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Statistics not too bad for 2008
(by Barbara Christian - March 12, 2009)
WINDOW ON MAIN STREET, BY BARBARA CHRISTIAN
Statistics not too bad for 2008
Statistics can provide fascinating nuggets of information, particularly when they apply to the things we hold near and dear. Like life here in the Chagrin Valley.
That's why we tore into a report issued by the Chagrin Falls economic development advisory board like piranha through a school of fish. We'll get to some of the statistics later, but first some information about the committee.
Mayor Thomas Brick formed the committee not long after taking office. In addition to the mayor it includes council members Robert Williams, James Watterson and Steven Patton, along with citizen members Richard Kaplan, Peter Balunek, Nancy Rogoff, Joanne Zettl, Lisa Turner and Terry Boettcher.
Their mission is to encourage, attract and retain businesses and maintain residential property values. They meet monthly at an unholy hour of the morning, illustrating it is the early bird that catches the worm. Piranha, worms, birds, economic advisers are early risers all. But I digress.
Those early-morning sessions did produced a list of priorities for 2009, including an informational packet for developers which will be a kind of guidebook to working with the village.
The committee also plans to encourage the development of the northwest corner of Main and Orange streets. That will be a sell job as Herculean as convincing Rush Limbaugh to speak well of liberals.
Now, about those statistics. The committee put them together from a variety of sources, including the U.S. Census Bureau, the Cuyahoga County Treasurer's Office, the village's building and zoning department, the Ohio Multiple Listing Service and Downtown Chagrin Falls.
You may be surprised by this, but 2008 proved to be a growth year for the village, based on 353 occupancy permits issued, compared to 341 in 2007.
The architectural review board saw 81 submissions, compared to 77 the year before, and residential additions climbed from 14 in 2007 to 20 in 2008.
There were five new dwellings each of those two years. And good news for preservationists, the number of demolitions decreased slightly, with two structures hitting the ground in 2008 and three in 2007.
Chagrin Falls title transfers for homes also remained about the same -- 76 in 2008, compared to 75 in 2007. Just for comparison's sake, the banner year for home sales came with the millennium. There were 96 transfers in 2000.
Business saw an upturn in 2008 as well. There were nine new merchants opened in Chagrin Falls in 2008, and just four closed their doors.
However, a merchant survey sponsored by the Holiday Traditions committee found that 91 percent of those responding said their holiday sales were off in 2008, compared to the year before. Oddly, 55 percent noted they were still pleased with their holiday sales for 2008.
One more thing. Last week, we told you that Downtown Chagrin Falls was to discuss the Chagrin Boulevard closing, which is set to take place between April and July during the village's busy season. During that meeting held last week, it was decided that a better forum for that discussion is an economic development committee meeting. TBA.
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