COUNTY PLANNING NEWSLETTER

July 2025

County Planning Hosts TOD Summit

Photo: Cuyahoga County

On June 11th, County Planning hosted a Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Summit at the Halle Building Conference Center in Downtown Cleveland. The event facilitated cross-sector collaboration to advance targeted development around Greater Cleveland’s transit stations, stops, and corridors. In today's development landscape, building TOD is particularly difficult; it requires sustained alignment and effort 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.

"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."

The Summit featured panels, discussions, and presentations on County Planning's TOD Initiative, TOD projects underway with successes and lessons learned, and available tools and resources to support the construction of TOD. Attendees were also encouraged to network and connect throughout the event. Several communities had the opportunity to showcase pre-identified sites and focus areas, as well as their goals and priorities for TOD, directly with potential partners.

Explore the New TOD Navigator

County Planning is proud to introduce the TOD Navigator—a new tool for visualizing Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) projects across Cuyahoga County.

Tracking TOD can be helpful when analyzing where investment has occurred along frequent transit corridors within Cuyahoga County. The TOD Navigator compiles TOD projects across Cuyahoga County into an interactive mapping tool and provides detailed project information that includes project name, location, parcel number, building square footage, number of units, number of parking spaces, and more. Project types featured in the Navigator include building construction, corridor plans, zoning updates, and infrastructure investments.  

Using the Toolbox tab in the upper right-hand corner of the Navigator allows users to turn on and off various map layers including, but not limited to, population and job density, parcels, and transportation routes.

The TOD Navigator is in beta form, and data is still being added. If you see missing data, incorrect data, or have questions about what is being shown, please contact us at info@countyplanning.us or use the online form on the TOD Navigator webpage.

North Olmsted Mall Area Mixed Use Overlay District

Retail trends and changes in shopper preferences over the past two decades have changed the landscape for Northeast Ohio's large malls. The City of North Olmsted recognized that the long-term health of Great Northern Mall would benefit from a supportive development environment that would allow the mall to adapt to these new realities. With large spaces and empty parking lots, the mall provides ample area to reimagine its spaces and support redevelopment, provided it does not conflict with the zoning.

County Planning, through its Community Planning Services Program, recently completed the North Olmsted Mall Area Mixed Use Overlay District. This zoning update provides modern, mixed-use zoning regulations for the Great Northern Mall area. This new zoning will provide flexibility and clear guidance for mall owners as they seek to adapt Great Northern for the future. It will allow new housing such as townhomes and apartments; new parking standards; and open space and landscaping standards to increase public greenspace while reducing large parking areas. The Overlay District includes a Design Manual to shape the desired look and feel of the mall and support the development of a vibrant and exciting regional retail and entertainment district.

The City of North Olmsted adopted the Mall Area Mixed Use Overlay district at its June 10th City Council meeting.

Grant Program Updates

• A new round of the Ohio Public Works Commission's State Capital Improvement Program is now open, with approximately $35 million available for public works projects in Cuyahoga County. Funding is available to local communities to support road, bridge, stormwater, septic system, and other infrastructure projects. Applicants are encouraged to attend the applicant workshop via Zoom on July 16th to learn more about the application process. Program staff will also host virtual office hours to provide assistance to applicants on July 30th and 31st. Details will be provided at the applicant workshop.
• Approximately $3.4 million has been allocated to Cuyahoga County for Fiscal Year 2026 of the Clean Ohio Green Space Conservation Program. Four organizations submitted project applications for two greenspace acquisition projects and two riparian corridor projects. The District One Natural Resources Assistance Council is scheduled to make their funding recommendations to the Ohio Public Works Commission after August 28th. The applicants requested a total of $7.5 million in funding.

County Planning at the Food Bank

County Planning staff recently participated in a volunteer event at the Greater Cleveland Food Bank, where they spent the morning helping to prepare meals for community members in need. Providing community service through volunteer efforts is among the activities identified in our strategic imperatives for 2025. We appreciate the opportunity to serve the public.

Thanks for taking the time to read our newsletter! If you found the information valuable, please consider forwarding it to a friend or colleague. Please let us know if there are opportunities for us to collaborate with you.

Cuyahoga County Planning Commission

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