CLEVELAND — A regional planning agency is pumping the brakes in Brook Park, urging more scrutiny of proposed road work to support a new suburban Browns stadium.
On Friday afternoon, the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency’s planning and programming committee sent the public infrastructure plan a step backward in a lengthy review process. That means it will take Haslam Sports Group and Brook Park at least three months longer than expected – until March, at the earliest – to get the road changes adopted as part of a regional transportation plan.
Why does that matter?
NOACA’s long-range plan is a springboard for federal funding, which Brook Park might end up needing to pull off changes to freeway ramps around the 176-acre stadium and entertainment-district site.
And though NOACA doesn’t have a say over city streets, the metropolitan planning organization is responsible for vetting and signing off on regionally significant transportation projects, like the updates Brook Park is proposing to the Interstate 71 ramps at Snow Road.
“We’re still evaluating the traffic implications from the development. … We want to make sure that whatever is approved works for the region,” Grace Gallucci, NOACA’s CEO, said during a phone interview on Monday.
“When it comes to our preliminary analysis,” she added, “we’re showing that more infrastructure may be needed.”
Brook Park and Haslam Sports Group are proposing $70.3 million worth of changes to roads and ramps around the future stadium site, along with the addition of a pedestrian bridge over Engle Road near Hummel Road. They’re seeking state money for those projects, competing with other transportation proposals across the state for a limited pool of cash.
In an application filed with the state’s Transportation Review Advisory Committee in May, Brook Park and Haslam Sports Group acknowledged that they also could seek federal money to cover part of that bill, through a range of programs. At this point, they aren't asking for any money from NOACA, which receives and distributes federal grants.
The most recent stadium-district plans prepared by Osborn Engineering and other consultants also call for building a new Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority Rapid station at the edge of the site, at an estimated cost of $40 million. RTA has said it won’t pick up that tab.
“You’d think that there would be hundreds of millions of dollars of infrastructure required,” Ted Tywang, general counsel and chief administrative officer for Haslam Sports Group, said during a recent public meeting about the state funding request. “That’s not the case here. … We’re talking about some critical but relatively modest modifications.”
That’s based on a draft feasibility study that Brook Park submitted last month to the Ohio Department of Transportation. That report was paid for by Haslam Sports Group. It’s still being evaluated by NOACA and ODOT.
RELATED: Draft study reveals more about traffic impacts, game-day plans for Browns' Brook Park stadium
But NOACA’s staff is leaning toward a different conclusion, after doing a preliminary analysis.
An agency presentation from Friday’s meeting shows that congestion on nearby highways will increase significantly on weekday afternoons and evenings when there are NFL games or other major events – and that the proposed road changes won’t do much to fix that.
“So many questions out there in my mind that I don’t know how we move forward at this point,” Richard Regovich, a Lake County Commissioner who sits on NOACA’s planning committee, said during Friday’s meeting.
Euclid Mayor Kirsten Holzheimer Gail, another committee member, echoed NOACA staff members’ concerns that the scope of the current traffic and infrastructure study area is too narrow. NOACA is urging Brook Park and Haslam Sports Group to team up with other communities on a more regional traffic study of the broader area around the stadium site.
“The project is looking at their own specific project,” Gail said. “Our job is to look at the impact on the transportation system at large.”
The planning committee voted 16-2 to send the project back a step, to the agency’s transportation committee, for a deeper dive. The next transportation committee meeting will take place in January.
That means the Brook Park project won’t make it to NOACA’s full board for adoption until March, at the earliest. NOACA covers a five-county footprint, and its board is made up of representatives from those counties – Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain and Medina.
The board chairman is Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne, who has been a vocal opponent of the Browns stadium project.
During an interview on Tuesday, after the city of Cleveland and Haslam Sports Group struck a deal to end their fight over the team’s looming move to Brook Park, Ronayne said he’s still deeply worried about traffic, back-ups and access to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, just west of the stadium site.
“It’s the closest … football stadium to an airport of anywhere in the nation,” he said. “And we’ve got some real work ahead to adjust to that.”
On Friday, Brook Park Mayor Edward Orcutt railed against the suggestion that the city, the Browns and their consultants haven’t provided enough information. Orcutt and members of his staff have been attending every NOACA advisory council and committee meeting, along with members of the traffic and engineering consulting team.
But they didn’t get a chance to present to the planning committee. Orcutt only had a chance to make brief remarks, expressing his frustration.
“I will be very frank,” he told committee members. “I thought that as a stakeholder … we would actually be able to weigh in on some of the conversation.”
He unsuccessfully urged the committee to keep the review process moving.
“They’re misinformed,” he said afterward. “And there’s not one time that we haven’t invited anybody to the table for a discussion about this. … Nobody has been out there more than Mayor Orcutt to explain exactly what this project’s been all about.”
NOACA’s staff also wants more information about the potential locations for off-site stadium parking. Without that information, the agency can’t complete its analysis.
Gallucci said she expects the staff review of the project to be done by December.
Brook Park can still compete for and receive state transportation money without a thumbs-up from NOACA. But that’s not typically how things work.
Haslam Sports Group is racing the clock to break ground for the stadium in the spring. The road work is scheduled to start in early 2027.
That means processes that often happen in sequence, involving both the real estate project and the public infrastructure, are all occurring at once.
“Ordinarily, this would be ‘you do step one, step two, step three,’” Tywang said after the recent state Transportation Review Advisory Council meeting. “That’s not the case here. But we believe we have the support to pull this off.”
RELATED: Brook Park, Browns make their pitch for $70.3 million in state transportation money
Gallucci said there’s still plenty of time to figure things out. She said there’s value in spending time digging into the project now – to ensure that there’s not unintended fallout down the road for neighborhood communities or people trying to navigate a busy area.
“I can respect and appreciate trying to keep the public infrastructure costs down,” she said during a phone interview. “I can understand that. But we also need to look at the tolerance level of congestion. Particularly because of the airport nearby.”
As part of their new settlement deal, the city of Cleveland and Haslam Sports Group have agreed to work together on infrastructure needs related to road and air travel near the future stadium site and Hopkins, which is about to undergo a major renovation project.
Brook Park and ODOT will hold an informational open house about proposed changes to roads, ramps and bridges around the stadium site on Oct. 28. That meeting will run from 5 to 7 p.m. It will not include a formal presentation. Project representatives will be there to answer questions and gather public comments.
Separately, Gallucci said NOACA and Brook Park are in the process of scheduling a large public meeting about the proposed transportation projects.
“We believe in transparency,” Orcutt said after Friday’s NOACA committee meeting. “We believe in regional collaboration. And we will continue to provide that.”
