The Cuyahoga County Planning Commission works with other Cuyahoga County officials, regional stakeholders, community representatives, and local residents to advise and advocate for a built environment that focuses on better and more accessible transportation options for all residents.

In November 2012, Cuyahoga County was one of 22 communities selected by the national organization Smart Growth America (SGA) to participate in the free technical assistance program for the Complete Streets policy development. Cuyahoga County officials, regional stakeholders, community representatives and local residents met with representatives from Smart Growth America in May 2013 as part of grant-funded workshops.

Since then, County Planning and Department of Public Works (DPW) formed a partnership to develop a County-wide complete streets initiative, resulting in the Cuyahoga County Complete Streets Toolkit.

Communities within the county vary in terms of the era in which they were developed, and their patterns of development such as density, lot and block size, but also in terms of their walkability and compactness. Over the past decades the transportation system developed with an almost total focus on vehicular traffic, even for short trips within the neighborhoods. As concerns over healthy living and aging in place become more common, the benefits of implementing complete streets are beginning to gain acceptance.

We look forward to working with communities to expand and enhance complete streets in Cuyahoga County. If you’re interested in pursuing a complete streets policy for your community, please contact us to set up a meeting or presentation.

Presentations

In May 2014, County Planning staff made the following presentation at the Akron Planning & Zoning Workshop.

This presentation is also available for downloading (PDF).