Mount PLeasant Neighborhood Revitalization Strategy

CLEVELAND, OH

The Mount Pleasant neighborhood was platted in the 1920s around the streetcar line on Kinsman Avenue, and it quickly grew into a thriving community. Changes in transportation, housing and retailing have led to disinvestment along the former streetcar line, leaving the community lacking for many basic commercial services. Seeking to reverse this process and to give the most visible part of the neighborhood a more positive image, Mount Pleasant NOW Development Corporation asked the CUDC to develop new plans for the Kinsman corridor. The CUDC’s plan concentrates retail uses in the center of the corridor. The triangular site at the intersection of Kinsman and Union avenues (currently a gas station) is reconfigured as a town square. The parking lots in front of the retail buildings on the north side of Kinsman become a continuous “boulevard,” maintaining the street while providing for the requirements of contemporary retailing. Development for the rest of the corridor capitalizes on civic investments–community center expansion, a new public elementary school and newly located county offices–to create new livework environments and a richer variety of housing types for the neighborhood. The CUDC’s plan includes guidelines for infill development and detailed proposals for zoning revisions and overlays that give the community the tools to realize its ambitious vision.

Project Partners

  • NOW Development Corporation