Lakewood Housing, Planning & Development Committee Meeting – June 29, 2026

The Housing, Planning & Development Committee met at 6:00 p.m. on June 29, 2026, in the City Hall Auditorium. The committee approved its June 22, 2026 minutes and then heard a joint presentation from LakewoodAlive and a Cleveland Bridge Builders Leadership Action Project team about the difficulty homeowners face repairing or replacing aging detached garages in Lakewood.

Consent Calendar

• Approved, by voice vote, the minutes of the June 22, 2026 Housing, Planning & Development Committee meeting. The motion was made, seconded, and passed unanimously.

Presentation: LakewoodAlive / Cleveland Bridge Builders

• Vice President Kyle Baker introduced the presentation as part of the agenda item on the May 20, 2026 LakewoodAlive Board meeting and said the garage issue is frequently raised by residents and relevant to the ongoing zoning refresh.
• The Bridge Builders team, represented by Ken Kallinschuk, Bob Whitney, Nicole Runick, and Crystal Reed on behalf of an eight-person group, presented research on garage repair needs and potential solutions.
• A video featured a Lakewood resident, Timothyah, a stroke survivor who said he can no longer maintain his property and whose garage roof collapsed in a windstorm. He said he is unable to afford the rebuild despite wanting to comply with city code.
• The team reported 111 garage-related citations in 2024–2025, with 20–25 properties recommended for demolition or replacement. LakewoodAlive is aware of about 100 garage citations per year and uses those contacts to assess resident needs.
• They stated that most Lakewood garages are detached, that federal grant dollars cannot be used on detached garages, and that replacement typically costs $20,000–$40,000, while even demolition plus a shed can cost $3,000–$8,000.
• Citing appraiser Scott Moylan, the team said a garage adds an estimated 3.5–4.5 percent to property value, so owners may be required to spend more than the garage adds to the home's value.
• They said LakewoodAlive's volunteer capacity supports only a handful of repair projects per year, not a large-scale program. Non-government solutions they researched included financing, grants, fundraising, and workforce development programs.

Policy Options Discussed

The team presented four policy options for council consideration, along with pros and cons:

• Allow garage alternatives, such as parking pads, carports, sheds, or green space instead of a full garage rebuild.
• Create demolition variances for unsafe structures, allowing quicker removal before a rebuild plan is finalized.
• Extend the current six-month rebuild requirement to a longer period, possibly up to five years.
• Expand Lakewood's homeowner tax abatement program from 10 years to 15 years for garage projects, potentially with income or age restrictions. The team described this option as less impactful because it does not provide upfront capital.
• Councilman Baker noted that Cuyahoga County recently ended the HELP loan program, which had been one way to finance garage repairs, and said the city is exploring county or local alternatives.

Council Discussion & Requests

• Councilwoman Strebig, who identified herself as a landlord, called the issue overdue and asked whether the city can identify landlord-owned versus owner-occupied properties by cross-referencing the rental registry. The team said they can share their citation list and would need rental registry data to improve ownership classification.
• Councilman Bullock thanked the team but urged caution about relaxing garage standards. He said he would prefer to find financial resources before backing off Lakewood's traditional detached-garage character and expressed concern about paved backyards becoming the norm. He said variances and longer rebuild periods are easier to support.
• Council President Kepple requested data on the share of cited garages that are owner-occupied versus income properties and the percentage of owners who wanted to rebuild versus demolish. The team said they did not survey owners on rebuild preferences but can provide ownership estimates and appraiser information.
• Chair Evans and Councilman Baker said the findings are timely for the zoning code overhaul and would be used soon.

Key Outcomes

• The committee approved the June 22, 2026 minutes.
• The Bridge Builders team committed to providing council with the list of cited properties, ownership data for those properties, and the one-page appraisal information from Scott Moylan.
• The committee took no formal vote on the policy options; the discussion will inform upcoming zoning code work and possible future council action.