Some leaders in Brooklyn, Ohio aren't ruling out legal action in an effort to rekindle a deal to bring an IKEA store and warehouse to their city.
Just this week Ikea decided to stop pursuing a 16 acre parcel of land near the intersection of I-480 and Tiedeman Road.
It was a deal that was a year in the making, but Brooklyn Economic Development Director Andy Udris told newsnet5.com the Army Corps of Engineers would not provide a solution to compensate to the loss of wetlands on the property.
Udris said the Army Corps to Brooklyn there were other parcels in northeast Ohio where Ikea could build the proposed 366,500-square-foot complex, but Udris said the Corps never provided a location.
Udris said the Army Corps was inflexible and should have been able to provide a viable plan that would have brought 350 new jobs to Brooklyn and northeast Ohio.
"This is one of the largest injustices to the people of Northeast Ohio because we have an agency here that really is not serving the public's best interest," said Udris.
"The solution that the Army Corps is giving us is no development is the best solution."
"And what they are is denying the people of Brooklyn's rights to be able to reasonably use this property."
Udris said he is not ruling out taking legal action in this case, while Council members like Barbara Paulitzky and Mary Balbier are looking to activate residents, asking them not to give up.
"My message to the Army Corps of Engineers is, have you come here physically and looked at the site, or have you just looked at it on a map," said Paulitzky.
newsnet5.com placed phone calls to the Army Corps of Engineers, but so far our calls have not been returned.
We reached out to Ikea headquarters and the Swedish company confirmed if the Army Corps too action it would be interested in rekindling the project.
