By Peter H. Milliken

milliken@vindy.com

AUSTINTOWN

The Mahoning County Planning Commission approved a 715-foot extension of Clarkins Drive near the Interstate 80 and state Route 46 interchange and the Hollywood Gaming racino.

The extension was approved at the request of Universal Development of Liberty Township, which owns a self-storage facility on Clarkins and the land along the extension route.

Universal will pay for the extension to a new cul-de-sac and for the extension of water supply and sewer lines along the new section of the drive.

Barbara Leali, Universal’s land development project administrator, said no specific new development is being planned for the extension now.

“We need to get the improvements in first,” she said.

“It’ll become marketable then, and, of course, then we may get the interest after that,” from business prospects, Leali said.

“Once the improvements are in, then it’s ready for new development.”

The commission had approved the same extension a year ago, but Tuesday granted a new one-year approval because the extension hadn’t been built within 12 months after its first approval.

The first approval occurred before the Hollywood Gaming at Mahoning Valley Race Course racino opened last September at state Route 46 and Silica Road.

“It certainly is an interchange of destination, to say the least. With all the improvements that are being put in there, that area is already ripe now with development with the racino,” said Anthony Traficanti, chairman of the county commissioners and a planning commission member.

The road and utility extensions will make Clarkins “more valuable and more palatable for additional businesses,” he said. “There’s a lot of potential there.”

Clarkins Drive already has two hotels along it.

The Interstate 80 interchange with state Route 46 is one of the region’s busiest interstate highway interchanges, Traficanti said.

Increasing traffic, including truck traffic, is spurring the widening of I-80 in that area, which is now underway, Leali said.