Master Plan July 21

ROUGH DRAFT

Community Standards Survey (30 min)

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City Entrance Signs (25 min)

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Goals (1 hr 10 min)

Frankland suggested formulating goals from the SWOT (last 4 meetings), but the committee decided to review the old goals first.  They reviewed the first 9 out of 16 goals.  They'll review the next page of goals next meeting.  At some point the current SWOT should be reviewed to see if there are new goals to be stated.

Next Meeting - Aug 18th

Minutes are here.

Master Plan June 23

The top 5 of the SWOT were discussed and ranked as follows

Strength

1. Schools
2. Economic Strength and Diversity
3. Municipal Services
4. Industry
5. Family Oriented community

Weakness

1. Under developed, unattractive, retail area
2. Traffic congestion
3. Unregulated unregistered rental property
4. Business perceived difficulty working with the city
5. Nothing to attract young professionals (night life)

Opportunity

1. Following MasterPlan
2. Regional Cooperation resulting in positive impact
3. Improve, expand access, to recreational areas (Timberlane & Arther Rd Pool)
4. Connector Rd and exits
5. Recycling / Green Energy

Threat

1. Diminishing availability of school funding sources
2. Aging industrial infrastructure
3. Development in adjacent communities (they get money, we get traffic)
4. Diminishing capacity for waste removal (dump space, could increase taxes)
5. Regionalism that negatively impacts (misguided regionalism proposals)

The next mtg will be July 21st.
Minutes are here.

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One member raised the issue of the "three slabs"

Regionalism

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The rails to trails discussion, involved passing out a map and telling the committee we must set priorities and that the N&S railroad has funding and legislative support.  We could mention the W&LE, but N&S is a priority, see the comparison for yourself below:

Comparison Chart

Issue	W&LE	N&S
Status	Officially Abandoned	Unused but not abandoned
Ownership	Solon	Railroad
Track and RR Ties	Removed	Present
Plant Growth	Generally clear	Very overgrown
Partnership opportunity	MetroPark	Cuyahoga County
Viability as trail	Immediate	Long term
Destination	Solon to Chagrin Falls	Bainbridge Market Place to Downtown Cleveland

W&LE is abandoned and usable now! 

See more info at the new Solon Trails Site.

Minutes are unavailable.

Master Plan May 26

PLACEHOLDER

A reminder of an alternate rails to trails was made and Rob said it would be covered at the next meeting.

Minutes are unavailable.

Master Plan May 12

PLACEHOLDER

Minutes are here.

Master Plan Apr 21

FIRST DRAFT

This was the first goal setting meeting.  The next mtg or two will continue this process.

Next will come the Community Attitude Survey, this will be contracted from the Cuyahoga County Planning group.

Some misc discussions included:

Amphitheater
Glenwillow relationships
Solon on Facebook
Orange School district - in Ward 5A north Solon
Absent - 3 of 10 reps
Crime at Rec Center
Permitted Uses not updated with 2005 Zoning updates

Strengths -
Weaknesses -
Opportunities -
Threats -

Strengths 

1. Schools
2. Housing Variety
3. Population Diversity
4. Solid Industry/Tax base
5. Access to Highways
6. Quality of city services
   - EMS, Safety, Service
7. Good Leadership (esp Mayor)
8. Good recreation facilities
9. Family Oriented Community
10. Proximity to MetroParks
11. Increasing stability of residential population
    - in 2001, they noted decreasing stability
12. Station St as alternate connection between SOM and Solon

Weaknesses

1. Traffic
2. Lack of large medical facility
   (observers note, Ed Suit discouraged UH from building next to Sedlaks)
3. Lack of quality retail/resturant
4. Poor building infrastructure
   (aging shopping centers)
5. Lack of sidewalks
   Industrial and Residential areas
6. Poor aesthetics of Streetscape in Retail Areas
7. Not pedestrian friendly (esp in retail)
8. Insufficient inventory of Soccer & Baseball fields (etc?)
9. Poorly designed existing road infrastructure
   (?need more lanes)
10. Aging commercial and industrial stock
11. Poor directional signage to important community destinations
12. Outdated Codified Ordinances
    (allows farm animals etc, Frankland (non-JD) is rewriting them)
13. Complex ownership of existing shopping center(s?)
    - Perwick family (GE plaza) has many equal owners who must agree 100% and never do
14. Unregulated rental property (rental regs)
15. Lack of housing opportunity for young professionals (night life, Coral style multi-use)
16. Lack of pedestrian infrastructure and attractions
    (like Popcorn Store in Chagrin Falls)
17. Lack of connection between Old S Miles and Bainbridge Rd

Opportunities 

1. Access to Services in other communities (?)
2. Ability to rework park layout
3. Following Master Plan (?)
4. Connector Road
   (generally & as proposed by Coral)
5. Additional 422 exit where possible
6. Encourage and promote citizen partcipation
   -a) city has this under control with new web
   -b) electronic msg board on SOM bridge by firestation
   -c) social media, Solon has Facebook Fan page (is the city involved?)
   -d) newsletter (for the non-connected)
   -e) residential email alerts (like school or road projects)
7. Increasing recycling program
8. Pursue Green Energy Sources
9. Expand access to parks
10. Make city more bike & pedestrian friendly
11. Greater regional cooperation
12. Transition from development related focus to property maintenance related focus
    (rental regs)

Threats

1. State Funding for schools
2. Development in adjacent communities
   - Regional impact (commercial projects)
   - Residential Development Impact on Schools
3. Increased Traffic Volumes
   - from internal and external sources
   - development of Colbert farm in Twinsburg on SOM
4. Increasing crime
5. Decreasing residential property values
6. Diminishing capacity for waste removal

Future meetings scheduled, Thur May 5 and Wed May 18.   Rescheduled to May 12 & May 23.
Minutes are here.

Master Plan Mar 24

This meeting reviewed the Industrial Core Plan.

There was discussion of

• New Zoning Codes
• Old permitted uses
• ReZoning to Industrial, see below
• Relaxing restrictions on Enterprise Parkway
  Would that make it the 5th shopping center?
• New Auto Service District, All auto service in city is non-conforming use
• Next mtg April 21 on Goal Setting
• After Goal Setting, the Planning Dept will make updates and run them by committee

There were 3 major rezoning issues in the Industrial Core Plan:

1. Bainbridge Rd West
   No objections from residents, Small section of houses between SOM and Harper recommended as transitional office service
2. SOM/Aurora West
   Objections from residents, Near Verizon, was removed from plan, NOT referred to committee
3. Solon and Richmond
   Objections from residents, suggested that large track be redeveloped as new industrial
   Was removed from plan, BUT referred to committee, committee discussed and reached consensus to recommend that this land remain residential, wetlands are not conducive to industrial redevelopment.

Both the CRD and Industrial Core have an entire new set of zoning classifications, these will need to be sent to the voters for approval.  The permitted uses also need a revamp.

One of the 11 missing chapters - Residential Neighborhood Future Plan will be written and reviewed by the group.

Minutes are here.

State of the City

Every March the Mayor gives a talk to the Chamber of Commerce about the State of the City.  This year it will be on March 22, deadline to register is March 18, click here for details.  An article in the Solon Patch can be found here.

Look at archived programs to see prior talks.  Click here for the latest talk.