CLEVELAND, Ohio - The contaminated site of the largely demolished FirstEnergy lakefront power plant at East 72nd Street could become a park, or it could host housing, commercial and institutional development, a creative zone for small-scale innovators, or a food production center.

A mix of any of those uses is also possible.

So said a planning consultant working for FirstEnergy, who outlined a broad menu of options for 54 acres of the lakefront site at a Tuesday night meeting at the St. Clair Superior Development Corp.

The proposals, developed by the New York office of CRTKL, the national planning and architecture firm that also worked on the recent Flats East Bank redevelopment, involve big thinking.

Variations on development scenarios included moving the I-90 Shoreway 500 feet south from its current waterfront alignment to create unimpeded access to the water's edge for a large sliver of the FirstEnergy site.

I'll raise you on moving the highway

But that wasn't enough for activist Dick Clough. He and members of the nonprofit Green Ribbon Coalition, an alliance that champions waterfront causes, said at the meeting that the Shoreway should be moved a full quarter-mile south of its current alignment to parallel the rail line on the south edge of the FirstEnergy site.

A concept shared by the Green Ribbon Coalition for the FirstEnergy lakefront site calls for moving the I-90 Shoreway to the south edge of the 54-acre site. Cleveland Tomorrow, a forerunner of the Greater Cleveland Partnership, proposed a similar idea in the early 2000s.

In that way, Clough said, most of the site could become a park adjacent to the reunified halves of Gordon Park to the east, which was severed by I-90 in the early 1960s.

"It seems to me there's a 100-year opportunity here," he said. "We'd like to see the city look at the bigger picture."

Moving fast

Tuesday's meeting was the second since January in a fast-moving process aimed at guiding decisions by FirstEnergy and the city. FirstEnergy is paying for the study to satisfy part of an agreement under which the city allowed it to demolish the former coal-fired plant and to prepare for its eventual sale.

Attendees included two dozen members of nonprofit community planning and advocacy organizations; several city residents; and mayoral candidates Brandon Chrostowski, founder of Edwin's Restaurant, and Ward 8 City Councilman Jeffrey Johnson.

"The purpose of this exercise is to help the city of Cleveland develop policy for uses [on the site] that would have positive impact on surrounding communities," said Doug McCoach, a vice president at CRTKL.

Freddy Collier, the city's planning director, said the CRTKL study should be finished in about a month.

A logical next step would be to amend the city's 2004 Waterfront District Plan to guide future decisions over the utility's property, he said.

He cautioned, however, that development of the site could take many years to unfold.

Taking the long view

McCoach, the former city planning director in Baltimore, said FirstEnergy wants to be free of liability by ensuring a cleanup that meets standards of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and the ultimate use chosen for the land.

"They are motivated to turn over a clean site," he said of FirstEnergy. Lawsuits over toxic waste "are the things that corporations fear," he said.

Jennifer Young of FirstEnergy said Wednesday morning that the firm has remediated "all above-ground contaminants ... primarily asbestos and lead paint," which it considers "the vast majority of contaminants at the site."

The cleanup

As part of its participation in the Ohio EPA's Voluntary Action Program, which helps companies avoid liability for once-polluted land, FirstEnergy has identified above- and below-ground tanks and electrical equipment that used PCBs, Young said.

Testing will continue once demolition is completed at the site, she added.

Challenges to redevelopment at the site include a 13-acre area on the southern edge of the property where FirstEnergy wants to maintain an electrical substation.

At the meeting Tuesday, McCoach showed numerous slides that described redevelopment options labeled "Public," "Productive," "Creative'' and "Neighborly."

Some proposals included questioning FirstEnergy over whether its substation should remain.

Menu of uses

The "Public" land uses could include everything from a police academy to a post office, fitness stations, a bike trail, a kayak launch, volleyball courts and a rock climbing area.

The "Productive" uses could include community gardens, restaurants, a city market, a distribution center and an orchard.

Under "Creative," McCoach outlined a theater, a "maker's studio," a music venue, advertising agencies, offices, boutiques, lofts, a brewery/distillery and an amphitheater.

The "Neighborly" scenario included apartments, townhomes, a greenway trail, a playground, doctor's offices, a community center and a grocery.

Most of the scenarios came with a "B" option that altered the layout of uses by shifting I-90 from the water's edge along Lake Erie to the base of a 36-foot bluff that cuts across the site from east to west.

Green shoreline

According to one bar chart, the "Public B" proposal could produce more than 23 acres of green "Open Space," the largest amount in any of the proposals.

That idea excited Johnson the most.

"I absolutely see this project as saving Glenville,'' he said, speaking of a portion of his ward east of the FirstEnergy site. "When you take away the asphalt and bring green space and quality of life, it will literally save the neighborhood, and that's the thing I value with this project."

Speaking from New York on Wednesday morning, McCoach cautioned that the acreages in the presentation should be not taken literally, but instead as a rough indication.

"This whole document is about 'could,' " he said.