Corridor study gets business prediction

The computer model includes population and the types of businesses along the corridor.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
BOARDMAN -- To recommend solutions to the dilemma of a congested U.S. Route 224, planners have to account for the future.
That's what a handful of business representatives who make up the business group involved in the Route 224 corridor study attempted to do Wednesday.
The Ohio Department of Transportation and Eastgate Regional Council of Governments started the $1 million study in November aimed at addressing traffic tie-ups on the seven-mile stretch of Route 224 between Interstate 680 and state Route 11.
ODOT and Eastgate split the cost, with URS of Akron conducting the research. Teams from the community representing residents, businesses and government have been pitching in.
Members of the business group met Wednesday to examine the current data of businesses along the road and try to project what that data may be in 25 years.
"We're all just trying to look into our crystal balls to try to see what the future may hold," said Tom Costello, a Boardman Township trustee.
The data, including population and types of businesses, like retail, manufacturing and wholesalers, will be input into a computer model that the Akron company will use in identifying alternatives to address gridlock and other traffic problems on Route 224.
What's included
Participants listed the new Hampton Inn and Bob Evans restaurant in Canfield as well as the anticipated influx of residents and employees from the Westford Lifestyle Community, an upscale development of homes, restaurants, retail and commercial businesses, in the township.
Those factors hadn't been included in previous numbers that were assembled a few years ago. That data include population, the types of businesses and the number of employees in each.
Conversation also turned to Boardman's future.
"Twenty-five years down the road, one of the things I see as a constraint is that it's all linear," said Bill Barlow of Eastgate, referring to development that stretches along Route 224 but not far off it. "There's no depth at all."
He talked about the need for a center of Boardman, with circulator roads behind commercial establishments that are on the main highways.
Barlow said those are some things to consider if the township were to develop a 50-year master plan.
The study's next steps involve development of broad ideas for improvements to Route 224's problems. Identification of a detailed plan to address those problems will come much later.
The cost of construction depends on the solution developed.
The conceptual alternatives expected to be developed by early 2006 take into account the data collected.