Redeveloping old landfill makes sense

The city of Lorain should wave the green starting flag on turning an old landfill into a motorsports complex. McCrone Motorsports wants to build multiple race cart tracks in Cromwell Park, something City Councilwoman Beth Henley, D-1st Ward, called a "win-win" when the project was announced last month. If the motorsports complex is successful, the company might even expand. "It'll be a huge catalyst for the Colorado corridor and Sheffield Village included," she said. Although the cost of the project and how many jobs it would create have yet to be made public, Henley's enthusiasm seems warranted based on what we know so far. Not everyone, however, was so excited about the development plans. The Black River Audubon Society came out against the project because of worries about the impact it could have on the more than 115 different bird species that have been recorded at the site. The society has designated it an "Important Bird Area." Concerns included that noise from the complex could impact a nearby heron colony, a popular stop on riverboat tours of the Black River. Its members also questioned whether studies had been done to see if any endangered species, such as the Indiana bat, lived in the area. "The city's perspective is that the landfill is wasteland," the society's president, Rob Swindell, said, "but nature and wildlife have a way of not only cleaning up our mess, but also creating valuable habitats for their survival." Swindell, who writes about birds as a freelance columnist for The Chronicle-Telegram, and other society members raised legitimate concerns when they showed up Monday at a public hearing to oppose rezoning the land from light industrial to business. Preserving natural habitat is important, but so is economic development and the jobs that come with it. Moreover, Cromwell Park, despite its name, is not some pristine wilderness. The former landfill is considered a brownfield, which means there are contamination concerns. That's why the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency must sign off on any development plan. While there are certainly trees and other vegetation there, the land is still a dumping ground. Volunteers pull junk cars, tires and other trash out of the foliage during an annual cleanup, Lorain Port Authority Director Tom Brown said. Brown rightly pointed out that the herons nested in the area even when there were two active steel mills operating nearby. It's also not as if the city and Port Authority are ignoring the environmental impact. For instance, there were plans to place the heron colony under a protective easement and Brown noted that the motorsports project wouldn't touch wetlands on the site. Both are reasonable. There are likely other measures that could be taken to protect other flora and fauna in the area. Environmental concerns aside, there are still hurdles to clear before the project can get underway. For instance, the city needs to finalize an agreement with McCrone Motorsports to sell it the land. Part of that agreement should be a commitment from the company to do as much as it can to protect as much green space and animal habitat as possible, including a pledge not to cut down any more trees than necessary. The company could even plant more trees on the site. As Swindell noted, nature finds ways to survive. If wildlife and vegetation can partially reclaim a former landfill, they should be able to adapt to living near a motorsports complex.