Add your support to Cedar Lee park efforts

The Meadowbrook-Lee development site. [From www.clevelandheights.com.]

We all want to use the city-owned land at Meadowbrook Boulevard and Lee Road to help our city do better. We all share the same concerns about our community: high taxes, schools, keeping our wonderful local businesses, supporting the arts and our brand as an arts community, and having housing that will attract and keep residents.

Cleveland Heights city officials have tried, unsuccessfully, four times before—in 2011, 2013, 2018 and 2019—to have the Meadowbrook-Lee land developed as some sort of apartments/mixed-use project. They are now trying for the fifth time with the same kind of project.

Isn’t it time for the city to try something new? There are two parcels of land at the site: one is 3.73 acres, the other is 1.07 acres. How about a call for proposals for a park at the 1.07-acre site?

What is the rush to finalize this project when we will have a new form of government—a new mayor elected in November? A vote for a mayor was a vote for new ideas; using one of the two parcels at Meadowbrook-Lee for an urban park is one such new idea. Let’s wait and see if the new administration will think differently and consider a park there.

A Cleveland Heights resident hired a landscape architect to create a design for Cedar Lee Park; you can see the design and ideas at www.cedarleepark.com. Be sure to look at the “comments” section to read what your neighbors have written about Cedar Lee Park. (And check out my favorite part, the plan for a fountain.)

The most common reason people give for not wanting a park is the belief that parks do not provide any income to the city. This misconception is understandable, but incorrect. Research indicates that urban parks increase property values, tax revenue, and tourism revenue; attract homebuyers and businesses; and decrease storm-water treatment costs. Don’t believe me? Google “urban parks economic benefit.”

Consider joining 456 others who, as of this writing, have signed our petition at www.change.org/Cedarleepark. Signing it sends an e-mail to Cleveland Heights City Council and other officials telling them that you want a park at the Meadowbrook-Lee site.

Visit www.facebook.com/Cedarleepark or contact us at cedarleepark@yahoo.com if you want to put a sign in your yard, pass out fliers, or stay informed. Thank you.

Fran Mentch

Fran Mentch is chair of the Northeast Ohio Sierra Club Group Executive Committee. An activist, she was a leader of Citizens for Oakwood, the group that tried to stop the development of the former Oakwood Country Club.

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Volume 14, Issue 4, Posted 10:07 AM, 04.01.2021