Shaker Heights is considering moving its aging school bus depot from Lee Road to city-owned land in the median of Shaker Boulevard beside the Green Road RTA station. The proposal would place 29 school buses at the site and is awaiting a decision from the Shaker Heights City School District Board of Education, which has scheduled an Oct. 27 work session to consider it. Nearby residents have raised concerns about traffic and safety.
The proposed move is part of the city’s broader Lee Road Action Plan, a $25 million infrastructure overhaul adopted by City Council in March 2023, as reported by Cleveland.com. Vacating the depot would make way for a mixed-use Neighborhood Center and an expansion of Chelton Park, including a new park entry point, according to the City of Shaker Heights. The city has offered to cover 75 percent of the projected $6.4 million buildout cost at the new site, lease the land to the school district for $1 a year, and handle remediation at the old Lee Road facility.
City officials have described the Lee Road garage, built in 1955 as a commercial service garage, as outdated and inefficient, and said it would eventually need to be replaced even if it remained at its current location. More than $16.3 million of the Lee Road project’s funding came from competitive grants, including $12.4 million from the Northeast Ohio Areawide Transportation Agency, reducing the amount local taxpayers must provide.
Residents Question Traffic, Safety Near Schools
Cleveland.com reported that nearby residents said they learned of the proposal only days before an Oct. 8 neighborhood meeting. Many later raised concerns at a City Council work session on Oct. 13. Celina McWilliams opposed placing the depot in a residential neighborhood or near a school and suggested seeking a site outside Shaker Heights.
According to Cleveland.com’s account of the meeting, McWilliams said she might stop allowing her children to bike to and from Mercer Elementary if the plan proceeds, citing concerns about cars and buses sharing the area. She also said the westbound intersection of Green and Shaker has no crossing guard and needs one.
Cleveland.com also reported that Jeremy Blanchard, who moved his family from New York City to Shaker Heights because of the neighborhood’s appeal to children, called for further study of the yearly cost of taking buses to the Shaker Heights Public Works Department at 15600 Chagrin Boulevard for refueling. The Green Road station would have no gas pumps under the proposal; all 29 buses and service vehicles would refuel at the public works site.
How Many Buses, and When
Under the proposed schedule, buses would leave and return twice a day during peak traffic periods, departing around 6:15 a.m. and returning around 5 p.m. The city says the Green Road station already has 63 daily weekday bus trips for the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority, a figure it cites as context for the additional school-bus movements.
Cleveland.com reported that Laurie Mitchell Billowitz questioned how a traffic study would account for deer and cyclists in the area and urged officials to address existing safety concerns before adding new ones. She said, “Shaker Boulevard does not need a bus parking lot.”
The relocation was included as a step to study, not as a finalized decision, in the City of Shaker Heights’ March 21, 2023 Lee Road Action Plan, which listed a Shaker Schools bus depot relocation feasibility study among its implementation tasks. The school board’s consideration of the proposal is a separate decision point.
Caitlin Johnson, whose child attends Mercer Elementary alongside children bused in from Moreland, expressed a more measured view, according to Cleveland.com’s account. She said residents should have a stake in the proposal, that she was not convinced traffic would be terrible, and urged neighbors and the city to keep listening to one another.
Supporters See a Long-Overdue Reinvestment
Support for the proposal was also reported at the meetings. Scott Garson, who has worked on Lee Road redevelopment efforts for 15 years, described the Green Road site as a suitable transportation hub and said the city needs reinvestment. He pointed to the station’s role serving commuters who once drove and parked there to take RTA trains downtown, and said much of the land now sits largely vacant as fewer people commute downtown.
Green Road Station opened in November 1936 as the eastern terminus of the Shaker Boulevard rapid transit line. It has 820 commuter parking spaces for the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority Green Line rail service; much of the parking has been underused since the pandemic reduced downtown rail commuting.
Andrea Boyd, a citizen board member of the Shaker Heights Development Corp., supported the relocation, describing the Lee Road Action Plan as an opportunity for revitalization, economic mobility, investment and access to community resources after decades of neglect and disinvestment. She said the Green Road site already serves a transportation purpose.
Jonathan Klein supported the $25 million investment in the Chagrin-Lee corridor, most of which is grant-funded, but opposed moving the depot to the Shaker-Green station or another residential neighborhood. He argued that the depot belongs in a commercial or industrial area, potentially outside Shaker Heights, and said traffic studies should have preceded the proposal.
What Comes Next
City Planning Director Joyce Braverman said further research could lead to changes in traffic-signal timing and intersection geometry, including pulling in curbs near the site. Residents who spoke at the Council session called for additional studies, particularly traffic analyses; those studies are to be requested during upcoming 2027 budget hearings.
David Weiss said the process has put community engagement at the center. If the school board accepts the proposal at its Oct. 27 work session, the city plans to issue a request for proposals for architectural design between December 2026 and January 2027. Public design hearings before the Architectural Board of Review and City Planning Commission would then run through the third quarter of 2027.
The schedule also intersects with planned county roadwork. Cuyahoga County has scheduled major reconfigurations, new signalization, crosswalk upgrades and an off-road bike path on Lee Road for construction from spring 2027 through fall 2028. The depot relocation would need to clear its approvals before that work begins in earnest.
