Cleveland Park Plans Will Connect Future and Past

The first step toward a grand vision for the Canal Basin Park is underway in Cleveland. Steven Litt reports about the current planning for a park project on 1.5 acres of what will eventually become 20 acres of ambitiously designed park space.

The 1.5-acre park currently underway with planning will be "located near the intersection of Center Street and Merwin Avenue on the east bank of the Flats," reports Litt. For now, Cleveland Metroparks will use $300,000 in tax increment financing to "install grass, walking paths and trees on the 1.5-acre parcel, connecting Columbus Road and Center Street down to Heritage Park on Cuyahoga River." A parking lot will also be removed.

Litt notes that the park's location "may be obscure geography to some Clevelanders, but it wasn't in the past and won't be in the future." And the future, signified by the plans for Canal Basin Park, could be on its way much faster now. The city's Planning Commission scheduled to review the park's framework plan later in November.

The name Canal Basin indicates the site's importance in Cleveland history. As Litt notes, the "larger park will mark the northern terminus of the 110-mile Towpath Trail, and focus fresh attention on the original northern end of the Ohio & Erie Canal, completed in 1832."