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In its final vote, Lordstown council says yes to Hallock Young Road relocation
Construction could begin in early April
By Ed Runyan
LORDSTOWN
By a 5-0 vote plus one abstention, village council Monday approved vacating a portion of Hallock Young Road and rerouting it around the proposed 1.2-million-square-foot HomeGoods warehouse distribution center.
The sixth councilman, Ron Radtka, abstained from voting because he is part of the real-estate deal.
The five council members who voted also approved the legislation as an emergency, meaning it can take effect immediately.
Lordstown Mayor Arno Hill said there are still a few steps left, but he thinks construction at the Ellsworth Bailey Road facility could begin in early April.
The next step in Lords-town will be when the village planning commission reviews HomeGoods’ site plan at a 6:30 p.m. Monday meeting.
The plans lay out issues such as stormwater runoff and parking.
The Ohio Environmental Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are also reviewing environmental impacts of the project.
The Trumbull County commissioners are expected to have a 10:15 a.m. Wednesday public hearing and approve the HomeGoods enterprise zone agreement. Village council approved the agreement in January. It reduces HomeGoods’ property taxes 75 percent for 10 years.
The village and Lordstown schools also earlier reached a revenue-sharing agreement that causes the village to share some of its HomeGoods income taxes with the school district.
Because Monday is the last time village council will have a vote related to the project and because all five council members voted yes, Hill said he is “elated.”
“As long as the site plan information is correct, I believe there will be a ground breaking in April. I’m hoping,” Hill said.
Three council members – Karen Jones, Robert Bond and Lamar Liming – voted against the previous proposal for part of Hallock Young to become a cul-de-sac, so HomeGoods engineers re-drew it and resubmitted it as a through road.
During the caucus session before the council meeting, Liming made it clear he was ready to see the project move forward.
“Let’s get this thing going,” Liming said.
The meeting itself only took about seven minutes, including a few department-head reports and votes on two less-signifcant matters.
When Jones was asked after the meeting whether she thought Monday’s vote indicated the project was going to go forward, she said, “We don’t know for sure, but we will see Monday night, I guess.”
HomeGoods has said the distribution center will employ about 1,000 people.