THE VISION ISSUE - City of Shaker Heights

The Blue Line Corridor Extension Study, presented last January,
recommends that the Greater Cleveland Rapid Transit Authority
extend the Blue Line through the reconfigured intersection to connect
to a new Shaker Intermodal Transit Center.
velopment plan, the reconfiguration’s
funding sources include:
• $4 million from a state safety
grant.
• $2.3 million from the City.
• $660,000 from Cuyahoga County.
• $7 million from the Northeast
Ohio Areawide Coordinating
Agency.
• $500,000 from a 2010 federal
government appropriation.
• $4.3 million from Issue One, a
grant from the Ohio Public Works
Commission.
• $500,000 from a Federal Highway
Administration grant.
The project includes far more entities
than those providing financial
support. “Part of the project is in
Highland Hills, so they’re involved.
There’s also the county doing property
acquisition and building the roads,”
Braverman says. “We’ve really taken it
up a level.”
When the road reconfiguration is
completed, it will, indeed, be transformed.
“Warrensville will be narrower.
Chagrin will add a lane. The
parking lane in front of the stores
on Chagrin will become a travel lane
because we’ll need to move the cars
through,” explains Braverman.
“The time that you have to wait at
any of the lights will be cut in half. Van
Aken will be closed at Farnsleigh so
that traffic will have to either go right
to Chagrin or left to Warrensville.”
Furthermore, Northfield Road, which
now ends at the intersection, will be
rerouted to a new ending point just
south of Chagrin, between University
Hospitals and the Shaker Heights U.S.
Post Office on Warrensville Center
Road.
Rapid Transit and Redevelopment
Creation of a new and significant terminus
for the Van Aken Rapid is a
separate, but equally important piece
to the Van Aken District Redevelopment.
As it stands now, the Blue Line Corridor
Extension Study, presented last
January, recommends that the Greater
Cleveland Rapid Transit Authority
extend the Blue Line through the reconfigured
intersection to connect to
a new Shaker Intermodal Transit Center.
This center will offer direct bus
service to University Circle as well as
parking in the form of new Park-N-
Ride lots at Northfield and Harvard
roads. The estimated construction
costs to extend the line are $25.4 million.
Building the Park-N-Ride lots
would add another $11.2 million for
a total of $36.6 million.
RTA has committed a total of $1.1
million thus far and is working on possible
funding through federal, state,
and regional sources.
“This really could be a beautiful catalytic
station that can help us create a
place where people can park their cars
and take the Rapid downtown and
also as a destination in itself,” Menesse
says.
As RTA works to seek funding for
its extension, the road work will continue
separately, say Braverman and
Menesse. Plans for construction on
the RTA extension could occur in
2016-2017.
Building a “Place”
Braverman says that changes to sidewalk
conditions and traffic management,
better known as “streetscaping,”
will define the newly designed area’s
concept of “place.”
“Right now with the intersections,
you don’t feel like you’ve arrived anywhere,”
Braverman says. “At the main
intersection, we’ll have decorative
crosswalks. Cars will understand that
this is a pedestrian zone. It will be easier
to cross the street, where now it’s a
sea of asphalt.”
Creating that sense of place will
enable Menesse to begin the heavy
lifting on the Van Aken District Redevelopment.
“There’s still a lot to do
to take this area where you have multiple
property owners and largely obsolete
shopping and transform it into
a walkable mixed-use district where
people will want to put their office
or their unique local restaurant,” she
says. “We feel like the only way we can
succeed here is if it becomes a center
for the community and enough of a
draw where professionals who work
along Chagrin will want to have lunch
in the Van Aken District instead of
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