Northern Hills Homeowner's Association

Cleveland Expansion Condemns 168 More Homes.

Apr 02, 2001

By JAMES F. SWEENEY
PLAIN DEALER REPORTER
?¿½2001 THE PLAIN DEALER.

Cleveland's plans to demolish the International Exposition Center to make way for a new runway at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport will cost
more and could destroy 168 more homes than expected.

The city could demolish 468 Brook Park homes threatened by the proposed runway. When the deal was announced last month, Cleveland and Brook Park
officials estimated that there were 300 homes in the neighborhood and that they could be bought for about $30 million.

Now Cleveland could spend up to $36 million over the next seven years buying and demolishing just the homes in the western half of the neighborhood - 314 of them. And it could spend millions more to buy and level the remaining 154
homes in the eastern end of the neighborhood south of the airport.

However, those homes at the eastern end of the neighborhood might survive if Cleveland decides not to build a new runway in 15 years or if the extra land is not needed. No estimate was available for the cost of those homes, east
of the Congress Square condominiums.

Lawyers for both sides have been meeting since early February to complete the terms. Details of the pact between the two cities were made public
yesterday at a news conference held by Cleveland Mayor Michael R. White and Brook Park Mayor Thomas J. Coyne.


Cleveland also agreed to pay Brook Park up to $9 million, not the original $6 million, to end the suburb's legal battle to keep the I-X Center.

Cleveland plans to pay for the deal, including the home purchases, from an airport surplus fund, a reserve fund generated by airport revenues such as landing, parking and concession fees and used for capital improvement projects at Hopkins.

The city has already tapped the fund to buy the I-X Center from the Park Corp. The fund must have a minimum balance of at least $4 million as a
condition of recent airport bond sales, but city officials said there would be enough money.

The fundamentals of the deal did not change during the seven weeks of negotiation:

Cleveland will annex the I-X Center and surrounding land, but will continue to pay Brook Park $600,000 a year for a minimum of 10 years to compensate it for lost revenue. Cleveland can demolish the giant building after 10 years.

Brook Park will annex NASA Glenn Research Center and collect $1.9 million a year in income tax revenue from its 3,000 employees.

For the next 30 years, Brook Park gets half the property and income tax revenues from the Emerald Park industrial development in Cleveland north of
the airport.

Some provisions did change:

Cleveland annexes 45 more acres, for a total of 315 acres, including the SkyPark industrial development at I-X Center Dr. and Grayton Rd., home of two businesses and 175 employees.

Brook Park gets a total of 288 acres, including a 34-acre development parcel north of I-480 and east of the railroad tracks.

Mayors White and Coyne now must sell the deal to their city councils, whose approval is needed for the plan to become final.

"We believe this is a bigger and better deal than the one announced six to eight weeks ago," White said.

"I think we put together a proposal for the homeowners that is not only fair, but will be used as an example in other parts of the country," Coyne said.

Dennis E. Eckart, president of the Greater Cleveland Growth Association, praised the deal as "historic" and urged both city councils to approve it quickly.

But council members from both cities were not so quick to embrace the proposal.

Cleveland Council President Mike D. Polensek had no comment on the agreement, which he received yesterday afternoon, but said he intended to
schedule a joint session with Brook Park City Council next month to allow White and Coyne to explain the plan.

"I don't want there to be any question as to understanding what the proposal does and what the proposal costs," he said.

Brook Park City Council President Richard Salvatore said he was in no hurry to act on the legislation, which will be introduced in both cities next week. He said there was still a lot of anger and confusion among residents over the proposal.

Brook Park Councilman Dennis Patten, who represents the neighborhood that would be razed, said he would share the terms of the agreement with
residents and take his cue from them.

"I just want to make sure everyone is treated fairly," he said. "I do think there are some issues that need to be addressed."