Medina County readies five-year sewer service map

MEDINA — More than 14,000 additional acres are set to be added to Medina County's wastewater treatment area under a new five-year map awaiting approval from Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA). While changes do result in that net gain, plans also call for elimination of 16,679 acres in the current eligible service area. Most significant alterations in terms of service area gains and losses are set to occur in pockets of townships including Medina, Montville, Sharon, Hickley, and Liverpool. Most areas taken out of the eligible service area were previously classified as "local prescription," meaning they were in line for a public tie-in or on-site wastewater treatment. Medina County sanitary engineer Jeremy Sinko said service areas eliminated in the new map were chosen due to their topography and inability to house public sewer service without the presence of a new pump station. The county has put construction of those sites on hold until further notice. "NOACA requests that a facilities planning area, such as ours, review their property prescriptions every five years," he said. "NOACA wants us to be more precise in areas we can actually service and not service, to better distinguish areas serviced by septic tanks, areas with sanitary sewer, and areas potentially having sanitary sewers." "This is a refinement of our area," Sinko added. "An area that's local prescription falls to the local jurisdiction. As it stood, the current map was providing kind of a false sense of ability to provide sewer service because, right now, we're not moving forward with any new (pump) stations." Issuance of sewer extensions to certain development projects in Westfield Township led to a dispute between the township and Medina County last fall. According to Westfield Township officials, the township was unaware until March 2020 that multiple proposed projects would not be eligible for new tie-ins due to them falling outside the service area. However, Medina County Assistant Administrator Amy Lyon-Galvin said conversations with Westfield dating as far back as 10 years have indicated that the service area surrounding the Chippewa Lake Wastewater Treatment Plant, 5750 Kennard Road, would no longer be extended. Westfield development that's been deemed ineligible includes a new residential subdivision at the former Deer Pass Golf Course, 5886 Greenwich Road, and a $60 million investment from international manufacturer Welser Profile. Those plans reportedly involved roughly 100 new jobs and 280,000 square feet of facilities. Welser has since announced plans to develop in Valley City. Medina County Commissioner Steve Hambley said the county hopes to eliminate situations like this with the updated map. "There you had a battle between facility planning areas," he said. "You had Westfield, the county, and Seville. It's a pretty complicated map but it all comes down to us reducing the area we can extend sewers. To go beyond that or to change anything back, we have to go through the governing board of NOACA." Hambley and other officials have expressed dissatisfaction with the three-to-six-month map amendment approval process through NOACA. "I absolutely agree with having a better map so future developers and property owners to know if they can get sewers," he said. "We need to do that and make it known to everyone. I think it's a huge mistake to turn this kind of authority over and not have it in the hands of the commissioners. We basically give away our freedom for the convenience of communicating better with developers." An extended wait to find out whether a public sewer tie-in is possible can turn off potential developers, said Medina County Economic Development Corporation executive director Bethany Dentler. "There are companies who are willing to invest in overcoming utility availability challenges," she told commissioners. "But the speed of development becomes a critical decision factor for executives who are deciding on where to locate, and if we have to tell developers that we can't inform them of the availability of sewer for a number of months while a potential update to the FPA prescription map works its way through the NOACA decision process, then it makes it very difficult for Medina County to compete for projects." Contact reporter Jonathan Delozier at 330-721-4050 or jdelozier@medina-gazette.com.