Cleveland Real Estate News

This is being proposed in Rockville Maryland, developing ‘villages’ along their transit stops. Having lived in Rockville for quite some time, I watched the traffic get worse and worse.  I watched a mayor say his claim to fame was the building of this huge furniture store on The Pike. Yes I know that art and architectural style approval is ‘in the eye of the beholder.’ But it only added to the mish mash of design and lack of appeal to The Pike. I also can’t imagine sitting through traffic there as all this revamping happens.

But I do like the ‘village’ idea. And no, I’m not saying take the exact model and adopt it here. But it fits in with some good planning ideas set forth by the Connecting Cleveland master plan revisions that were devised about a year ago. I wrote about it here.

Here is an excerpt on the vision/concept planners have in Maryland:

They see the pike, Montgomery’s commercial spine, redesigned as a tree-lined, walkable, bikeable, lovable and magnificent road connecting a network of urban villages strung along each side. There would be neighborhood stores, restaurants, housing and offices — allowing residents to work, dine and shop within blocks of their high-rise apartments in an urban setting.

What they already have is several transit stops and a boat load of population. But, our Master Plan calls for roads like Lorain Avenue to abandon the old plan of trying to support businesses for the entire stretch of the road because our population just won’t support it. They have pockets of mixed use development they would like to see develop along the road and they are hoping this vision and zoning change can appeal to the private sector so the development can actually happen.

One thing I think we miss with our current transit system is the availability to tie these village pockets into several transit stops.  There is the W. 65th RTA station but there are no more stops as you progress west. I think the Euclid Avenue Corridor was a responses to this issue (since there are no transit stops on Euclid either). So maybe we could have a Lorain Avenue version of the Euclid Avenue Corridor? And for the time being, we do have the #22 bus. It’s better than a sharp stick in the eye!

This is an eight page pdf that shows some of the long-range hopes of the RTA and it’s place in the Connecting Cleveland plan.  Of course everything is fluid, especially in planning – but it gives you an idea of what they are looking for. An excerpt:

 

E. ALTERNATIVES ANALYSIS PROJECTS / Planning Studies 2010 – 2025

These projects have each advanced from the System Planning phase into the Alternatives

Analysis study phase. They are being further developed in coordination with major land use,

transportation, and economic development studies led by the City of Cleveland and the Ohio

Department of Transportation.

1. Southwest Corridor/Red Line I-X Extension

2. Waterfront Line Extension

3. Highland Hills Corridor/Blue Line Extension

4. Canton-Akron-Cleveland Interregional Corridor Study*** (really an Akron RTA effort)

Peace Out – 3C