other hand, this is what the Specks say now (also from the NPR article):

“…. they haven’t regretted their decision to go car-free even after the birth of their son, Milo, in June. They walk to shops and parks in their neighborhood, and the baby’s pediatrician is a short bus ride away. When needed, they can rent vehicles from Zipcar, a car-sharing service….”

How much effort do you think should be put forth to promote this type of transit oriented (TOD) development?  Do you think it’s a matter of ‘if they build it buyers will come’ or do you think otherwise?     Here is a link to a slide show from the Wash Post  with more photos of the Speck House.   (photos courtesy of The Post and Troy Witcher)  Peace Out – 3C