Cleveland Heights and University Heights Observatory

Oakwood $ stats:

Property currently valued by Auditor at $5.9 million (Building value: $3.9 Land: $2 mil)
2009 Property taxes on CH portion $249,500.
On South Euclid portion: $37,000

It's my opinion that Cleveland Heights needs to be more focused on re-purposing and re-placement of existing empty, blighted and underused properties that are already developed, rather than destroyinging precious natural landscapes that are devoid of infrastructure. Re-vitalization and re-habilitation of existing streets and utilities is necessary to regain the quality of our residential neighborhoods and business districts. If the cities of Cleveland Heights and South Euclid are interested in increasing the tax base, the goal can be more easily accomplished by improving quality instead of increasing quantity. New development of open land just encourages more abandonment and neglect.

I agree. With a population that is declining or, at best, flat, building new homes could actually hurt the city - leaving more and more gaps in the middle of our neighborhoods where homes are undermaintained or vacant. Even tearing them down to leave green space doesn't strike me as desirable as having a block full of occupied homes.
At the same time, the city and county are going to be pretty anxious to find someone willing to use the property in a manner that replenishes the significant tax contribution.
Which means I would anticipate pressure for commercial use - in an area where we already have too much commercial property that is vacant or under-utilized.
And finally, the country club is counting on the sale of that property generating cash for projects that come along with the club merger. The instinct there will be to seek top dollar regardless of its use.
Any way you look at it, this is going to be a challenge for us to end up with something that's a win for everyone.

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Lifetime resident
FutureHeights Board Member (speaking on my own behalf)
Site Moderator

CH could actually benefit from a "culling" of selected houses, even if some are replaced by new construction elsewhere. The issue is what becomes of the resulting empty lots. Splitting it between adjacent properties would raise the average property value.
Euclid had a program to encourage homeowners to buy out blighted neighbors, raze their homes and merge the lots. I think they rebated 15% of the cost.



Commercial use won't happen unless City Hall puts up some serious incentives, whether subsidies, abatements or sweetheart financing. No good business person will risk their own capital on a shopping center that close to so much relatively new, vacant commercial property, especially since Warrensville doesn't get half the desirable traffic Cedar does. At least they won't without City Hall offering to hedge the bet.

If the club finds they can't get the price they want, the next best thing might be to lease it for some relatively passive use that doesn't alter the property, such as a commercial venue for some low impact outdoor sport, much like its past use.

A nice meeting last night (Feb. 3) at the CH Community Center. There were close to 100 people in attendance, and after a lot of free-for-all discussion, a movement started to take place.

In the end, a steering committee formed to lead the movement to preserve Oakwood as some kind of public green space; and a clear next step seemed to emerge: get some funding for some professional planning advice.

A champion for that approach was David Bergholz of Shaker Heights, who used to be executive director of the George Gund Foundation and who signed up to serve on the steering committee. Bergholz seemed to think that early-stage funding for a planning process would very doable.

_________________
Lifetime resident
FutureHeights Board Member (speaking on my own behalf)
Site Moderator