Interesting that the Cleveland Heights City Council is loud and forceful about Millikin. Where were they about Oakwood? A Superwalmart is being contructed there as I type.

John H: All of Oakwood is in the CH-UH School District. Not out of Cleveland Heights City Council control. They did nothing because they chose to do nothing. Trust for Public Land and Metroparks can tell you that the city of Cleveland Heights chose to do nothing about Oakwood.

John H.: Oakwood was for sale for an entire year before First Interstate bought it. Trust for Public Land did option Oakwood, but could not raise sufficient funds to purchase it. The city of Cleveland Heights could have worked with Metroparks and other entities to purchase the land and preserve it. They did nothing to preserve it. Check out the Planning Commission's strategic plan, written before Oakwood was put on the market. They stated they wanted to develop it. If you have one shred of evidence that the city did ANYTHING to preserve Oakwood, please post it here. Thanks!

The g south Euclid councilwoman at the meeting did point out that while CH is technically losing the Walmart and its tax dollars, that it is not the loss it sounds like since it's moving to the CH-UH district portion of South Euclid and without tax abatement. Since most of the taxes collected go to the district anyway and they would still be going to the same district, the actual loss to CH is smaller than it sounds.

That said, the bigger loss could very well be in Severence Mall's demise if losing so strong an anchor store causes everything to crumble in its wake.

Susan: Ms. Goodman's remark "without tax abatement" is a patently false statement. 21 acres of the 60 acres is being removed from the tax rolls in the form of a "park" (with no restrooms or water fountain). 7 acres of this "park" is the developer's DETENTION BASIN,(a legal requirement) which he will pay zero tax dollars on, but use every day. How much of the property you own and use is exempt from taxation?

"Worked successfully with John to keep the lid on any communication about Oakwood." - from the Patch article about Bob Downey's departure/performance evaluation. I am still curious as to what that communication might have been - communication that required a lid being kept on it.

Fascinating that Susan Infeld is so rabid now about property values in UH with the possibility of losing Gearity since she was nonchalant about increased competition for University Square with the Oakwood development looming. She told me that she'd spoken with both Kelley and Welo and wasn't worried about the competition from a new hulking retail center only blocks away from the struggling University Square.

This would be an entirely different discussion if former CH councilperson, Mark Tumeo's suggestion that the two cities merge and Kelley's furtherance of that suggestion that a merger include Shaker and South Euclid in addition to CH and UH. We might still have Oakwood as a passive park, more cooperation on filling vacant properties with new businesses, less white collar overhead and more blue collar services. What if east side suburbs were reorganized along school district lines? South Euclid and Lyndhurst would be one as would CH and UH. One less mayor in each muni, one less law director, etc.

Good news on the Medusa Cement building being purchased for the call center. Its loss as a great example of midcentury modernism would have been a loss to CH history. I do miss the Medusa sculpture though. And thank gawd they didn't go to Millikin. Ugh - wrong use for that building. When Howard Thompson said, "Think of it as an expanding Severance Town Center", I thought he'd lost his mind. If anything Severance is shrinking. It now has the opportunity to morph into something truly sustainable and beneficial to our community. Hopefully our electeds and the owners of Severance can come into the 21st century when revisioning this property.

Perhaps Ms. Barnes meant "retention basin", unless she thinks misbehaving school students should go there.

"C. Grantor and Grantee entered into a Donation Agreement dated as of ___________, 2011 (the “Donation Agreement”), whereby, among other things, Grantor agreed to grant to Grantee certain easements over a portion of the Grantor Property for purposes of constructing, operating, monitoring, repairing and replacing certain storm water detention basins and related systems."

This is copied and pasted from the donation agreement. There's a difference between detention and retention basins. http://sustainablestormwater.org/2009/05/28/stormwater-101-detention-and-retention-basins/

I learned something new.
Is the area between Langerdale and S. Green Roads, in S. Euclid, a *re*tention basin? Are there others nearby?

retention - planning.co.cuyahoga.oh.us/infrastructure/pdf/langerdale.pdf

Nine Mile Creek - relevant to this discussion because it is the watershed for Severance Millikin neighborhood and Oakwood has opportunities that are being overlooked. One such is a green turnout of the stream just north of the Oakwood property and south of Mayfield to make a low cost pocket wetland. It'd be a start since so many small wetlands on Oakwood could be lost. One small wetland on Oakwood is in the SE portion of settleforless park - slated to be paved over for a drive and parking lot off East Antisdale.

I agree with Tiffany that FISE should pay full commercial property tax on the detention basin's 7 acres since it's required for the development. They couldn't do the Walmart and other buildings and parking without it by law. Can you build a garage on your neighbor's property? No. But if you could, would you expect them to pay the tax on it? FISE should pay commercial property tax on the 7 acres. So eager to get that Walmart, they didn't even press for the additional tax. Too eager to say we're getting our equivalent of Cain Park. CHUH School board seems so nonchalant about this even as they give SE a TIF for Cedar Center and plan to ask the voters for a massive sum to do-over the schools.