CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Communities and planning groups across Greater Cleveland scooped up nearly $1 million in grants aimed at making neighborhoods more vibrant places where people will want to live, work and visit.

The region's most powerful planning agency for transportation work announced the awards Friday.

The grants from the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency range from $40,000 to $118,000, with most pegged at $75,000. NOACA began offering theTransportation for Livable Communities Initiative grants in 2006. The money helps communities and public agencies with "integrated transportation and land use planning that strengthens community livability," NOACA says.

"This year's round of applications was very competitive because we received requests for more than double the amount of funding available," NOACA Executive Director Grace Gallucci said.

NOACA made 13 awards totaling $998,000. Among the recipients and the funding they received are:
• Avon Lake, $40,000, for a study on creating a 10-foot-wide multi-use corridor to improve connections throughout the city, to its Cleveland Clinic health center and to Avon. The analysis would be the basis for moving forward with land purchases for off-road paths to add to the bike system.
• Multiple East Side community development corporations, $75,000, to examine ways to reposition the former East 105th shopping center in the Glenville neighborhood as a mixed-use district; "reimagine" areas of southeast Cleveland to anticipate changes that could come with the proposed Opportunity Corridor, with an eye to improving pedestrian and bike access and safety; and other projects.
• LAND Studio, $115,000, to develop a master plan for the "Eastside Greenway," identifying trail alignments and trail heads on the East Side of Cleveland and eastern suburbs.
• University Circle Inc., $100,000, for a comprehensive evaluation of existing and forecasted conditions in the University Circle area, including auto, public transit, bicycle and pedestrian facilities; intersections and traffic flows; workforce travel patterns; and way-finding signage.

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