Development, Planning and Sustainability Committee

Cleveland City Council

Development

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Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023
9:30 a.m. — 11:30 a.m. EDT

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The Development, Planning and Sustainability Committee of Cleveland City Council reviews and discusses legislation related to the redevelopment of blighted areas, the rehabilitation and conservation of properties, the alleviation of the housing shortage, economic and industrial development, the land reutilization program and matters pertaining to Cleveland’s Departments of Community Development, Economic Development, Consumer Affairs and Building & Housing, and city planning and zoning issues, including the City Planning Commission. It is also responsible for Community Development Block Grant spending, which pays for senior services and neighborhood recreation.

NOTE: In addition to discussion of legislation, there will be an operational review of Department of Building and Housing in this meeting. The meeting may run longer than two hours.

Committee members:

Anthony Hairston, chair
Jasmin Santana, vice chair
Stephanie Howse-Jones
Kris Harsh
Joe Jones
Kerry McCormack
Jenny Spencer

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Find Documenters coverage of past City Council meetings here: https://cleveland.documenters.org/reporting/?agency=181

For more information go to Cleveland City Council’s website: https://www.clevelandcitycouncil.org.

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Reporting

Edited and summarized by the Cleveland - OH Documenters Team

Note-taking by Marcy Clark

Housing chief outlines new plans for code enforcement, help with tax liens

View notes

Live reporting by Timothy Zelina

City Council reviews Building and Housing budget

tim zelina @t_zelina

Good morning, today I'll be livetweeting the Development, Planning & Sustainability meeting for #CleDocumenters @cledocumenters
You can watch with me on YouTube:

youtube.com/live/wSd0ZoYDs…

09:06 AM Oct 17, 2023 CDT

tim zelina @t_zelina 2/42

@cledocumenters First item on the agenda is Ordinance 1029. This will authorize the Director of Economic Development to acquire and reconvey parcels of land from Erieview Holdings.

tim zelina @t_zelina 3/42

@cledocumenters This refers to the city's plan to redevelop the largely vacant skyscraper Erieview Tower at 1301 East 9th Street.
This project will see Erieview Tower converted from office space into mixed use. Some floors will remain office space while others will be apartments and hotel rooms

tim zelina @t_zelina 4/42

@cledocumenters

wkyc.com/article/news/l…

tim zelina @t_zelina 5/42

@cledocumenters "With post-covid declines in the downtown workers and office space, we have an opportunity to largely convert this building from 80% vacant into a hotel, residential, and office, which is consistent with reimagining the downtown plan," said Project Manager Robin Brown.

tim zelina @t_zelina 6/42

@cledocumenters The developer is requesting a non-school tax increment financing plan. (TIF)
A TIF is a method of subsidizing public development. Basically, taxpaying bodies that stand to benefit from a new development will divert some of their new taxes into subsidizing the development.

tim zelina @t_zelina 7/42

@cledocumenters Basically, a new development leads to higher tax revenue. TIFs take that tax revenue and use it to subsidize the development.

tim zelina @t_zelina 8/42

@cledocumenters The estimated value of the TIF is $1.6 million, per Brown. The city expects $594,000 in additional income tax for Cleveland City Schools following the abatement.
"The project is gonna create over 800 permanent jobs, and retain over 500 jobs," Brown said.

tim zelina @t_zelina 9/42

@cledocumenters Project management team is presenting on the renovations. Key details are a new W Hotel on floors 5-12, a refurbished Galleria, and new luxury apartments on floors 17-28.

tim zelina @t_zelina 10/42

@cledocumenters

tim zelina @t_zelina 11/42

@cledocumenters The city expresses thanks to the Kassouf family, the key developers in this project.
The Kassouf family own 25 acres of real estate in the Central Business District. They also own 2,000 parking spaces in the Greater Cleveland area, per the city presentation.

tim zelina @t_zelina 12/42

@cledocumenters The city has mentioned the project funding is pretty convoluted. This graphic in the presentation seems to demonstrate that pointed:

tim zelina @t_zelina 13/42

@cledocumenters Councilwoman Santana asks if there's any letter of intent for the businesses going in the shopping area of the planned mall.
The project team says no, and that businesses will likely wait until construction has actually begun.

tim zelina @t_zelina 14/42

@cledocumenters Santana asks when they expect to commence construction, the project team says in first quarter 2024.

tim zelina @t_zelina 15/42

@cledocumenters The committee has approved ordinance 1029.

tim zelina @t_zelina 16/42

@cledocumenters Next on the agenda is ordinance 1091, which will enter into a TIF with the developers of the Apollo Mixed Used Development Project at 1250 Riverbed Street.
This project will redevelop the decaying Left Bank Apartments into new units.

tim zelina @t_zelina 17/42

@cledocumenters The city is presenting some information on this project, and alongside them is a representative for the developer named Adam Rosen. I am unsure who's representing the city as they didn't introduce themselves (they rarely do)

tim zelina @t_zelina 18/42

@cledocumenters The Apt Development Group is requesting a "41 non-school TIF" to help fund redevelopment of the Left Bank Apartments.
Built in 1870, this is a former manufacturing building that converted to apartments in the late 1990s, but was abandoned in the 2000s.

tim zelina @t_zelina 19/42

@cledocumenters The plan calls for 70 apartments and one commercial office space.
The commercial office space is for Michael Apt, one of the developers of the project.

tim zelina @t_zelina 20/42

@cledocumenters Financing for the project comes from a number of sources. Lots of state, federal and city funding involved.

tim zelina @t_zelina 21/42

@cledocumenters The developers are citing inflation, high construction costs, and the historic value of the nearby viaduct as justification for the TIF.
Below is a graph of the expected financial impact of the TIF, which will last for 30 years.

tim zelina @t_zelina 22/42

@cledocumenters Council had a few brief questions on the location of the property proximate to other area landmarks like the Towpath.
Following those questions, the ordinance was passed by the committee.

tim zelina @t_zelina 23/42

@cledocumenters Next the committee will be holding the Building & Housing 2023 Operational Hearing. Presenting are Director Sally Martin O'Toole, Thomas Van, commissioner of code enforcement, and assistant director Colleen Majeski.

tim zelina @t_zelina 24/42

@cledocumenters Graph that breaks down the organizational structure of the Building & Housing department

tim zelina @t_zelina 25/42

@cledocumenters Department milestones, including the new "Residents First" code enforcement package

tim zelina @t_zelina 26/42

@cledocumenters Following the survey conducted with Western Reserve Land Conservancy, the city has begun blight removal on properties marked unsatisfactory by the survey.

tim zelina @t_zelina 27/42

@cledocumenters More information on this survey and the grading system can be found here:

signalcleveland.org/land-conservan…

tim zelina @t_zelina 28/42

@cledocumenters Committee Chair Hairston asks the department to clarify what the $15 million dollar in ARPA funding mentioned at one point in the presentation was used for.
O'Toole says this is in reference to the newly revitalized demolition department, and they've utilized about $4 million.

tim zelina @t_zelina 29/42

@cledocumenters Hairston asks if this is for residential or commercial projects. A department member from the audience steps to the table to clarify that it's a mixture, but they more often do residential work as individual residential projects are generally cheaper.

tim zelina @t_zelina 30/42

@cledocumenters In response to Santana expressing frustration over the code violation enforcement process, which Santana believes is inefficient, O'Toole said she thinks the establishment of a civil fining process under the Residents First package will be a "game changer."

tim zelina @t_zelina 31/42

@cledocumenters O'Toole says presently the city is limited to criminal complaints and out of state or out of country landlords simply don't show up. A civil complaint process will allow more flexibility in enforcing fines against errant landlords.

tim zelina @t_zelina 32/42

@cledocumenters "We'd like to take a much more aggressive stance in taking more civil actions and civil filings, which we think will be a game changer," she said.

tim zelina @t_zelina 33/42

@cledocumenters Hairston asks why Building & Housings headcount has gone down in spite of the city budgeting for additional new positions.
O'Toole says it is due to poor compensation.
"It has been a tremendous challenge for us to attract and retain with the wages we've been paying," she said.

tim zelina @t_zelina 34/42

@cledocumenters Councilman Harsh asks why the permit approval process is so sluggish, if it's a staffing issue.
O'Toole says this is why the department is engaging in a study with Baker Tilly to determine optimal staffing levels.

tim zelina @t_zelina 35/42

@cledocumenters Councilman Harsh asks why online permitting, in his view "the lowest hanging fruit in the City of Cleveland", is not more widely used. "Is it a legal issue?"
B&H pushes back to say that over 50% of their permits are issued electronically, commercial and residential.

tim zelina @t_zelina 36/42

@cledocumenters "Many people think that pulling a permit should be like paying your water bill, but because of what it actually entails, it's actually equivalent to filing for a new credit card," said Thomas Van of B&H.

tim zelina @t_zelina 37/42

@cledocumenters Sorry for the break in tweets.
Pretty long exchange between councilwoman Howse and B&H on the tax delinquency foreclosure process.
In short, Howse felt this process, alongside other B&H processes like code enforcement, are cryptic and confusing for citizens and legislators.

tim zelina @t_zelina 38/42

@cledocumenters O'Toole said that the department is working to "operationalize" its procedures to make them more efficient.
Asst. Director Majeski delved into more technical details on some of these processes and why the work the way they do.

tim zelina @t_zelina 39/42

@cledocumenters (I'm sorry for lacking specifics, but this conversation was very dense in technical terms and made references to projects/events I could not follow. I don't want to misrepresent what was said, but the gist was Howse seeking a more transparent, approachable B&H department. )

tim zelina @t_zelina 40/42

@cledocumenters The meeting concludes with Hairston questioning some line items of B&H spending, like auto disbursements for employees who travel using their personal vehicles.
Nothing particularly notable came up in this line of questioning.

tim zelina @t_zelina 41/42

@cledocumenters And the meeting is adjourned!
Questions? Comments? Did I get something wrong? Contact us at
@cledocumenters @signalcleveland
#Documenters #CleDocumenters

tim zelina @t_zelina 42/42

Correction: Robin Brown is the Manager of Economic Development and Technology for the City of Cleveland

https://twitter.com/t_zelina/status/1714285507864330665?t=lIZ3L2D6NYHu1BazWcnHXw&s=19

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Cleveland City Council is the legislative branch of the government of the City of Cleveland in Ohio. There are 17 elected Cleveland City Council members representing the 17 wards of the City of Cleveland. Each ward has approximately 25,000 residents. Council Members are elected to serve a four-year term. Council members serve two roles in their duties: to draft and enact legislation for the city of Cleveland and act as ombudsmen for their constituents.

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