7466-00 Establish First Suburbs Consortium

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( 12650 DETROIT AVENUE · 44107 · 216/529-6600 · FAX216/521-1379 March 20, 2000 MADELINE A. CAIN MAYOR Lakewood City Council Lakewood, Ohio 44107 First Suburbs Consortium - Council of Governments Dear Members of Council: As a founding member, the City of Lakewood has actively participated in the Northeast Ohio First Suburbs Consortium (FSC) since its inception in 1996. The FSC has attracted national and statewide attention, a great deal of positive media coverage and, most significantly, has attracted considerable funding support from both the Cleveland Foundation and the Gund Foundation. Over the past few years we have worked collaboratively with nine other member communities on several important initiatives which have greatly benefited the City of Lakewood. With the assistance and cooperation of Cuyahoga County, these efforts resulted in two new programs geared to the redevelopment and maintenance of our mature suburbs - the Brownfields Redevelopment Fund and the H.E.L.P. Linked Deposit Residential Initiative. These two important programs provide funds to promote the reuse of underutilized commercial and industrial properties and low-interest loans for home maintenance repairs and improvements. The H.E.L.P. program alone to date has provided 128 loans totaling over $1.7 million to Lakewood residents. A third program, the Economic Revitalization Initiative, is being implemented by the FSC to assist in the revitalization, redevelopment and maintenance of our older retail districts. A housing initiative is also in the planning stages. The City of Lakewood will participate in both of these programs. Our community will benefit from the sharing of ideas and solutions to common challenges being experienced by the commercial and residential areas in the inner rings suburbs. As the FSC builds upon its past successes and takes on larger and more complex issues, the member cities have come to realize that a more formal organizational structure is needed. To address this need, the FSC is pursuing the formation of a regional council of governments similar to the Westshore Council of Governments in which Lakewood has participated for many years. Chapter 167 of the Ohio Revised Code provides that governing bodies of two or more municipal corporations may enter into an agreement with each other for the establishment of such a regional council. The primary purpose of the proposed First Suburbs Consortium of Northeast Ohio Council of Governments (COG) is to foster cooperation among municipalities in matters of mutual concern.