SHAKER HEIGHTS, OH — Big changes could be on the way for a dam bordering Cleveland Heights and Shaker Heights following a recommendation to remove Lower Lake Dam and restore Doan Brook to a stream.
The earthen dam was built more than 180 years ago and created Lower Shaker Lake behind it.
But that dam doesn’t meet state standards, meaning it must be either replaced or removed.
In 2021, Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District proposed replacing the dam with a new one.
But last week, the agency reversed course, citing additional analysis and rising costs and now recommends removing the dam.
The original estimate to replace Lower Lake Dam ballooned to $44 million, explained NEORSD Director of Watershed Programs Matt Scharver.
Scharver said the agency also dug deeper into its own data and discovered that removing the dam, coupled with a planned expansion in the capacity to carry water away from University Circle, would not negatively impact flooding downstream.
Because of that, he said the price tag for dam replacement became too high for NEORSD to justify.
“Because Lower Lake as far as we’ve calculated to this point does not provide flood control benefit for the watershed, we just can’t make that investment under the program,” Scharver said.
He said if Cleveland Heights and Shaker Heights, which own and operate the dam, agree to the recommendation, NEORSD will pay the estimated $37 million it will cost to remove the dam and restore Doan Brook’s channel and watershed, draining Lower Lake in the process.
Some in the area believe that it would take away something that has been part of the fabric of the communities for generations.
“You see people jogging and walking and doing things, coming out into the outdoors, this is the place to be,” said Hazel Brown as she painted along the lake’s banks. “I would hate to see this disappear.”
Just last year, people in the community were given the opportunity to learn how to kayak or canoe on the lake.
RELATED: You can learn to kayak and canoe on Lower Shaker Lake
Scharver said if Cleveland Heights and Shaker Heights want to replace the dam, the cities will have to come up with the money to do it on their own.
NEORSD plans to present its recommendations to a joint Cleveland Heights/Shaker Heights city council meeting on Aug. 11.
