Friday, September 15, 2000
Cleveland's 'Ecovillage' held up as role model
Smart-growth, environmentally friendly neighborhood being built
By Michael D. Clark
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Greater Cincinnati should look to a planned Cleveland community for guidance in developing a smart-growth, environmentally friendly neighborhood, anti-sprawl activists say.
The national Sierra Club's annual report blasted Warren County's Deerfield Township as deserving of a “thumbs down” for overdevelopment. But the same report praised an “Ecovillage” plan intended to convert a rundown residential area just outside downtown Cleveland into a model community.
“The Ecovillage project is still in the conceptual phase, but it's already a great idea,” the Sierra Club report released Thursday said. “Intended to be an environmentally friendly village within the city of Cleveland, this project, if successful, could be a powerful model for communities across the country.”
Ecovillage is only a couple of blocks of low-income housing, with tree-lined streets near abandoned industrial parcels and a rail transit stop.
What development officials envision is a smallish, self-contained community that would allow residents to travel on foot to stores, mass transit and green spaces laced with bike trails and hiking paths.
Neighborhood features would include passive solar energy for heating and cooling homes, community car and bike rental centers, and smallish retail outlets freeing residents from having to drive to buy food and other goods.
Ecovillage officials were unavailable to comment Thursday, but Glen Brand, director of the Cincinnati office of the Sierra Club, said he is familiar with the planned community and is impressed.
“It's in sort of a depressed area but sounds like a great project,” Mr. Brand said.
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