View Larger Map

SOLON, Ohio -- Bainbridge Road residents lost a court fight Friday to try to block their yard from being paved over for a temporary road.

Cuyahoga County's $12 million plan to reconstruct 2.4 miles of Bainbridge Road and add new sidewalks, water lines and sewers is scheduled to start Monday.

The plan calls for taking parts of front lawns along the route to build a two-way temporary road to maintain traffic during construction, which is expected to last until the summer of 2012.

Homeowners John and Mary McNamara asked Common Pleas Court on March 25 to block eminent domain action against them and prevent the temporary road. But Judge Ronald Suster on Friday denied their request.

Suster did not issue a written opinion but said Friday the McNamara's had not proven their case well enough to block the long-planned project.

Assistant County Prosecutor Dale Pelsozy, who represented the county, said the temporary road is necessary and that the McNamaras should have filed their objection last summer instead of at the last minute.

Mary McNamara and lawyer Alyssa Keeny said they expected to schedule a hearing Friday and were caught off guard by Suster ruling before the McNamaras or experts could testify. Suster said he ruled quickly because construction is scheduled to start next week.

Though the McNamaras were the plaintiffs in the case, other neighbors also oppose the plan. They and their attorneys said they do not object to the entire project or to losing property to permanently improve the road, just having two lanes of traffic run through their yards for the temporary road.

The county has filed to take the land through eminent domain and will return it after construction is over. The residents say that while the land will be taken temporarily, trees and other features -- including a stone wall at one home -- will be destroyed. They said using detours or one-way traffic would reduce damage to their property.

"There is no necessity for the temporary road," Mary McNamara told The Plain Dealer before the judge's ruling. "It's merely a matter of convenience. Taking of personal property wasn't meant for convenience."

Neighbor John Nolan said creating a two-lane temporary road is both unusual and overkill.

"If the road was getting widened, you could see it," said Nolan, who will lose a stand of mature arborvitae. "But you're doing permanent destruction for temporary convenience. It's unnecessary."

The Solon police and fire departments have said that other options would not work and that the two-way temporary road, which will cost $1.1 million, is best for public safety.

The McNamaras argued that the county did not follow the proper procedure in trying to acquire the land from homeowners and misrepresented the plan. Attorney Warner Mendenhall, who also represented the McNamaras, said residents were told the land was needed for grading.

"They never told the property owners they were going to put a two-lane road in their front yard," he said.

The project, which has been planned since 1993, moved to the forefront when federal stimulus money became available. That money will pay for the entire project.