Good morning.

Today is March 24th, and I would like to call the meeting for development, planning, and sustainability to order.

Madam Clerk, can you please call the role?

Present.

Here.

Here.

Here.

Thank you.

Members, we have two zoning pieces today.

Madam Clerk, do we have anyone sign up for public comments?

Okay, we're gonna start with ordinance number 1521-2025 by Council Member Spencer.

An ordinance expanding the West 117th Street Design Review District to include additional parcels north and south of Detroit Avenue between West 116th Street and West 107th Street, and removing residential parcels of land along West 117th Street, south of Tower Thornton Road, and north of Lorraine Avenue.

Xavier.

Thank you for having me.

And today we're presenting uh Map Change 2683.

And so uh I'm gonna start off explaining the uh addition to the design review district.

And so uh the next few slides you're gonna see are gonna be centered around Detroit Avenue, uh and really the length between West 107th Street and West 116th Street.

And so we're proposing to uh add this uh area onto the currently existing West 17th Street Design Review District.

And the purposes here are really to uh save a lot of the uh context and the urban fabric along a transit corridors.

And so as I just mentioned, we're speaking about uh we're focusing on the area of Detroit Avenue between uh West 107th and West Hundred Sixteenth Street.

Uh next you're gonna see uh a bunch of context photos going up and down the corridor to really uh show you the urban fabric that we're hoping to retain.

And so um, you can see there's a lot of commercial uses, a few uh apartment buildings, some mixed use uh uses as well along the corridor.

Um so uh another purpose of design review districts uh is to really uh allow city planning um to have more oversight uh when there's demolitions being proposed or additions uh and things of that nature, changes to the exterior being proposed.

And really, uh as I mentioned, uh the goal here is to save a lot of this urban fabric that you see along the transit corridor.

Uh very straightforward um proposal here.

Uh there's the excerpt of Detroit Avenue we're speaking to add to the design review district.

Uh the next few slides you're gonna see are gonna be the parcels that we're uh proposing to remove from the design review district.

And so a lot of these streets are mainly residential streets uh between uh going up and down West 100 first to West 19th, as well as art interest, good Cloverdale and West 116th Street.

And um really uh this is helpful for the residents as it uh takes away an additional uh step of review when uh resident is simply trying to uh you know uh repair their roof, um, do some extra work on their siding and things of that nature.

And so here's a map where you can see the entire design review district of West 17th and in blue and purple, and then the red highlight are the uh areas that are being removed.

And so these next uh photos you're gonna see are gonna be the context that we're proposing to remove.

Uh this slide we had uh pulled some data uh explaining a lot of the permits that we're coming through.

Um and so you can imagine, you know, with these 52 examples that we have there, the exterior permits, uh it adds more time for the resident to really get through the process of permitting.

And so here's uh the first chunk that we're proposing to remove here, uh up and down the streets.

I'll show you are mainly single family, two-family, a few four plexus.

Um this next section is uh West 116th Street.

Again, a lot of single family, two-family uh uh uses along this corridor next uh West 117th Street.

Uh this portion of 117th is mainly residential.

Uh this portion, we are keeping that chunk that's highlighted in yellow there.

Uh and so you could see to remain right.

And so these are those uh larger apartment complexes.

Um things like this, you know, we'd want to see the demolition proposal come through city planning with some type of you know plan for redevelopment.

Uh and so that's the main purpose there uh for the removals, as you see on the screen.

Uh I thought I did have one.

Okay, yeah.

Here you can see on the left is the Detroit Avenue section that we're adding to the design review district on the right, the red highlights are the parcels that we're removing from the design.

Oh, sorry, design review district.

That about sums it up from Ed Change uh 2683.

Um again, really just we're trying to preserve that urban fabric along the transit corridor on Detroit Avenue and removing a lot of the single family, two-family residential uh parcels from design review districts in residential streets.

Got it, thank you, Xavier.

That's um near Cadell, correct?

Uh correct, yeah.

I mean, Cadell is uh a bit more to the west uh down Detroit Avenue.

Um when you say redeveloping the area where all the apartment buildings, are they demolishing them?

And what are they doing in that area?

Yeah, so I mean the the purpose here is really to give city planning more oversight when somebody does propose a demolition.

Um I'm not uh aware of any current plans that are major going on in this section of Detroit Avenue, but uh really the the goal here is to make sure that we retain a lot of that urban fabric and don't just allow demolitions um with without actually seeing some type of good redevelopment proposal to to keep that that fabric consistent.

Got it.

Any questions from my colleagues?

Slive.

Uh just quickly um and then I'll turn it over to you, Councilman Gray.

Um we had mentioned Councilman Shaw portion of the removals are also in Councilman Casey's as he been briefed.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you for that.

Yes, thank you, Chair.

I've really trying to follow this because this is the West Side is I don't know much about the West side in this area, what you're doing, but what are you doing about removal move?

Um I don't understand.

Yeah, so um mainly, yeah, it's okay.

Uh through the chair, mainly so we're speaking to uh design review districts.

And so within design review districts, uh we require uh more oversight from city planning to so basically uh when an applicant is proposing any type of exterior alteration, uh we we make sure that we uh you know add them to an agenda for a local design review committee to hear what those proposals are.

And so a lot of times um the portion well, for example, the reason we're removing portions of the design review district is to relieve residents of that burden of going through extra design review hearings when they're simply trying to like repair the roof or do a new roof on their home.

And then uh we're adding the design review district around along Detroit Avenue to make sure that uh city planning has oversight over the demolitions that might be proposed for a lot of the larger structures that are there because we really want to see a redevelopment plan when uh someone's proposing a demolition uh within a design review district.

Oh, okay.

Does that answer your question?

Somewhat, somewhat, because I'm on a landmark commission, so saying that that's part of the landmark area per se.

So you're saying chair two, um, that uh someone want to demo something in the area, is that gonna be so easily allowed?

And or if someone want to ascend um their property in a larger space, that won't be allowed or will be allowed, chair two, let's say.

Uh yeah, through the chair.

So uh it it's it's permissible, but they do have to go through that extra realm of review to make sure that it aligns with the context of the neighborhood, things of that nature.

Okay.

All right.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Is there a design review committee established in that area?

Okay, so it would have to go through the design review and then go through study planning, kind of, yeah.

I have that in West 25th.

Which is great because some of the design review committee members are residents that are able to give input and feedback.

So thank you.

Any other questions?

Okay, seeing no more questions, ordinance number 1521-2025 stands approved.

Please sign on.

Next up, we have ordinance number 185-2026 by Council Member Davis and or um and Ornus changing the use of and heightened area district of parcels of land north of Herman Avenue between West 65th Street and West 58th Street, and subjecting an area titled the site development boundary to section 333.02 of the codified ordinance of Cleveland, Ohio 1976, and attaching the approved site development plan.

I meant codified.

Exavier.

Thank you.

Xavier Bay with city planning.

And so this map change is labeled a 2697.

The proposal here is a map-specific map change.

And so this project already received city planning's final approval a few years back.

And so the proposal here we're basically allowing the proposed development to move forward as approved.

This promotes the diversity of housing typologies and supports the transit systems to the south.

And so the uh project location here, uh you could see the parcel highlighted in orange there.

Uh this aerial shows you a lot of the existing conditions, so you can see we're just south of um uh Edgewater Park.

Uh you're adjacent to other local amenities such as Herman Park.

Uh there's a mixed uh uh kind of use here fabric within this this neighborhood.

You have some single family, two-family homes to the south there.

Um you have a lot of legacy industrial uses along West 65th Street, and then some density on the other side of uh West 58th.

Uh next you see a couple of context photos going up and down Herman and some of the side streets.

Uh just as I mentioned, you can see some of the context there with those single family, two-family uses, some legacy industrial and uh some density.

Uh here's the existing zoning.

The site is currently semi-industry G2.

Uh, we're within the transit oriented development zone, and is a map-specific setback.

Uh the proposal here is to change this parcel to local retail G2 uh to remove the five-foot setback and establish a zero-foot setback.

And so this is a map specific setback, so um the uh applicants uh plans are actually gonna be with uh incorporated into the legislation.

And so there's not any room for deviation here from the approved plan.

Uh the the proposal here is for about 135 units.

Uh the there the applicant is providing about uh uh 11,000 square foot of amenity space, and this includes like office spaces, um, the the pool in the rear, um, some other uh fitness uses, things of that nature, uh cafe.

Um they're providing 127 parking spaces.

Uh the building sits at about uh 42 feet at height.

I also have some of the renderings here, elevations.

Uh you can see here is a northeast uh yeah, northwesterly view.

I'm so confused.

So you have Herman's Park.

Is this adjacent to Hermann's park?

Adjacent to Hermann.

Like this view here is if you you're standing in Herman Park looking uh westbound.

Okay.

Wow, I can't even imagine a parcel that large.

And it is an area rather rather huge.

Cool protection.

And so uh the transit demand management uh so sorry, the TOD zone requires a transit demand management strategy to be uh provided by an applicant within that zone.

And so the purposes uh I list here and these bullet points for the transit demand management strategy.

Uh really it's to focus on uh the interaction between uh the public space and the the development um applicants have to provide a list of choices uh to provide uh different types of strategies.

Um some examples are actually in the next slides here.

Uh some examples that the applicant met are um providing a drop-off pickup zone right in front of the apartment complex on Herman.

Um providing kiosks for for uh residents to view real-time transit uh locations in the lobby.

Uh they're providing repair stations uh along Herman Avenue.

There's also indoor bike storage and repair stations for the residents that stay there.

Or no.

And they're also working to improve the streetscape along Herman Avenue, uh widening the sidewalks, uh improving street landscaping, furnishing, things of that nature, even varying the power lines that are overhead.

And that is actually all I have, but I believe the development be here.

Um but uh to recap, it's a site specific rezoning.

We're uh changing the zoning from semi-industry to local retail and uh incorporating that zero foot map setback.

And this is really to allow the plan to move forward as approved by city planning.

Um also to allow the applicant to uh provide a lot of those improvements that they mentioned um in the right of way, such as expanding the sidewalk, things of that nature.

Providing a furnishings and the repair station in the front.

That's all I have.

And the developer, I was just telling Councilman Austin.

This is has nothing to do with the CBA.

This is something that they agreed on before, even getting into the CBO.

So I think I deferred ahead and then through the chair.

Uh yes, it's separate from the CBA.

So the CBA is uh they're actually contributing to Herman Park renovations and improvements.

Okay, but we haven't entered that that yet.

I don't think it's finalized.

Okay, got it.

Um Austin, just thank you.

Sorry.

I like Austin.

Uh yeah, this is a great project.

Uh and and I mean, just the amount of taking what is an abandoned industrial site and turning it to housing is always my dream.

Um this is an area that desperately needs housing.

I was disappointed.

You didn't include in the uh neighborhood walk around of the best pizza in the region, El Rion.

It's right there.

That's one of the biggest amenities this area has to offer.

Um it through the chair, I'll just for clarity.

What we're doing here is is very limited.

It's redu reducing the zoning district from general industrial to local retail, a much more restrictive zoning district.

And it's doing the second thing, which is correcting what may have been a human error oversight of the setback of going to a zero foot setback from five foot.

This was built as a zero foot setback, all the neighbors have zero foot setbacks.

This is the plan was always for zero foot setbacks.

I I guess I'll just ask.

I I have full support.

Very excited for this project.

So when when is this project going into effect?

What's the timeline on it?

It's really a chair.

Got it.

So this is my old stomping ground.

You know, I grew up in that area.

I remember getting some sandwiches from City of Cleveland.

Um they had a little mobile that would go out to Herman's Park.

So it's nice to see this area just getting you know renovated.

Um, so here are no other questions.

Ordinance number 185-2026 stands approved.

Please sign on.

And that is our last piece for today.

So um yeah, DPS has a bit adjourned.

Do you have any qu okay?

Yeah, we did good.

Thank you, everyone.