Southern Moreland Traffic Calming

Construction

Construction is expected to take place September through November 2022, with a pause during the winter months. Final completion, including plantings, will take place in the spring. View the latest construction update.

In May 2021, to slow traffic throughout the southern Moreland neighborhood, 63 trees were planted with a $30,000 grant from Boise Paper/Arbor Day Foundation. In September 2022, in conjunction with Scottsdale Boulevard repaving (Lee to the western City border), three traffic calming installations will be constructed: 1) Scottsdale Boulevard east of Pennington; 2) Scottsdale Boulevard west of Sudbury; and 3) Chelton Road near the entrance to Chelton Park.  

The proposed traffic calming interventions have been designed with the guidance of neighborhood residents in a process that took over a year. The design/engineering phase included two neighborhood meetings to assess multiple traffic calming treatments and determine the appropriate combination of improvements that provide the best results; construction will include bump-outs/chokers with grass and landscaping, trees, and high-visibility signage.

Implementation funding has been received from multiple sources below: 

• $289,500 City funding 
• $221,389 Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District’s Green Infrastructure Grant
• $30,000 Arbor Day/Boise Paper tree planting grant
• $50,000 Cuyahoga County CDSG funds

History and Existing Conditions

Due to its physical location and adjacency to high-traffic commercial roads, the Moreland neighborhood has endured speeding vehicles, excessive traffic volume, and cut-through traffic for over 20 years. 

High traffic volume and speed are primarily experienced on two streets: Scottsdale Boulevard and Chelton Road. Both residential streets are popular cut-through routes to avoid Chagrin Boulevard, especially during rush hour. Scottsdale Boulevard experiences over 1500 cars per day and Chelton Road experiences over 600 cars per day.

When Chagrin eastbound is busy near Lee, drivers turn south on Chelton, then east on Scottsdale to get to Lee and travel southbound, thus cutting through the neighborhood and simultaneously avoiding multiple traffic signals (see traffic diagram).  

Project Overview

In 2022, the City of Shaker Heights will install traffic calming measures in the southern Moreland neighborhood that will address environmental inequities and positively impact residents by slowing automobiles, deterring cut-through traffic, improving pedestrian/bicyclist safety, reducing noise, decreasing stormwater run-off in a combined-sewer overflow area, providing opportunities for tree planting, mitigating the urban heat island effect, enhancing aesthetics, and improving the overall quality of life.

Resident involvement in this project has been significant and continue throughout the duration of this project. The project originated from residents who began discussing traffic and pedestrian safety in summer 2020. Residents conducted traffic counts and met regularly to discuss their observations. City speed data shows that close to half of the vehicles exceeded posted 25 MPH speed limits, often by 20 MPH or more.

Since fall 2020, City staff and Moreland residents have discussed traffic and green infrastructure at five zoom meetings, one in-person traffic calming demonstration, and one in-person Neighbor Night.  City Planners also met with neighborhood residents to walk the neighborhood and observe traffic. This year-long process of engagement has energized the neighborhood about the positive effects of traffic calming and green infrastructure.

To guide the traffic calming process, two virtual neighborhood meetings were held (January 31, 2022 & March 3, 2022) to share potential traffic calming options and to provide the opportunity for neighbors to share observations and provide input into the designs. Meeting attendees and online poll participants supported the installation of tree lawn trees and traffic calming bump-outs/chicanes on Chelton Road at the entrance to Chelton Park and on Scottsdale Boulevard near Pennington Road and, if funding allowed, at Scottsdale near Sudbury Road. 

The proposed traffic calming interventions have not yet been designed and the City has hired the firm GPD Group to design the traffic calming measures with the assistance of input from neighborhood residents. The design/engineering phase will include two neighborhood meetings to assess multiple traffic calming treatments and determine the appropriate combination of improvements that provide the best results. Specific improvements will be reviewed and may include a combination of:

• Bump-outs
• Chicanes/ chokers with grass/landscaping
• Trees
• High-visibility signage/pavement markings
• Resurfacing of Scottsdale Boulevard

Implementation funding has been received from multiple sources shown below. The project must be completed in 2022 to meet grant funding requirements:

• $289,500 City funding ($202,000 Scottsdale repaving/$87,500 traffic calming)
• $221,389 Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District’s Green Infrastructure Grant
• $30,000 Arbor Day/Boise Paper tree planting grant
• $50,000 Cuyahoga County CDSG funds

Schedule

Documents

• Southern Moreland Traffic Calming Landscape Plan (PDF)
• Southern Moreland Traffic Calming Meeting Presentation, March 3, 2022 (PDF)
• Southern Moreland Traffic Calming Meeting Presentation, January 31, 2022 (PDF)
• Southern Moreland Traffic Calming Meeting Presentation, August 5, 2021 (PDF)

News

• Cuyahoga County communities to get $4.5 million in grants for community development projects (4/20/22)
• Shaker’s South Moreland neighborhood gets traffic-calming, green infrastructure grant (12/20/2021)
• Arbor Day Foundation lines up alternate tree-planting grant for Shaker’s Moreland neighborhood (7/7/2021)

Staff Contacts

Planning Department: Kara Hamley O’Donnell