Decorated with fancy shops, and luxurious eateries, the Woodmere area has been known for being the gateway to Chagrin Valley.
“We are known for our commercial district," said Mayor Charles Smith. He continued, “At this point today we have 600 employees. There’s almost more employees than we have citizens in the village of Woodmere.”
But for the past decade, there's been one property in particular that's been looming over the city’s head as dead space.
“Over time you sort of want to either move the property or find a good public use for it,” said Ben Holbert, Council President of Woodmere Village.
The property on Roselawn Avenue was purchased by the city back into 2004 and its main function over the years has been just a storage space for municipal records. But in November, council passed legislation to put it up for sale.
“The price that was offered initially was way below the market and way below what we had initially paid for it," said Holbert. “But in the process what we’ve been trying to do is look at other options, in the event the house doesn’t sell.”
One of those options comes from Holbert himself.
He said, “I just rode by one day and I took a look…and I said hmm, let me check with people and see what the possibility of putting tiny homes here, now you could have a village, inside of a village.”
The concept, that's become more of a trend recently, would seek to build 22 mini cottage homes on the three acres of land. But how realistic is the idea?
“No one's going to totally buy in to this concept," Mayor Norton said. “So there's quite a few things in process you have to go through to get to that point. It’s currently in the Utilities Communities and we’re looking at the feasibility of the idea in terms of the cost, how much it would cost to build the infrastructure there and then how many people we can actually have live in this location.”
Holbert thought bringing the homes to Woodmere could be a great asset to their growing demographics.
“I want to make sure that we do have a population that is representative and helpful to move the village forward," he said.
But he made it clear, that at this point, it’s just an idea, nothing’s been etched in stone.
“I’m not saying that the tiny home concept is the best, but it is an option.”
Even though there is a for sale sign out, Holbert said the property won't officially be on the market until council meets next week to vote on it. From there, he’s unsure about how long they’ll let it sit on the market before moving forward with his tiny house idea or any other solutions for that property.
