Federal-state power clash over controversial I-71 Boston Road exit still unresolved as Ohio legislature heads toward recess

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A federal-state power struggle over a proposed new interchange on Interstate 71 in Northeast Ohio remained in limbo Monday as the state legislature headed toward a long summer recess after Wednesday.

The stalemate leaves it unclear whether the state will try to ignore federal policy that empowers NOACA, the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency, to determine whether a new Boston Road exit would solve congestion along I-71 in the Cleveland suburb of Strongsville.

The two-year state budget bill signed into law in 2023 by Gov. Mike DeWine gives the state the authority to impose the interchange at Boston Road, along the edge of Strongsville in Cuyahoga County to the north and Brunswick in Medina County to the south.

A new interchange could require taking numerous homes along the suburban residential street through eminent domain.

The 2023 legislation is at odds with federal transportation policy, Grace Gallucci, executive director of NOACA, has said. She insisted again in testimony last Tuesday before the Ohio House Economic and Workforce Development Committee that her agency is enabled by federal law to determine the answer to congestion on I-71, not the state of Ohio.

NOACA, established by the federal government in 1968, is the Metropolitan Planning Organization for Cuyahoga, Medina, Lake, Geauga and Lorain counties. Its responsibilities include overseeing federal transportation spending in the region.

Gallucci urged members of the House committee to approve H.B. 276, which would repeal the language requiring the Boston Road interchange.

She said the existing law is in conflict with the goals of a new study to find what she called an unbiased solution in full collaboration with Brunswick, Strongsville and the Ohio Department of Transportation, ODOT.

NOACA issued a request for proposals to conduct the study, with a deadline of Tuesday. The NOACA board is scheduled to vote on choosing a consultant and proceeding with the study at its September meeting, Gallucci said last week.

“The continued existence of the offending [Ohio Revised Code] language unduly biases the feasibility study as it moves forward,’’ Gallucci told the House committee. “There is a strong argument for repealing the offending language as quickly as possible in order to provide a clean slate and better facilitate an open-minded fair and unbiased process with no predisposed outcomes.’'

The State Senate’s Transportation Committee is scheduled to vote Wednesday on S.B. 155, which is also designed to repeal the mandate for the I-71 exit. The full Senate could then vote on the repeal. Action in the House is uncertain.

Source of controversy

The original 2023 language requiring the Boston Road exit was inserted into the state bill at the request of State Rep. Tom Patton, a Strongsville Republican, who said he wanted to “force the people involved to get serious” about finding a way to reduce traffic – and, therefore, accidents – along State Route 82.

State Route 82 is located 2.5 miles north of Boston Road at the busy I-71 exit for South Park Mall in Strongsville.

Patton said Monday that he believes the Ohio Senate will pass S.B. 155 on Wednesday, but that he doesn’t think the House will follow suit.

If S.B. 155 passes, Patton said it would be “a slap in the face” to Gov. Mike DeWine. The governor said in 2023 that he approved the language in the budget bill to “bring people together” to try to negotiate a compromise that would resolve a years-long dispute over I-71 congestion in Strongsville.

Patton said that while Gallucci is right that Ohio doesn’t have the power to determine how to solve that problem, neither does NOACA – it’s ultimately up to the Federal Highway Administration. He also said that he’d like to skip planning studies by NOACA or other local or regional authorities and go straight to a federal study into the issue.

“All this does is kick the ball further down the road,” Patton said of the NOACA study. “And the accidents continue to pile up.”

If a more local study is done, Patton said, he would prefer that ODOT would pick the consultant rather than NOACA.

“NOACA has to kind of prove that they’ve been right all these years about (a new interchange) not being necessary, you know, and not being in their master plans,” he said.

Gallucci on Monday afternoon disputed Patton’s assertions. “The federal government has given the authority to the MPO’s [Metropolitan Planning Organizations] to do the studies and determine what is best for the region,’’ she said. “When he’s saying he wants a federal study, by proxy, we are the federal study.’’

Anxiety in Brunswick

Last June, Strongsville completed its own “Preliminary Feasibility Study’' for a Boston Road interchange that omitted participation by Brunswick officials even though it would affect their city.

After an uproar in Brunswick, ODOT agreed to collaborate with NOACA on the new, upcoming study described by Gallucci. Even so, Nicholas Hanek, the vice mayor and City Council president in Brunswick said Monday that the continued existence of the 2023 law leaves open the possibility that the state could still mandate the Boston Road exit.

Brunswick residents whose homes could be taken by eminent domain said Monday they’re consumed by anxiety over that possibility.

“I’m petrified,’’ said Susan Mazzola, who has lived on Boston Road for 42 years. She and her husband, Sam Mazzola, are nearing retirement and don’t want to move.

“For a year and a half, I have had to think about this morning noon and night.’’

Shrea Kellums, a neighbor, said that Strongsville should “solve its own traffic problems in their own city.’’

Kellums and Mazzola said they suspected, as do other residents along Boston Road, that Strongsville wants the interchange to provide easier truck access to Foltz Industrial Park in Strongsville, three miles west of I-71.

The study completed last year by Strongsville showed that a new interchange at Boston Road wouldn’t improve conditions 2.5 miles to the north at the intersection of Howe Road and SR 82, a major source of complaints about traffic.

According to the study, “the SR 82 Howe Road intersection typically resulted in poor/failing level of service throughout each scenario, including No Build conditions.’’ The study went on to say that “attaining acceptable operational performance at this [SR 82 Howe Road] intersection is outside the study scope.”

Gallucci, speaking at the House committee hearing last week, said her agency would explore solutions in a larger area than the Strongsville study. She also said the new study would be “federally compliant’' and would meet standards under the NEPA Act.

She said the study would produce what she called a “merit-based’' solution using “up-to-date forecasting models and significant stakeholder engagement’' that would include Brunswick.

“The study will absolutely develop a very feasible congestion management plan that will lead to the reduction of congestion on I-71 within the affected area,’’ she said.

Reporter Jeremy Pelzer contributed to this story.