New ideas for Cleveland lakefront land bridge proposed by Green Ribbon Coalition, Big Creek Connects – cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio Two small nonprofits that have influenced debates over the future of the citys lakefront are back in front of civic and elected leaders with new ideas about how to reconfigure the Ohio 2 Shoreway around Lake Erie and the Cuyahoga River.

The Green Ribbon Coalition and Big Creek Connects on Friday released a proposal with more than a dozen new ideas about how to reconfigure the Shoreway and extend a land bridge from the downtown Mall across the Shoreway and lakefront rail lines to North Coast Harbor.

The document is intended to broaden a $5 million, city-led feasibility study exploring at least seven variations on a proposal made in May 2021 by Haslam Sports Group, owners of the NFL Browns, to extend the downtown Mall north to the lakefront.

The Mall is the three-block-long, 15-acre centerpiece of Clevelands downtown government and civic center, planned in 1903 by a team led by Chicago architect Daniel Burnham.

Bob Gardin is the longtime civic activist who leads Big Creek Connects, which focuses on planning within the watershed of a major Cuyahoga River tributary, and other regional issues.

Gardin said in an interview with cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer that the study released Friday grew out of his concern that the citys lakefront feasibility analysis, the cost of which is split 50-50 with the Ohio Department of Transportation, isnt imaginative enough.

Among other things, the new proposals include:

- Incorporating a year-round, covered walkway between the Mall and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of any new land bridge' from the Mall to the lakefront.

- Preserving the uninterrupted east-west traffic flow across the lakefront and the Cuyahoga River via the Shoreway.

- A long-term vision for the 83-year-old Main Avenue Bridge that includes building a new high-level bridge over the river and turning the existing span into a bike and pedestrian greenway.

- New routes for trucks carrying crushed stone and salt from Whiskey Island to regional highways without blowing dust toward the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authoritys Lakeview Terrace apartments opposite Whiskey Island on the south side of the Cuyahogas old river channel.

A rendering depicts how the high-level Main Avenue Bridge could be turned into a bike- and pedestrian connection linking downtown and Cleveland's West Side. The proposal, made by Big Creek Connects and the Green Ribbon Coalition, assumes that the 83-year-old bridge will need to be replaced in the future with a new span.Courtesy Green Ribbon Coalition, Big Creek Connects

Speaking of the city-led lakefront feasibility study, Gardin said, were concerned that theyre not broadening the scope to consider these other aspects of it, like the high level [Main Avenue] Bridge and its eventual replacement, and looking at other alternatives beyond the immediate downtown area. Nows the time to do that.

The new proposals are described in color-coded drawings that indicate new or reconfigured sections of highway along the lakefront in diagrams drawn by Gardin, who said they were based on sources including Cuyahoga Countys GIS or Geographic Information System website.

He said the drawings have not been vetted by a professional engineer to make sure they comply with accepted conventions on highway design. The study does not include cost estimates.

Gardin said he shared a draft of the new proposals with officials from the administration of Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb, Cuyahoga County, the Ohio Department of Transportations District 12 office, and the Greater Cleveland Partnership, Northeast Ohios chamber of commerce.

Michael Dever, chair of the Cuyahoga County Planning Commission and director of the countys Department of Public Works, declined Thursday to comment in detail about the Green Ribbon/Big Creek document.

But he applauded the two groups for weighing in and said it was important for local governments to gather public views about the Haslam proposal, which has been embraced by the city as a foundation for further exploration through the feasibility study.

Any input at this time is really critical, Dever said. Youve got to get buy-in from the public. I dont see any issue with them [Green Ribbon and Big Creek Connects] trying to float ideas and bring something forward. This is the time if were really open-minded about this. We really want to hear from everybody.

Images from the Browns' downtown Cleveland lakefront plan.Nelson Byrd Woltz, Osborn Engineering, CallisonRTKL, AoDK Architecture

The city hasnt yet held a public forum on the Mall extension idea, which appears to pit regional traffic mobility against the citys desire for a stronger connection to the downtown lakefront.

Marie Zickefoose, the citys press secretary, said Thursday that city officials will review the Green Ribbon/Big Creek proposals and follow up with any questions.

And she said: We are in the process of planning for a robust public engagement process to ensure that we receive input from a broad and diverse group of stakeholders.

Last November, the city and ODOT launched the 18-month study of the feasibility of the Mall extension originally proposed by Jimmy and Dee Haslam, co-owners of the Browns.

The study, led by the Cleveland firm Osborn Engineering, is intended to answer questions including whether extending the Mall would require removing the long bridge ramp that connects the eastern portion of the Shoreway to the Main Avenue Bridge ramp.

The ramp begins rising north of the Mall, which means that traffic passing under the proposed new structure overhead might not have clearance.

Critics have said that disconnecting the Shoreway from the ramp would mean funneling east-west lakefront traffic through downtown streets, causing traffic chaos.

Gardin said his analysis shows that no such change would be necessary if the land bridge' extending north from the Mall over the Shoreway jogged to the east instead of extending straight north.

The Green Ribbon Coalition originally proposed such an idea in 2017, but it didnt generate any response from then-mayor Frank Jackson.

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson publicly endorsed the idea of creating a "land bridge" between downtown and the lakefront, connecting Mall C to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The idea was first proposed by the nonprofit Green Ribbon Coalition.Green Ribbon Coalition

In 2019, after the city rejected a proposal for an iconic pedestrian bridge from the Mall to the lakefront, Jackson embraced the term land bridge' in reference to the Haslam proposal in 2020.

Earlier this year, the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency, insisted that the citys feasibility analysis should include ideas based on the Green Ribbon Coalitions 2017 proposal.

The Green Ribbon Coalition is also participating in the urban design and land use working group convened by the Greater Cleveland Partnership as part of a larger civic effort to support the citys feasibility study, and future efforts to better connect the city and the lakefront.

Questions raised by the new Green Ribbon/Big Creek analysis include whether the high-level Main Avenue Bridge should be replaced. The document states that the span, one of the longest in Ohio, has a life expectancy estimated to be between 10 and 30 years.

On Thursday, Brent Kovacs, the public information officer for ODOTs District 12 office, serving Cleveland and its environs, said the bridge is in good condition and that the agency has no timetable' for replacing it.

All primary structural elements are sound, he said.

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New ideas for Cleveland lakefront land bridge proposed by Green Ribbon Coalition, Big Creek Connects - cleveland.com