Downtown Cuyahoga Falls and Toledo Promenade Park Recognized as 2020 Great Places in Ohio!

The 2020 Ohio APA Great Places Awards honor ‘outstanding physical spaces that planners have made permanent through careful planning and unbridled imagination in Ohio.’

The Ohio Chapter of the American Planning Association (APA Ohio) has announced the winners of the 2020 Ohio APA Great Places Award. The biennial awards program honors “outstanding physical spaces that planners have made permanent through careful planning and unbridled imagination in Ohio.” APA Ohio received 20 nominations from across the state. Nominations were evaluated based upon character and personality of place, uniqueness of the place, special history, how the space is used, the planning initiative behind the place, and its visual attributes. Downtown Cuyahoga Falls and Promenade Park in Downtown Toledo were among the four places across Ohio to receive the designation. Other recognized Great Places included the South Fountain Neighborhood in Springfield, Ohio and the Oyler Community Learning Center in Cincinnati’s Lower Price Hill Neighborhood.

Commercial District – Downtown Cuyahoga Falls, City of Cuyahoga Falls

Settled along the Cuyahoga River in 1812, Downtown Cuyahoga Falls grew up around this natural power resource into a successful industrial mill and manufacturing hub for more than a century. With the advent of suburbanization and relocation of the shopping center, and the construction of a pedestrian mall along the downtown’s main street, Front Street, in the late 1970s as part the City’s Urban Renewal program, the downtown inadvertently lost its importance and sense of place.

In 2015, the City of Cuyahoga Falls initiated a downtown transformation strategy to replace the failing 37-year-old Front Street pedestrian mall. The entire downtown planning initiative included circulation, historic preservation, marketing, branding, and downtown management components. The City and the community worked with MKSK in 2016 to complete a downtown circulation plan. That same year the Gibbs Planning Group completed a downtown retail market study that concluded that the re-opening of Downtown Cuyahoga Falls to automobile traffic would likely enable it to support an additional 215,350 square feet of retail and restaurant development, generating over $60.4 million in new sales. The market studies led to the selection of a retail and restaurant recruitment company (Zall Companies) and downtown branding and marketing efforts, led by a5 Branding and Digital and Triad Advertising. Historic preservation efforts were also taking place during this time. The City consulted with Naylor Wellman LLC and Chambers, Murphy and Burge to complete a downtown historic preservation plan and downtown design guidelines. In 2017, a local downtown historic district was created, and in 2018 Downtown Cuyahoga Falls was nominated to the National Register of Historic Places.

In 2018, in less than three years since planning had begun, the City re-established the Downtown’s importance and sense of place by reopening Front Street to vehicular traffic and converting one-way streets to two-way. Downtown Cuyahoga Fall’s successful transformation would not have occurred but for the comprehensive planning initiatives that guided public sentiment as well as public and private reinvestment. Since 2018, the Downtown has seen $15 million in public improvements and $16 million in private investment, attracted 14 new businesses, created over 65,000 square feet of new ground floor commercial space, and supported approximately 230 new jobs. Downtown Cuyahoga Falls has become a vibrant commercial district for dining, retail, art, music, design, and media enterprises and regional draw for kayaking and whitewater rafting with the removal of two dams along the river.

Reviewers of the APA Ohio Great Places nomination were especially impressed with how multi-faceted the planning was, including economic development and infrastructure initiatives, while staying rooted in planning.

Historic Downtown Cuyahoga Falls

As part of the 2016 Downtown Circulation Plan, a series of planning visioning meetings engaged more than 500 residents and stakeholders.

MKSK worked with the City to further visualize recommendations from the 2016 Downtown Circulation Plan to assist in securing funding for the Design-Build delivery of the improvements to Front Street.

Downtown Cuyahoga Falls was transformed, from a lifeless pedestrian mall, to a rejuvenated Main Street in less than three years. Front Street, the location of the former pedestrian mall, has been re-opened to vehicular traffic, reconnecting the community to its downtown.

Parks and Public Space - Promenade Park, Downtown Toledo, City of Toledo and ProMedica

Located on the Maumee River in downtown Toledo Promenade Park has been considered the heart of downtown since it was established in the early 1970s. Where once it was the community gathering spot for the region, it and the surrounding area declined with downtown disinvestment. By the early 2010s, public and private leaders were concerned that downtown Toledo was not experiencing the level of urban resurgence and investment that was occurring in other cities across the region. To address this and plan for the future of Downtown Toledo, the leaders formed the 22nd Century Committee (now ConnecToledo), consisting of a broad coalition of public and private sector leaders to align current planning efforts, amplify existing assets, and leverage planned and future downtown investments. In 2016, this resulted in the commissioning of the Downtown Toledo Master Plan. The enthusiasm and excitement from the community could be seen by the more than 1,000 residents that attended three public meetings and +5,000 who visited the project web site to provide input. Through the year-long process, great alignment, and consensus was built among the city, county, agencies, downtown stakeholders, business community, and residents, and the Master Plan was unanimously adopted by City Council in 2017. One of the major stakeholders of the 22nd Century Committee, ProMedica, recognized the importance of investing in Downtown and following through on this investment. Concurrent with the master plan process, ProMedica announced that it would relocate its headquarters from the suburbs to downtown and quickly focused on empty historic structures and office buildings along the downtown riverfront. ProMedica’s investment in a downtown campus included the preservation and revitalization of Promenade Park.  

The relocated ProMedica headquarters campus now occupies the historic and iconic Toledo Edison steam plant building and adjacent office building, supported by two parking structures and a series of public spaces that blur the lines between office campus and public park. A key component of the improved Promenade Park included doubling the park size by raising the adjacent streetscape to meet the existing site and sloping the park from the city street level to the river. The park hosts the city’s largest events, including the ProMedica Summer Concert Series that draws thousands to downtown, while a lily pad shaped interactive fountain pay a nod to Toledo’s nickname “Frog Town”; an event lawn and LED screen set the scene for family movie nights, local sports viewing, and community programmed events; and historic site materials pay homage to the Park’s historic roots, including the original smokestack rings of the former steam plant building take on new life as a signature public art piece “The Echo” by Kristine Rumman and Dane Turpening. Promenade Park is once again the heart of downtown, providing an exciting year-round destination and gathering place for community. The Downtown Toledo Master Plan set in motion a new vision for the entire riverfront – including both the west and east banks of the Maumee River. The riverfront renaissance is just beginning with many more exciting projects underway, but Promenade Park remains the restored heart along the riverfront.

Reviewers of the APA Ohio Great Places nomination was impressed by the success of this comeback story for the riverfront, and how Promenade Park has become not just an amenity for Downtown workers, but a central draw for the entire city.

The master plan for the park and downtown riverfront district preserves the park as the heart of Toledo, provides an exciting year-round destination for the community, and anchors new downtown investment.

A 12-foot-tall French “colonne Morris”, which adorned the original Park in the 1970s to hold notice of park programming and events was restored and relocated, honoring the park’s original benefactor and local activist Betty Mauk and the park’s historic roots.

The upper park event lawn is the setting for programmed events and classes open to the community, such as yoga in the park.

From city street to river level, all access routes provide unobstructed views of the Maumee River and unique vantage points to experience concerts, cultural programming, and public art in this highly visited space. In its inaugural summer, the new Promenade Park drew 10,000 visitors to downtown Toledo.

About APA Ohio:
APA Ohio is a statewide, non-profit association of citizens and professional planners committed to promoting and enhancing planning and the quality of planning for all governmental entities in order to maintain and improve the quality of life for all Ohioans. APA Ohio is a state chapter of the American Planning Association (APA). APA Ohio encourages legislation and action programs to enhance sound planning at the state, regional and local levels. APA Ohio operates under the guidance of a volunteer Board of Trustees elected from the general membership. Chapter sections include Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Miami Valley and Northwest. Visit www.ohioplanning.org for additional information.