Fairview Park’s fight over a new service garage has jumped from City Hall to the courthouse, as neighbors file a class-action lawsuit to stop the city from buying 22100 Mastick Road and moving the municipal service garage into a residential area. The complaint argues that fuel storage, vehicle maintenance, and a salt dome do not belong so close to homes, and that city leaders pushed the deal forward without enough study or meaningful community input. The plaintiffs are asking a judge to hit pause on the purchase so officials must fully test environmental and traffic impacts and seriously vet other locations first.
The suit names 26 Fairview Park residents as plaintiffs and lists Mayor Bill Schneider, City Council President Bridget King, the full council, and Cuyahoga County leaders as defendants, according to reporting by Ideastream Public Media. The filing claims the parcel includes wetlands that should be protected and says neighbors were denied due process while the administration pursued the Mastick purchase.
City officials describe the property as a 2.645-acre site just south of I-480, with an existing building of roughly 6,800 square feet that has been vacant for years, and say converting it would be cheaper than constructing a new facility. The project would draw on $1 million in American Rescue Plan Act money that the county awarded in 2022, and the city has asked to re-appropriate those funds for the purchase and design work. The administration portrays the move as a way to consolidate scattered public-works operations and relocate salt storage farther from Coe Creek and the Rocky River, according to the city’s press release…