Work on the Lakeshore Bikeway and improvements to Gordon Park, among other projects, are underway thanks to charitable funding.

The Cleveland Lakefront Bikeway was originally planned in 2022 as an initiative to improve connections to Lake Erie between East 9th and East 55th Streets.

While protecting more than 24,000 acres of regional greenery, river valleys and shorelines remains Cleveland Metroparks’ stated mission, connecting residents with those vital assets is equally as critical, said Brian Zimmerman, the park system’s CEO.

“We’ve been talking about this for decades,” said Zimmerman. “Furthering access to our lakefront and connections to the regional trail network provides recreational opportunities for all our community, and these investments enhance the quality of life in our region and make our communities more vibrant.”

Bringing people to nature comes at cost, a question answered by a $13 million grant awarded to Metroparks last July by the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation. The largest private donation in the park’s history will support construction of a lakefront bikeway along with the makeover of Gordon Park on the city’s east side, Zimmerman said.

Development will begin this summer on the Cleveland Lakefront Bikeway – a 2.7-mile paved path running from East 9^th Street to East 55^th Street. The bikeway, funded by $5 million in grant money and an additional $5.6 million from the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA), will provide foot and bike access to Cleveland’s St. Clair-Superior and Glenville neighborhoods.

Expected to be completed by the end of 2025, the multi-purpose trail will provide visitors a direct link from downtown to University Circle, said Zimmerman.

“We’ve been working for the last few years to bring this project forward,” Zimmerman said of the partnership among the Metroparks, Cuyahoga County and the City of Cleveland. “The bikeway will anchor our assets, which is of the utmost significance for this region.”

Metroparks will utilize $8 million of the Mandel Foundation grant to refurbish the southern side of Gordon Park, ideally bringing further connectivity to the area, Zimmerman added.

In March 2023, Cleveland City Council passed legislation allowing the organization to control 48 acres of Gordon Park between East 72^nd Street and the Cleveland Cultural Gardens. Since then, Metroparks has added trees and razed the long-abandoned Cleveland Aquarium.

Although no timeline exists for future development, Cleveland placemaking group LAND Studio is using part of a $725,000 Mandel Foundation grant to solicit input from residents about park improvements.

The community participation process, which will also involve an as-yet unnamed landscape architect, could take place before year’s end, noted LAND Studio executive director Greg Peckham.

The bike path and Gordon Park enhancement efforts are components of an ambitious lakefront plan called CHEERS, or the Cleveland Harbor Eastern Embayment Resilience Strategy. During the forecasted decades-long project, dredged material will create new land north of St. Clair-Superior, resulting in expanded parks, protective peninsulas and new buffer habitats.

While the West Side has seen large-scale investments in Edgewater Park and the long-gestating Irishtown Bend Park, linking all residents to our bountiful natural resources is not a competition, Zimmerman said.

“It’s not about East Side and West Side, but being very practical about how many projects can be supported regionally through local, state and federal funding,” he said. “Trails take coordination and a tremendous amount of planning, so it’s about what projects are ready now.”