Interchange presents opportunity

Liberty will seek a $2 million grant for sewer and water lines and a road.
& lt;a href=mailto:yovich@vindy.com & gt;By TIM YOVICH & lt;/a & gt;
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
LIBERTY -- A diversified, eight-member committee is getting together to plan business opportunities around the state Route 711 Connector interchange at Gypsy Lane.
As part of the development, the township wants the Trumbull County Planning Commission to apply for a $2 million grant to prepare the area for development.
Steve Stoyak, president of the Liberty Business Association, and Liberty Township Administrator Patrick J. Ungaro said they visualize development in not only Liberty but in Girard and Youngstown.
The interchange is not scheduled to open until late fall 2005, but if a plan is not in place, the area has no one to blame but itself, Stoyak said.
Stoyak explained that the committee will come up with a development plan for the area and determine its size and the kinds of businesses that could be accommodated.
Youngstown and Girard are represented on the committee because the communities are adjacent to the interchange.
"Development is access, access, access, and Liberty is right in the middle of it," Ungaro said.
If approved by the U.S. Commerce's Department's Economic Development Administration, the $2 million grant will be used to construct water and sewer lines and a road in an area west of Belmont, south of Trumbull Avenue and north of Gypsy Lane.
Prime location
Ungaro views the area as an important site for development because of the interchange.
This would provide access to state Route 11, Interstate 80 and the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport.
Ungaro has been talking with private land owners and developers, the business association, county planning commission, Eastgate Council of Regional Governments, and the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber about doing what needs to be done to see growth in the area.
He's also been in discussions with Girard Mayor James J. Melfi and Youngstown's development department.
Ungaro said that the property in Liberty near the interchange would not be a traditional industrial park where a community buys property, installs the improvements, such as roads utilities, and makes it available to individual businesses.
Rather, Ungaro said that the land would remain private with improvements made by the government and that the landowners would build the businesses.
The township could buy the land, Ungaro said, but he doesn't want to risk the township's fiscal stability.
High priority
Alan Knapp, planning commission assistant director, said the project is high on the agency's priority list. A private development is needed to commit to a job-creation business in the project area to get the federal grant, he noted.
"It sounds like a good project," Knapp said.
Ungaro said that if a road and water and sewer lines are put in with the grant, the land could be used for businesses with warehousing and for commercial businesses fronting Belmont.
"It has grown from the Liberty project to a more regional project," he said.
Some of those who live in the township area have objected to the planned work because of the increased noise and traffic that growth brings with it.
Ungaro maintains that the value of land around the interchange, including homes in the township area, would be worth more money if growth occurred.
& lt;a href=mailto:yovich@vindy.com & gt;yovich@vindy.com & lt;/a & gt;