On December 13th, 2021 developer Russell Berusch was granted variances, giving him final approval to move forward with his micro unit apartment building on Hessler.
Because Berusch was only able to provide five onsite parking spaces where code required him to provide twenty one, UCI offered him twenty parking spaces in their Ford Drive Parking Garage as part of the purchase agreement. The Cleveland BZA granted him parking variances based on that agreement. The Hessler community was assured there would be plenty of parking spaces for current parking permit holders, many of whom live on Hessler, and for Berusch’s additional twenty in the garage.
On February 14th, 2022, UCI announced to the Hessler community that they’d found out their Ford Drive Parking Garage had become structurally unsound and would need to be demolished this summer. They told the community they’d be turning it into a surface parking lot and that all current permit holders would not fit on the lot. UCI also stated that the future of the lot would remain uncertain.
Given that the conditions on which the parking variances were granted had significantly changed, Hessler asked the BZA for a rehearing/reconsideration according to the BZA rules.
On March 21, 2022, the Cleveland BZA denied the Hessler community a request for rehearing/reconsideration, stating that there was no new information that changes the circumstances under which the parking variances were granted.
Hessler is now trying to work with the Bibb administration to hold City Hall to Bibb’s new standards for honesty, transparency and accountability in City Hall.
The Hessler Coalition 