What Could Cleveland Do With Burke Lakefront Airport? The City Wants Your Input

As Mayor Justin Bibb, Cleveland City Council, Burke businesses and assorted local interests battle over the future of Burke Lakefront Airport and the question of whether to move to shutter the airfield or keep it operating, the city is seeking opinions from residents on what the 450 acres could be used for in the future.

And what the lakefront means to Cleveland.

Bibb has been clear in his desire to shutter Burke in favor of development that could include park land, apartments, a music venue and other amenities. Two studies commissioned by the city show the economic benefit of closing Burke far outweighs its current operation, which loses about a million dollars a year. Burke itself makes most of its revenues off parking lots, not airport operations, as we learned in City Council hearings as that body seeks to weigh in on the decision.

While businesses based at Burke have lobbied to keep the status quo, the administration has taken public and private steps to begin looking toward a day when private jets and flight schools no longer occupy the large stretch of lakefront land.

Which, given Cleveland’s other opportunities around Lake Erie, could mean a wholesale change in the relationship and access between Clevelanders and our Great Lake. With the impending departure of the Browns to Brook Park and the demolition of Huntington Bank Field, the city has already moved forward in selecting a master planner for the portion of the lakefront now home to the stadium and surrounding areas. Now, it’s looking at the land to the east and an even larger geographical possibility.

As the survey page notes, Burke presents a complementary opportunity to do even more above and beyond the North Coast Master Plan, which the administration imagines “improving access, boosting economic development and promoting environmental stewardship along the shores of Lake Erie.”

It begins with a philosophical question — As of today, do you consider Cleveland a waterfront city? — and rolls from there into queries on words you associate with the lakefront currently, feelings on changing its land use, and what one might envision there down the road.

Take the survey here.

Subscribe to Cleveland Scene newsletters.