CLEVELAND, Ohio — Faced with rising demand for new townhouses and outmoded zoning that forced developers through endless hoops in order to get them built, the City of Cleveland revamped its zoning code in 2018 to streamline the approval process.
Since then, the city’s Planning Commission has approved more than two dozen townhouse projects primarily in Ohio City and Detroit Shoreway on the West Side, but also in Glenville on the East Side. It’s all part of the mission to rebuild a city that has been losing population and tax base for decades.
But some say the city has gone too far in its effort to make life easier for townhouse developers.
Critics, including the board of the Cleveland Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, the nation’s leading membership organization for the profession, say the 2018 ordinance has weakened the regulation of townhouse design, and the ability of residents to have their say in the approval process.
The AIA chapter’s board recently endorsed a 44-page document asking the city to repeal and replace the townhouse code.
The Cleveland City Planning Commission in 2020 approved a double row of 36 townhouses running lengthwise on this lot next to a retaining wall beneath busy rail lines in the city's Glenville neighborhood. The rear line of townhouses will have front doors facing an alley next to the retaining wall below the locomotive in this photo. Developer Knez Homes plans to begin construction in the fall.Steven Litt, Cleveland.com
The document was written by an ad hoc committee of the AIA and members of a citywide citizens committee, including architect David Ellison, who ran unsuccessfully on the Green Party ticket for county executive in 2010, and Fay Harris, a research chemist whose neighborhood has been affected by the new style of townhouses..
“There are a lot of good things in the townhouse code,’' said architect David Craun, president of the 540-member Cleveland AIA.
But he said the city’s effort to provide flexibility for developers is “being abused,’' particularly on the West Side. “That’s why we have not just asked for revisions, but have gone to repeal and replace,’' Craun said.
What went wrong
At issue, critics say, is that the new zoning has made it easier for developers to cram rows of boxy, three- and four-story townhouses onto vacant “infill” lots in neighborhoods filled with traditional wood-frame houses.
The ground floors of the new townhouses are often dominated by garages and driveways, oriented sideways to the street. The “front doors” of such units are often set along narrow side alleys, or “interior frontages” facing the sides and backyards of adjacent single-family houses.
Even worse are projects configured with parallel rows of townhouses set at right angles to streets, with a central driveway lined with garage doors running down the middle. Such projects, often devoid of landscaping, resemble “slot house’' developments that were outlawed in Denver in 2018.
The Mile High city cracked down after slot houses spread quickly through portions of the city, dramatically changing the appearance and residential density, or the number of dwellings per acre, in historic neighborhoods.
“In the future, these are going to be slums,’' said Denver architect Christine Franck, who said she coined the term “slot house.” “Nobody’s going to want to live in them because they’re so badly designed.’'
San Francisco architect Daniel Parolek recently helped rewrite the Cincinnati zoning code and wrote the 2020 book, “Missing Middle Housing,’' which chronicles the need to revive multi-unit housing types popular in the early 20th century, such as townhouses.
He said townhouses regained popularity over the past decade because a new generation of city dwellers loves them, and because their relatively small footprints and shared walls maximize profit for developers. They also create less risk for lenders than condominiums because each townhouse has an owner rather than a homeowners’ association.
Cleveland officials cited an illustration from book, "Missing Middle Housing,'' by San Francisco architect Daniel Parolek, in their defense of the city's 2018 townhouse zoning ordinance. Ironically, Parolek is against the kind of townhouses Cleveland now allows in its code.Image © Opticos Design, Inc./For more info visit https://ift.tt/1EHPdMJ"
But he cautions against what he calls “tuck under” townhouses, with garages on the ground floor, built on scattered “infill” lots in established neighborhoods. That’s exactly what Cleveland is allowing.
“It’s a very car-driven housing type,’' he said. “It belongs in the suburbs. It’s compromising walkable urban neighborhoods across the country. Cities really need to be aware.”
Limiting feedback
In addition to questions of aesthetics and density, critics also say the new code limits feedback from residents.
Under previous zoning updates in 1995 and amendments in 2003, developers had to seek variances from the Board of Zoning Appeals. The board alerted owners of nearby properties, giving them at least two weeks’ notice before a public hearing.
No such hearings with advance notice to affected residents occur under the new code. The Planning Commission instead determines whether a property is eligible for a townhouse development within a neighborhood zoned for one- or two-family houses. The city’s planning staff and director then determine how many units are appropriate on a given site, and how close they can be built next to sidewalks and adjacent houses.
Residents can still speak out, but that requires vigilance to make sure they don’t miss meetings of block clubs, local design review committees, and the Planning Commission, where agendas are routinely released only several days in advance.
“If you’re interested in something, you just have to watch their agendas and see when something’s going to pop up.” said Steve Zamborsky, an Ohio City resident who opposes a townhouse project at West 47th Street and Bridge Avenue initiated by Painesville developer Bo Knez.
Pushing back
Ellison and Harris delivered the repeal-and-replace document late last month to members of City Council and Mayor Frank Jackson’s administration.
Ward 3 Councilman Kerry McCormack, who said his ward includes portions of the West Side most severely affected by the new townhouses, supports the proposal. He forwarded it to council’s legal staff to turn it into legislative language so other members could begin debating it.
McCormack said he’s particularly disturbed by slot house-type projects, saying they’re “ugly as hell, and not pedestrian-friendly,’' and that they “display and show off all these garages.”
The Jackson administration hasn’t responded yet to the repeal-and-replace effort but answered questions about the code from cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer via email.
“The City Planning Commission will continue to follow up with other interested parties and Cleveland City Council members and will continue to share information via our open forums and through the administrative and legislative process,’' the email states.
The email goes on to say that the city is trying to facilitate the construction of “missing middle’' housing of the kind Parolek advocates in his eponymous book. Ironically, though, Parolek argues against the kind of “tuck under” garage townhouses the city code now facilitates.
The email also refers to a March 5 meeting of the Planning Commission, at which planning staff members discussed potential changes to the 2018 code.
City responds
City planner Kyle Reisz, who helped write the code, said that some 25 townhouse projects have been approved under the new rules without variances. But he acknowledged that some of the code’s language is “fuzzy’' and has led to confusion. He described several proposed revisions, but the meeting ended without a road map for next steps.
In the email, the Jackson administration said, “over the next few months, we will be looking to adopt the recommended edits.”
During the meeting, Reisz said the new code has improved recent townhouse projects, for example, by limiting curb cuts for driveways.
He shared images of a slot house-style townhouse development built in 2013 by Case Development LLC at West 58th Street and Bridge Avenue as an example of what wouldn’t be allowed under the new code. The project includes a dozen units fronting Bridge Avenue, each with its own garage door and curb cut.
Cleveland city planner Kyle Reisz, who helped write the city's 2018 townhouse zoning ordinance, showed a slide of this 2013 townhouse row on Bridge Avenue at West 58th Street in a recent City Planning Commission as an example of how far the city has come in its thinking on townhouses since then. Note the numerous driveways and curb cuts on the street.Steven Litt, Cleveland.com
Reisz also disputed the “slot house” description attached by critics to projects he discussed, including Wade Park Townhomes, another upcoming development by Knez Homes.
Approved by the Planning Commission last year, the design calls for 36, three-story townhouses organized in two rows next to busy rail tracks perched atop a one-story concrete retaining wall at Wade Park Avenue and Lakeview Road in the Glenville neighborhood.
A 500-foot-long driveway lined by garages would run between two rows of townhouses. The rear line of units would have their “front” doors facing the retaining wall across a narrow alley running the length of the project.
A rendering shared by Knez Homes with the Cleveland City Planning Commission depicts townhouse units with front doors facing into a 500-foot-long alley next to a railroad retaining wall.Steven Litt, Cleveland.com
“I’m not going to bite my tongue,’' said architect August Fluker, a member of the Planning Commission, in a recent interview. “This is warehousing people. Just pile them in and treat them as if people are living in their cars. This is not human.”
Developer Bo Knez, who wants to start construction in the fall, responded to such critiques by saying he’s simply building what the city allows, and what the Planning Commission approved.
“Just tell us what the rules are and we’ll play by the rules,’' he said.
Why zoning matters
Zoning determines what can be built where, and sets rules for the height, spacing, and volume of various types of construction.
The city’s first zoning code, adopted in 1929, is so outmoded that many kinds of construction, even that of a single-family house, can require costly and time-consuming zoning variances.
The Cleveland Chapter of the Urban Land Institute convened an influential 2015 civic discussion on zoning that led the city to begin experimenting with changes, including the 2018 townhouse code.
Underlying the technical language are big issues about how the city can make higher residential density attractive and sustainable.
Opponents say they’re not against increasing density in trendy neighborhoods or in parts of the city that have emptied out. What they’re seeking is compatibility with existing housing, a quality that’s tough to define in a zoning code, but easy enough to see on the street, where some new townhouses loom strangely close to houses next door.
A townhouse complex built in 2013 features multiple units placed in a row at right angles to West 58th Street in Ohio City. A 2018 zoning code revision streamlined the approval process for townhouses without improving design standards, say critics who want the new code replaced.Steven Litt, Cleveland.com
That’s how it is for James Littles, a roofing contractor and 31-year resident on West 58th Street in Ohio City south of Bridge Avenue. He said the side of his house is just four feet, seven inches from the back row of the townhouses built by Case Development in 2013.
“I think it’s too close, but they said when they built it they can do whatever they want,” he said. “I have got to live with it.”
Positive examples
In some cases, the architectural results of the townhouse code have met with approval. For example, Tom McNair, director of Ohio City Inc., likes the Cyan Park townhouses at West 58th Street and Herman Avenue, built in 2020 by Cleveland-based J Roc Development and designed by Works Progress Architecture of Portland, Oregon.
New townhouses in the Cyan Park development at West 58th Street and Herman Avenue have won praise for their design. Unlike examples that have come under fire for their design, most of the Cyan Park units have doors facing surrounding streets.Steven Litt, Cleveland.com
The 21 units in the project resemble stacks of snow-white blocks with large, squarish windows framed in bleached wood. Most of the townhouses have front doors facing adjacent streets. Garages are hidden inside an auto court.
Despite such examples, the AIA isn’t satisfied. Craun speculated that the city’s planning staff may be stretched too thin to fully vet and revamp the code, but he said the architects’ organization is eager to help.
“I do wish he [Planning Director Freddy Collier, Jr.,] would leverage the professional community more,’' he said. “We’ve got all of these expert planners and architects, who could offer guidance beyond the limitation of his staff and funding.”
David Bowen, chairman of the Planning Commission, said he hopes that a complete repeal and replacement of the townhouse code won’t be necessary. But the AIA, and members of the Planning Commission, say a complete rewrite is exactly what’s needed.
“It’s been very difficult from my point of view to administer this thing because it’s not that well written,’' Fluker said. “The best approach is to take a look at the entire document and not try to patch it together.”
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Note: What follows below is the Jackson administration’s entire email responding to questions about the pushback against the 2018 Townhouse code:
“Our Townhouse Code serves the entire city. The intent of the code is to help ensure we create walkable urban neighborhoods that can provide diverse housing products. It also helps ensure there is understanding and transparency about what is expected of those investing in our neighborhoods. The improvements to the code help streamline our process so there is less need for variances, more support for due process, good development, and the ability to receive input. Since we have produced the code updates, we have seen continued investment, better projects, and better clarity in the process.” - City of Cleveland
The City Planning Commission will continue to follow up with other interested parties and Cleveland City Council members and will continue to share information via our open forums and through the administrative and legislative process. These forums are all open to the public. We are all for public input and have been transparent about the Townhouse Code which is why it was made law and went through the process. The items that were raised were addressed via a special presentation on March 5th. Please see the link to the meeting:
· CPC presentation on youtube; begins at 3 hours 29 mins : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DkRvUCUqMI
· Slide deck: https://shared-assets.adobe.com/link/4c703444-1196-4fc3-70f4-75008403f7eb
As you know, any changes to regulatory procedures related to development are done so publicly and transparently. Those who know and have dealt with our Department and our process know it is very democratic and our forums i.e., design review committees, commissions, and boards are all designed to absorb input from all interested parties.
In addition, there have been some minor edits made to the Townhouse Code requested by the Planning Commission, these edits were made and shared for input by the planning commission on March 5th. One of those concerns had to do with auto courts that were raised by a commission member and the second had to do with criteria for the determination of appropriateness of a townhouse project in a two-family district. That specific provision is no longer tied directly to design criteria. The proposed changes in criteria mainly focus on massing, scale, and site placement specifically as devices used for determining appropriateness. Prior to this change, by virtue of approving the appropriateness, the commission was by default approving the design due to the criteria that was previously used. The criteria were design specific rather context specific.
Over the next few months, we will be looking to adopt the recommended edits.
As you noted, many improvements have been made and instituted since the 2015 ULI Meeting. These are all improvements to the Code that address 21st Century Development and creates the opportunity to allow for those types of developments by-right in some cases. Cleveland, being a legacy City has a very traditional pattern of development mainly single family detached residential on side streets and mixed-use commercial buildings along corridors. One of the things that successful districts in cities throughout the country are creating is opportunities for ‘missing middle’ housing options. The market is demanding variety of product, price-point, scale, and choice. Having codes that create these choices only create the conditions for greater investment.
Our goal is to eliminate any ambiguity and confusion associated with the complexities of our current code. In addition, we put careful thought into the development and integration of our form-based zoning efforts into our current system. As you know, the areas that we are piloting are designed to demonstrate the efficacy of this approach. The proof will be the results of subsequent development that we see on the ground, process efficiency, Form Based Zoning honors planning that takes place on the front end which is where community input is most valuable. What we know is that our world is evolving and there is a market and a need for housing options and communities where there is diversity and people can get to goods and services within walking distance. Our regulatory environment will play a big part in ensuring that this happens in Cleveland.
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