By Zaria Johnson
This story was originally published by Ideastream Public Media.
Federal money will aid a long-term project to convert 106 acres of shoreline near the St. Clair-Superior and Glenville neighborhoods into publicly accessible greenspace.
The partial funding for phase one of the CHEERS (Cleveland Harbor Eastern Embayment Resilience Strategy) project comes at a time when nearly 80% of the lakefront is privately owned, Cuyahoga County Chief of Integrated Development Debbie Berry said.
“Located between East 55th Marina and the Intercity yacht club, the project site represents a critical gap in lakefront access in Cleveland’s East Side,” Berry said. “Investing in Cleveland East Side lakefront advances more equitable distribution of public resources, bringing meaningful lakefront to communities that have historically lacked direct connections to the lake.”
CHEERS aims to reestablish natural habitat, support the local ecology and improve public access to Lake Erie, according to Cleveland Metroparks.
Phase one, known as the Early Action Project, will use dredge from the Cuyahoga River to restore 4.3 acres of submerged and emergent wetland habitat along the North Coast. The park district will also add a trial network and fishing spots.
“People really want to see progress on their lakefront,” said Brian M. Zimmerman, Chief Executive Officer of Cleveland Metroparks. “They want to see more connections. They want more green space. They want some more activity. Let’s make no mistake, travel and tourism dollars matter. So, fishing and all of the other things, all the recreation activities, the biking, all of that matters.”
Democratic U.S. Rep. Shontel Brown presented the funding.
It took more than a year to get the money to the Metroparks, Brown said, but it’s essential to addressing disparity in lakefront access.
“When you grow up on the east side, you see that it feels like we are very under resourced,” Brown said. “It feels like we are often overlooked. So, being able to deliver some real money back onto the east side was personally important to me and then I’m excited about the future.”
The Metroparks began its first rounds of public engagement in 2020 and wrapped up a series of stakeholder meetings earlier this year. This award is essential to moving the project closer to implementation, Zimmerman said.
“It makes it real,” he said. “We’ve got some very poor existing conditions that we’re actually working with … So, it is bringing the CHEERS model up. CHEERS is a big, hairy, audacious goal and this is one more step in its project.”
The Metroparks and project partner the Port of Cleveland now have more than $9.1 million committed to the project from local, state and federal agencies, according to a news release. An additional $13.06 million remains on the table from the federal BUILD grant program and an award decision is expected later this year.
Cleveland Metroparks will now begin the permitting phase for CHEERS’ Early Action Project. Construction is expected to begin in 2028.
U.S. Representative Shontel Brown (D-Cleveland) presents Cleveland Metroparks with nearly $1.1 million to support the first phase of a major redevelopment to promote public access on Lake Erie.
