Strongsville Schools Seek to Buy Land on Westwood

The Strongsville City Schools are eyeing a 1.38-acre parcel on Westwood Drive that could give the district more room for a football field at the new middle school, as well as another way of accessing the site.

Business Manager Mark Donnelly said the land, which is off Westwood just east of Olympus Way, could let the new middle school -- to be built on the existing Center Middle School site -- stretch a little.

"They (the property owners) have offered it to us, and the school board is interested in it," Donnelly said.

The district was expected Tuesday night to have an informational meeting with nearby residents about the plans.

And school officials have commissioned a firm to do a traffic study in the area.

"If all the questions are answered and it looks like it might be safer for kids, and help traffic on Pearl, we'll go ahead with it," Donnelly said.

Donnelly said he initially looked at a small parcel abutting school property as a way to reposition the football field behind Center Middle School into a north-south layout.

So he approached the owner, who said she uses the back land to exercise her dogs and didn't want to live on a small lot. 

Instead of shrinking her property, she offered to sell her home and the full 1.38-acre lot to the schools.

Donnelly said the district would raze the house at 19384 Westwood Drive and install a driveway there to provide a secondary access to the new school.

Ideally, the driveway could give buses and parents a way to get in and out of the school without pouring more traffic onto Pearl Road, he said.

But Donnelly said even if the driveway isn't a full-fledged entrance-exit, it could still be put to minimal use -- maybe for exiting traffic only, or even just as a sidewalk and bike access for kids.

"Less than 20 percent of the traffic going and and out of the school would use that driveway," Donnelly said. 

He said the traffic would also only be heavy twice a day -- in the mornings and when school lets out.

Donnelly said he also doesn't expect traffic on Westwood to increase much when the new middle school -- which will serve all of Strongsville -- opens because most of the new students now go to Albion and live in the opposite direction.

The price of the property has not yet been disclosed. Donnelly said the district will move ahead with decisions after the traffic study is completed.