Waterloo Rd Parking Lots Placed in Service

NESDC is the recipient of funding from multiple sources for green parking lots within the Waterloo Arts and Entertainment District located in the North Shore Collinwood area. Grant funding includes $17,117 from the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District’s (NEORD) Small Scale Storm Water Demonstration Program, $58,602 from the Ohio EPA and the US EPA under the 319(h) Grant Program, $93,930 from the City of Cleveland Economic  Development Vacant Properties Initiative Fund and $15,000 from Cleveland Neighborhood Progress. These funds were utilized to construct two new parking areas and a planned retrofit of one existing parking area with the goal to minimize storm water runoff into the combined sewer system, and assist with the health of our creeks, rivers and ultimately the lake.

Brian Friedman, Executive Director of Northeast Shores, stated “this parking plan will help to support the growth of the Waterloo District and continue the job and business creation plan for the area. The NEORD funds helped to leverage the City of Cleveland Economic Development Vacant Properties Initiative as well as the funding to help defray the cost of the parking infrastructure. The city funding will help to develop the parking areas ASAP to capitalize on private investments, and were completed in October 2013. The parking will come online just in time to support needed parking during the construction of the Waterloo streetscape project,” The parking area plans, developed by Katherine Holmok, Landscape Architect at URS Corporation, and her team will leverage sustainable techniques of bio-swales and infiltration basins to utilize storm-water runoff as landscape irrigation, art and place making.

New Parking Lots

The Azure Stained Glass Studio lot located at East 156th and Waterloo includes 21 total parking spaces and will be utilized for “pop up” art performances including the interpretation of storm-water infiltration using the artistic design of the water collection through a blue drain, the use of colored blue glass mulch and a permanent interpretive panel. The permanent educational panel will inform the public about the green measures and will be highly visible along Waterloo Road. The collaboration of stained glass artisans Mary Zonik  and Ben Parsons, as well as Waterloo 7 Gallery Metal Sculptor Jerry Schmidt created the parking lot “P”sign.

The Outdoor Theatre Lot, located at the east entry point to the Waterloo Road District includes a new 30 car parking area, green infrastructure incorporating a sun bio-swale, a moon infiltration basin and the stars landscape meadow. A portion of the parking lot’s stalls will utilize permeable concrete for additional storm water infiltration. Public art sculpture made possible by funding from the 2013 Artists in Residence Program will be contributed to the team of Louis S. Ross and Jerry Schmidt entitled “Wheels on Waterloo” and will be placed on site as well as educational signage for the green infrastructure elements.

Future Retro-fit Project

The future Crop Rock building located at 15719-21 Waterloo will receive a retrofit treatment at the existing parking lot.  The lot is currently utilized for “pop up” art event parking as well as overflow parking for the Beachland. Northeast Shores is planning to retrofit the existing landscape island into an infiltration/bio retention basin. The basin will capture water naturally draining toward this area and also capture water from the building roof with an artistic downspout modification.  The site plan will make accommodation for outdoor dining for a proposed restaurant in the former bank building. This bodes well for Alan Glazen’s Project Light Switch which plans for five new restaurant establishments to blossom in the Waterloo District by July 2014.

The goal of Northeast Shores is to implement a series of sustainable projects throughout the Waterloo Arts and Entertainment District which will incorporate artistic green infrastructure techniques and create a one-half mile self-guided green infrastructure walking tour for visitors, residents and students. These projects created the backbone of this walking tour and establish the framework for future additional green infrastructure projects that support the health of Lake Erie and the residents of the District.