Grand Opening: Upland Sims Park Expansion - City of Euclid

Blog Date

Wednesday, December 3, 2025

Author(s)

Julie Smith

Stuart O. Smith, Jr.

The History

We believe that understanding the past will help us appreciate the present. Thus, we wanted to include this "The History" section of our blog post.

First, while writing this blog post, we shared on social media this excellent 2020 Lincoln Institute of Land Policy video. Even if you don't have time for the other history content we share here, we recommend taking the time to watch this! We were blown away by the story of a city's recovery that is presented in the video. Not only does it tell the story of the City of Euclid, but it relates to how work done in Cleveland complements what is happening in Euclid:

Making Sense of Place, Cleveland: Lakefront City
LincolnLandPolicy
. . . Oct 7, 2020
Suburban Euclid once suffered from proximity to urban decline in neighboring Cleveland, but now it’s following the city’s example, thinking outside the box to revitalize and reinvent itself as a lakefront community.

Making Sense of Place: The Lives of Cities
msop.lincolninst.edu

After our August 29, 2025, walk in the park, we shared on social media a link to the City of Euclid's January 2022 Euclid Waterfront Improvements Plan web page. It includes good information about the history that made the current park developments possible. Here is some of the information, plus two of the three videos (from 2017 and 2020) featured on the web page:

“Euclid is close to realizing a brilliant lakefront project that could serve as a precedent for Cleveland, if not the entire Great Lakes region.” – Steven Litt, The Plain Dealer (November 2017)

. . .

Waterfront Update April 29, 2020
Euclid Community Television

The uniqueness of the project and its ability to set the model for the transformation of Great Lakes waterways is the public/private partnership developed when the City negotiated easements from nearly 100 lakefront stakeholders. These easements allowed for temporary construction as well as permanent maintenance and public access across historically privatized shoreline. The project was dissected into multiple phases including a fishing pier in Phase I and a three-quarter mile public access trail atop a seawall mitigation devastating erosion in Phase II. At the end of 2021, more than $18M of federal, state, local and private funds have supported this precedent setting public/private community project for project engineering, management and construction. Future phases include additional upland bicycle and pedestrian trails, a transit plaza, a nature-based playground, reconfiguration of the Disc Golf Course and a lakefront restaurant at the new lakefront park at E.246th Street and Lakeshore Boulevard. In addition, the project is viewed as a model for public/private partnerships and other public access waterfront development around the Great Lakes and beyond.

. . .

Euclid Lakefront Development Plan
SmithGroup
. . .May 4, 2017 This exciting vision to reclaim Euclid’s historic waterfront began in summer 2009. A series of public open houses took place throughout the City in addition to conversations with local, State and Federal agencies that helped the City identify grants to fund major components of the multi-phased project.

While the immediate focus was on Sims Park and the new fishing pier, key components and the next phases of work include the much needed stabilization of the shoreline, reforming the cobble and sand beaches and creating trails to connect the City’s residents to its most value natural asset, Lake Erie. Project permitting is ongoing and construction is expected to begin late 2017 or early

If you want to learn more, we recommend that you go to the Euclid Waterfront Improvements Plan web page for information, videos, linked website and PDF files, and photos.

Here are more resource web pages and videos:

Euclid plans public trail near Sims park
cleveland.com
Nov 11, 2017
Euclid plans a public trail on reconstructed land near Sims park.

Kenneth J Sims Park in Euclid, Ohio - Cinematic Aerial Maneuver
Linas Muliolis, Century 21 Homestar
A fun maneuver with my drone! DJI Mavic 2 Pro at Kenneth J Sims Park in Euclid Ohio!
. . .

Friday, August 29, 2025 - Euclid Lakefront Trail and Sims Park

On Friday, August 29, 2025, we took an enjoyable walk on the Euclid Lakefront Trail, starting at the Cleveland Foundation Plaza. (Note that we personally benefit from the work of the foundation, and have written 38 past "Cleveland Foundation" blog posts.) It is great to see so many supporters/partners that came together to make this project happen. We also saw that construction is underway for further expansion. While there, we shared on social media how we looked forward to returning again in the future to see the new area that will provide easy lake access for the people living there.

While at the waterfront, we saw a project sign that listed Alison Lukacsy-Love as the project manager for the development of this area for public access. We know her from her involvement with PechaKucha Night Cleveland (see our 23 blog posts), from her development work with the City of Cleveland waterfront plan (see our "Untold Lakefront Stories" blog post), and more. When we got home, we shared with her on social media that we were at the park on this day, and we wanted her to know that we appreciated and benefited from her good work.

Just before leaving, we looked at the Henn Mansion building and website to learn a little about this historic building that is now available for community members to use.

When you look at our photos from the day, let us know if you can see the black cat looking back at you from the grassy area:

We recommend viewing videos in full screen mode.
Please feel free to pause the video to read the project sign and enjoy the views that are in the slides!!

Saturday Morning, November 15, 2025 - New Upland Sims Park Expansion Public Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony

Saturday, November 15, 2025 - New Upland Sims Park Expansion Grand Opening
Enlarge Image

The new Upland Sims Park expansion is now open to the public.
After years of planning, the City of Euclid is excited to announce substantial completion of the upland expansion of Sims Park (23131 Lakeshore Blvd.) A public ribbon-cutting event was held on Saturday, November 15th at 10:30 am to commemorate the occasion.

This 5.5-acre expansion of the city's beloved lakefront park introduces new passive greenspace designed with both wildlife and the community in mind. The new upland area features a new walking path loop with educational signage, a mulched woodland ravine trail, and improved lake viewing areas with swinging benches and dedicated bird watching areas. The landscaping incorporates pollinator-friendly gardens, native trees and plants, and features designed for bird and bat migrations as well as stormwater management. The project received generous funding support for both acquisition and improvements from the State of Ohio Public Works Commission Clean Ohio Fund.

The expansion marks another key step in the City's commitment to creating world-class, accessible waterfront destinations. This goal is especially significant given that the Ohio Department of Natural Resources estimates only about 20% of Ohio's 312-mile Lake Erie shoreline is publicly accessible. The City has invested over $20 million in waterfront improvements, including the construction of a public fishing pier, restored beaches and nearshore habitat, shoreline stabilization, and a ¾-mile Lakefront multi-use trail.

The new upland area is accessible via the trail east of the Henn Mansion (which connects to the Joseph Farrell Memorial Fishing Pier and the award-winning Euclid Waterfront Trail) or at the north end of East 233rd Street, where an accessible parking space is available, but other park visitors are encouraged to park along the street.

We look forward to welcoming residents and visitors to this exciting new addition to Euclid's waterfront.

We were so glad that we saw Share the River's post announcing the City of Euclid's ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new Upland Sims Park expansion. Stuart made a point of telling Euclid Mayor Kirsten Holzheimer Gail, State Senator Kent Smith, and Representative Eric K. Synenberg that they should read Share the River's social media posts and blog posts to keep up to date on what is happening on the Lake Erie lakefront and on the Cuyahoga River.

It was great to talk directly to our state representatives before the ceremony. We thanked them for their good work, and for the community Town Hall gathering that Stuart had recently attended on Thursday, October 30, 2025. Learn more by seeing the photos and information that Stuart shared on Bluesky during their meeting.

We enjoyed talking to Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne, since we miss how we often used to see him at University Circle events. Before he became our county executive, he was the president of University Circle, Inc. We often write about the events we attend in the City of Cleveland's culture circle. Julie is there every week volunteering at the Cleveland History Center's Euclid Park Beach Grand Carousel (see our Euclid Beach Park blog posts).

We had a great time at this event!! We were very impressed to learn what Euclid Mayor Kirsten Holzheimer Gail and the other city leaders were able to create on Ohio's north coast.

Here are our photos and videos from the morning's ceremony. These videos are also available to share on Bluesky: