The City of Lakewood has been awarded $50,000 from NOACA’s Transportation for Livable Communities Initiative Program to undertake a study of strategies to improve the pedestrian access, traffic movement and the streetscape on the eastern end of Madison Avenue.

“We are pleased to be receiving these funds from NOACA to study the eastern end of Madison Avenue,” stated Mayor Ed FitzGerald. “The Detroit Avenue Streetscape study has been a great development tool the past couple years, and we look forward to seeing similar results on Madison Avenue.”

The City of Lakewood applied to the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA) for the funds in October of 2009, competing against other communities throughout Northeast Ohio. NOACA distributes federal transportation dollars throughout the five county region, including funds for transportation planning activities that promote sustainable development and economic development. It is the same source of funds that funded the Detroit Avenue Streetscape Plan.

The project, to be called Madison East, will include the area of the City of Lakewood bordered by Madison Avenue to the north, Clarence Avenue to the west, Bramley Avenue and the Greater Cleveland RTA Rapid Tracks to the south, and W. 117th Street to the east. The study will complement the Department of Planning and Development’s Birdtown/Madison East neighborhood planning efforts that wrapped just weeks ago.

The study will include an assessment of pedestrian and bike access and the aesthetics of the streetscape of Madison Avenue between Clarence Avenue and West 117th Street. In the long term, it is hoped that implementation of the study recommendations will help to transform the eastern end of Madison Avenue into a pedestrian-, bicycle-, and transit-friendly destination that attracts businesses, workers, residents and visitors from throughout the community and the region, thereby strengthening the commercial district and improving the values of the neighborhood’s housing stock.

Public participation will be an integral part of the planning process. Public Meetings will be held and input will be solicited from stakeholders though the establishment of a steering committee. Madison’s East-End neighborhood is supported by several community-based organizations including the Madison Avenue Merchants Association, Friends of Madison Park, the Lakewood Historical Society, the Lakewood Community Festival, Inc. and the Lakewood Earth and Food Community. Each of these organizations can serve to facilitate participation on the part of its leadership and members.

The City will also solicit the participation of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transportation Authority (RTA). RTA’s involvement will ensure that recommendations for pedestrian and bike access and streetscape improvements are appropriately integrated into the neighborhood’s bus and rapid transit services, thereby achieving a seamless, multi-modal transportation system in the area.

This is not the first time Lakewood has been awarded money through NOACA’s TLCI Program. The Detroit Avenue Streetscape Plan was completed in 2007 and since that time has served to leverage just over $600,000 in local, regional, federal and private non-profit sources of funding toward implementation of recommendations contained within the Plan.

For more information, contact Planning and Development Director Nathan Kelly at (216) 529-6630.