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EPA wants to further modify plans for $71.5 million facility in Twinsburg
By Bob Downing
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Tuesday, Nov 04, 2008
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is urging the Cleveland Clinic Foundation to further modify its plans for a new $71.5 million medical facility in Twinsburg.
In a four-page letter, Ohio EPA Director Chris Korleski said Friday that his agency still has major concerns with the initial revision of the plans.
He suggested that the clinic consider building a parking garage — something the hospital opposes because of the additional cost.
A second option, Korleski said, might be to move the area to be developed farther away from wetlands to minimize the impact on groundwater, rare cold streams and wetlands on the 86-acre site off Darrow Road (state Route 91) south of Interstate 480.
Clinic spokeswoman Heather Phillips said a second revision, one that the hospital feels will win EPA approval, was submitted on Friday.
''We are confident this will fully fill their expectations,'' she said.
The clinic wants to build an outpatient medical center and 24-hour emergency room on the site. The four-story, 168,500-square-foot facility, to be called the Cleveland Clinic Twinsburg Family Health and Surgery Center, could open in late 2009 and create 300 jobs. In-patient care could be added in the future.
Approval is needed from the Ohio EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to fill in wetlands and small streams.
Korleski acknowledged that the clinic's initial revision of the plans reduces construction impacts on the wetlands and streams that drain to Tinkers Creek.
''However, as we discussed,'' Korleski wrote, ''the flow of groundwater to the streams and wetlands on the property and the acknowledged uncertainty as to whether the proposed construction (even based on the clinic's latest plans) will significantly impair groundwater quality and flow, continues to be the Ohio EPA's top concern.''
The EPA director said his letter was designed to follow up an Oct. 16 meeting between representatives of the agency and the clinic on the site plans.
Remediating wetland impacts from the project may prove to be difficult, Korleski said.
In September, the clinic's consultants, HZW Environmental and Shaw Environmental, revised the original plans and submitted them to the EPA.
Those revisions repositioned buildings, parking lots and the storm-water retention basin in a effort to minimize the environmental impact.
Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is urging the Cleveland Clinic Foundation to further modify its plans for a new $71.5 million medical facility in Twinsburg.
Get the full article here.
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