Officials envision future of city

A business development group will work to extend water and sewer service.
By STEPHEN SIFF
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
CORTLAND -- If city elders have their way, the Cortland of the future will be something like the Chagrin Falls of today: a community that feels more like a city than a suburb, with a quaint downtown, parks and fine dining.
To get there, city council plans to create a business development group and consider regulations governing the appearance of downtown businesses and homes in older downtown neighborhoods.
"I don't want to create something where you have to go to a board if you want to paint your house," said Mayor Curt Moll. "If you want to do something to turn a big old Gothic structure into something that resembles a pole barn, then we have a concern."
Cortland's Comprehensive Plan, passed by council earlier this month, calls for new zoning rules governing commercial construction to be drafted within six months.
Councilman's comments
"I'd like to see new commercial construction to be brick and some earth tones," said Councilman Michael Hillman, who worked on the plan. "Not yellow and metallic."
Neighborhoods would be designated as historic districts and subjected to new regulations only if residents approve, he said.
A charter will be immediately drawn for a business development group that will try to get grants to extend water and sewer to undeveloped areas near state Route 11 on state Routes 46 and 305, Hillman said. The plan also calls for the group to work with the city to purchase land for parking and redevelopment.
The types of development envisioned include fine dining and outlet malls, Hillman said.
The plan also calls for the city to develop more lakefront access and to resume work on a shelved plan to create a large city park with ball fields and lake shore access on state-controlled land off West Main Street.
More than 100 people worked on Cortland's comprehensive plan. Many said they were concerned that Cortland retain its small-town feel, despite rapid residential growth of the past several years, Moll said.
"We don't want to be a suburb," he said.
siff@vindy.com