South Moreland neighborhood in Shaker gets green, soothing infrastructure grant

SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio – Scottsdale Boulevard and Chelton Road will get a little greener – and quieter, in terms of reduced traffic – thanks to a $ 221,000 grant from the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District.

City council planned to approve the green infrastructure grant this week, which was awarded by the Sewer District in part for traffic calming in the South Moreland neighborhood. The roadway will be narrowed in strategic places.

Due to its location between busy commercial arteries, “Moreland has suffered from speeding, excessive traffic volume and through traffic for more than 20 years,” notes a note from the Planning Department on December 13. .

The work will also reduce the amount of pavement and stormwater runoff in the Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) area, resulting in more pollution during heavy rains.

In addition to a local twinning of nearly $ 75,000 which brings the total amount to approximately $ 321,400, the city is also seeking other funding to beautify the neighborhood, increase landscape coverage and add trees to the canopy.

“It will create safer streets for all residents, pedestrians and cyclists, address environmental justice by involving residents in design, and improve the aesthetics of the neighborhood,” city officials noted.

Collaboration between residents, the city engineer, town planning, public works, police and firefighters will begin early next year, as the grant requires funds to be spent by the end of November 2022.

Improvements can include hillocks, baffles, landscaping, decorative crosswalks and other proven traffic calming measures.

The green infrastructure grant and traffic calming measures will be coordinated with the planned repaving of Scottsdale from Lee Road to the city’s western border, a tree planting grant funded by the Arbor Day Foundation and Boise Paper and possibly a $ 50,000 grant from Cuyahoga County for which the city will apply.

“The South Moreland traffic calming project has been in the works for over a year,” the planning memo added. “The involvement of residents in this project has already been important.

City officials noted that the project came from residents who began discussing road and pedestrian safety in the summer of 2020.

“Residents took traffic counts and met regularly to discuss their observations,” said director of planning Joyce Braverman and senior planner Kara Hamley O’Donnell, with subsequent discussions through five Zoom meetings , an in-person traffic calming demonstration and an in-person neighbor. Night.

After further one-on-one tours and demonstrations with a landscape architect using traffic cones, “neighbors are now well acquainted with traffic calming options,” the memo reads.

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