The Citizens'
Bioregional Plan
for Northeast Ohio

Imagining alternative patterns of settlement
at the metropolitan scale

What many people don't often understand is how things could be different. They lack mental images of more desirable patterns of land use. They have a hard time imagining methods that could change development patterns. Moreover, they lack a vision of the bioregiona landscape knitted together by natural systems rather than a region divided by cities and counties.

To help the citizens of Northeast Ohio envision alternative land use futures, EcoCity Cleveland, a nonprofit environmental planning organization, developed the Citizens' Bioregional Plan. The project mapped out a positive vision for future development in the seven-county regiona vision based on innovative concepts of "bioregional zoning." It included a two-year process of public meetings and outreach to community groups and planning agencies. And it created tools for public education based on the latest computer mapping (GIS) technology, a full-color publication for citizens and policy makers, a media campaign, and a Web site. The final plan was released at a Citizens' Bioregional Congress in Cleveland on May 15, 1999.

Questions about our future

The bioregional plan is helping citizens ask important questions, such as:

• What lands are at risk to be developed in the next decade?
• Where might a regional greenbelt be created by a joint effort of the region's metropark districts?
• Where should new development be concentrated for greater density and mixed uses?
• How could the building industry's legitimate need for buildable land be satisfied in the most sustainable manner possible?
• Where should transportation improvements be focused to promote increased density of development and reduced vehicle miles traveled?
• How might natural areas be consolidated and connected to maximize biodiversity?
• What special farmland resources should be protected?

The bioregional plan is making these questions part of the public dialogue. The project demonstrates how a nonprofit organization like EcoCity Cleveland can go beyond the jurisdictional constraints of public planning agencies in a fragmented region, use the latest planning and communications technologies, and lead a citizen-based discussion about more sustainable patterns of settlement.

Sense of urgency

Will we find more sustainable ways to develop our communities? We canif we imagine the alternatives and work together for a different future.

Back to top

EcoCity Cleveland
3500 Lorain Avenue, Suite 301, Cleveland OH 44113
Cuyahoga Bioregion
(216) 961-5020
www.ecocitycleveland.org
Copyright 2002-2003

Citizens' Bioregional Plan contents

Our planning process
Change in the Western Reserve

Bioregional values

What's a bioregion?
Our bioregional names
Glacial legacies
Maps of natural features

Regional trends

Outmigration of population
Shifting wealth
Zoned for development
Transportation spending
Lands at risk

Alternative regional visions

Urban cores for redevelopment
Outer Emerald Necklace
Bioregional zoning

A bold and positive vision
Recommendations and next steps
Resources for regional planning
Thanks

Download PDF files of plan and maps

Back to main Smart Growth

Development that destroys communities and the places people care about isn't progress. It's chaos.
Richard Moe,
National Trust for Historic Preservation

The bioregional plan demonstrates how a nonprofit organization like EcoCity Cleveland can go beyond the jurisdictional constraints of public planning agencies in a fragmented region, use the latest planning and communications technologies, and lead a citizen-based discussion about more sustainable patterns of settlement.