MINUTES OF THE CUYAHOGA COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING

April 10, 2025

*LOCATION CHANGE*
CUYAHOGA COUNTY SOLID WASTE DISTRICT
4750 E 131st Street, Garfield Heights, OH 44105

CALL TO ORDER
The meeting of the Cuyahoga County Planning Commission (County Planning) was called to order by Director Dever at 2:06 p.m. and the roll call showed a quorum was present.

COMMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC
No requests for public comment.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF FEBRUARY 13, 2025, MEETING
On a motion by Mayor Burke, seconded by Mayor Orcutt the minutes from the February 13, 2025 meeting were duly adopted with a unanimous vote.

RESOLUTION NO. 250410-A, CITY OF BROOKLYN MASTER PLAN
Executive Director Cierebiej introduced Micah Stryker and a resolution requesting the authorization of Cuyahoga County Planning Commission to enter into a Professional Planning Services Agreement with the City of Brooklyn for a Strategic Master Plan Update. Mr. Stryker explained that the last Master Plan was completed in 2021, and the City has been aggressively pursuing implementations from those recommendations. The City of Brooklyn desires a strategic update to gather community feedback and provide updated actions. Because the City’s Master Plan is less than 10 years old, this project was ineligible for funding through the Community Planning Services Program. However, County Planning worked with the City to develop a fee-based project scope that met their needs and was within a budget that the City could afford. Mr. Stryker explained that the plan update would include six (6) phases including four (4) main deliverables.

1. Implementation Review & Scorecard: Review completed actions and identify remaining relevant actions to be pursued.
2. Community Attitudes Survey: Develop and administer a comprehensive online survey to gather community feedback on issues, opportunities, and future priorities.
3. Strategic Planning Recommendations: Provide updated goals and identify potential strategic actions to pursue those based on results of the Implementation review and Community Attitudes Survey.
4. Implementation Plan: Create an updated implementation plan identifying priorities, partners, and potential funding.

Mr. Stryker concluded that the resolution is to request the approval of a Professional Planning Services Agreement with the City of Brooklyn not to exceed $45,400.00 and the work is estimated to be completed by April 30, 2026.

On a motion by Director Dever, seconded by Mayor Kurtz Resolution No. 250410-A requesting the authorization of Cuyahoga County Planning Commission to enter into a Professional Planning Services Agreement with the City of Brooklyn for a Strategic Master Plan Update was duly adopted with a unanimous vote.

Councilperson Simon arrived at 2:13 p.m.

INFORMATION ONLY PRESENTATIONS
Executive Director Cierebiej introduced Laura Mendez Ortiz to report on the Highland Hills Comprehensive Plan 2024. Ms. Mendez Ortiz started with the purpose of the update was to provide an overview of current physical, economic, and social conditions since the 1992 Plan, and to update the community goals while evaluating development potential of undeveloped land and revise zoning and address community goals. This agreement went into effect on 10/26/2023 and the Plan Update was unanimously approved by the Village Council on 3/12/2025.

The process included:

• Current Conditions
• Community Vision
• Recommendations
• Implementation

Key findings included:

• Strong community ties and long-time residents
• Extensive Village services, improving departments, and nearby community amenities
• Well-serviced by GCRTA
• Large educational and medical institutions
• Potential development opportunities
• Significant regional transportation planning
• Significant investment & development adjacent to the Village
• Limited control of potentially developable land
• Vacant land that has remained vacant 30+ years
• Limited updates on zoning code and map
• Aging housing stock – no recent new residential construction
• Remote work impacting office space & parking needs
• State Route 8- designated truck route along Northfield Road
• Closing of state-owned institutions

Ms. Mendez Ortiz continued with a more in-depth analysis of the 133.2 acres of vacant Village land which is:

• 33% constrained by riparian areas & steep slopes
•  55.9% within the Chagrin Highlands property
• 71.6% Owned by City of Cleveland
• 28.8% within Enterprise Park development area

The community vision & principles were developed so the plan could develop both Village-wide recommendations then place-based recommendations with two (2) focus corridors and five (5) focus areas. Finally, a future land-use map was developed as part of this effort and implementation tables that included suggested prioritization and potential funding partners.

PROPOSED BYLAW AMENDMENTS, DISCUSSION #3
Executive Director Cierebiej reported on the Bylaw amendments: that additional text edits were needed to clarify language, formatting, and references in various articles. Discussion of revisions followed specific to Article 7.04 (E) which refers to a change in the location of Board meetings, and previously required approval of the Board at a regular or special meeting prior to the location change. Director Cierebiej discussed a possible revision with the law department and the suggested new text recommendation was simply to require notifying the Chair and Co-Chair and posting publicly the change in location at least seven (7) days in advance of the meeting.
Suggestions were made by Chair Dever and Co-Chair Simon to simply the language even more to simply require seven (7) days’ notice of a change in location. A discussion and a vote on the final version of the Bylaws is anticipated to take place following a discussion of this change at the next Board meeting.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S REPORT
Executive Director Cierebiej reported that the Community Planning Services Program (CPSP), formally called the “Community Planning Grants” program received ten (10) applications and awarded four (4) projects:

• City of Bedford – Master Plan
• City of Lakewood – Public Art Master Plan
• Orange Village – Park Links Plan
• Valley View – Master Plan

The next step for these plans will be assigning Project Leads and teams to meet with the communities to develop a scope, budget, and schedule for each new project. Board approval and start dates will be staggered based on capacity.

Executive Director Cierebiej continued her report with a general 2025 budget update of the County’s forecasted General Fund deficit and potential impacts. Per standard protocol, County Planning’s 4th quarter revenues of $37,353 were deposited into the General Fund upon receipt but a budget adjustment was submitted to OBM to move and repurpose those revenues over to County Planning’s operating budget. This was necessary to cover budget shortfalls in contract expenses, professional development, and membership dues. Executive Director Cierebiej explained there are talks underway about County Planning being able to keep a portion of the revenues received to invest in County Planning operations and its staff instead of all the outside revenues it generates going into the General Fund. Executive Director Cierebiej also reported that the Healthy Urban Tree Canopy (HUTC) Grant program administration and allocated funding of $950k is transitioning to Sustainability/Soil & Water. Funding for HUTC for the years 2023 and 2024 will remain with County Planning for active contract commitments, however.

General updates from Executive Director Cierebiej were:

• Released our 2024 Annual Report
• Announced that the SS4A contract with FHWA is still on hold
• Hosting a TOD Summit on June 11th, 2025 in partnership with GCRTA
• Launching a GIS-based editing tool to update the 2019 Cuyahoga Greenways Plan
• Releasing soon is the 2025 Our Communities Data Book
• Working to identify funding opportunities and strategic partnerships to advance County Planning’s zoning work
• Transferring HUTC funds from County Planning’s budget and into Soil & Water’s budget, who will manage the program going forward.

OLD BUSINESS
There was no old business.

NEW BUSINESS
There was no new business.

ADJOURN
On a motion by Director Dever, seconded by Ms. Fields, the Planning Commission meeting was adjourned at 3:05 p.m.

NEXT MEETING
May 8, 2025 (Tentative)