PHOTO BY CASANDRA VASU

Cudell Commons Park, W. 98^th Street, North of Madison: The Cleveland Metropolitan School District plans to build a new Marion C. Seltzer school in what is now Cudell Commons Park.  Plans call for eliminating trees to make way for the new school building. This Bald Cypress is one of the mature legacy trees that Friends of Cudell Commons Park would like to save.

by Abe Kurp

   Residents of the Cudell neighborhood and environmentalists spoke out Wednesday August 9 at a meeting about plans to cut down around forty trees in the Cudell Commons (near the intersection of West Boulevard and Detroit Ave.) to make way for a new school. One of the residents’ biggest concerns was the destruction of one of the trees in particular: a massive bald cypress in the northeast corner of the park that residents say is over 200 years old.

   Current plans from the Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD), which are part of segment eight of the district’s master building plans, call for the new school to be built at the northeast corner of the Commons, just north of the current school, Marion C. Seltzer. CMSD officials say that this will allow students to continue to attend classes while the new school is under construction. When the new building is complete, which CMSD officials hope will be around the summer of 2025, the old building will be demolished to make way for a parking lot for the new school.

   Patti Choby of the Cobalt Group, who has worked with CMSD on the master plan for over a decade, said that the new building is necessary because it will have many vital features that the current school does not have, including separate spaces for a gym and a cafeteria, a quality space for Pre-K students, and adequate parking for staff. 

   Residents, while acknowledging the importance of a new or updated school, say that it shouldn’t come at the expense of the neighborhood’s vital trees and green space.

   Jamie Brazier, whose home on W. 98^th Street is across the street from the park, spoke about the emotional impact of losing so many trees.

   “For me, it’s a sanctuary – to see the trees and the green open spaces,” Brazier said. “By their plans, I will have a school in front of me. I’m claustrophobic anyway, and now there’s not going to be trees.”

   Robert Carillio, who also lives in the area, focused on the historical impact the trees have had and what they mean to the neighborhood.

   “If they remove mature healthy trees, they ruin this park,” Carillio said. “These trees are as much a part of the history and heritage of this or any neighborhood as are the human-made structures.”

   Jenny Spencer, councilperson for Ward 15 who is a member of the city’s Urban Forestry Commission and whose ward includes the site in question, acknowledged the emotional impact of the proposed removals.

   “We are here for an awful reason that no one wants to be here for,” Spencer said. “We are looking at the possibility of legacy, mature trees – historic trees – being removed.”

   Spencer added that, in her view, the city’s policies and procedures are not designed to protect trees. She noted that, in this project as well as others in the city, trees are not a top priority and that officials from the city’s forestry department are brought in too late in the process.

   Given these and other criticisms, Jeff Henderson, an architect from ThenDesign Architecture who has worked closely with CMSD on its master plan, discussed possible changes to the project to accommodate some of the residents’ concerns. This includes moving the bald cypress to a different location, which Henderson said would cost approximately $350,000.

   Another, even more expensive possibility would be to rework the plans of the new school to give it a slightly smaller footprint that would give enough space for the bald cypress, so it wouldn’t have to be cut down.

   However, Henderson said this plan would also cause delays and cost an estimated $1.2 million more than the current plan. And in all of the alternative plans Henderson discussed, the bald cypress would be the only tree saved.

   Brazier said she was not satisfied with any of these alternative plans.

   “They’re going to try to pacify us by saving one tree,” she said. 

   Brazier is one of the residents who say Frank Cudell, the prominent architect who owned the land the park now sits on, intended for the land to be a park indefinitely. They point to Cudell’s 1916 will to support their claims, but attorneys representing CMSD and the city said they went through all the proper channels and have a legal right to build a school on this land.

   David Riley, who serves as outside legal counsel for the district, said that, despite what Cudell might have intended, he never codified his intent through a deed restriction.

   “Mr. Cudell was a great architect,” Riley said. “I am not assuming he was a great lawyer.”

   Still, residents vow to continue to fight to save all the trees in question.