City Council Considers Seeking Help from Lobbying Firm for Streetscape Improvements

A Cedar Lee has been in the works for a while, and Cleveland Heights City Council is now working to find money for the streetscape improvements.  

At Monday’s regular council meeting, members read two resolutions that, if passed, would help the city acquire funding to pay for upgrades to the Cedar Lee Business District and other areas in the city.

One would give City Manager Robert Downey authorization to apply for a federal grant from the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency, which helped develop a streetscape plan for Cedar Lee.

If a grant is awarded, the City of Cleveland Heights and the Cedar Lee Special Improvement District, which have also worked on plans to enhance the area, would provide a 20 percent match for the grant.

The exact amount the city would request was not mentioned, but Mayor Ed Kelley said they will ask for as much as possible.

StudioTECHNE architects has already completed an architectural plan for this mile-long zone, which runs from to the of the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library. An engineering plan is the next step, so that funding for the $1 million to $2 million project can be sought from both public and private sources.

Eventual changes to the area involve many more trees planted along the streets, mini-parks including a kiddie park, artistic lighting, more outdoor dining, enhanced areas for bench seating, and crosswalk improvements with special decorative paving treatments inside the intersections.

The city is also considering working with G2G Consulting, a lobbying firm that helps clients obtain funding from different state and federal agencies.

Lindsay Fello, mid-west director for G2G, said Cleveland Heights would be the company’s first municipality client.

“We’ve worked in partnership with other cities, but we have not had cities who have retained us,” Fello said. She said the company has worked with start-ups, bioscience and medical consultants, local museums and nonprofits, and many of its clients are in Northeast Ohio.

“In the past, there were certain funds that municipalities received from the government … the was huge, and now it has been cut drastically,” she said.

The Community Development Block Grant was cut from $1.9 million to $1.6 million this year, and the city expects it and other sources of funding to be slashed further.

If council approves the agreement, the firm will seek funds from different agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense, Department of Commerce and the Department of Transportation.

“Part of the solution we believe is to be more creative in terms of how we get funding from the state. Part of that is that you have to be specific in terms of the sources of funding you’re going after and the uses that you’re going to use them for instead of just going into the general fund,” said Councilman Dennis Wilcox. “And that requires more time, more education of legislatures than we on City Council or the city staff has time for.”

According to the resolution, the city will focus on finding funds to foster growth in the Cedar Fairmount, Cedar Lee, Cedar Taylor, Coventry and Mayfield Warrensville business districts. Other priorities include crime prevention, brownfield cleanup and infrastructure improvements. 

If members approve the agreement, the services from G2G would not exceed $75,000. 

Editor's Note: Christine Howey contributed to this article.