The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Lorain mayor, staff seek ideas, examples
The city of Sandusky may have some lessons to help future redevelopment of Lorain, city officials said.
On March 5, Mayor Jack Bradley and members of his administration visited the city about 40 miles west for a City Hall and downtown tour with Sandusky City Manager Eric Wobser and his staff.
The goal was to see examples that could guide planning efforts for Lorain’s waterfront and potentially moving City Hall.
“We just wanted to see some of the economic development that’s going on in downtown Sandusky,” Bradley said. “We wanted to see their pier project, and we also wanted to see just how they’re doing their development along their lake shore.
“And, I guess I should mention, too, their relocating of their city hall near the lake to their downtown area.”
They sat down for discussion, then walked through Sandusky City Hall and visited the Jackson Street Pier.
Both have been major components in downtown revitalization for that city in recent years.
Starting as far back as 2014, Sandusky city leaders and civic groups began planning a bicentennial celebration for 2018, which in turn led to new visions for the future of the city.
Sandusky City Hall formerly was at 222 Meigs St., close enough to Sandusky Bay that moving it will open up land for potential waterfront development.
In summer 2019, the city’s municipal offices moved from there to a complex of three renovated buildings at 240 Columbus Ave.
“They did a really nice job,” Bradley said. “It actually draws people to the downtown area.”
As mayor, Bradley has stated publicly he hopes to explore moving Lorain City Hall, now at 200 W. Erie Ave., to another site in hopes of bringing people to a central area of the city, while opening land for development.
The Sandusky Police Department and Sandusky Municipal Court remain at the old site, but once they move, the site could become a future draw.
The Jackson Street Pier was completed in 2020.
For decades, the pier was a parking lot for ferry boats and a popular spot for fishing and watching boats and sunsets.
The $8.1 million facelift upgraded the pier with green space and streetscape features, while keeping some parking.
Lorain Building, Housing and Planning Director Max Upton said he loves the project, calling it “one of the best public spaces in the state of Ohio, as far as I’m concerned.”
“But it was the subject of quite a contentious planning process,” Upton said. “But, the result of which is this absolutely magnificent space.”
Lorain’s finger piers, north of City Hall, are severely underutilized and ripe for that type of development, he said.
The visit included SafetyService Director Sanford Washington, mayor’s Chief of Staff Rick Soto and Planning and Zoning Administrator Drew Crawford.
Upton previously worked in Erie County and established the connection with Sandusky, Wobser said.
Sandusky’s elected leaders and leading staff love to connect with other cities that have common features, he said.
Lorain and Sandusky both are industrial, Great Lakes cities and legacy cities of Ohio, Wobser said.
He added he was “blown away” seeing the Broadway streetscape, and this summer, aims to attend some of the waterfront programming at Black River Landing.
Lorain County also has a Lakefront Connectivity Plan that suggests how the coastal cities could create new connections along the Lake Erie shore.
The 11-mile Sandusky Bay Pathway is in various stages of planning or construction.
It would make a great project to join Lorain and Erie counties as part of a comprehensive walk and bike trail running between Cleveland and Toledo, Wobser said.
“I do really have a lot of respect for Lorain, what the mayor and his team and others in the community are trying to do,” he said. “We look to learn as much from them as we hope to impart upon them as we have these conversations.”