Ohio EPA gives final OK for Enterprise Park in Howland

Staff report

COLUMBUS

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency today issued final certification to North Eastwood LLC’s Enterprise Park project for a potential 100-acre medical campus in Howland, near the Eastwood Mall.

The campus, if built, would include a hospital, assisted-living center, office building, medical educational center and midrise apartment building.

Mercy Health had been considering a $250 million St. Joseph Warren Hospital as part of the Cafaro Co. project.

It put those plans on hold in December after news of the idling of the General Motors Lordstown plant. It, however, has yet to make a final decision.

The certification is a required component of an application with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which would allow the discharge of dredged or fill material into streams and wetlands during the construction phase of the project, according to the state EPA.

Discharges from the project will impact wetlands and streams within the Lower Mosquito Creek watershed.

To offset these impacts, North Eastwood will preserve approximately 27 acres of forested wetlands and more than 5,000 linear feet of streams on the site, and purchase stream and wetland mitigation credits in other areas.