Federal court revokes permit for Enterprise Park

Engineers used data from Warren County instead of city for Enterprise Park study

HOWLAND -- A federal court issued an order revoking an Army Corps of Engineers permit for Enterprise Park, a would-be medical, educational and residential complex that was intended to be built on 16 acres of wetlands and forest adjacent to the Eastwood Mall.

Judge Benita Y. Pearson determined the Corps' decision was "arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion, and in violation with section 404 of the Clean Water Act." One factor in the decision was that while the Corps partially justified its decision to grant the permit on the need for a hospital facility based on population growth, it used data from the wrong area -- Warren County instead of the city of Warren.

"These wetlands serve many vital functions, from flood control, to safeguarding water quality, to preserving the biodiversity of our region," said Tom Smith, chair of Friends of the Mahoning River, the nonprofit that filed the appeal against the Army Corps' decision in U.S. District Court Northern District of Ohio in November 2019.

Publicly announced in late 2018, the Enterprise Park complex proposed by North Eastwood LLC, a subsidiary of the Cafaro Company, quickly received divided attention. Environmental groups challenged the proposal, citing concerns for 1,727 linear feet of stream, the wetlands and the wildlife there, while others applauded the site for its economic potential -- it was estimated that as many as 2,200 jobs would be created and some $99 million in payroll taxes generated.

The Army Corps of Engineers issued a permit for Enterprise Park in September 2019, with the "special conditions" that the developers use the site only for its original proposed purpose -- namely a $250 million state-of-the-art hospital, which was expected to be occupied by Mercy Health.

In October 2020, Mercy Health announced it intended to purchase 63 acres adjacent to Kent State University at Trumbull in Champion to develop a new health care campus. Shortly after, FOMR filed for a summary judgment in its case against the corps, saying that the selection of the Kent State site contradicted the Cafaro Company's "insistence that there are no practical alternatives to the Enterprise Park site" for its project. That factor was key in the corps' approval of the wetlands site.

On Thursday, Pearson ruled that the court "vacates the issuance of the permit."

Pearson's order found the "most glaring issue" with the corps' analysis was that it did not properly establish it is in the public's interest to construct a massive hospital in an area with a declining population.

The order states the corps initially "erroneously" concluded that the population in the area was increasing, but later conceded that the population is declining, and that it relied on inaccurate statements and data from Warren County instead of from the city of Warren. Warren County is located approximately 250 miles away, near Cincinnati.

The court also questioned the corps' determination that there was no "practical" alternative to the proposed site, specifically pointing to a "no-build" option that would have renovated St. Joseph Warren Hospital, and the Old Avalon site, which is larger than the proposed Enterprise Park site, complies with zoning regulations and is near major highways.

"The court's decision vindicates what we have been saying for years -- because of surrounding socioeconomic factors and because of the critical ecological value of the wetlands that would be destroyed, this is simply an inappropriate site for this type of development, no matter which health care company might have occupied the site," Smith said.

Joe Bell, Cafaro Company spokesman, said Friday that the company's legal team found out about the decision very late Thursday and was reviewing it.

"At this point, it would be premature to offer comment," Bell said.

FOMR, an opponent of Enterprise Park since its early stages, also had been challenging an Ohio EPA decision to issue a water-quality certification for the project, but withdrew that appeal in mid-2020 to focus on the federal litigation, according to a release from that time.