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Year in Review: Macedonia, Northfield, Summit County leaders study Wolstein Group's defunct soccer stadium project land

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December 31, 2008

by Jeff Saunders

Reporter

North Summit County -- With a proposed major league soccer stadium and retail complex apparently dead, area communities and the county began looking in 2007 at how the land might be developed.

A $40,000 economic and environmental study, funded by local communities and the county and released at a May 28 press conference at the Macedonia City Center, concluded that only about 267 out of 918 acres surveyed on the east side of Route 8 is available for commercial or residential development. The limitations were due to the presence of wetlands, as well as setbacks along Brandywine Creek, which runs through the portion of the area on its way to the Cuyahoga River to the west.

Both are necessary, the study said, to help prevent flooding downstream in Northfield Center and the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

In January, the Macedonia and Northfield Center Joint Economic Development Board approved the payment of $20,000 to help fund the study. The JEDD, which provides government oversight of the Crossings at Golden Link shopping center, also includes about 66 acres among several hundred acres between Highland and Twinsburg roads. The remaining study costs was funded by the county through the Summit County Port Authority.

The previous September, Macedonia Mayor Don Kuchta proposed such a study after he withdrew his support for the stadium and retail project. Kuchta said at that time that he had become concerned about the environmental impacts of the project and that as far as he was concerned, the project was "dead."

Chris Burnham, executive director of the port authority, which had previously been attempting to secure some public funding for the project, told the News Leader in February that he too felt that it was past the point where it could be resuscitated.

The project's developer, the Wolstein Sports and Entertainment Group, said at the beginning of 2008 that though it was still considering the Macedonia and Northfield Center location, it was also looking at other possible sites.

Nothing regarding the city and township site has been reported since then.

The study included 270 acres in Macedonia, south of Highland Road, 337 acres on the north and south sides of Twinsburg Road in Northfield Center and 311 acres in Boston Heights. All but 169 acres of the 918 acres studied is undeveloped.

Though the village did not take part in the study, the JEDD Board said it wanted to include its portion within the study since development there could environmentally impact the land to the north.

E-mail: jsaunders@recordpub.com

Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3169




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