The View From Ward 2

Parklets

At last week’s Housing, Planning, and Development Committee meeting, the Director of Planning and Development, Shawn Leininger, presented a draft of the Temporary Parklet Guidelines. Parklets take many forms, but for our purposes, parklets are conversions of on-street curbside parking into areas of outdoor dining. As you may remember, Mayor George requested that Council provide direction in the form of a proposed set of guidelines along with how we envision parklets to be implemented because, at that point, the City did not feel it was prepared to accept applications for parklets. With input from my colleagues, I drafted guidelines and presented them to the Mayor and her staff.

The Temporary Parklet Guidelines that Dir. Leininger presented were the result of research by the Planning Department, input from members of the Planning Commission, and input from Lakewood’s safety forces. The Committee approved the guidelines and businesses now can submit their parklet plans for approval! LBM has already submitted a plan and it should be reviewed at an upcoming Planning Commission meeting. You can view the guidelines at https://www.shachnerforlakewood.com/temporar-parklet-guidelines.

Budget Priority Process

Councilmember Tom Bullock, Chair of the Finance Committee, has announced the start of the City Council Budget Priority Process. This process allows Councilmembers to submit items that we believe should be made a priority in next year’s budget to afford the Administration the ability to incorporate our priorities into their budget document.

Please contact me to share your thoughts and ideas of what the City should focus its resources on next year.

Lake Avenue Bike Lanes

The bike lanes on Lake Avenue are nearing completion! It was great to see so many people using them this weekend. If you were wondering what those green “bike boxes" are at the stop lights, Bike Lakewood kindly provided an explanation on their Facebook page:

“The Bike Boxes are available to use and provide a safe alternative when traffic is heavy or if there is a group of cyclists, like a family. Cyclists still have the legal right to use the regular left turn lane as a legal road vehicle. 

Once you are in the bike box to make a left turn you are just like any other road vehicle making a left turn. If there is a turn arrow on the traffic light, you follow it. If not, you wait for the green light and yield to oncoming traffic and crossing pedestrians. Bike Lakewood and The City of Lakewood welcome suggestions on improving this corridor."

I have received several questions about the process or reasoning behind the parking decisions related to the restriping. The Planning Department held three community meetings from 2018-2019 to present residents with options for the Lake Avenue project. Lake Ave is approximately 40 feet wide, which makes bike lanes and parking on both sides infeasible. The Department used the input from the community meetings along with a full independent parking study and decided to retain street parking on the North side for most of the Cove to Webb corridor.

You can find the parking data and information from the planning process on the Lake Avenue Construction page of the City's website: http://www.onelakewood.com/lakeaveconstruction/

New Surveillance Cameras

The Board of Control approved a $65,000 contract for new police surveillance cameras. This is the fifth year that Lakewood has been able to install surveillance cameras at new locations. The cameras will be installed in the following 14 locations by the end of the year:

  1. Cove and Lake NE
  2. Cove Ave and Clifton Ave NW
  3. Cove Methodist Church, 12501 Lake Ave
  4. 13216 Detroit Ave
  5. 18206 Detroit Ave
  6. Lakewood Heights and Bunts NE
  7. Lakewood Heights and Warren NE
  8. 14018 Lakewood Heights Blvd
  9. 13402 Lakewood Heights Blvd
  10. 1314 W. 117th (Sapell’s)
  11. W. 117th and Clifton NW
  12. 1584 W. 117th
  13. 1366 W. 117th (Norton Industries)
  14. W. 117th S. of Edgewater

If you are interested in subscribing to the View from Ward 2 newsletter please visit https://mailchi.mp/shachnerforlakewood/newsletter

Jason Shachner is the Ward 2 Lakewood City Councilmember. He is currently serving as an Assistant Prosecuting Attorney in the Lake County Prosecutor's Offices' Criminal Division. He can be reached at Jason.Shachner@lakewoodoh.net or at (216) 714-2150.

Jason Shachner

Jason Shachner is the Ward 2 Lakewood City Councilmember. He is currently serving as an Assistant Prosecuting Attorney in the Lake County Prosecutor's Offices' Criminal Division. He can be reached at Jason.Shachner@lakewoodoh.net or at (216) 714-2150.

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Volume 16, Issue 16, Posted 4:08 PM, 08.05.2020