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LETTER to The Editor of The Plain Dealer, 11-11-07, by Joseph W. Kunzelman
``Who will stand up to preserve more land?
In response to the Oct. 17 [2007 PD] article "Farming done here from now, forever":
Thank you, Jarvis Babcock and family, for the generous, unselfish gift of 1,018 acres that surely would have been destroyed by developers.
I live in Avon. We have seen judges and city administrators allow aggressive developers to carve our city up like a big, fat turkey: "Ah, more retail. This will solve all our problems." These self-centered, power-hungry individuals and companies have destroyed acre after acre of woods and trees while driving our last little bit of wildlife up on to Interstate 90 to be slaughtered.
Did anyone really think that the I-90/[Nagel] Road interchange was not going to happen? Does anyone honestly believe that this will not continue to open the door for more businesses and residents to leave Cleveland, Lorain and the inner-ring suburbs?
Unfortunately, nobody has the guts or the money to stop this travesty.
Where are the Babcocks of Avon and the rest of Northeast Ohio?''
Joseph W. Kunzelman, Avon
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[Regarding the impact of the Nagel Rd. interchange, one of the most important things is to NOT DESTROY Detroit Road. The key to solving that problem is having alternative ways to go from Jaycox to Nagel, besides Detroit: south marginal -- Middleton - Avon Rd.; north marginal -- Chester - Clemens; both interchange marginals opening on Bradley.]
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NEWS ARTICLE from The Plain Dealer, 11-3-07, by Joan Mazzolini, Plain Dealer Reporter
``Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals compete with their expanding medical centers
Cleveland's two huge hospital systems are in a competitive game of leapfrog, hopping from one suburb to the next in pursuit of the well-insured patients ...
But it's an expensive endeavor to chase patients, or try to poach them from other hospital systems.
And the recent moves have the two Cleveland systems butting up against other hospital systems in Summit and Lorain counties that don't seem that pleased by the closeness.
"There are four hospitals that are in Lorain County and none operating at capacity," said Jim Simone, vice president of finance for EMH Regional Health Care System. The Elyria hospital will be celebrating its 100th anniversary next year.
Simone said the Clinic's plans for a new big medical facility in Avon will "make it difficult for all of us to survive."
"There's not a need for it," Simone said. "We don't need more facilities. There's only so many chest X-rays you can do, even if you put X-ray machines on every corner." ...''
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: jmazzolini@plaind.com
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NEWS ARTICLE from The Plain Dealer, 12-25-07, by Michael Scott, Plain Dealer Reporter
[Smog Sprawl]
``AVON -- As development spreads, bad air follows, critics say Smog sprawl - it could be coming soon to a suburb near you.
Smog sprawl is the environmental notion that air pollution trails after residential and industrial development as it surges out from the city center to once-rural suburbia and beyond.
In other words, as we move out to the country, we drive longer and farther to get to work, we pump out more pollutants along the way and foul up the fresh air we drove out there for in the first place ...
[Northeast Ohio] is already under federal mandate to reduce air pollution -- both ozone and particulates -- by 2009, putting virtually every transportation or commercial/industrial development decision under an increasingly detailed environmental microscope.
But there's not always a clear-cut answer when balancing the transportation needs of one growing community with the broader concerns of the region.
That's why planners have to consider, for example, whether the privately funded and fast-tracked interchange to be built in Avon will add to air pollution in that Lorain County suburb -- and the entire region.
Critics are certain that it will.
"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 city's population surged from about 7,000 to more than 17,000 in just more than a decade. Further, it ranked as the 67th-fastest growing community in the nation from 2000-07, Mayor James Smith said. The community already has two I-90 exits: Ohio 611 on the western end and Ohio 83 near the center ...''
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: mscott@plaind.com
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NEWS ARTICLE from The Plain Dealer, 1-26-08, by Joan Mazzolini, Plain Dealer Reporter
``Clinic loses battle with Beachwood schools for records in tax case
The Cleveland Clinic must turn over financial information that the Beachwood Board of Education requested to make its case that the hospital's Cedar Road facility should not be exempted from property taxes, the Board of Tax Appeals ruled yesterday ...
The board's decision should move forward a case that has languished for two years, after the Clinic appealed the Ohio tax commissioner's decision that the property is taxable.
The commissioner ruled that the Clinic's Cedar Road facility was an office building for physicians where little if any charitable care is provided and that it is not eligible for a property tax exemption.
The Beachwood schools had challenged the Clinic's request for property tax exemption. Ohio law allows school districts, which receive the bulk of property taxes, to challenge exemptions.
Districts with large Clinic facilities, such as Independence, Willoughby- Eastlake and Solon, have followed Beachwood's lead. The outcome of the Beachwood case will affect their challenges ...''
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: jmazzolini@plaind.com
NEWS ARTICLE from The Plain Dealer, 6-25-08, by Joan Mazzolini, Plain Dealer Reporter
``Cleveland Clinic expected to get more than $1 billion in bonds to pay off old debt and to finance new facilities
The Cleveland Clinic is expected to get approval today from a state agency to issue more than $1 billion in bonds to pay off old debt and to finance the new Avon and Twinsburg facilities.
The $1.02 billion in bonds would be issued through the Ohio Higher Education Facility Commission. A change in state law allows the commission to issue the low-interest bonds for nonprofit hospitals just as it does for nonprofit Ohio colleges and universities ...
About $120 million will go to facilities the Clinic plans to build in Avon and Twinsburg ...``
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: jmazzolini@plaind.com, 216-999-4563
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NEWS ARTICLE from The Sun, 6-26-08, By Bryan Story, bstory@sunnews.com
``AVON -- The Richard E. Jacobs Group is continuing to buy up land near the site of the proposed Interstate 90 interchange at Nagel Road.
The Jacobs group acquired an 89-acre parcel on the north side of Chester Road just west of Jaycox Road, costing $8.9 million ...
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NEWS ARTICLE from The Morning Journal, 7-31-08, by SCOT ALLYN, Morning Journal Writer
Zoning changes OK'd for future Avon interchange site
``AVON -- Hotels, restaurants, office and retail could be in the future for land on Chester Road near the future Nagel Road interchange with Interstate 90.
Last night [7-30-08], zoning changes for future commercial development on land owned by the Richard E. Jacobs Group were approved by the Avon Planning Commission.
The zoning changes are for a 5-acre parcel on the south side of Chester Road that the Jacobs Group is under contract to purchase within an 88-acre parcel it bought in June, according to Jim Eppele, vice president of real estate development for the company. The commission also approved rezoning for about two-thirds of a 104-acre parcel the Jacobs Group has under contract on the north side of Chester Road. Both parcels are west of Jaycox Road ...
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NEWS ARTICLE from The Morning Journal, 9-21-08, By Scot Allyn, sallyn@MorningJournal.com
``Jacobs Group buying property around proposed I-90 interchange
AVON -- In spite of a Wall Street meltdown, plunging retail sales and nationally new home starts sinking to their lowest level since 1991, one Cleveland-area developer ... [has] acquired more land this summer near the future Nagel Road interchange on Interstate 90.
In August [2008], The Richard E. Jacobs Group closed a deal on 103 acres on the north side of Chester Road west of Jaycox Road for $3 million, across the street from 88 acres it purchased in June. Tomorrow [9-22-08], Avon City Council will vote on rezoning for part of the acreage that would allow stores, office space, restaurants and hotels to be built in the wooded area.
This summer's acquisition is in addition to 213 acres the Jacobs Group bought in 1999 from the Norfolk Southern Railway on Nagel Road, north of Interstate 90, according to Jim Eppele, vice president for real estate development for the Richard E. Jacobs Group ...
The Jacobs Group sold 40 acres of the 213-acre parcel to the Cleveland Clinic, which plans a medical center there, according to Heather Phillips, a Clinic spokeswoman.
The Jacobs Group is also developing the Avon Crossing retail center at Chester Road and SR 83, where a 104,000-square-foot J.C. Penney store is scheduled to open Saturday [9-27-08]. The J.C. Penney store will include a 1,500-square-foot Sephora cosmetics and perfume center inside, according to J.C. Penney's spokesman Tim Lyons ...
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www.morningjournal.com/articles/2010/01/29/news/mj2227388.txt
NEWS ARTICLE from The Morning Journal, 1-29-10, By RICHARD PAYERCHIN rpayerchin@MorningJournal.com
[Governor Strickland fast tracks Avon's Nagel Road interchange]
``AVON -- The new Interstate 90 exit at Nagel Road in Avon is in the fast lane for development.
Ohio's Transportation Review Advisory Council voted yesterday [1-28-10] to create a new FAST TRAC review process to speed review of key transportation projects around the state.
No. 1 on the list: the Nagel Road interchange, a $23.7 million project that will connect the road to I-90, a new five-lane Nagel Road bridge and upgrades at the intersection of Lear [Nagel] and Chester roads. The highway exit was one of five the TRAC picked yesterday for the FAST TRAC process.
"That means as fast as we can go, they'll work with us," Avon Mayor Jim Smith said ... If all goes smoothly, the project could be bid this year, with construction starting in 2011 and finishing in late 2012, cutting at least eight months -- maybe more -- from the original project schedule, Smith said.
The intersection will be home to one of the Cleveland Clinic's newest facilities as the medical giant builds the new $97.9 million Avon Family Health & Surgery Center.
The 186,000-square-foot facility, set to open in 2011, will offer primary care services and more than 30 specialty services, including physical therapy, aquatic therapy, an ambulatory surgery center and a 24-hour emergency room. It also will bring 400 jobs to the city and generate approximately $1 million in city and state taxes annually ...
"Right to start, the Cleveland Clinic is going to have $35 million going into wages for people just to construct the building," Smith said. "There's immediate economic benefit for the area and the state." ...
Smith was joined yesterday [in Columbus] by officials from the Cleveland Clinic.
The city will pay for one-third of the project, mostly with income taxes generated by the new jobs around the site. Nearby property owner Richard E. Jacobs Group will pay for another third of the project, and the final third will be generated through tax increment financing [TIF], a funding method that uses property taxes to pay for infrastructure improvements. [Avon taxpayers are really paying the TIF taxes; so Avon is paying two thirds, not one third.]''
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Source: www.loraincounty.com
Title: Avon's debt
Message:
``Quoting from above:
"The city [Avon] will pay for one-third of the [$23.7 million] project, mostly with income taxes generated by the new jobs around the site. Nearby property owner Richard E. Jacobs Group will pay for another third of the project, and the final third will be generated through tax increment financing, a funding method that uses property taxes to pay for infrastructure improvements."
Apparently, Avon must assume all of the debt and is responsible for paying off two-thirds of it. What happened to the Jacobs Group paying one-half, and when will Avon get the money from the Jacobs Group?''
Written by: Commentator 1 on January 29, 2010
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Title: Re: Avon's debt
Message:
``I agree Commentator 1. Tax Increment Financing is really no differnet then regular taxes except the county doesn't get it's cut. Other then that, it is no magic bullet ...''
Written by: Commentator 2 on January 29, 2010
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Title: Re: Avon's debt
Message:
``I agree. At the end of the day Avon citizens are paying 2/3's. I see that the state is trying to push the project along. I wonder if the money is in place to do so -- I doubt it.''
Written by: Commentator 3 on February 3, 2010
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Title: Avon School Levy (5.9 mills)
Message:
``Commentator 4 wrote on February 15, 2010:
"5.What are the estimated revenue increases to the school system from the Lear [Nagel] Rd. interchange?"
None. All revenue increases will be used to pay off the TIF bonds used to build the interchange.''
Written by: Commentator 1 on February 16, 2010
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Title: Avon School Levy (5.9 mills)
Message:
``Commentator 1 has nailed it. While nobody likes a tax increase, perhaps none of this would be necessary if we operated differently -- case in point the financing for the interchange. Who will benefit from the interchange? Those that develop near it -- not the common taxpayer unless you buy into the thought that having more services in that area and being able to get off of I-90 a bit sooner is a real benefit to you.
As someone posted earlier WE will be paying for 2/3 of this interchange as the TIF money -- which at the end of the day is taxpayer money that could be used for our roads -- will be used to pay the debt on this project.
While I don't like tax increases, it is interesting that other then Commentator 1's comment no one is mentioning that if our goverement did what they said they would do (meaning we would only finance 1/2 of this project and private enterprise would pay 1/2) instead of the 2/3, 1/3 split, then perhaps we could use some TIF funding for the school and reduce the impact to the common taxpayer ...''
Written by: Commentator 3 on February 17, 2010
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Title: Avon School Levy (5.9 mills)
Message:
''The School Board should demand a piece of the action at Nagel Rd. on behalf of Avon taxpayers.''
Written by: Commentator 1 on February 18, 2010
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Title: Avon School Levy (5.9 mills)
Message:
``Here's something the Avon School Board can do:
ARTICLE from The Plain Dealer, 1-26-08, by Joan Mazzolini
~Clinic loses battle with Beachwood schools for records in tax case
The Cleveland Clinic must turn over financial information that the Beachwood Board of Education requested to make its case that the hospital's Cedar Road facility should not be exempted from property taxes, the Board of Tax Appeals ruled yesterday ...
The board's decision should move forward a case that has languished for two years, after the Clinic appealed the Ohio tax commissioner's decision that the property is taxable.
The commissioner ruled that the Clinic's Cedar Road facility was an office building for physicians where little if any charitable care is provided and that it is not eligible for a property tax exemption.
The Beachwood schools had challenged the Clinic's request for property tax exemption. Ohio law allows school districts, which receive the bulk of property taxes, to challenge exemptions.
Districts with large Clinic facilities, such as Independence, Willoughby- Eastlake and Solon, have followed Beachwood's lead. The outcome of the Beachwood case will affect their challenges ..."''
Written by: Commentator 1 on February 19, 2010
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blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/01/avons_new_interstate_90_interc.html
NEWS ARTICLE from The Plain Dealer, 1-29-10, By Karen Farkas
``Avon's new Interstate 90 interchange at Lear-Nagle Road will likely open in 2012 ...
AVON -- The $24 million interchange, funded by the city and private developers, is among the first of five infrastructure projects approved Thursday under ODOT's new FAST TRAC program.
The program accelerates the normal four-year planning timeframe it takes a major transportation project to gain final approval by the Transportation Review Advisory Council, an independent committee chaired by ODOT Director Jolene M. Molitoris.
ODOT will move faster to help Avon acquire land and complete planning to get the project under way. The interchange is now set to open in late 2012, about a year earlier than planned.
The other FAST TRAC roadway projects are in Franklin, Clark and Butler counties.
"They said whatever we can do to make it quicker they will work with us on it," said Avon Mayor Jim Smith, who traveled to Columbus Thursday morning for the TRAC meeting ... Smith said most of the engineering is done and almost all the environmental assessment. Land still has to be acquired. He hopes to break ground in 2011.
Cleveland Clinic officials also attended the meeting. The Clinic broke ground last November [2009] on the $97.9 million Avon Family Health & Surgery Center at the proposed interchange.
Most of the 212 acres around the interchange is owned by the Jacobs Group ...''
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: kfarkas@plaind.com
See Jacobs
More Documents Relating to the June 8, 1998, Decision Against Avon
Newspaper Record of XXXXX/Jacobs in Avon
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