CLEVELAND — After months of research, Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne has selected his preferred site for a new jail.
On Monday, Ronayne told 3News that he plans to propose a 70-acre site at Transportation Blvd. and Granger Road in Garfield Heights as the location for the new county jail. The legislation is expected to be introduced at the next Cuyahoga County Council meeting on June 20.
So why is Ronanye favoring placing the Cuyahoga County Jail in Garfield Heights instead of Cleveland?
"The reason why is its centrality to all 59 of our communities in Cuyahoga County, its connection to transit and other transportation ways to get there, it's a larger, open space to create a more humane campus, and it's a greenfield, not a brownfield," Ronayne explained. "For us, that's material because we don't have to absorb the cost of clean-up and we make sure those that are in our detention are safe."
Ronayne says he is looking at the Garfield Heights site as not only the place where the county can locate its correctional facility, but also serve as a "central services campus" that could include the headquarters of the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office, a diversion center, and more.
"It's a great site, 70-plus acres, off the highway. It's connected, really, to the center of our region," he explained.
Ronayne says that the county is looking at "shared-service opportunities" with Garfield Heights, adding that they've gotten a positive response to the plan from Mayor Matt Burke. "It does obviously generate jobs," Ronayne stated.
Two months ago, Ronayne announced that the county had chosen the path of a new jail site as opposed to renovating the existing facility at the Justice Center campus. He added that his administration began a search process to find a new site for "a modern jail campus that conforms to today’s best practices." At the time, that process had narrowed from dozens of potential sites to a short list of locations being vetted in partnership with Cuyahoga County Council.
The quest for a new Cuyahoga County Corrections Center was put on hold last fall when the 12-member Justice Center Executive Steering Committee voted down a proposal to purchase 44 acres of land at 2700 Transport Road in Cleveland to house the new facility.
At issue was the question of the environmental safety at the three parcels of land, which is now the site of a container storage facility, but once housed a Standard Oil refinery.
The proposal submitted in July, 2022 by then-Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish called for the county to take control of the 40-acre Cuyahoga Valley Industrial Center site in Slavic Village that used to be the home of a steel mill, then offer that area for the container storage facility company to purchase for $6.4 million. Cuyahoga County would then buy the land on Transport Road for $20 million.
The site in Slavic Village was considered as a potential site of the next Cuyahoga County Jail, but political and community leaders in Cleveland pushed back because of its proximity to residential areas as well as the Boys and Girls Clubs of Northeast Ohio on Broadway.
In 2021, Budish said a new Cuyahoga County Corrections Center would house approximately 1,900 inmates and would be ready in 2025. The cost of the jail at the time was estimated at $550 million. By September of 2022, that estimate inflated to over $700 million.
Although Ronayne has yet to reveal a price tag for his proposal, he did tell 3News that because the site is a greenfield, the county will be spending less money than they would for a brownfield project because there will be no need for a cleanup portion of the cost.
"I think it will be a win-win for all of our communities," he added.