CLEVELAND — Residents and homeowners who rely on Cleveland's Cudell Park held a protest in front of the Cleveland school board meeting on Aug. 22, hoping to stop a plan that would eliminate park space and three dozen trees.
The plan to build a new Marion-Seltzer School on sections of Cudell Park property has been a point of contention among residents for more than two months, even though the Cleveland Metropolitan School District reports the plan for a new school building on the site has been in the works for several years.
Cudell Park neighborhood homeowners like Nikki Hudson told News 5 they only became aware of the plans for the park this past spring.
"We would like to see them come up with a better plan, a plan that doesn’t call for them to use 44% of Cudell Park," Hudson said. “It’s unconscionable, it’s going to affect air quality, it’s going to affect the heat in the neighborhood, it’s going to affect the quality of life."
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John Palmer, Board Certified Master Arborist with the International Society of Arboriculture posted a 19-minute videoof the coveted trees that could be removed by the new school project. Palmer is hoping the district will take further steps to amend the plan to save as much of the tree canopy as possible and cited studies that indicate trees are a big benefit to young students.
“Kids will benefit, they have higher test scores, there’s less bullying, there’s less stress, just being able to see trees from the schools," Palmer said. “I’m not critical of the school system, but I think sometimes we’re short-sighted.”
However, the school district made it clear multiple community meetings were held over the past several years on the segment 8 master building plans to construct a new Marion C. Seltzer school for students K through 8.
The school district told News 5 that preliminary construction on the project will start this August, with the new school having a targeted completion date of August 2025. The school district told homeowners it couldn't build a new school on the existing school site because it did not have another location to conduct classes for students during the two-year building process.
Patti Choby with the Cobalt Group consulting firm, representing Cleveland schools, told News 5 it hired its own arborist to best replace the tree canopy and have residents be part of the process. Choby said afinal decision on the school planwill be made by the superintendent's office, but said last-minute changes in the plan would be difficult.
“At this late juncture the short answer to that question is - not likely," Choby said. "And the reason being to modify the building footprint would not only take design time but also delay construction time.”
Still, Cudell Park neighborhood homeowners like Faouzi Baddour are hoping adjustments to the plan can still be made.
“We didn’t know, we didn’t know they were planning anything, we didn’t know they were building," Baddour said. “What are you going to do with the other trees, what are you going to do with the park, you’re killing the park, you’re murdering the park.”
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