Bay Hears Long-Term Plans for Lakefront Improvements

It’s a great time to dream! After a year of quarantine, pandemic struggles and a tough winter, why not look forward to sunnier times?

A 15-20 year plan to bring exciting changes to Bay Village’s lakefront was presented to City Council on Feb. 1 by the SmithGroup, an international planning, engineering and architectural firm.

The ambitious report brings a variety of possibilities to the Bay Village lakefront. But they won’t happen overnight.

 

Jason Stangland, Waterfront Practice Director for SmithGroup, reports that this is a fifteen to twenty year vision, but gives an idea of what can be.

A huge component of the 4-part plan hinges on shoreline stabilization, funding, coordination with county and other water trail and connectivity propositions and more.

Stangland noted that “this is a fifteen to twenty year vision but gives an idea of what can be. The Boat Club area, just east of the Cahoon Creek, is one of the pieces that could interface with the water trail. He pointed out an idea of what Bay Point might look like and how spacious it can be with opening it up and removing some of the trees, adding different vegetation, and creating some cobble areas and habitat that starts to create ecological benefit but is also some protection for the bluff area behind it,” according to City Council minutes.

Click here to read the plan and also the complete city council minutes on this extensive study.

Changes…..

The Bay Village cityscape is changing! The new Bay Village branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library is now a ‘go,’ and preliminary excavations around the BayWay Cabin are underway. BayWay, the longtime Bay landmark which was once home to countless teen dances decades ago, will be coming down to make room for the new library. The future of the old library, which sits on city-owned land, is yet to be determined.

Across the street, in the vicinity of the long-vacant Shell station on Cahoon Road, the new Bay Creek condos are going up. The 3 bedroom, 3-bath condos offer 3663 square feet of living space and are asking $679,000, according to the realtor website Zillow. Six of them are already marked ‘Sold!’

The changes will bring a great new look to Bay’s Wolf Road corridor, and as the community’s connectivity plans continue to emerge, the city will only increase its desirability.

In Westlake, the much-beloved Dover Elementary School has been demolished, making room for a bus turnaround in from the new schools along the busy Dover Center Road thoroughfare. Longtime Westlakers, many who attended the old school, are nostalgically lamenting the passing of the 1949-era structure. But, as one who personally attended the building back in the ‘50’s, it must be said that it is better to outlive your old school than the other way around!