Meadowbrook-Lee project should be reassessed

When People for the Park asks Cleveland Heights voters to sign our petition—to put on the ballot in May that the city build a park on the 1.07 acres of city-owned property on Lee Road between Tullamore Road and Meadowbrook Boulevard—we hear lots of reasons why people support it.

After hearing Don King speak at the Cleveland Heights City Council meeting on Monday, Oct. 4, we all have another reason to support the park. King lives at Buckingham Condominiums, right next to the Top of the Hill (TOH) project. At the meeting, he talked about two problems with the developer and the TOH buildings. One was the developer’s unwillingness to move the private dog park [away] from the entrance of the Buckingham. The other was the water leaking in the new TOH garage, and the lack of response to the leaking. (You can view his comments in the video of the council meeting, at https://youtu.be/U2_Jkasv8NQ?t=9264. He speaks at the 2:34:23 time mark.)

You can watch the video online, at https://youtu.be/MF4gueOlnAA, and see the leaking in the center of the garage. Although inconvenient and annoying now, when the weather gets cold, the water will turn into ice and become a slipping hazard for people and cars.

Flaherty & Collins is the developer for both TOH and the proposed new development at Meadowbrook-Lee. People we have approached to sign the petition are not happy about the leaking in the TOH garage, and are concerned that the leaking may indicate poor workmanship or poor oversight that could carry over to the Meadowbrook-Lee project.

An additional concern is the 2012 Geotechnical Subsurface Exploration Report from PSI that the city purchased. (You can read the report online, at www.clevelandheights.com/DocumentCenter/View/2784/Meadowbrook-and-Lee-Geotechnical-Report?bidId=.) PSI recommended that the soil at the Meadowbrook-Lee site be remediated, to be sure it would hold a multi-story building. Based on reported issues with the parking garage, it seems reasonable to ask: Will Flaherty & Collins manage this problem with the soil sufficiently?

When citizens trying to save [Horseshoe Lake] spoke at the Aug. 30 city council meeting, council responded that night by deciding to hire a consulting firm to give a second opinion on the plan [proposed by the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District].

Council should use the same good judgment, and safeguard the success of Meadowbrook-Lee, by not moving forward until the issues with the TOH garage, and the problematic soil conditions at Meadowbrook-Lee, are resolved.

Since council is using our tax dollars to highly incentivize the TOH and Meadowbrook-Lee projects, aren’t they responsible to negotiate with the developer, and to minimize the risk on our “investment”?

If you would like to be able to vote on whether the city should build a park at Meadowbrook-Lee, please add your name to the petition by contacting People for the Park on Facebook at cedarleepark, e-mailing cedarleepark@yahoo.com, or calling 216-381-5356.

Fran Mentch

Fran Mentch is chair of the executive committee of the Northeast Ohio Sierra Club group, and a community activist who worked to turn the former Oakwood Country Club into a Metropark, not a Walmart.

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Volume 14, Issue 11, Posted 10:58 AM, 10.29.2021