On Thursday, a city commission narrowly rejected another attempt by the Euclid Avenue Church of God to secure permission to demolish its building.
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View full sizeCLEVELAND, Ohio -- A historic church on Cleveland's Euclid Avenue won't be demolished -- yet.
On Thursday, a city commission narrowly rejected another attempt by the Euclid Avenue Church of God to secure permission to demolish its building.
The tiny church, a protected city landmark, sits empty at East 86th Street and Euclid, in the shadow of the Cleveland Clinic's main campus. The congregation's pastor says the Clinic has offered to pay $500,000 for the 0.16-acre property beneath the church, if the building is razed.
The Cleveland Landmarks Commission has quashed two demolition requests, a year apart. The commission, which designates historically or architecturally significant buildings as city landmarks, says the congregation has not demonstrated that the church can't be preserved. The building, though dilapidated, has not been condemned. And neither the Rev. Kevin Goode nor the Clinic has explained how the cleared land would be used.
"I don't think this is even a close case," said Thomas Coffey, an attorney and commission member. "I don't think there's any standard that's satisfied here."
In June 2011, the Landmarks Commission unanimously rejected the church's first demolition request. A city zoning board and a Common Pleas judge upheld the commission's findings, so Goode and attorney Kenneth Fisher recently took their case to the Cuyahoga County Court of Appeals. That appeal is still pending.
On Thursday, the commission vote was 4 to 3, as some members shifted to Goode's position that the church has deteriorated and is not marketable. Several speakers said the building has too little parking, an awkward site and prohibitive repair costs. The congregation, which has moved to a church in Middleburg Heights, says it cannot afford to fix the building.
"There are just too many churches for the number of church-goers in Cleveland, and the congregations just cannot support the churches that we have," said Robert Brown, the city's planning director and a commission member.
Ron Popa, who runs the Cleveland Clinic's Foundation House just east of the church, expressed concern about debris falling from the bell tower onto the Clinic's property. City Councilwoman Mamie Mitchell and a representative of the Fairfax Renaissance Development Corp., a neighborhood nonprofit, spoke in favor of the demolition.
But commission chairwoman Jennifer Coleman and other members said they hadn't seen enough evidence to support razing one of the few remaining historic churches on that stretch of Euclid Avenue.
"We still haven't looked at creative solutions," said Coleman, who asked the congregation to consider mothballing the property and approach local foundations for financial help.
The Cleveland Restoration Society worries that both the Euclid Avenue Church of God and the Church of the Transfiguration, a former Episcopal church across the street, will be lost. The group believes either building could be reused for offices, a restaurant or a library. Yet no serious users or re-developers have emerged.
Transfiguration is listed for sale at just under $2 million -- a price real estate brokers say is high, and aimed at the Clinic. Early this year, the Euclid Avenue Church of God also put its property on the market, at a listing price of $695,000. A search of online property listings turns up nothing now.
A Clinic representative who attended the hearing said the property is not under contract. There is no agreed-upon purchase price, he said.
An appraiser hired by the congregation said the cleared Euclid Avenue Church of God property would be worth $160,000. With the dilapidated building on it, considering the cost of repairs, the property might be worth "maybe $1 nominal consideration, without going into the negative," said James Huber, the appraiser.
Fisher said he has not decided whether to appeal the commission's decision.
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