Cleveland Heights committee reviews Comprehensive Equitable Safety Action Plan, eyes grants and quick-build demonstrations

The City of Cleveland Heights Public Safety and Health Committee examined the Comprehensive Equitable Safety Action Plan (CESAP) at its March 18 meeting, with Director Zemp and staff member Ken presenting the plan’s findings, priorities and funding strategy.

The plan, funded through the Safe Streets for All program associated with the INJA passed in 2021, received an initial $200,000 grant in February 2022 to develop a holistic strategy to prevent roadway fatalities and serious injuries. Staff told the committee the safety analysis reviewed crash data from February 2014 through February 2023 and identified more than 7,000 recorded crashes in that period, including 20 fatalities; 11 of those deaths occurred in the last three years of the study period.

Committee members heard that the plan identified geographic crash clusters near Taylor and Mayfield by City Hall, north of Monticello in the Noble neighborhood, and in the Cedar-Lee district. Pedestrian crash concentrations were noted in the Seely, South Noble, Coventry and Cedar-Fairmount areas, which are near Blackberry School.

Ken described the engagement process and governance for the plan: a technical advisory committee (TAC) met monthly and included internal staff, representatives from the county’s active-transportation work (Annie Pease), local schools, libraries, police and fire, bike-advocacy groups and other community stakeholders. Staff also contracted a consultant team (Kim Leighorn) and partnered with Seventh Hill to hire a “street team” of local residents to gather input in neighborhoods such as Noble. The plan includes a public-coordinate map where residents could mark safety concerns and near misses.

Projects prioritized by the plan include bike lanes or paths on Lee Road, Mayfield Road, Taylor Road and Monticello Boulevard, leading pedestrian intervals and high-visibility crosswalks in the Noble and Cedar-Lee areas, and a no-turn-on-red at Cedar and Lee. Staff said project scoring used five categories—safety, equity, public feedback, connectivity and climate—and separated projects into short-, medium- and long-term timelines.

Staff reported two active grant efforts tied to projects in the plan. A special solicitation application for a Noble/Hornsville Center road diet with bike lanes and intersection improvements was described as a transformative proposal with a requested amount of about $2,000,000. Staff said the HSIP (Highway Safety Improvement Program) application they submitted focuses on Lee Road/Cedar-Lee crossing improvements: raised crosswalks, improved lighting, refuge islands, centerline hardening and leading pedestrian intervals. Staff estimated the Cedar-Lee project at roughly $1.8–2.0 million and said federal grants often require a match that could range up to 10%.

Demonstration projects the city plans to pursue, if awarded planning or implementation grants, include temporary road diets and temporary traffic-calming measures (paint, plastic delineators, removable speed tables, chicanes) along Monticello and other corridors as a way to collect data and public feedback before permanent reconstruction. Staff emphasized an annual federal reporting and monitoring requirement tied to the grant funding and said the TAC will remain involved in implementation and prioritization.

Lighting and enforcement were recurring themes in committee discussion. Staff noted recent and planned LED street-light conversions coordinated with the city’s sustainability staff and FirstEnergy, and described solar-powered crosswalk illumination devices tied to push-button activation as an option that would not require tying into the electrical grid. Committee members raised enforcement—speeding, red-light running and parking fines—but several members and staff said roadway design that reduces speeds is a preferred long-term strategy over relying primarily on enforcement. Members also discussed using fines or collections to fund transportation improvements; staff said collection and court processes would involve the finance department and the municipal court.

Committee members asked about camera deployment and other monitoring tools. Staff said the city had invested ‘‘hundreds of thousands’’ of dollars (a referenced figure of about $700,000) in cameras, some installed but not activated, and currently uses Urban SDK software to monitor speeds and volumes for targeting calming measures.

After discussion, committee members signaled support to forward the CESAP to the full City Council for consideration at its meeting on the 7th. Staff said they would continue pursuing grants, begin demonstration projects if funded and post the CESAP on the city website as a living document with annual monitoring.

The committee did not record a roll-call vote on the plan during the meeting; staff asked that council adopt the plan at the next council meeting and offered to present grant status and near-term demonstration projects to council.