CLEVELAND, Ohio - Case Western Reserve University quietly posted its 2015 master plan on its website two months ago, without public announcement and apparently without intending for the public to see it.

The plan, drafted by the Boston-area landscape architecture firm of Sasaki Associates, shows that CWRU wants to refresh aging portions of its campus and create new gateways to an institution that has felt walled off from surrounding neighborhoods.

When asked why such an important document was posted without fanfare, the university said in a written statement that the plan was intended "for use by internal audiences, who would be able to view after logging in with their university password. Unfortunately, this password protection function was not activated."

As of Wednesday morning, CWRU had put the password protection in place.

When asked why it posted a 2015 document three years after the fact, the university responded that it was not withholding the plan, but instead was working with Sasaki "to secure a completed version of the plan."

The plan, which CWRU said is now complete, describes major steps CWRU has already taken to revamp landscapes in and around University Circle, Cleveland's cultural, educational and medical hub.

Among those steps is the $15 million Nord Greenway, a project scheduled for completion by the end of May, and also planned by Sasaki.

The greenway will be a 2,200-foot-long ribbon of grass, pathways, trees and terraces extending west from the CWRU University Center at East Boulevard, across the front yard of the Cleveland Museum of Art to East 105th Street and the university's Maltz Performing Arts Center.

"Our Board of Trustees approved this Campus Master Plan in October 2015, and we are proud of its transformative vision," CWRU President Barbara Snyder wrote in the introduction to the document.

She wrote that the plan "elegantly links" to a previously completed strategic plan, entitled, "Think Beyond the Possible," to make "recommendations for high quality spaces to support interdisciplinary efforts in teaching and research, as well as increased innovation in learning."

Snyder also wrote that while the "plan recommends some new construction, it primarily prioritizes better use of existing space through renovations and repurposing."

The university campus, which covers 267 acres in University Circle, is the result of the 1967 merger of the Case Institute of Technology and Western Reserve University.

The master plan addresses outcomes of the merger, including the long noted reality that Euclid Avenue separates the former Case Institute on the south side of campus from the Western Reserve campus on the north side.

The plan notes that the heavily trafficked intersection of Euclid Avenue at Adelbert Road is "dangerous for pedestrians, as well as inconvenient for them."

It recommends a "dedicated pedestrian phase in the traffic signal, which would allow direct diagonal crossing of the intersection by pedestrians."

Note: This story has been updated to reflect that CWRU has put password protection on the web link to the master plan.