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YOUNGSTOWN -- The environmental group Friends of the Mahoning River filed a motion in federal court here seeking to overturn immediately the September 2019 decision by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that granted an environmental permit to allow the Cafaro Company's proposed Enterprise Park project near the Eastwood Mall to proceed.
The motion filed late last week with Judge Benita Y. Pearson seeks summary judgment, meaning a decision prior to trial. Summary judgment is warranted when a judge believes that "no factual issues remain to be tried" or are "so one-sided they need not be tried," according to the dictionary.law.com web site.
The Friends filed a complaint Nov. 25, 2019, asking a judge to reverse the Army Corps' decision, arguing that the Army Corps failed to require sufficient wetland mitigation and failed to consider other, less environmentally damaging sites for the project, among other things.
The permit specified that approval was only for a $250 million state-of-the-art hospital, which was expected to be occupied by Mercy Health.
But Mercy Health announced a month ago it intends to purchase 63 acres adjacent to Kent State University at Trumbull in Champion for development of a new health care campus that could include a relocated St. Joseph Warren Hospital, which is located on Eastland Avenue in Warren.
In a press statement, the Friends said it commends Mercy Health's announcement regarding the Kent State Trumbull site. The Friends noted that Mercy Health pointed to "environmental impact" as a factor it considers when it acquires property.
The Friends said the selection of the Kent State site contradicts the Cafaro Company's "insistence that there are no practical alternatives to the Enterprise Park site" for its project. The company has billed the project as "a state-of-the art medical / educational campus," offering "residential, office, health care and educational space."
Joe Bell, Cafaro Company spokesman, said Tuesday the Cafaro Co. will not comment at this time but will respond with a court filing on or about Dec. 11 regarding the Friends' motion.
Attorney Daniel Dertke with the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., who represents the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, did not return a call Tuesday seeking comment.
A Friends news release states that the organization withdrew its related appeal of the Ohio EPA's decision to issue water-quality certifications for the project to focus its efforts on the federal lititation.
The Friends group has opposed Enterprise Park on environmental grounds, among other things. It reiterates those concerns in its news release, saying the project would be located "on a floodplain and destroys healthy wetlands, wetland forests and associated wildlife."
It adds that the wetlands contain "delicate ecosystems and channels in the Mosquito creek watershed, including an internationally recognized (and) important migratory bird area."
But the 24-page court filing by Friends attorney Andrew Karas of Akron pointed to numerous issues the organization thinks indicate the Army Corps failed to consider in approving the permit. It says the Army Corps:
l Failed to make an explicit finding that the metropolitan statistical area needs a new health care and educational facility;
l Failed to adequately investigate the environmental detriments of the project compared to its economic benefits; and
l Focused too much on the area north of the Eastwood Mall in its project "purpose" and therefore did not look enough at other areas of the county.
Bell said the Cafaro Company continues to talk to Mercy Health and other entitites that have expressed interest in locating in a hospital facility at Enterprise Park.
erunyan@tribtoday.com