Business View Civil & Municipal Apr-2023

115 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 4, ISSUE 4 In 2019, the city of Willowick announced its selection of the Environmental Design Group of Akron to come up with the design for a lakefront connectivity and downtown redevelopment plan. Funded in large part by a Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA) grant through its Transportation for Livable Communities Initiative (TLCI), the $85,000 contract was awarded to the firm based on its extensive experience with waterfront development (they’re the brains behind the quietly spectacular Solstice Steps in neighboring Lakewood, and a lot of the concept design used along the Black River in Elyria and Lorain). One of the challenges that remain for Willowick in its current iteration is that direct access to the lake—the city’s biggest asset, arguably— is still missing. With a new transportation and revitalization design in place, the City Council is showing its intentions, both in actions and dollars, to use the waterfront for public benefit and make an express statement about Willowick as a dynamic city with vast opportunities centered on its legacy lake. WI LLOWICK , OHIO “In my eyes, this all started back in 2012 when I was on the planning commission,” recalls former Mayor, now County Commissioner Richard Regovich. “We essentially threw out our old zoning map and put the new one up to a vote, which the people did accept gracefully. Four years later I became the Mayor, and I knew that access to the lake was going to be key, as it has been for many communities in Northeast Ohio. I applied for and received that TLCI grant and that allowed us to plan that lakefront property, which is a 22-acre site of which we currently own over 12 acres, to create that access. You know, our slogan is ‘Great Living on a Great Lake’, and I made it a mission to get more people to it.” Serving as a bedroom community to Cleveland just 15 miles southwest down the I-90, Willowick (pop. 14,200) has very little industry, relying primarily on educational services, health care, social assistance, and retail jobs to keep the local economy running. “We do have a commercial retail section that we’ve been working on and is improving year by year,” Mayor Mike Vanni