Dike 14 meeting

AGENDA

1. Agenda Review & Approval

2. Ed “Citizen” Hauser Remembrance

3. Port Relocation Issue

A. Media coverage

1) Toledo Blade article, “$5M grant to speed Toledo dock project; aid will improve access to former refinery site” by David Patch, November 14, 2008

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081114/NEWS16/81... [1]

B. Meetings

1) CWC public meeting w/ presentation by Cleveland Planning Director, Robert N. Brown on waterfront planning & port relocation - November 12

Director Brown spoke to 35+ citizens on Nov. 12th about the Cleveland Waterfront District Plan. He stated that except for the depiction of development [high-end housing and retail] at the current site of the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority, the Waterfront District Plan was nothing more than “conceptual”. [The City approved the Waterfront District Plan in December 2004 with broad based support following 2.5 years of public meetings and input from hundreds of attentive citizens, interest groups and organizations as well as the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR).]

The Director, in lockstep with the Port Authority’s rhetoric and relocation plan, identified the current port site as the only land of value on the lakefront; the City wants the port off that land and supports port relocation to a [hoped-for] 200-acre CDF at East 55th.

No one in attendance, except for the Director, spoke in favor of the East 55th location for the Port. Eight citizens spoke at length against the Port’s plan to relocate to East 55th.

C. Dike 14 Nature Preserve Committee Initiative to

Save Cleveland’s Lakefront Parks and Public Access
1) PETITION - ongoing

To date: 500+ signatures We, the undersigned, oppose the destruction of the East 55th Street Lakefront State Park & Marina for a proposed 200-acre Confined Disposal Facility (CDF) and future industrial port.

We support the industrial port on non-recreational land only; and we support action that protects and improves Cleveland’s Lakefront State Parks, including the East 55th Street State Park & Marina, Gordon State Park and Dike 14 Nature Preserve, as is pledged in the Cleveland Lakefront Plan.

2) E-MAILS

“Reminder and mark your calendars” - November 11, 12

“Ed “Citizen” Hauser has died” - November 16, 17

4. Dike 14 Nature Preserve - PLANNING

A. MEETINGS
1) EEC meeting - November 20

5. Discussion, Action, Next Steps

A. Action

1) FINAL CALL for signatures on our PETITION. Please continue to circulate our PETITION and return all signed sheets to Dike 14 NPC, P.O. Box 81031, Cleveland, OH 44181, as soon as possible.

2) Make your views about port relocation known.

a) write to the City Planning Director, Robert N. Brown at Cleveland City Hall
b) write to the Governor and the ODNR Director

c) write to U.S. Senators Brown and Voinovich

Inform public officials of your opposition to the industrial port relocation and CDF plan at East 55th, as it will destroy the East 55th Lakefront State Park & Marina, a popular and valuable public access state park; it will repudiate 30 years of state and city lakefront planning efforts that have called for doubling the size of East 55th Lakefront State Park and Marina; it will negatively impact the new nature preserve at Dike 14 and Gordon State Park; it will impose an immense cost on taxpayers; there is no evidence that the Port needs to move; there is no evidence that the Port needs to double in size and capacity; and it is not legal for the Port to "sell off" State-owned downtown property to private developers. Moreover, a new CDF at East 55th should be designed and built for the ultimate use as expansion of the parkland at the East 55th Lakefront State Park & Marina; AND the Port should stay at its current location, where its current maritime operation, utilizes only a fraction of the available 120 acres.
3) Attend upcoming meetings and speak out:

a) February 2009 tba: Army Corps public hearing on DRAFT Environmental

Impact Statement (E.I.S.) for the construction and filling of Cleveland’s next

confined disposal facility (CDF). A 45-day public comment period will follow.

6. Financial report

7. Schedule next meeting

8. Adjournment

________________________________________________________________________

The DIKE 14 NATURE PRESERVE COMMITTEE welcomes and is open to all persons and organizations interested in the conservation of the existing 88-acre Lake Erie coastal wildlife area at Dike 14, for the benefit of wildlife and people. Diverse habitats at Dike 14 Nature Preserve provide essential sanctuary for significant numbers and diversity of migratory birds as well as refuge for nesting and resident birds and other wildlife. Unique to Cleveland's shoreline this wildlife area provides the only quality habitat for migratory birds along 100-miles of urbanized Lake Erie coast between Huron and Mentor. The Dike 14 Nature Preserve Committee advocates the preservation of Dike 14 as a nature preserve with judicious public access. Since January 2001, the Dike 14 Nature Preserve Committee has functioned as a clearinghouse, an information source and a point of contact for Dike 14 issues.

Barbara A. Martin, Chair, Dike 14 Nature Preserve Committee, 440-243-9070 barbaramartin2001ATjuno.com

Bill Gruber, Vice Chair, Dike 14 Nature Preserve Committee, 216-371-3570 gruberwlATaol.com

Victoria Peterlin, Treasurer, Dike 14 Nature Preserve Committee, 216-431-7566

Save Ohio's Migratory Birds & Wildlife Habitats @ Cleveland's Dike 14 Nature Preserve

Location