Port Authority Envisions Green Port on a Blue Lake

By: Pamela L. Davis, AICP, Environmental and Sustainability Manager and Barbara Grano, Communications Manager, Port Authority

Dike 14, an 89-acre CDF, is located east of Gordon State Park and efforts are underway to open up this lake shore land for passive recreation, including bird watching and nature walks.

The Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority is building a win-win situation for Northeast Ohio with its planned relocation to E. 55th Street along Lake Erie to free up prime land for downtown development and public use. The new facility will be about two miles east of its current lakefront location. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will create a new Confined Disposal Facility (CDF), made up of dredgings collected from clearing shipping channels, to enable the port authority to build a new facility on top of it. The port authority’s board and staff will consider the short and long term environmental impacts of the new location and will work to make the new facility the greenest port in America.

The Cleveland City Planning Commission recently granted conditional approval of the port’s relocation with the requirement of amenity replacement/enhancement. The conditional approval requires the port authority to replace and enhance all park, picnic and toilet facilities in addition to providing access to the shoreline bikeway and to the East 55th Street Lakefront and Gordon State Parks.

The Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority plans to relocate its current facility to free up prime land for downtown development and public use

The port authority’s relocation will help enhance the 2004 waterfront plan. This conceptual plan called for the port to be relocated north of its current location. However, that move would be more expensive and create less efficient access to transportation corridors than the East 55th Street location. The move to East 55th Street is more logical, practical and financially efficient than moving the port north or west of its current position. The port authority is planning the relocation of marina slips, transient docks, sufficient parking, existing restaurant and concession amenities. The port will reach out to coastal stakeholders beginning in April. Visit www.portofcleveland.com for upcoming open houses.

In addition, the port authority is committed to ensuring continued access to lakeshore fishing. The port is sensitive to the needs of those who fish for food. In fact, the port’s plans will call for less barbed wire and more direct access to the lake.
The port authority is working with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) to ensure that efficient access to recreational waters is provided to boaters, as well as access to safe harbor waters. Additionally, the port authority is partnering with the Dike 14 Environmental Education Collaborative on a management plan for Dike 14, an 89-acre CDF located east of Gordon State Park, that will allow the dike to be opened up for passive recreation, including bird watching and nature walks. The port’s plans for relocation and its work with the ODNR and the city will ultimately result in a recreational destination around the Cleveland Lakefront and Gordon State Parks, and Dike 14.
The port authority’s plan will:
• Bring more business to our maritime city by increasing and diversifying use of current port facilities.
• Create an International Trade District, a logistics hub that will serve as a hotbed for manufacturing, new enterprises and hundreds of new jobs.
• Further its plans to build a new port to meet the needs of Cleveland’s anticipated maritime growth. The new port will transform shipping in Cleveland, create thousands of new jobs, create a strategic asset for Ohio and establish Cleveland as a great maritime city. This infrastructure investment will be transformational in nature for the city and Cuyahoga County.
• Work hand-in-hand with the city and ODNR and other stakeholders to begin implementing the conceptual lakefront plan. Planners from across the world have sent their credentials to Cleveland hoping to be chosen to design the implementation of the lakefront plan.
• Continue to work with the Dike 14 Environmental Education Collaborative to make Dike 14 available for passive recreation as soon as a management plan can be developed. The dike is only part of the greening of our lakefront that will be created as the port authority begins to build a new port and redevelops the current port.

For more information, contact Pamela Davis at 216-377-1363 or Pamela.Davis@portofcleveland.com.