Oakwood: What's the story?

I will be blogging about "Oakwood", the former country club along Warrensville Rd. between Mayfield Rd. and Cedar Rd, on a regular basis. For those of you who are not familiar with Oakwood, here are the basics:

Sadly, Oakwood Country Club,  had to close its doors after 100 years of proud history; in January 2010, the members put the property on the market. Oakwood is the largest remaining privately held greenspace in the inner ring suburbs of Cleveland.

Severance Neighborhood Organization, a local 501(c)(3) nonprofit, held a public meeting about Oakwood in February 2010.  A group of interested residents formed a steering committee called "Citizens for Oakwood" and decided to work to purchase the land and then turning it over to the  Metroparks system as a public passive park.  Citizens for Oakwood includes residents of South Euclid, Cleveland Heights, Lyndhurst and University Heights.

We asked Trust for Public Land to help us, and they did their best to buy the property. They purchased a 90-day option, but were unable to raise the total amount needed within 90 days. The option expired at the end of October 2010 and Oakwood returned to the market.

Citizens for Oakwood then launched a capital campaign in November 2010 but on December 30, 2010,  First Interstate purchased the South Euclid portion of Oakwood. 

About 60 acres of Oakwood is in South Euclid; the remaining 90 acres of Oakwood is in Cleveland Heights. All of Oakwood is zoned for residential use only and all of Oakwood is in the Cleveland Heights-University Heights School District.

The developer who purchased the property did so  knowing that it was zoned for residential use only. The developer is applying to South Euclid to rezone Oakwood for commercial use, so that he can build Big Box retail, strip retail and drive-thrus on Oakwood.

City governments are under no obligation to rezone land; zoning is a way for cities to maintain the necessary balance of land use in their boundaries. In order to thrive all cities need the right mix of residential, commercial, and public buildings and greenspace.

Citizens for Oakwood  is now working to stop the rezoning of Oakwood and prevent the destruction of Oakwood in order to build Big Box retail.

The next big step is the South Euclid City Council's vote on whether or not to rezone Oakwood.

If South Euclid City Coucil votes to rezone Oakwood, Citizens for Oakwood will circulate petitions to put the issue on the ballot in November, so that South Euclid residents can decide this important issue for themselves.

I'm going to blog regularly about Oakwood and I hope you will join in on the conversation by adding your comments.

Stay tuned, there's lots for us to talk about!