Doan Brook at Horseshoe Lake Ready for Relocation, Sewer District Says

The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District is just about ready to start saving the Heights from a massive flood event.

That, and restoring Doan Brook, the seven-mile long stream that cuts through Cleveland Heights and Shaker Heights, to its natural state, removing any lakes or dams that may get in its way.

On Tuesday, NEORSD leaders announced from the fringe of Horseshoe Lake that the district will be able to start construction on the $31 million project early next year. As long as they secure two paramount federal permits needed to allow them to tinker with streams or wetlands.

But the project is about more than preserving a fourth of the Heights’ beloved nature preserves. The dams at both Horseshoe and the Shaker Lower Lake up the road are severely outdated, and both need to be demolished, NEORSD has long argued, to secure Doan Brook in the case of a 100-year flood.

That sort of flood could, if rains top a little over five inches in 24 hours, overwhelm the dams—a Class 1 High Hazard-rated one—and the overflow a system originally set in place by the Shakers 170 years ago.

“It’s in failure mode,” Matt Scharver, NEORSD’s director of watershed programs, said Tuesday standing in front of the Horseshoe Lake Dam.

“There’s lots of voids and holes within the dam,” he said. “And before it catastrophically fails, we want to to make sure to address it.”

As in a highway repair earning a new bridge or road resurfacing getting bike lanes, the expensive restoration of Doan Brook and the Shaker Lakes is a two-birds-one-stone project that will lead to better recreation just as it will prevent cars, homes and people from being submerged in floodwater.

All by building, and restoring, wetlands. Starting next year, officials said, Horseshoe Lake will be drained to make way for what’s essentially a padding of Doan Brook—realigning the stream in such a way that minimizes the risk of catastrophic flooding. “So we’ve got a nice, stable valley that Doan Brook flows through,” Scharver said.

NORSD officials said on Tuesday the $31 million project will likely be ready to break ground early next year, minding the acceptance of two federal permits. Credit: Mark Oprea

Lower Shaker Lake up the road also poses a similar high flooding risk as does Horseshoe Lake. Both lakes’ dams are severely outdated, officials have known for at least a decade. Credit: Mark Oprea

Scharver was joined by NEORSD chief Kyle Dreyfuss-Wells and Robin Halperin, its deputy director of watershed programs, on Tuesday to lead press on a brief tour through the southwest portion of the reservation.

Steep cliffsides around the brook, precarious due to decades of erosion, would be softened with lake sediment, officials said. New oaks will be planted to supplant removed trees. Invasive species, like honeysuckle and Japanese knotweed, would be removed to encourage tree growth.

“Anything you do to the dam, repair it, remove it, restore it, will have an adverse effect to that historic resource,” Halperin said. “It’s not going to look like it did for the last 150 years.”

In 2018, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources gave the Horseshoe Dam its Class 1 High Hazard label, recommending it be “partially drained.” The next year, the department ordered it be fully drained.

“So, this is a significant and ongoing public safety concern,” Dreyfuss-Wells said.

A major design advantage will be that the squiggling brook on the reservation’s Lee Road side will be linked to two portions on its east end, via a split in the middle of the reservation. Boardwalks, pedestrian bridges, shared-use trails, overlooks, an observation terrace and a sensory garden are to be built around that reconstructed brook.

Construction, originally meant to start earlier this year, will now kick off in 2027, then wrap up in 2029, Scharver said. Its price tag is shy of $31 million, $7 million of which—for the recreation amenities—will be covered by Cleveland Heights and Shaker Heights.