CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Cleveland school district unveiled early plans for a long-debated new West Side high school at the old Max Hayes vocational high school site on Detroit Avenue.

The district hopes to build a $34 million new high school at W. 46th Street and Detroit by the fall of 2020 that would have two smaller "schools" within the building, each with their own focus or style.

That's in keeping with how the district is breaking up older traditional high schools around the city into smaller schools, as it has done at the old John Hay, Lincoln-West and John Marshall high schools. The district has not yet decided what the two schools will be.

Early drawings of the new school presented to the Cleveland Landmarks Commission Thursday call for a two-story academic wing so each school has its own floor. A shared "events center" with a gym and cafeteria would sit at the west end of the 5-acre property, connected by a walkway.

The now-vacant property will look very different from how it looked with the now-demolished Max Hayes on the site, architects told the commission.:

Parking will be in the back of the site, not the front as it was in the past.

The academic wing on the east end of the parcel will be up along the Detroit Avenue sidewalks, not set far back as the old school was.

The school will have a plaza at the main entryway facing Detroit in between the academic wing and "event center."

The old Max Hayes High School, now demolished.

Commission member Giancarlo Calicchia said the design looks very friendly while member Adrienne Bailey said the proposal is "really great" compared to how Max Hayes looked before.

Even City Councilman Matt Zone, who has wanted the land used for retail and residential development, was pleased with the design - so long as the district doesn't scale back landscaping and other features for budget reasons.

Zone said he would still rather have the new school out near the old West Technical High School site, around W. 93rd Street. That school, long-closed, has been converted into apartments.

But despite that opposition, he says he accepts a school at that location and just wants to make sure that it is a spectacular addition to the neighborhood, on par with "Taj Mahal" schools the city has built in other neighborhoods.

"They've really shortchanged the West Side of Cleveland, particularly our community," Zone said. When architects said they might have to trim back landscaping plans for budget reasons, Zone pledged to protest if landscaping is cut back.

At the same time, he said he believes that "at the end of the day, it's going to be an amazing high school and the community will be satisfied with the finished project."

Zone has planned a community meeting to discuss the plan at 6 p.m. May 24, at St. Paul's Community Church, 4427 Franklin Boulevard.

The project will go back to the Landmarks Commision for approval on May 25, then to the city Planning Commission a week later. Design will continue over the winter with construction likely to start next spring for a fall 2020 opening.

The state will pay about two thirds of the cost, with the rest covered by the school construction tax that voters approved in the fall of 2014.

The old Max Hayes was closed in 2015 when a new one opened near W. 65th Street and Interstate 90.