Written by the reviewer from the ASR + docket; [verbatim-ASR] = quoted machine transcript; [paraphrase] = reviewer's wording, not a quote.
0:01 All right, good evening everybody.
0:03 Welcome to the June 29th, 2026 meeting
0:07 of the Housing Planning and Development Committee.
0:10 We have two or three members here, which is a quorum.
0:12 I expect Councilman Bullock will be here as well.
0:15 First order of business, approval of the,
0:18 I'll move to approve the June 22nd, 2026 meeting minutes.
0:26 Seconded, all in favor, aye.
0:31 Second item on the agenda is a report
0:33 from Vice President Baker regarding the May 20th meeting
0:35 of Lakewood Alive Board of Directors.
0:37 So this is in regards to some work,
0:40 and I'll let you guys introduce yourselves,
0:43 but the class or group of the class
0:47 of Cleveland Bridge Builders did some work talking
0:48 about a subject that we actually hear a lot
0:52 about from residents on and is important,
0:55 especially since we're talking about zoning
0:56 and that is garages in the city of Lakewood.
0:59 So I will turn it over to the group and welcome you,
1:02 and thank you for being here.
1:10 Trying to make sure the mics are working.
1:14 It should just be a red.
1:18 Well, thank you, Councilman Evans
1:19 and all the council for having us today.
1:21 We're gonna do quick individual introductions.
1:23 We have a brief video to show you,
1:25 and then we'll talk a little bit more about who we are,
1:27 what our research was,
1:28 and what some of our recommendations are on this problem.
1:32 I'm Ken Cowen-Chuck.
1:33 I'm a Director and Principal
1:34 of Project Management Consultants.
1:37 I do Economic Development Consulting,
1:38 including for Lakewood occasionally.
1:42 I'm the Director of Government Affairs
1:43 for Greater Cleveland Habitat for Humanity,
1:46 so work in quite a bit of housing advocacy,
1:49 though this issue talking about garages,
1:50 definitely a unique thing,
1:51 so happy to be here and thanks so much for having us.
1:55 Hi, I'm Nicole Roonick.
1:56 I'm a Major Gifts Officer
1:57 with Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio.
1:59 I'm also very excited to be here.
2:05 with the Cleveland Cuyahoga County Workforce Board,
2:07 which is now called Greater Cleveland Works,
2:10 and very thankful for this opportunity
2:12 and excited to share what we've been up to with you all.
2:22 Is this visible on your iPads?
2:24 We see it up here, yeah.
2:25 Yeah, you can go to the video.
2:30 Yeah, just leave the still frame.
2:34 Community Development Organization here in Lakewood, Ohio,
2:37 and our mission is to sustain vibrant
2:40 and welcoming communities.
2:41 We do that by a housing outreach program.
2:44 We help entrepreneurs and small business owners.
2:46 We beautify commercial corridors,
2:48 and we throw really nice large-scale community events.
2:51 Lakewood is often looked at as a quaint and affluent city
2:54 that doesn't experience
2:56 any low to moderately low income residents,
2:58 but we are a very, we're a very lucky city
3:00 that we have all socioeconomical walks of life here.
3:04 A challenge with a historic city
3:06 is that our homes are,
3:08 a good portion of our homes are century homes.
3:11 They're 100-plus years old.
3:13 And with that comes significant charm
3:17 and beauty that we love,
3:18 but it also comes with repairs that need to happen.
3:21 And if you can't afford those repairs, where do you go?
3:24 My name is Tim Mataya.
3:26 My wife, my first wife and I bought this house in 91,
3:31 and I've been living here since for 35 years.
3:35 Up until the point of disability, my stroke,
3:38 I could maintain everything.
3:41 The fence on the back, I built the fence.
3:47 and a chair from the house behind us
3:50 from the second porch, or second floor porch,
3:53 flew off, landed on top of the garage,
3:55 and it collapsed the roof.
3:57 The way it looks now with the back wall falling down
3:59 is because I haven't been able to get in there.
4:06 existing garages must be maintained or rebuilt
4:09 if they're demolished within six months.
4:11 Even the most basic garage can cost 20 to $25,000.
4:15 This is more than the annual income of a senior
4:18 living on Social Security.
4:19 A homeowner could become out of compliance
4:24 They are giving a correction notice by the city.
4:27 This gives them an opportunity to identify the issue
4:29 and try to resolve that issue.
4:32 If they can't come in compliance with the city code,
4:35 they may be paying fines on top of it
4:37 they don't have money for,
4:39 or even potentially they could find themselves
4:40 in a situation where they might have to sell their home
4:42 or unfortunately even lose their home.
4:44 I got a letter from the city.
4:48 Basically, you know, it was a warning notice.
4:51 They're getting frustrated with my lack of progress.
4:55 At this point in time,
4:56 I just don't have the money to put, you know,
5:00 This is a very complicated issue,
5:01 really for three reasons.
5:02 The most obvious being it is a huge financial burden
5:06 Federal grant dollars,
5:08 which fund a lot of projects that we do in Lakewood,
5:10 cannot be used on detached garages.
5:13 And the vast majority of garages in Lakewood are detached.
5:17 20 to 25 thousand dollars or more
5:19 to build a new garage is too much
5:22 for the average household.
5:24 Lakewood Alive is able to help people
5:25 with their garage issues.
5:27 We have skilled volunteers that can come out
5:29 and help repair them
5:31 if the homeowner can afford the materials.
5:33 This can really impact what someone's able to do
5:36 Whether they'll make it healthy and safe,
5:38 which is really a driving cause
5:40 of what we do at Lakewood Alive.
5:42 We're aware of who's been sighted
5:43 and who's not been sighted by the city
5:45 of being out of compliance with their garage.
5:47 We're seeing about a hundred per year.
5:49 That doesn't mean every 100 of those people
5:53 but that's how the magnitude of it.
5:54 We're able to go in and build that trust with people.
5:57 We're able to really assess the needs of them
5:59 and then help them develop a plan.
6:02 And so playing right between that public
6:04 and private sector is where we are.
6:06 Sometimes people get into trouble.
6:09 Like I said, I would handle everything
6:10 that would happen in this house.
6:11 I did it for 30 years.
6:13 I'd like to be in compliance with what the city,
6:16 the ordinance of the city are.
6:18 It's not in the willingness to do it.
6:20 It's the inability to do it.
6:22 I'm gonna keep working on this.
6:24 I'm gonna figure it out.
6:25 You don't have to find me.
6:54 So I will be kicking us off.
6:57 Going through a few slides with you all.
7:00 You have about half of our team here.
7:01 There was a total of eight as a part of our group.
7:04 We have graduated from our program
7:05 and summers are a little busy in the lives
7:08 with kids and vacations.
7:10 So we are representing the larger collaborative.
7:14 As Councilman Evans mentioned,
7:17 we are with through the Cleveland Leadership Center,
7:20 have been given the opportunity to really focus in
7:24 on the garage puzzle
7:26 that Lakewood Alive has been kind of grappling with
7:29 and trying to figure out for a while.
7:32 One of the really, really cool things is
7:35 they became like a partner to us,
7:38 much more than us just kind of talking at
7:40 or to them about what we think the solutions are.
7:43 The things that you saw in the video
7:44 were genuine residents.
7:46 And we've been able to really see
7:47 that there's a lot more complexity
7:49 than I think we thought there was
7:51 when we originally started
7:53 to what it really means to have to raise
7:56 and repair an entire garage
7:57 versus maintaining those things up front
8:00 in order to avoid getting to that place.
8:03 So we'll talk a little bit with you all
8:06 about some of the research that we've done,
8:08 some of the suggestions that we pose to Lakewood Alive,
8:10 both non-governmental solutions,
8:12 things like workforce opportunities
8:14 that could be used for volunteers
8:16 to help with some of the repair needs.
8:18 And then some things around policy change,
8:21 the implications of those, some pros and cons.
8:24 Then we'll open it up for some questions and answers,
8:25 and you guys let us know what you think.
8:31 Much of this slide is kind of content
8:34 that was focused on or covered in the video.
8:37 A few things to really pull out here
8:39 is the 111 homeowners and garage citations
8:44 that we saw from 24 to 25,
8:47 the actual cost of what some of those things can run
8:51 for an individual family,
8:53 and then really the percentage
8:55 and the age of the homes in Lakewood.
8:58 The beauty of the city and the historic homes
9:01 is also a little bit of the challenge here
9:03 because if the garage is older than 90 years,
9:06 the bones might need a little help, right?
9:10 So like I said, I won't dig too deeply into this.
9:12 A lot of it was covered in the video,
9:14 but the challenges around federal grant restrictions
9:18 and dollars and really trying to help homeowners
9:20 be able to keep their homes healthy and safe,
9:24 utilize their garages,
9:25 whether it be for storage or for car use,
9:28 and what some other options are for homeowners
9:31 to make sure that they have healthy,
9:33 safe and affordable homes to live in
9:35 is really kind of the focus
9:37 of how we went about looking at options for solutioning.
9:47 So we were first given some data
9:48 from the city in Lakewood Alive that we dug into
9:52 that found that 111 or so properties
9:55 in 2024 and 2025 across one calendar year
9:58 were cited for garage issues.
10:00 Of those, the 20 to 25 were recommended
10:05 for some sort of demolition or replacement.
10:07 So there were a significant number of cases
10:10 that had reached the point that weren't able
10:12 to just be fixed with minor repairs.
10:15 As we dove into this issue,
10:16 we also did probably a dozen stakeholder interviews,
10:20 four or five with residents
10:22 who had either gone through programs with Lakewood
10:24 or weren't eligible for programs
10:26 to repair or replace their garages,
10:28 several meetings with council folks,
10:30 so you know you're very familiar with this.
10:32 This puzzle, thank you for meeting with us.
10:34 The building commissioner, Lakewood Alive.
10:37 So we did some significant research.
10:40 We also met with several stakeholders
10:42 from surrounding inner ring suburban communities
10:45 who deal with similar aging garage issues
10:47 and have different types of laws
10:49 and regulations on the book.
10:51 Next slide, please.
10:54 We also mapped the various citations
10:57 with some research into the ownership of the properties
11:01 on the county records,
11:03 seeing who was maybe individually owned
11:06 because there was a resident's name or a person's name
11:09 attached to the record versus properties
11:12 that were LLC or business-owned.
11:14 In this research, we did see that the issue
11:16 was widespread across the city.
11:17 It's not necessarily concentrated
11:20 in certain neighborhoods or certain wards.
11:23 Maybe if you were to plot the trends,
11:25 the ones for demolition and replacement
11:28 kind of swooped down from the northeast corner
11:31 of the city down through the southwest,
11:34 but overall, it's a widespread issue across the city.
11:38 And Ken, I'll just add that a majority of these
11:40 did appear to be individually owned.
11:42 We never know exactly, of course,
11:43 whether or not they're owner-occupant,
11:45 but most of these were individually owned.
11:47 They weren't an LLC or indicated
11:49 that it was business-owned.
11:56 So we also wanted to acknowledge
11:58 that policy change is not the only solution here,
12:03 and we are not relying entirely
12:04 on governmental change for this.
12:07 So we wanted to show you some of the other solutions
12:09 that we've looked into,
12:10 as well as what Lakewood Alive is currently doing.
12:14 So Lakewood Alive currently works with residents,
12:17 as you saw in the video,
12:18 on some of those lower-level maintenance repairs
12:22 to try to help people
12:23 before they get to a raise-and-rebuild state.
12:27 And they also do a Know Your Home educational series
12:32 to help educate homeowners on how to maintain their homes
12:36 and how to do, perhaps, DIY projects,
12:39 as well as referring people to contractors
12:42 that they can trust and utilize with confidence.
12:45 Lakewood Alive also has a volunteer team
12:48 that can go out and help with these maintenance repairs
12:52 so that homeowners are only dealing
12:54 with the cost of supplies.
12:57 And then some additional solutions
12:59 that we have researched and have proposed to Lakewood Alive
13:04 are some financing and grants
13:06 to aid with the financials on the homeowner side.
13:10 So looking into things like traditional bank loans
13:15 these are really dependent on the level of credit
13:19 and the level of equity
13:20 that the homeowner and the home have.
13:23 We've also looked into fundraising options
13:26 so that Lakewood Alive could perhaps provide
13:29 some financial support for this as well.
13:31 So through local foundations, annual campaign,
13:35 individual fundraising,
13:38 and as well as building the capacity of the staff
13:42 at Lakewood Alive to perhaps add an additional person
13:46 to oversee this process.
13:49 And then as Crystal mentioned earlier,
13:52 we also looked into some workforce development programs.
13:56 So again, taking out that labor cost of the repairs.
14:00 So we've made some recommendations
14:03 and potential connections with several organizations
14:06 that could do a workforce development program with this.
14:11 So this just kind of gives a holistic overview
14:15 of the work that we've been doing.
14:18 To round that out, Lakewood Alive's Volunteer Corps
14:21 and other volunteer sources only have capacity
14:24 really only for a handful of these
14:26 repair projects per year
14:28 and in barely any hours for a full replacement.
14:32 The cost for the repairs materials
14:34 might be anywhere from $600 to a few grand
14:37 depending on what's needed,
14:39 but a full replacement is much greater.
14:40 And just Lakewood Alive does not have the capacity
14:43 with their volunteer Corps, their financial resources
14:45 to deploy like a mass program at this time
14:49 to repair all these garages themselves.
14:52 Go to the next one, please.
14:54 Great, so that leads us to the policy options.
14:57 Now we recognize with every policy,
14:59 there's gonna be pros and cons
15:00 to any potential policy change.
15:02 So we'll get into more detail on this shortly.
15:06 But basically based on research of other local communities
15:09 as well as interviews with stakeholders
15:10 and relevant and residents,
15:12 there was basically four distinct buckets
15:16 that we thought were possible with policy options
15:18 for council to potentially consider
15:20 as you review your housing and zoning laws.
15:23 The first is permitting some sort of garage alternative.
15:26 So if rather than requiring garages to be rebuilt,
15:29 potentially allow for parking pads, carport sheds
15:32 and or green space in lieu of a full garage rebuild.
15:37 Additionally, demolition variances.
15:40 These are for those extreme cases
15:41 sort of like we saw with Tim
15:43 of a structure being unsound or a safety hazard
15:46 to allow exceptions for the demolition
15:47 to be completed prior to developing a rebuild plan
15:52 so that homeowners can remove unsafe structures quickly.
15:55 It's a lot of paperwork to actually go
15:56 through the entire new build garage process.
15:59 So in order to do things quickly,
16:01 maybe it makes sense in those extreme cases
16:03 to be able to get that unsafe structure down
16:05 to allow more time.
16:07 Additionally, when it comes to time,
16:08 allow for a longer rebuild.
16:10 Again, it's a six month requirement currently
16:12 for folks to have to rebuild the garage.
16:14 Could that be extended potentially
16:16 to a longer time period?
16:17 A year, 18 months or beyond that.
16:19 But options for council to consider.
16:21 And then lastly, tax abatement,
16:24 which would be potentially extending
16:25 Lakewood homeowners tax abatement program
16:27 to 15 years for garage projects.
16:30 And potentially that could be income limited
16:32 and or age restricted.
16:33 And of course, with any of these solutions,
16:35 there could be some sort of income based part of that.
16:39 You can go to the next slide.
16:40 We'll dive in a little bit deeper
16:42 into the pros and cons.
16:46 So for the, and I'm sure you can think
16:48 of many yourself as well,
16:49 but if you permit some sort of garage alternative,
16:52 of course that can lower costs
16:53 that people aren't spending 20 to $40,000
16:57 which of course many residents can't afford.
16:59 Can also eliminate the safety hazard
17:01 and reduce the blight quickly
17:04 and provide more flexibility for the homeowners
17:06 if they don't necessarily want a full garage,
17:08 if they'd rather have a carport,
17:09 a shed or green space,
17:11 kind of gives them more freedom
17:12 for them to be able to make that decision.
17:14 We do recognize cons with that as well.
17:16 There's of course still not insignificant costs.
17:18 It's gonna be at least a few thousand dollars
17:20 to demolish the garage,
17:22 as well as probably a few thousand dollars
17:25 to create another alternative solution.
17:27 And then of course,
17:29 not all alternatives would necessarily
17:30 give you the same amount of parking spaces
17:33 and outdoor equipment and storage.
17:35 With this alternative, I do also just wanna mention,
17:38 as was alluded to before,
17:40 based on our research, we did talk with an appraiser.
17:43 We talked with Scott Moylan from Moylan Appraisal
17:45 who's done appraisal work over 20 years
17:49 And he did find that most likely,
17:52 a garage is only adding about three and a half
17:55 to four and a half percent of the property value.
17:57 So for a $300,000 property,
18:01 it might only be adding about 12,000 or so
18:03 in value to the property,
18:05 while residents are required to spend
18:06 20 to $40,000 to rebuild it.
18:09 So requiring residents to spend more
18:11 than what it's actually adding incremental value
18:13 to the property is something worth considering.
18:16 And then additionally, I already went through it
18:18 a little bit, but the demolition variances,
18:20 just allowing for that quick demolition
18:23 of a property if it's unsafe,
18:25 of course, it lowers immediate costs
18:26 and eliminates that safety risk.
18:28 But of course, there is still cost to the residents
18:30 and no guarantee necessarily
18:33 that that replacement option is gonna be done quickly.
18:37 This is more just in the most extreme cases.
18:39 So I know it was a mouthful,
18:40 but Ken, I'll pass it over to you
18:42 for the last two pros and cons.
18:44 I was talking to Director Buyington
18:46 before this meeting,
18:46 and there is a process
18:47 that residents can go through for this.
18:49 I'm sure she can share a little bit more
18:51 about what that process is following our presentation.
18:55 Longer rebuild, maybe instead of six months,
18:58 we were thinking the time period
18:59 between demolition for a hazardous property
19:02 and the rebuild could be extended
19:04 to some period of time that was more reasonable
19:07 to some residents with financial constraints.
19:09 We don't have a specific window,
19:11 but we can discuss that with you.
19:13 Maybe it could be five years.
19:16 But that's kind of up for council
19:18 to discuss and determine what that could be.
19:20 It does provide more flexibility
19:22 and helps remove that immediate health
19:23 and safety hazard for garages like Tim's
19:27 while also allowing for more time
19:29 for maybe the property to transfer
19:31 to someone who can afford to rebuild a garage
19:34 or do the alternative for a property like that.
19:40 It provides more leeway and time,
19:41 but still eventually the problem has to be dealt with
19:43 if this is the only solution provided by council.
19:47 The fourth policy option we came up with
19:49 was expanding the homeowners tax abatement program.
19:52 We believe it's currently only for 10 years
19:54 for homeowners with projects like this,
19:57 but expanding it to 15 years could provide
20:00 you know, a few hundred dollars of tax incentives
20:03 for an additional five years
20:05 on the increased appraised value of the property
20:07 once the project's done.
20:09 That's hard to finance upfront.
20:11 It's not an upfront source of capital.
20:13 So while it's an incentive,
20:15 it's not a direct source of funding
20:17 to pay for the garage now.
20:20 So it's meaningful but not the most meaningful
20:23 of these options in my personal opinion.
20:28 And with that, we're happy to go into questions
20:32 and answers on any of our research
20:35 or any of the proposed policy solutions
20:39 for this problem, this puzzle.
20:42 Ken, you and the team, I'm truly a heartfelt thank you.
20:45 I really appreciate all the work that went into this
20:47 that your team did and thank you to Lakewood Alive
20:49 for kind of being the sponsor of this project.
20:52 Again, as we mentioned,
20:53 this is something that all of us deal with,
20:55 not infrequently, this issue of the garages in Lakewood.
20:59 So I really appreciate all the research,
21:02 particularly on the recommendations you've given,
21:04 but I'm gonna turn it over to my colleagues.
21:06 I'm sure they have a lot of comments and questions.
21:12 Councilperson Striebe.
21:15 Thank you for looking into this.
21:16 This is a conversation as a landlady
21:19 that's long, long, long overdue.
21:23 I bought my first rental property in the year 2000
21:28 and the houses on either side of me didn't have a garage
21:31 and I was like, how did they get away with that?
21:34 So I'm sure at some point,
21:36 it was okay to let your garage come down
21:39 because I can't imagine that they weren't built
21:42 with garages and mine was the one in the middle
21:45 that had to have a garage.
21:47 So I've often wondered about how they got away with that
21:51 and why they weren't required to rebuild garages there.
21:56 The one quite recently just put a whole parking lot
22:01 in their backyard, which I thought is interesting
22:03 because in the rental property that I have,
22:07 So if there's usually four people living in the house,
22:13 four cars shuffling in and out of the driveway,
22:16 can be a little burdensome.
22:18 So I'm interested in all of these recommendations
22:23 and I thank you for looking at this.
22:25 My one question, I wanted to go back to your map
22:30 of where the garages were that you had,
22:37 that the city had cited
22:39 because I don't think I saw landlords on that.
22:44 If we could go back, it's like the second,
22:46 I think it's the second, right there.
22:49 I don't know that I see any landlords
22:56 owned properties there.
22:59 It's hard to see on the screen,
23:00 but there's several red dots and yellow dots.
23:06 Yeah, so there is some that are identified
23:08 as LLC or business owned.
23:10 If a landlord is just,
23:11 has it individually owned themselves,
23:14 we wouldn't know necessarily that they were a landlord.
23:17 We just indicated if it was LLC or business owned.
23:19 Yeah, and I guess I'm just wondering
23:21 if you work with the city on these addresses,
23:24 if they could tell us which ones are landlord owned
23:28 because they know who the landlords are in the city
23:31 and also if they're local landlords
23:32 or if they're part of a conglomerate
23:35 that's from out of state,
23:36 that might also be helpful information
23:38 in helping correct this issue.
23:43 We still, we do have the list of all those things
23:45 so we can definitely get that information over as well.
23:48 I don't recall there being any super big
23:52 repeat offenders based on our research.
23:54 I don't think there was a bunch of names coming up
23:55 or a bunch of the LLCs coming up,
23:56 but we do have this information.
23:58 Of course, it's public records.
23:59 So maybe cross-reference that
24:01 with any rental registries could be helpful.
24:03 Awesome, because I would really like to hear
24:05 what the opinion is of landlords in this,
24:10 in these recommendations.
24:11 I think that that would be
24:13 an important group to hear from.
24:18 Any other questions, comments?
24:26 Thank you guys all for this terrific presentation.
24:30 Kudos to you for that.
24:32 On the slide that had the four
24:35 potential policy recommendations.
24:43 Actually, the pros and cons, please, yes.
24:47 Ken, I know you said you didn't think
24:48 the tax payment was the most meaningful option.
24:50 Which one do you think is the most meaningful?
24:55 Me speaking for the group of eight people,
24:57 four of which are here,
24:58 I think from left to right,
25:00 those are the most meaningful.
25:02 The first just providing alternatives.
25:04 We know there's some concerns about parking.
25:06 Where will people park
25:08 if they don't have these structures?
25:09 But an example like Tim's property,
25:12 he's one of those end of the block really short lots
25:15 that the driveway is barely wide enough
25:18 to get to the back for a car to pass through safely.
25:20 Especially if it was a big Ford F-150 or something.
25:25 There's probably never gonna be a garage
25:27 big enough that can fit there to park a vehicle.
25:29 It's a smaller, older garage.
25:31 So having alternatives maybe for storage solutions,
25:36 because a lot of people, myself included in Cleveland,
25:39 use their garages for storage,
25:41 not necessarily for parking.
25:43 Maybe if council is concerned about parking,
25:45 people can park in their driveways
25:46 like I think many do
25:48 and not necessarily need a garage.
25:51 And I'll just add, in the most extreme cases,
25:52 you're actually kind of losing spaces for parking
25:54 if you have a falling over garage.
25:57 Tim's wasn't the only one we saw.
25:58 We did see some other ones as well too
26:00 that can't really park there.
26:03 It'd probably be a quicker solution
26:04 if you could get that demolished
26:05 and have alternative use
26:06 and then actually fit more opportunities to park as well.
26:09 Thank you, I appreciate that insight.
26:11 And I too am in the garage used for storage,
26:14 not for parking camp.
26:16 So maybe in that case, you know,
26:17 a shed as a replacement for storage
26:19 would be better than a whole garage.
26:23 Councilperson Baker.
26:25 Yes, this is the second time I've heard this presentation
26:28 but it was better this time.
26:31 So I wanted to give my colleagues a chance
26:33 to speak a little bit and I appreciate this.
26:35 I mean, we paid for Ken's services at PMC
26:38 so we're getting it for free here today
26:40 so I appreciate it.
26:41 And the rest of you, great presentation.
26:44 What I will say is this is, you know,
26:45 as we go into the zoning refresh,
26:48 this is gonna be a really ripe issue
26:50 for us to kind of tackle and find policy solutions for.
26:53 And I think you guys struck the right balance between,
26:55 cause it's like zoning and incentives, right?
26:58 So how can we figure out the right way to do it
27:00 and then partnerships to help people?
27:03 I will say a big blow to this is that,
27:05 you know, the county recently did away
27:07 with the help loan program and so that was a vehicle
27:10 by which you could repair a garage or build a new garage.
27:14 So we're exploring ways to, you know,
27:16 either encourage the county to repurpose that program
27:18 or bring it back or find local solutions
27:20 that Lakewood might be able to do
27:21 because now that's still money people have to borrow
27:24 against their equity, but it does provide at least,
27:27 you know, even demo and shed is between three and eight
27:31 grand and some people might not have that money.
27:34 Now, the help loan program would probably fund the demo,
27:39 cause it's technically personal property.
27:41 So I just appreciate the color you guys are adding
27:44 to this cause it's really timely for us
27:46 and appreciate you all coming out here
27:47 after you graduated from Bridge Builders to do this.
27:49 So I appreciate it, thanks.
27:52 Just before I go to Councilman Bullock,
27:53 just Councilman Baker, your committee is up next.
27:56 So if we can borrow five minutes.
27:58 Okay, thanks, Councilman Bullock.
28:00 Thanks, I can keep the reef.
28:01 So first, thanks everybody for being here
28:03 and the thoughtful presentation and analysis.
28:06 Sorry, I missed the beginning.
28:08 You know, can maybe somebody refresh me
28:10 on the genesis of this?
28:12 Is the analysis you guys were tasked with
28:15 to find ways to better achieve the repair obligations
28:23 and so you began to analyze what's happening,
28:26 what's not happening, the gaps and so forth.
28:28 And so now we've got this slide with some options.
28:35 I'd say we were encouraged to address the issue
28:37 with every ways we can.
28:38 So some of that was looking
28:39 for other fundraising opportunities.
28:41 Some was exploring workforce opportunities
28:43 but some was also exploring policy
28:45 and government solutions.
28:46 So it was really about addressing the gap
28:48 for those homeowners that had garages
28:51 and that were in violation
28:53 and needed some sort of assistance one way or another.
28:56 And did City Hall give you the focus
28:59 or did Lakewood Alive or some of both?
29:01 It was through Lakewood Alive.
29:04 The Bridge Builders Program at Cleveland Leadership Center
29:06 works with different non-profits
29:08 to solve an issue that the non-profit is seeing.
29:11 So my point is though, part of the answer is to find,
29:15 the answer sets defined by the question
29:17 we asked at the beginning.
29:18 So Joe, you and your team and through the experience,
29:21 you kind of teed up this framework.
29:23 So I look forward to learning more.
29:26 I've got to get better educated
29:27 about tax abatements and all the rest of it.
29:30 But to me, variances, longer rebuild,
29:37 those certainly are easy to, in my opinion, agree to.
29:41 Maybe tax abatements we could collectively,
29:45 it looks like the county is the lead on that,
29:50 try to make that more viable option.
29:53 I don't start the conversation though,
29:56 immediately jumping to,
29:57 hey, let's back off of our standards for a garage.
30:02 Lakewood's distinct by having things like front porches,
30:07 not back decks, by having detached garages.
30:10 Some of them are small, they're not car garages
30:12 because the home may have been built in 1907 like mine.
30:17 So if the challenge is that there's a financial cost
30:24 and that it's hard to justify the financing,
30:30 my instinct is to begin working on that
30:33 rather than saying, well, we're just gonna not do it.
30:36 And it's good to hear from deeply respect
30:39 my council colleague who's got more than one,
30:41 I think, landlord properties.
30:43 So I defer to your experience,
30:45 but I wouldn't wanna see paved backyards becoming the norm.
30:51 I'm not sure what our standards are,
30:53 but while there's certainly a parking scarcity in Lakewood,
31:01 I mean, that's a big live conversation
31:03 about how we manage African people move around.
31:08 So there's a bunch of things that have happened
31:10 in Lakewood over the years,
31:12 like what should our standards be going forward
31:14 as we look at refreshing our properties
31:16 for the next 25 years?
31:18 To me, I'd like to try to find financial resources
31:25 before considering backing off of whatever our classic,
31:32 one and two family homes standards would be,
31:34 but I look forward to getting better educated.
31:36 Thanks, Councilman.
31:37 We have one more quick comment
31:38 from Councilperson Campbell.
31:40 Yeah, and thank you all for being here
31:43 for your work on this.
31:44 One is just a request if you have this information,
31:48 if it can be sent is the percentages.
31:51 You showed the map,
31:52 but if we could get the percentages of the garages
31:55 that were owner occupied versus an income property,
31:59 whether that's a local landlord or an LLC,
32:02 because I have a different view on that
32:04 if people are making money on the property
32:06 versus it's their own.
32:08 And then the other one is the percentage of people
32:11 who wanted to rebuild.
32:13 So those that needed to have repairs
32:16 or a demo if they wanted to rebuild
32:20 or if they're like, I wish I could just have
32:22 it torn down, I don't know if you have the information,
32:25 but that would be helpful information to have as well.
32:29 we don't have that second set of data.
32:31 We didn't do a survey of the properties in here,
32:35 but we do have our best guesses on the first set.
32:38 And if we can get access to the rental registry data,
32:41 we can hopefully refine that data
32:43 to who is actually landlord owned
32:45 versus what we guessed based on LLC
32:48 or business names on the property record.
32:50 And one last piece,
32:52 like if we can get the,
32:53 who you talked to about,
32:54 I was particularly struck by the percentage
32:56 of the property value that was propped up by a garage
33:00 and how that you're not likely to realize
33:03 that that's in a sale price,
33:06 even if it went through quickly.
33:08 And that's a tough one to swallow for me
33:12 is like asking somebody to do something
33:12 that they're not going to be reimbursed for
33:14 through the sale of their home.
33:15 So if you could just give us the data
33:16 on who you talked to
33:17 and how they arrived at that, that'd be great.
33:19 Yeah, we do have a one page on that.
33:20 We can get that information over to as well.
33:23 They did provide additional data also stating that,
33:27 while of course a garage does,
33:29 if it's a good garage provide good increase
33:33 in property values for that particular property,
33:34 it doesn't necessarily mean
33:36 it's gonna prop everyone else's property up.
33:38 So it's using that logic.
33:41 If one house got rid of a garage,
33:43 it doesn't mean like, okay,
33:44 this is gonna have a negative impact
33:45 on everyone else's property value.
33:47 So that we can get you that information.
33:50 All right, so we're in due time for the next meeting,
33:52 but thank you again to the group so much.
33:53 Thank you to Lakewood Alive.
33:56 I was reaching for my wallet during the video.
33:58 So it's like it's already working
34:00 as a fundraising tool, I think.
34:04 Really appreciate this, gives us a lot to dig into.
34:06 And this is not info that's gonna sit in a shelf.
34:08 We're gonna be talking about this very soon
34:11 as we go to complete the zoning code overhaul.
34:13 So very timely, fantastic work,
34:16 and we appreciate you.
34:19 Thank you, and good luck with the zoning overhaul.
34:21 With that, the meeting of housing plan
34:23 and development is adjourned.
34:25 We'll take just a feet or two until finance.
34:27 Yeah, let's do like a minute.
34:28 Or if people got to run to the restroom,
34:29 run to the restroom, I guess,
34:30 then we'll come back.