Cleveland Heights businesses consider merchants' association or SID for Noble Road

Council Vice President Davida Russell convened a Planning and Development Committee meeting focused on the Noble Road business corridor in Cleveland Heights where local business owners, city staff, county officials and nonprofit partners discussed two options for organizing the commercial district: a voluntary merchants' association or a city-backed special improvement district (SID).

The comparison centered on funding stability, legal mechanics and who would make decisions. Myra, a consultant with experience launching SIDs and merchant groups, told attendees a merchants' association functions like a voluntary mall group and “if you create a business association, think of it in terms of if you were in a mall.” She warned that associations can struggle to collect dues consistently and rely on sustained voluntary participation.

A SID, Myra said, creates a stable revenue stream because assessments are placed on property tax bills after county and city approvals. “The SID…you have a budget. You have the buy in from the building owners,” she said, adding the SID formation process requires contiguous frontage and the signatures or sufficient frontage support from property owners to meet the county threshold. She described the commonly used rule that 60% of frontage must support a SID for it to proceed and that once the district is established some properties are effectively “grandfathered in.”

City staff and guests gave practical details about timing and implementation. Myra and city staff said paperwork for a SID must clear city and county review and be submitted in time to be added to the property tax roll; one staff speaker advised, “if you're looking at 2026, starting now, means that it would go into the property tax in 2026. Your deadline would be September 2025.” Participants discussed breaking Noble Road into smaller contiguous nodes rather than one long district to simplify reaching the frontage threshold and to allow separate budgets per node.

Several business owners described long-standing operations on Noble Road and concerns about rents passing assessments to tenants. City and county staff and nonprofit partners emphasized technical assistance and seed funding options. Shoshanna Duckworth of the Urban League of Greater Cleveland said the agency provides business advising, certification help and access to capital, and Lisa Bray of UBiz Venture Capital described lending and grant programs and told the room that a UBiz restaurant grant program was open with applications closing Jan. 31. Cuyahoga County Deputy Director Vaughn Johnson encouraged use of county resources and said the county's Office of Small Business acts as a concierge to connect owners to lenders and technical-assistance partners.

Speakers from existing SIDs offered peer advice. Julie Mostov, executive director for Cedar Fairmount SID and the Heights Chamber of Commerce, said established districts contract for services such as snow removal, sidewalk maintenance and planters and meet regularly with city staff; she noted executive-director roles for SIDs are often part-time. Matt Moore, executive director of the Coventry Village SID, described the organizational steps and offered to share templates and examples.

City staff said the city has allocated ARPA funds and is working with consultants to design a small-business assistance program for Noble and Taylor and to study corridor investment needs. Council members and staff suggested using ARPA seed funds to start a merchants' association and to underwrite initial legal or staffing costs so the district can decide whether to pursue a SID later.

The meeting closed with an agreement to continue organizing: council staff will convene a follow-up merchants' meeting and schedule a public follow-up for the Noble area; Russell announced a separate meeting for the Taylor area on Feb. 4 and said a March follow-up for Noble would be scheduled. Business owners and property owners were asked to talk with their landlords and to collect basic financial documents, leases and prior-year financials to be ready for grant or loan applications and for any future SID assessment calculations.

The discussion identified three near-term steps for merchants: (1) form an initial merchants' association to coordinate marketing and immediate needs; (2) assemble basic financial and lease documents that lenders or grant programs require; and (3) work with city staff and nonprofit partners to explore ARPA seed funding, technical assistance, and whether a contiguous SID node is feasible for each block of Noble Road.