Critics: New road will add to pollution

Avon’s population has jumped from about 7,000 to more than 17,000 in a decade.

CLEVELAND (AP) — A new interchange off Interstate 90 west of the city threatens to increase vehicle emissions in a region already under a federal mandate to reduce air pollution, some critics say.

The $19 million dollar interchange in the suburb of Avon is seen by supporters as a way to ease congested commuter traffic. The new collection of ramps, exits and entrances is also expected to attract retail and office development in the area, including a branch of the Cleveland Clinic.

Critics argue it will add to air pollution problems in northeast Ohio, where the federal government wants communities to reduce air pollution — both ozone and particulate — by 2009.

“This is a community where they’re putting in a new interchange and where they’re planning low-density, automobile-dependent land use,” said David Beach, director of the Center for Regional Sustainability of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. “That’s hardly a sustainable approach in an age of climate change and scarcity of energy resources.”

The new interchange was approved in October by the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency, a five-county agency that oversees transportation projects.

“Our initial air quality analysis has shown that it won’t have any detrimental impact,” said John Hosek, the agency’s director of transportation programs.

NOACA engineers are overseeing plans for the interchange, about 20 miles west of Cleveland, but the city of Avon and private companies are paying for the job. The Jacobs Group has plans to develop 100 acres surrounding the interchange, including a site for a Cleveland Clinic branch.

Avon and the Jacobs Group are expected to pay about $6.3 million each toward the interchange and the remaining $7 million or more is expected to be generated by Jacobs’ planned development nearby.

“If we had to wait for federal money, we’d never get this interchange,” Avon Mayor James Smith said. Planners project the highway interchange could be open in a few years.

Interstate 90 already has two exits for Avon, but the city’s population has jumped from about 7,000 to more than 17,000 in a decade, helped in part by a strong school system.

“So what are we supposed to do? Tell people to stop coming here?” Smith asked.

Smith said the city is meeting every environmental requirement in the planning and building of the highway interchange.

Brian Stacy, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Transportation, said a Columbus-area firm is doing a detailed environmental assessment, but it won’t be finished for about a year.