Pearl, from Wildlife Way to State Road
From The Master Plan - Old Brooklyn Community Development Corporation
This area represents the heart of the Old Brooklyn Downtown District in many ways. It is the entranceway into the Old Brooklyn neighborhood from the north and serves as the neighborhood “downtown with its dense mix of uses, compact street-level design, and many buildings of historic value”. The 2007 opening of MetroHealth’s Senior Health and Wellness Center in the former Deaconess Hospital has added to the street-level activity, which was already significant due to the convergence of several mass transit routes and goods and services offered here.
The primary goal for this area is to strengthen the retail core of the Old Brooklyn Downtown, centered around the Pearl Road/Broadview Road intersection where traffic volumes are greatest. Physical improvements to the Pearl Road traffic lanes and sidewalks, and opportunities for redevelopment in this area are discussed in detail in the Pearl Road Corridor Plan. The Corridor Plan’s recommentions ultimately help to achieve this goal. Additional strategies were developed during the Master Plan process.
Contents |
Concentrate existing/new businesses in this downtown area
Concentrate existing/new businesses in this downtown area to ensure a critical mass of convenience retail and restaurants. A number of strategies discussed in Chapter 5 are applicable to this location.
- Encourage business opportunities in this area, as recommended in Goal 6 in Chapter 5.
- Recruit new businesses as recommended in Goal 4 in Chapter 5.
- Encourage retail uses that foster a pedestrian shopping environment.
- Encourage retail uses, offices and services that meet the needs of seniors and families – work with the Senior Wellness Center and area churches on target products and establishments.
- Work with experienced developers and entrepreneurs to identify key characteristics needed to attract new businesses – conduct business seminars to offer educational services to people desiring to start small businesses.
- Promote residential and office uses on the second floors.
Foster a pedestrian-oriented environment
- Adopt the Pedestrian Retail Overlay District in this area, which will require all new construction to have buildings located near the sidewalk with parking located to the side or rear. Applying this zoning district designation will ensure that pedestrian obstructions are minimized.
- Extend W 33rd from Devonshire across Broadview Road and north until it meets Henninger Road.
- Relocate auto-oriented commercial and industrial businesses to areas outside this retail/pedestrian-oriented area.
Create a destination public space
Create a destination public space in this area to provide a community gathering space. See Goal 4 in Chapter 5 for more discussion on public spaces. The space should be at least 20,000 square feet in area, and located with frontage on Pearl Road between Broadview Road and State Road.
