Cleveland is making progress on its North Coast Master Plan to better connect Downtown to the Lake Erie shoreline, but the city is still accepting public input before the plan is finalized.
The North Coast Master Plan proposes a curved land bridge over Downtown Cleveland’s railroads and Shoreway to connect Mall C and City Hall to the lakefront. Along the shoreline, the draft features sports courts, cookout areas and other amenities to encourage community gathering.
The draft plan was revealed during a panel discussion Thursday. After the panel, attendees were able to take a close look at the rendering and provide feedback on the proposed design.
The project is still in the early design stage, but Mayor Justin Bibb said the goal is to better connect Cleveland’s residents — particularly those of color — to the lakefront.
“For a long time, our city has been known as one of the most segregated cities in America, and the lake and the river has really been our dividing line between East Side, West Side, Black and white,” he said. “If we as a city finally got this project right, I think it would go a long way to heal some of the … racial challenges we need to overcome in our community, but also give promise and hope to the next generation.”
As a kid growing up in Cleveland, Bibb said he didn’t have access to the lake or many of its amenities. But he hopes the North Coast Master Plan will bridge that gap for generations to come.
“As a Black kid growing up in this city, we always felt that the lakefront was not for us. It was for rich white folks on the West Side,” he said. “What gives me hope today is that young people in this city, not just from the East Side [or] the West Side, but young people yet to be born now will have a bit more hope and a bit more optimism that this lakefront will be for them, too.”
The master plan spans 150 acres around North Coast Harbor, approximately bounded by East 18th Street, West 6th Street, Lake Erie and Lakeside Avenue, according to the city’s request for proposals.
The land bridge would not only expand access to the lakefront but will also connect to Cleveland staples like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Great Lakes Science Center and the Browns Stadium.
“The goal was to really have this larger holistic vision that all of these things that are happening, whether it's the renovation of the Brown Stadium, the new expansion at the Rock Hall, they're all catalysts and they all feed on each other,” said Lisa Switkin,
senior partner with James Corner Field Operations, the landscape architecture firm working on the project.
The amenities were included with community feedback in mind, Switkin said. The public provided input through surveys, public engagement sessions and in-person interviews with residents.
“There was a real desire for this balance and a combination of both [urban and natural design],” she said. “That you didn't have to choose one or the other, that … these things could promote ecology, habitat, community and culture”
Community members also requested ample seating, water features, recreational areas for youth, shops and event spaces to create a lakefront that meets the many needs residents may have.
“A number of design inspirations have really informed our thinking,” Switkin said. “One is this idea of varying the shoreline and really creating both a dynamic and a kind of diverse set of experiences along the water's edge that don't exist today with opportunities to really embrace the water in different ways depending on your relationship to it, as well as support its larger ecological health.”
Residents are encouraged to provide feedback at future upcoming engagement events, or online through the North Coast contact form.
