Clark-fulton TARGET AREA PLAN October 2019 Contents 4 Introduction 6 Neighborhood History 8 Public Engagement Efforts 12 Neighborhood Priorities Housing 12 Infrastructure 14 Economic and Community Development 14 Health and Safety 16 Transit 17 18 Development Opportunities Defining the market 18 Housing Demand Projection 21 26 Implementation Strategies Housing Strategies 28 Housing Strategies - Continued 29 Community and Economic Development 29 Infrastructure 30 Health and Safety 31 Transit 32 2 A Colorful mural on Clark Avenue depicting possible re-use options of a vacant storefront 3 Introduction To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Fair The City of Cleveland formally expressed interest Housing Act In 2018, the Ohio Housing Finance to OHFA in participating in the FHAct50 Building Agency (OHFA) launched a new initiative to Opportunity Fund in September 2018. The create mixed-income, diverse and accessible City had to select a target investment area for communities in Ohio’s largest cities. Named in FHAct50 Building Opportunity Fund tax credits, honor of the 50th anniversary of the Fair Housing within which the tax credits may support one or Act, the Fair Housing Act 50 Building Opportunity multiple projects. In the fall of 2018, the City of Fund (FHAct50) is designed to build mixed- Cleveland initiated an RFP process to select the income communities from the ground-up. Each target FHAct50 neighborhood. In December 2018, affordable housing unit created must be matched four neighborhoods applied for the designation. by a market-rate housing unit produced at the Based on the RFP criteria and the guidelines of same time and within the same neighborhood. the FHAct50 program, the City selected the Clark- Fulton neighborhood as the target area in January FHAct50 empowers Cincinnati, Cleveland and 2019. Columbus to allocate housing tax credits in a single neighborhood (the target area) where The Clark-Fulton Target Area Plan is specifically market trends indicate that affordable housing designed to address the housing and community is most at-risk. Participating cities collaborated development needs of the neighborhood within with their citizens to select one neighborhood the framework of FHAct50, and is the culmination that is ripe for market-rate housing investments of prior planning efforts and the recent Clark- and broader economic growth. OHFA supported Fulton FHAct50 community engagement efforts. the cities in this process by providing a planning consultant to help facilitate a dialogue with The housing developments that are the their residents and craft a plan that meets their result of FHAct50 funds will help address the objectives. impediments to fair housing choice outlined in the Northeast Ohio Sustainable Communities OHFA’s intent is that cities and residents work Consortium: Impediments to Fair Housing together to create a plan for this target area Choice study. In particular, the TAP encourages that strategizes long-term development goals, developers to site projects along transit such as improving schools or expanding job corridors to improve accessibility to places of opportunities. The city will then recruit community employment. Additionally, the housing created partners to help execute this plan. After laying this through the FHAct50 program will provide new groundwork, the city is authorized to competitively housing opportunities in a neighborhood that and transparently select affordable housing has historically seen significant disinvestment in developments that support the plan to receive tax housing opportunities. credits. This local competition replaces OHFA’s traditional competitive requirements and allows investments to be more tailored and responsive to local needs than ever before. 4 Clark-Fulton Target Area Plan Boundary 5 Neighborhood History Early map of the Clark-Fulton neighborhood depicting the City Infirmary, now MetroHealth Today, the Clark-Fulton neighborhood has one The Scranton Road portion of the neighborhood of the city’s most diverse ethnic populations, holds MetroHealth Medical Center, which was including a large and growing Latinx segment established at its present location in 1889 as the and an increasing number of African-Americans, City Hospital. MetroHealth continues to grow along with a significant number of Central and and is an active community partner. Eastern European immigrant descendants. The Clark-Fulton area became part of the This neighborhood also contains the Jones City of Cleveland when parts of Brooklyn and Home. This home for children is on land Newburgh Townships were annexed in the late donated in the late 1800’s by Carlos and Anna 1800’s. Jones. Marvin and Daisy Avenues were named after Carlos Jones’ children. German immigrants were the first to settle in the Clark-Fulton area. They arrived during The Aragon Ballroom, once a very popular the mid-1800’s and were followed by Czechs, big band dance hall, is also located in this Italians, Slovaks and Poles. These immigrants neighborhood as well as Ceska Sin Sokol hall at were attracted to the area to work in the nearby 4314 Clark Avenue. This was a meeting hall for industries in the Flats, the railroads, as well the Czech community and the birthplace of the as the breweries that developed along Train Northeast Ohio College of Gymnastics. Avenue. 6 The Clark-Fulton area changed dramatically during the 1960’s and 1970’s by the construction of I-71 and I-90/490. Schools in this neighborhood are Lincoln-West High School at 3202 West 30th Street and Thomas Jefferson ElementarySchool/ Newcomer’s Academy at 3145 West 46th Street. The main shopping area is at Clark Avenue and West 25th Street. St. Procop Roman Catholic Church City Hospital, early 1840’s MetroHealth today 7 Public Engagement Efforts Engaged residents and stakeholders discussing the neighborhood plan After the Clark-Fulton Neighborhood was • West 25th Transit Development Strategy selected by the City of Cleveland as their (2012) FHAct50 designee, an assessment of recent • Clark Avenue Corridor Plan (2015) planning efforts was undertaken to identify • International Village: The Dream those priorities that continue to remain relevant, Neighborhood (2017 Update) and to identify any potential gaps within the • Train Avenue Greenway Plan adopted plans in policy areas such as housing, • LaVilla Hispana 2017-2022 Action Plan education, or economic and community development. Most of the planning efforts focused on infrastructure, transit and corridor plans led There have been numerous planning and by the City of Cleveland or the Northeast Ohio engagement efforts over the past decade within Areawide Coordinating Agency. the Clark-Fulton neighborhood. The prior plans and policy documents that were reviewed In addition to those planning efforts, there during this process for context and continued have been two significant grassroots plans relevance included: developed: LaVilla Hispana and Metro West’s long range action plans. Both are local efforts • Pearl Road / West 25th Street Transportation aimed at developing neighborhood capacity and Corridor Plan (2009) creating a welcoming environment for the Latinx • HUD NSP2 Application (2011) and immigrant community. • West 25th Corridor Initiative (2012) 8 The planning process was then shaped to attempt to fill those gaps and re-engage with residents to determine their needs and priorities. In an effort to develop the Target Area Plan, a series of efforts were launched in May 2019 to engage local residents, business owners and stakeholders concerning their current priorities. Those efforts included creating a project website (www.clark-fulton.com) that allows residents and stakeholders to learn more about the current planning effort, remain informed and provide feedback as the updated neighborhood plan was developed. The team then devised a matrix, categorizing each of the existing goals and objectives into A priority needs survey was created in both one of these eight themes. Participants at the English and Spanish to help further understand public meeting were then asked to mark which residents wants and desires, as well as those of these existing goals and objectives remained efforts that should be undertaken within the relevant and pertinent to carry forward. neighborhood. The surveys were available on the website as well as paper-based. Overall, 27 In total, the team received 95 comments from surveys were completed. approximately 50 individuals in attendance, the majority of which were neighborhood On May 8, 2019 a community meeting was residents (70%) with the remainder representing held at the City Life Community Center within businesses and institutions in the community the neighborhood to kick-off the TAP planning (30%). The project team found that participants process. The meeting was well attended by were much more interested in putting forth new a cross section of the community, including broadly-focused priority items than addressing residents, business owners and institutional more specific priorities adopted in the past via stakeholders. Over 50 stakeholders attended the existing planning efforts to date. Comments the kick-off meeting and attendance was received were again deposited into the bolstered by MetroWest’s weekend outreach appropriate theme, but within each theme were and canvassing efforts. further subdivided into over 25 more specific sub-categories to tease out specific priorities. Prior to the public engagement meeting, the project team synthesized the prior plans and By an overwhelming margin,