After decades of sitting idle, the notorious Bohaty Drums property along Pearl Road may finally be headed for a reboot, with Medina County commissioners preparing to weigh a tax-increment financing district that would help bankroll its revival.
A draft resolution lays out a TIF district covering roughly 100 acres around 4271 Pearl Road, the former Superfund site locals still know as the Bohaty Drums. Plans call for about 69,600 square feet of commercial space and roughly 185 multifamily units, plus additional acreage that would be reserved for single-family homes. The TIF would create a county-controlled fund that captures certain property tax-related service payments and can be used to help pay for roads, utilities and environmental cleanup tied to the project.
As reported by Cleveland.com, the legislation would declare the new improvements a public purpose and require property owners within the district to make annual service payments in lieu of taxes while exempting a share of the new assessment increases. The measure surfaced in draft form before the commissioners’ Feb. 24 meeting, following months of planning filings and county review.
What the TIF Would Cover
County paperwork spells out the mechanics of the deal. The board would exempt 75% of the increase in assessed value on each parcel and cap each parcel’s exemption term at ten years. The plan would also establish the Bohaty Drums Redevelopment Tax Increment Equivalent Fund, where those service payments would be deposited.
Money in that fund would be used first to reimburse the county for its upfront costs, then to reimburse the developer parties for specified public infrastructure work, subject to a maximum reimbursement of $3,866,500. Eligible work includes roads, water and sewer lines, utilities, stormwater improvements, environmental cleanup and parks, according to the draft resolution and TIF agreement posted by Medina County.
Project Details and Developers
The draft agreement names three developer entities on the project: Pride One Construction Services LLC, The Villas at Hidden Lakes Phases I & II LLC and OH Medina Stonegate LLC.
According to Cleveland.com, the development team is planning roughly 185 multifamily units and up to 69,600 square feet of retail or commercial space on the Bohaty parcels, plus about 51.24 acres of adjacent land that is intended for future single-family lots.
Long Legal and Environmental History
The Bohaty property carries a long and prickly history. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, state and federal officials discovered hundreds of drums and underground storage tanks on the site, which triggered EPA involvement and litigation under the federal Superfund law, CERCLA.
The cleanup efforts and enforcement actions became central issues in the case U.S. v. 150 Acres of Land. Court records in that matter help explain how the land came to be treated as a brownfield in need of remediation. The decision, available at OpenJurist, provides detailed background on the litigation.
Developer Obligations and County Oversight
The draft TIF agreement does not hand over reimbursement dollars without conditions. Before any payments are made, the developers must comply with several protections, including paying prevailing wages on public improvements, providing detailed cost documentation and cost certificates, issuing warranties and lien releases, and securing approval of plans from the county engineer.
The agreement also specifies that TIF reimbursements are a special obligation that can be paid only from money in the TIF fund and only after county review. That language is designed to limit Medina County’s exposure if future tax revenues do not materialize as projected. Those compliance and payment rules appear in the draft TIF documents posted by Medina County.
What’s Next
Commissioners were expected to take up the draft resolution at their Feb. 24 meeting. Even if the measure is adopted, the developers would still need to file exemption applications with the county auditor and complete other procedural TIF steps before any reimbursements are actually issued.
Neighbors and local leaders have pushed for better road infrastructure and clearer access along Pearl Road, and the county’s documentation notes that any public improvements funded through the TIF must directly benefit both the Bohaty parcels and surrounding properties. Residents who want to follow the project’s progress should keep an eye on commissioners’ meeting materials and planning filings for updates and opportunities to weigh in.
