Big Piles of Dirt are Next Step Toward New Jobs in Strongsville

The city is ready to start filling in wetlands on vacant property on Foltz Parkway -- the next step in .

City Council this week authorized the mayor to seek bids for the work, which will make the parcels buildable. Crews will push dirt into low-lying wetlands areas.

"We've been stockpiling dirt for that purpose," City Engineer Ken Mikula said.

Mikula said the city has been working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which oversees federally protected wetlands, on the undeveloped Foltz land for the last five years.

The agency awarded a permit to the city to fill the wetlands by April 2013 as part of a mitigation plan.

It is one of several efforts the city is making to open up 500 acres of land off Foltz Parkway for industrial development, which will bring hundred of jobs and thousands of new tax dollars to town.

The city owns 169 acres there, with the rest privately held. 

The existing Foltz Parkway extends into 43 acres of the undeveloped land and stops.

"We have 43 acres that are ready to be developed now," Economic Development Director Brent Painter said.

Late last year, the city applied to the Ohio Department of Development for $3.48 million to extend Foltz Parkway, but Painter said the city learned it did not get the grant.

"We're looking into some new grant opportunities now," Painter said.

The road is expected to cost about $5 million.

Mayor Tom Perciak has said  was the first step toward gettng the industrial land developed because it provides better freeway access to companies that will eventually build there.