FAIRVIEW PARK, Ohio - The future of Lorain Road now has guideposts for city leaders thanks to a Planning for Infill Development Building Blocks Technical Assistance grant from the US EPA Office of Sustainable Communities.

"The EPA brought in a professional planning consultant (Renaissance Planning) and ran us through a program they've developed in their office to help us work through and identify ways that we can deal with infill development - redeveloping vacant properties - and our aging infrastructure," Fairview Park Director of Public Service & Development Shawn Leininger said.

The in-kind grant, which was awarded this spring, culminated with the recently received Next Steps Memorandum that identified key community issues, prioritized strategies and specific actions to create a downtown through infill redevelopment along the Lorain Road corridor.

Leininger said the Next Steps Memorandum recommendations includes four strategies: policy and codes that support infill development; promote and brand Fairview Park's downtown; shared management of vision with city and community partners; and financing the vision.

"The EPA is interested in sustainable communities because at the end of the day a sustainable community helps support the environment," Leininger said. "That means everything from how we control stormwater runoff to having sites that are providing economic opportunity."

Next for the city is an effort to address components of the Next Steps Memorandum with local organization Forward Fairview Park. Leininger said residents will incrementally see the plan come together.

"It's not like one day we'll stand back and say, 'We're done,'" Leininger said. "You're never really done when you're developing a downtown. It's always evolving. So hopefully we've developed a zoning code that supports mixed-use development. Also, we've developed a streetscape that promotes small business and walkability, and we have a structure in place to support it."

The efforts will mirror Fairview Park's master plan, which was last revised in 2013.

"You want to generally review a master plan every five to seven years, so instead of the entire community, we may do a portion of it," Leininger said. "Right now, we're still trying to decide when that master plan should be updated."