On the morning of Wednesday, June 11^th, County Planning hosted a Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Summit at the Halle Building Conference Center in Downtown Cleveland. The event facilitated cross-sector collaboration and alignment to further targeted development around Greater Cleveland’s transit stations, stops, and corridors. The Halle Building itself is a testament to the revitalizing power of TOD; the historic building was renovated by K&D in 2014, leveraging adaptive reuse and TOD principles to align with the highly successful HealthLine Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system.

“With over 90 attendees representing all sectors, we had an amazing turn out and have received a lot of great feedback and excitement from attendees,” said Mary Cierebiej, Executive Director of the Cuyahoga County Planning Commission. “This is a monumental step forward in building a coalition around TOD in our County.”

WHY A SUMMIT?

In today’s development landscape, building TOD is particularly difficult. It involves sustained alignment between a multitude of actors across sectors. The challenges of TOD are not unique to Cuyahoga County, but we believe our community is ready to face them together—and this summit set the stage.

Summit attendees had the opportunity to learn about County Planning’s TOD Initiative, TOD projects underway and their successes and lessons learned, and available tools and resources to support the construction of TOD. Presentations from the event can be accessed below.

• TOD Initiative Overview
  A brief overview of the countywide TOD Initiative
• Project Panel I | Memphis & Pearl
  A panel discussion between the Project Developer, CDC Executive, and City Councilmember about the upcoming TOD project in Old Brooklyn
• Project Panel II | Cedar-Lee-Meadowbrook
  A panel discussion and presentation consisting of city planning staff and project consultants about the TOD Project in Cleveland Heights
• Partner Presentations
  Presentations from GCRTA Real Estate Manager Jim Rusnov and County Department of Development Director Paul Herdeg about available opportunities, tools, and resources

Attendees were also encouraged to network and connect throughout the event. Seven communities had the opportunity to showcase pre-identified sites and focus areas, as well as their goals and priorities for TOD, directly with development professionals.

New Tools & Funding Sources Announced at the TOD Summit

TOD Navigator

County Planning released the TOD Navigator, a new tool that tracks recent and upcoming TOD projects taking place in Cuyahoga County. The TOD Navigator allows individuals to see the location, details, and progress of different types of TOD projects occurring throughout the County. This tool will be updated quarterly to provide relatively current information on TOD progress.

County TOD Loan Program

Paul Herdeg, Cuyahoga County Director of Development, introduced an upcoming County TOD Loan Pilot Program which will offer gap financing through subordinated, fixed-rate loans to address capital shortfalls in projects that align with the County’s integrated development goals.

Program details will be available later in 2025, when the program is officially launched.

What’s Next?

The TOD Summit is our biggest step yet to bridge the gap between public sector initiatives, non-profit and private sector development professionals, and philanthropic partners.

We stand ready to continue advancing TOD in our communities by developing resources, building a locally focused TOD website, pursuing zoning reform, and collaborating with County departments.

To stay up-to-date on all things TOD, visit the TOD Project Page.

Thank you to our partners and sponsors!

This TOD Summit was made possible with the support of our partners and sponsors including the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA), Cuyahoga County, Cuyahoga Land Bank, Cleveland Foundation, City of Cleveland, First Suburbs Consortium, Urban Land Institute (ULI) Cleveland Chapter, and American Planning Association (APA) Ohio Chapter and Cleveland Section.

We’d also like to thank Luna Bakery in Downtown Cleveland for catering the event, Downtown Cleveland Inc. and K&D for providing the event space, and Cuyahoga County for photographing the event.