Reports from completed Projects

Links on the right will take you to reports and publications including brochures developed by CRWP and our consultants. Please contact CRWP staff for more information.

Hedonic Analysis Report of Riparian/Wetland Setbacks
Riparian/wetland setbacks are a tool increasingly used to ensure the health of natural environments facing development pressure. While the environmental benefits are clear, their impact on land markets has generated considerable debate. Are setbacks viewed a development restriction placed on parcels, thereby lowering property values? Or, are they viewed, and valued, as a measure ensuring the quality of a property’s natural environment, thereby increasing property values? Finally, it could be the case that setbacks simply don’t have an impact on the market one way or the other – that the home-buying public is either unaware or indifferent to the presence of setback zoning. Determining the actual role of setbacks in the regional housing market will inform the decision-making process that is crucial if development is going to be sustainable.

This report presents an analysis of the market for single family houses and condominiums in six communities of the Chagrin River Watershed for the years 1999 through 2005. An hedonic price function approach is employed to account for the structural, neighborhood, and spatial influences in the sale of over 4,000 units, including approximately 400 homes that sold in locations with setback zoning in place.

First, the market was investigated in aggregate to determine whether or not there was a single impact on the market – to see whether or not, after accounting for all other market influences, houses in setback locations were selling for more or less than comparable houses not in setback locations. No impact of setback designation was uncovered...

Funding for this study was provided by the Ohio Lake Erie Commission’s Lake Erie Protection Fund and Chagrin River Watershed Partners’ member communities. The Lake Erie Protection Fund is made possible by the citizens of Ohio through purchasing the Lake Erie License Plate series

Please click the link on the right for the full report.

Examining Alternative Sewage Treatment Systems to Facilitate Implementation of Conservation Design in Unsewered Areas
Natural resource management professionals and planners throughout the Lake Erie Basin recognize the significance of open space or conservation design development for resource protection and stormwater control. Open space or conservation design development is the subdivision of a parcel so as to cluster building units and preserve at least 40% of the parcel as open space. This approach enables developers to avoid riparian areas and wetlands, to minimize impervious cover, and to significantly reduce stormwater runoff and management costs.

Wastewater management and treatment is a significant hurdle to the widespread implementation of conservation design development. To date this pattern of development has been most successful in areas with access to central sewers. However this approach has its greatest applicability in more rural areas with large tracts of unsewered land where homes are generally treated by on-site sewage treatment systems. Current Ohio EPA and Ohio Department of Health regulations allow for the use of innovative/alternative sewage treatment facilities but place significant and often expensive requirements on developers proposing such facilities. Local zoning also generally hinders the application of conversation design development in unsewered areas.

To address these concerns and to increase the application of conservation design development, CRWP is researching most recent alternative sewage treatment options for small clusters of homes to develop case studies of areas where such alternative treatment and site design have worked with a focus on areas with similar soils and climate to Northeast Ohio. This research and the potential application of these techniques in the Chagrin River watershed will be extensively discussed with local health departments, Ohio Department of Health, and Ohio EPA.

This project and the subsequent report will benefit the Chagrin River watershed and the region as a whole by expanding options for land development by enabling alternative site design without sewer expansion. This will facilitate open space protection, riparian and wetland protection, and reduced impervious cover.

This report was prepared by the Chagrin River Watershed Partners under award NA03NOS4190052 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce through the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Office of Coastal Management. The statements, findings, conclusions and recommendations are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce, Ohio Department of Natural Resources, or the Office of Coastal Management.

Please click the link on the right for the full report.

Evaluating the effectiveness of riparian and wetland setback zoning in the Chagrin River watershed and updating technical support.
Since 1999 CRWP has worked with member communities to implement riparian and wetland protection through local zoning regulations. In 2003, many communities included riparian and wetland setbacks as best management practices in their Phase II Stormwater Management Programs. Numerous communities have adopted and are currently implementing these regulations. Implementing communities include the Cities of Aurora, Independence, Kirtland, and North Royalton, the Villages of Chagrin Falls and Hunting Valley, Lake County, Bainbridge and Auburn Townships, Summit County, six Summit County townships, and six Summit County municipalities.

CRWP is completing this project to ensure that communities have the most recent technical support for the public health and safety benefits of riparian and wetland protection and to address concerns about potential differences between state recommendations on riparian setback widths and those implemented at the local level.

To complete this project CRWP will:

• Analyze and collect research on riparian and wetland functions and the appropriate setbacks to maintain these functions as land is developed.
• Review CRWP recommended riparian and wetland setback widths for consistency with most recent technical data.
• Compare CRWP recommended riparian setback widths to those generated by the meander belt width approach to determining riparian setbacks as recommended ODNR Division of Soil and Water Conservation.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of existing riparian and wetland setback regulations adopted by CRWP member communities and others throughout the Lake Erie Basin.

Through this project, CRWP will update our technical support document Riparian Setbacks: Technical Information for Local Decision Makers. This document was initially drafted in February 1998. The updated document will incorporate new research and also include technical support for wetland setbacks.

This report is been prepared by the Chagrin River Watershed Partners under award NA03NOS4190052 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce through the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Office of Coastal Management.

Please click the link on the right for the full report.

Updating Parking Requirements to Reduce Impervious Cover Scope of Work
Vehicle parking is a significant source of impervious cover in the Chagrin River watershed. It is well within the purview of local governments to examine parking requirements and modify as necessary to meet actual parking needs. Several CRWP member communities are interested in parking requirement modifications to ensure that excess impervious cover and corresponding storm water management problems are not created.

While significant work on updating parking requirements to minimize impervious cover has been done throughout the country, this issue has not been addressed in light of Ohio zoning authorities and land use patterns. To address this shortfall and assist members in updating parking requirements as a tool to minimize impervious cover, the following activities are necessary:

• Examine current parking requirements and actual parking needs in several representative Chagrin River watershed communities to determine where communities are requiring excess parking lot construction.
• Examine national trends in parking requirements for innovative solutions to minimize parking requirements while meeting parking needs. Such innovative solutions include shared parking between uses that occur at different time such as churches and offices.
• Develop model parking codes for member consideration.
• Host workshop for member communities, planners, engineers, and other interested parties to present model regulation and supporting materials.
• This project will provide local governments with clear and up-to-date model for parking requirements that meet parking needs while minimizing impervious cover and provide supporting materials and documentation to support implementation of new parking requirements.
  
  This report is been prepared by the Chagrin River Watershed Partners under award NA03NOS4190052 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce through the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Office of Coastal Management.
  
  Please click the link on the right for the full report.

Chagrin River Watershed Impervious Area Study, December 2004
The Chagrin River watershed is partially undeveloped at present, yet still experiences flooding, erosion, and water quality problems. Given the tremendous potential and pressure for development and redevelopment, it is critical that CRWP member communities understand the impact of development on flooding, erosion, and attainment of water quality standards. This study presents the extent of existing and proposed impervious cover and provides an analysis of the impact of impervious cover in the Chagrin River watershed.

We used regionally specific measurements of impervious cover to estimate current imperviousness; to determine the expected imperviousness in member communities at build out under existing zoning; and to determine the expected imperviousness at build out with zoning allowing higher density. This study also evaluated the change in storm water runoff rate and volume at build out with existing zoning; at build out with higher density zoning; and at build out under existing zoning, using innovative storm water best management practices.

This study highlights that the Chagrin River watershed overall is near a critical point of development and future development must be appropriately planned and include good stormwater management. Steps local communities can complete to ensure development continues to occur in a sustainable manner include:

• Comprehensive planning,
• Targeted open space acquisition,
• Riparian and wetland setbacks,
• Good stormwater management, and
• Alternative site designs to maintain overall low density.

Please click the link on the right for the full report. Please note that this study has been updated to reflect more detailed analysis in several CRWP member communities. Any members that would like to include this information in their comprehensive planning activities should contact CRWP staff for additional information.

Primary Headwater Habitat Stream Inventory and Land Use Analysis Upper Main Branch of the Chagrin River, December 2003
In the summer of 2003 CRWP worked with EnviroScience Inc. to evaluate 60 headwater stream sites in the Upper Main Branch watershed of the Chagrin River with a grant from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Coastal Zone Management Program.

The Chagrin River Watershed Headwater Stream Study evaluated the quality of streams in the watershed to provide information on the impact of land use changes on these streams and to support your local efforts to protect stream functions, improve degraded streams, and minimize erosion and storm water problems. Streams were evaluated using Ohio EPA’s Field Evaluation Manual for Ohio’s Primary Headwater Habitat Streams.

The study revealed the following:

1. It is necessary to perform biological evaluations to accurately assess PHWH stream class;

2. Alterations to stream channel and riparian vegetation removal can have severe detrimental effects on stream functions and values, such as increased water temperature, nutrient enrichment, and erosion;

3. Stream water chemistry and biology show measurable signs of degradation in watersheds with >40% anthropogenic land use; and

4. High quality stream biology is limited by watersheds having more than 6% impervious surface area.

Please click the link on the right for full report.