TJX/HomeGoods wins plan approval for distribution center

LORDSTOWN

The Lordstown Planning Commission gave TJX/HomeGoods a 4-0 conditional site plan approval tonight for construction of its 1.2-million square foot distribution center on Ellsworth Bailey Road.

Among the conditions for final approval are that the company conduct a traffic study at three intersections that are not currently scheduled to have traffic signals — at the relocated Hallock Young Road, at the entrance that the trucks will use , and at Pritchard-Ohltown Road.

The 4-0 vote followed a two-hour meeting that included a presentation of about 45 minutes from engineer Kristopher Kogelnik with CT Consultants, which has been working on behalf of the village to review all of the technical issues within the site plan.

Kogelnik described numerous matters that he is asking the company to change in the plans, but he described the issues as minor.

HomeGoods expects to hire 1,000 workers to run the warehouse, to be located across from the GM Lordstown complex.

"We can exhale now," Lordstown Mayor Arno Hill said after the meeting. HomeGoods officials say with the approval of the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, the company can break ground sometime in April or May.