Strongsville Wants to Have Biggest Industrial Park in County

City officials will try again to get a grant to extend Foltz Parkway to Boston Road -- a move that would open up about 139 city-owned acres for development, plus another 300 acres of privately owned land.

"We're looking for grant money -- very aggressively," Mayor Tom Perciak said. "Once we extend that road, this will be the largest industrial park in all of Cuyahoga County."

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

That 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 cost will be "several million," Perciak said.

The city has sought grants for the road, but none 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.

With Ohio cutting Local Government Funds to cities, Perciak said Strongsville and other cities are struggling to balance their budgets.

But on the brighter side, businesses are expressing an interest in building here, he said. 

"The flow of money from Columbus is less and less," he said. "But we are getting more and more inquiries about development as the economy improves."