City Gets First Grant for Foltz Roadway

The city has been awarded a $215,000 grant from the Ohio Department of Transportation toward extending Foltz Parkway to Boston Road.

"It's a good start on the extension of Foltz," Council President Mike Daymut said.

The extension would open up about 139 city-owned acres for development, plus another 300 acres of privately held land.

"It's the largest parcel of undeveloped greenfield land in Cuyahoga County," Economic Development Director Brent Painter said. 

The grant comes from ODOT's Office of Jobs & Commerce, a relatively new department that seeks to provide transportation grants that will spur economic development and job creation, according to John Fonner, regional manager.

The city has been aggressively pursuing grant money to get the road extended, which will cost an estimated $5 million.

City Council last year hired an engineering firm to update the six-year-old plans for extending Foltz Parkway from where it ends south to the county line.

The extension will give Strongsville access to the rest of the 169 acres it bought nearly a decade ago. In 2005, the city extended Foltz about 1,500 feet, touching about 43 acres of the land but leaving the rest unreachable.

The next phase will extend Foltz more than 3,000 feet. 

The city has sought grants for the road, but none -- until ODOT's -- have been awarded. In the meantime, the city is dealing with wetlands issues; it has gotten permission from the Army Corps of Engineers to fill in some wetlands areas for the road.

Painter said there has been renewed interest in the land as the economy has picked up.

"We want to see all that land developed for industry, especially high-tech manufacturing," he said.