City of Seven Hills
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. How did the city pay for the new street signs?
A. The gorgeous, new street signs were paid for out of a special "street maintenance" fund and not with monies from the General Fund. The money in this fund can only be used for this type of project and it is monies sent back to the city from gasoline taxes, etc.
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Q. What is going on with the Broadview Road Streetscape project?
A. The city has plans to dramatically improve the look of the Broadview Road Business District with a $1.5 million dollar facelift including 250 new trees, new aprons and curbs, sidewalks, flower boxes, red brick fronts, banners and a lighted archway over Civic Drive. The legislation creating special TIF funding is in place and the city will proceed once it is comfortable that the money generated from the TIF will cover the cost of the project. TIF money is money that the city "capture's" locally from the increase in value of the project - instead of sending it to the county. The city does not want to use General Fund money for the project, so will wait until it is covered by the county money.
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Q. Does the Mayor perform weddings?
A. Yes, Mayor Richard Dell'Aquila performs wedding ceremonies. By law, Mayor's are not allowed to receive any pay for performing a wedding. When Mayor Dell'Aquila performs a wedding, the $50 or $100 donation goes into a special city beautification account.
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Q. Can non-residents join the Rec. Center?
A. Yes, the change was made a few years ago and the result has been very positive with these non-residents bringing in hundreds of thousands of dollars of needed revenue into the Center. Non-residents do pay a higher fee than residents to join the Center because residents have to pay a tax on their property taxes that covers the initial construction of the building. Most non-residents that have joined the Center are from Independence, Broadview Heights, and North Royalton. The allowance of non-residents has allowed residents the chance to spend time with relatives, friends, and workout partners.
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Q. How are the Seven Hills schools?
A. Students from Seven Hills are part of the Parma School District, but they only attend four schools - all of which have been Excellent rated by the State of Ohio. Students that live in Seven Hills can only go John Glenn Elementary, Green Valley Elementary, Hillside Middle School, or Normandy High School. These schools continually perform very well on State of Ohio report cards giving Seven Hills student's one of the best educations in Northeast Ohio. There are also many other private school options for Seven Hills students such as St. Columbkille Grade School, Padua Franciscan High School, and St. Ignatius High School.
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Q. Does Seven Hills have a high turnover rate of residents?
A. No. In fact, on average, people choose to live in Seven Hills longer than any other community in Northeast Ohio. Over 50% of people living in Seven Hills do not have a mortgage - which means they have lived here for decades and have completely paid off their house. When a typical house comes available for sale in Seven Hills, it usually sells very quickly according to local REALTORS. Seven Hills is a wonderful place to raise a family and once people move to the city, they stay a long time.
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Q. Is Seven Hills safe?
A. Seven Hills is easily one of the safest communities in Northeast Ohio. Every year, the police department creates statistics for the FBI and every year, Seven Hills has the lowest crime totals of any community around. In a city of over 5,000 houses, every year there are only a handful burglaries or assaults - mostly domestically related. There are almost never cases of murder or rape or arson. It truly is a safe, secure, and beautiful place to live with vigilant neighbors that aggressively report any unusual activity.
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Q. What is the Swiftreach phone system?
A. In an effort to communicate quickly with residents, the city has an automated phone system that can send a phone message to every house in the city with important information. If you do not receive this message periodically, you may not be in the system and should call the Service Department at 216.524.4421. People that have an unlisted number or some other type of privacy mechanism may not be in the city system and can be added manually.
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Q. How do the blue recycle carts work?
A. The City of Seven Hills was one of the first communities in the United States to provide a free, 35-gallon recycling cart to every house in the city. On trash day, residents simply wheel the cart filled with recyclables to the curb for automated pick-up. Items in the cart do not have to be sorted - literally, residents can just lift the lid and throw into the cart their recyclables such as glass, paper, magazines, aluminum, etc. The city is charged for trash pick-up based on weight. However, the city is not charged for the weight of anything recycled so when residents recycle, they are saving the city hundreds of thousands of dollars had those items been counted in the "weight" trash total. Not only is recycling good for the environment, it is good for the city's bank account. Seven Hills received an award for implementing this first of its kind program and usually has about 85-90% recycling participation.
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Q. Tell me about street repair?
A. The City of Seven Hills aggressively repairs and replaces city streets in an effort to protect this tangible asset. In just the last couple of years the city has spent over $6 million dollars on new concrete pavements called whitetoppings - where new concrete is placed on top of old concrete. As part of this exciting new process, residents receive a new drive apron and curbs. Every year, the city engineer inspects and rates city streets and assigns them a rating. These ratings are used by city officials to determine what streets need repair. Many considerations go into street decisions. Officials may want to hold off on doing some streets for a couple of years in order to do a bigger program in a future year to capitalize on the "economy of scale" of a bigger bid package. Other streets may be beyond saving - so city officials may let them "die" for a few years knowing they are going to be completely replaced in the future. Other asphalt streets are usually on a ten to twelve year overlay cycle. The city has so many different types of streets that every year meetings are held and determinations are made as to what is the best plan of action. Spot repairs and patching are made throughout the year and trouble spots should immediately be reported to the Service Department.
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Q. How can I become involved in Seven Hills?
A. The list of possibilities is almost endless depending on your interests and age. There are multiple seniors groups such as the AARP and the Golden Agers. Younger people can join the many leagues offered by the Basketball, Baseball or Soccer Federations. There are political groups such as the Democratic and Republican parties. There are local Rotary's, Chambers of Commerce, Kiwanis Clubs, church groups, Garden Clubs, fitness groups out of the Recreation Center, and many independent ethnic groups.
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Q. What would a Seven Hills snapshot look like?
A. Seven Hills is believed to have the highest percentage concentration of Polish Americans in the State of Ohio - with nearly 30% claiming some type of Polish heritage. In addition, Italian Americans were a close second in the city with nearly 25% claiming some type of Italian heritage. The city also has a large population of German, Irish, Ukranian, Russian, and Croatian people.
Seven Hills has a large population of senior citizens that help make the average age of city resident's one of the highest in the County. However, there is also a constant influx of young families moving into the city to take advantage of the beautiful homes, amenities such as the Rec. Center, and the excellent schools.
Seven Hills has a high percentage of people that have a college degree and the average household income has always been in the upper half of the county despite having so many retirees.
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Q. What happens to the taxes I pay?
A. The City of Seven Hills only receives about 12% of your property tax dollars. With that, the city provides streets, sewers, City Hall, police and fire protection, the Rec. Center, six parks, snow plowing, leaf pick-up, city events, and a host of other services.
The County government, along with the library and Metro Park system, receives around 28% of your property tax dollars. The school system receives the remaining 60% of your property tax dollars.
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Q. What is going on with the Rockside Road project, now called Sora Hill?
A. The developer, David Slyman, has successfully purchase nearly all of the needed land for the 75-acre mixed use, lifestyle center. As a point of reference, Legacy Village is about 45-acres and Crocker Park is about 55-acres. Plans for the development continue behind the scenes with engineering work taking place, easements and permits being acquired, etc. The sluggish economy has slowed the project to a stop, but when there are signs of life in the marketplace, this should be one of the first projects to hit the ground running. The project is alive thanks to the fact the developer has spent so much money purchasing the land. If that land had not been purchased, the project could have died the way many other proposals that were once potential competitors died.
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Q. Whatever happened to the lawsuit regarding the Recreation Center roof?
A. The matter is continuing and being handled by City Law Director Richard Pignatiello and the Law Firm of Squire, Sanders and Dempsey.
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Q. How do I speak to the Mayor?
A. Please contact Seven Hills City Hall at 216-524-4421.
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