Lakewood City Council Considers Buying, Selling Land

Last year, authorized the sale of city-owned land.

A few of the properties, once deemed nuisances, were sold.

But there’s still some unfinished business.

On Monday, council considered an ordinance that would allow the city to sell the remaining properties — and a few more. Some of the buildings on the properties have already been demolished, while others are slated for rehabilitation.

The properties that may soon be on the market are:

The land at 1667 Waterbury Avenues is valued at $27,400, according to the Cuyahoga County Auditor’s Office; 2070 Dowd Ave. (appraised at $219,400); 2107 Robin Ave. ($153,000); 13736 Madison Avenue ($177,000); 1482-84 W. 117th  St. — which was recently torn down (the land was appraised at $36,000); 1301 Cranford Ave. ($128,800); 2060 Marlowe Ave. ($111,100), 1269 Westlake Ave. ($127,700); and 1383 Sloane Avenue, which was not listed in the county auditor’s online database.

Some of the properties are zoned for residential use, while others are zoned for commercial use.

Dru Siley, assistant director of planning and development, said proceeds from the sales would go toward assisting the effort to clean up nuisance properties.

The demolitions — coordinated with the Cuyahoga County Land Bank — and rehabilitations are paid for with a nearly $1 million Neighborhood Stabilization Program grant.

“Lakewood has a long history of being part of rehabs,” he said. “We can now get out there, we can be much more assertive in acquiring these properties and being a part of that market in a helpful and strategic way.”

Council also considered a measure that would allow the planning and development department to continue to purchase properties under $60,000 without council’s approval.

“That allows us to react quickly and be able to buy that property without having to go through three readings on council,” Siley said. “We acquire a distressed property in a neighborhood and then we can act — we can act quickly.”

Two examples of successes, he added, are at 1300 Andrews Avenue and 1598 Wyandotte Avenue. Both homes underwent complete rehabilitations. The city bought them both for $50,000, put a total of $80,000 into fixing them up and now they are being sold at “market value.”

The city is expect to hand the keys over to the new owner of the Wyandotte Avenue home this Thursday, after the recent $124,000 sale.

Both of the proposed ordinances were referred to city council’s housing committee and placed on second reading.

In other business, council approved a measure that permanently allows leashed dogs at and parks. The trial program, introduced last year, temporarily allowed dogs at the two parks.

Monday’s ordinance makes it permanent.

Donna Klein, who represented about a half-dozen members of the community group in favor of the ordinance spoke before council.

“This has turned into a community-wide effort,” she said, adding that the group collected more than 1,000 signatures and raised more than $3,000.

“The feedback to the commitment has been overwhelmingly positive.”