Group Project tRUST-lab Partnership with Burten, Bell, Carr Development Inc.

A Vision for E. 79th Street between the Opportunity Corridor and Kinsman Road

In Spring 2024, tRUST-lab research assistants engaged with staff from Burten, Bell, Carr Development Inc. (BBC), a critical non-profit Community Development Corporation (CDC) operating on Cleveland's southeast side serving the neighborhoods of Kinsman, Central, Buckeye, and surrounding areas. 

With the recent completion of the Opportunity Corridor, a $400 million ODOT transportation project linking University Circle to highway access further west and south, the need to promote equitable development and "opportunity" along the corridor to serve local residents is clear. The promise of the roadway included the provision of ped/bike access, neighborhood-serving development in the form of businesses and housing, and the production of good jobs across multiple sectors for neighborhood residents.

To date, only a small handful of projects have been proposed as part of this transformation, but more — and better land use — are needed. BBC's goals include benefiting from economic development along the Opportunity Corridor over time, especially for their service area and the residents who live within it. A key adjacency and complement to that development is the E. 79th Street corridor. This key north/south roadway offers a future zone to focus on affordable development, senior housing, and other much-needed neighborhood-serving amenities.

BBC and the tRUST-lab worked together in Spring 2024 to analyze land uses, parcels, roadway conditions, and public spaces along E. 79th Street between the Opportunity Corridor and Kinsman Road and subsequently proposed a new framework of development for the area over the next 10 to 15 years. Supporting this framework would be upcoming city investment in the E. 79th Street RTA station, with new approach ramps, lighting, canopies, and branding, among other improvements. This is a significant public investment in the neighborhood; BBC's framework vision for E. 79th Street anticipates this important transformation and proposes new development and infrastructure across the public and private sectors that will create more density, transform underutilized land, imagine adaptive re-use of historic structures, improve a core neighborhood roadway and public space, and promote transit ridership.