CLEVELAND — Cleveland City Council held its final regular meeting prior to breaking for summer recess on Monday evening. In addition to approving the creation of the city's first designated outdoor refreshment area (DORA) on East 4th Street, council passed the following pieces of legislation:
Smart Parking Meters: Council gave the green light for the city to enter into contracts to implement on-street parking meter enhancements. In March, Mayor Justin Bibb announced that his administration had selected Flowbird and Parkmobile to modernize its parking system. Specifically, Flowbird's smart parking meters will replace the coin-operated meters, while a mobile parking payment service from Parkmobile will allow customers to pay for their parking via an app, text message, or scanning a QR code.
In all, there will be an estimated 600 multi-space meters and 100 single-space meters installed across downtown and in neighborhoods on both the east and west sides of the city. The total estimated cost of the project will be just over $5 million including the cost of equipment, software, and tools for monitoring.
Once the agreements are signed, the city estimates that the new software and equipment will be ready for public use within six months.
However, Cleveland City Council held for now a resolution that calls for the raising of rates at parking lots and meters in the city.
Bedrock Riverfront Infrastructure: As part of Bibb's "Waterfront Activation Fund," Council approved the spending of $3 million in ARPA funds for improvements to West 3rd Street, sewer improvements, and the demolition of the Eagle Ramp from West 3rd to Ontario.
The infrastructure work will align with the Bedrock Cuyahoga Riverfront plan, which calls for the unfinished Tower City Center complex to be extended down to the east bank of the Cuyahoga River at Collision Bend. The ambitious plan calls for the addition of 2,000 residential units, 850,000 square feet of office space, new parking, 12+ acres of public space and opportunities for future hospitality, retail and entertainment venues.
Bedrock unveils master plan for Cuyahoga Riverfront
Habitat for Humanity: Cleveland City Council approved the use of $5 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds for the Greater Cleveland Habitat for Humanity. The grant from council will enable Habitat to leverage an additional $27 million to meet their five-year plan to build, renovate or repair 400 homes in Cleveland and increase homeownership access to residents of Cleveland.
Community Benefits Agreement: After nearly a year of work, council approved legislation that calls for stronger community benefits agreements (CBA) from developers to Cleveland when they seek financial assistance from the city.
Council says CBAs will start when the city’s assistance is at least $250,000. "Starting at this level, all projects will be required to establish a plan to meet minority business enterprise, female business enterprise and Cleveland area small business goals, as well as resident and low-income resident employment goals," Cleveland City Council stated in its release.
For large development projects of more than $20 million, developers will work from a “menu” of additional community benefits they can provide or establish, as well as provide other benefits based on community input. Some of those menu items include:
- Providing infrastructure and safety improvements like sidewalks, parks, security cameras, and lighting
- Providing work opportunities for formerly incarcerated persons and at-risk youth
- Using of Cleveland Public Power as preferred electricity provider for the development project, when feasible
- Unbundling construction work into smaller bid packages, allowing minority, female and Cleveland-based businesses to be able to compete
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