Ohio's fastest-growing city is struggling to keep up with its own success

Daily Mail​

a day ago

Once a quiet farming community, Ohio 's fastest-growing city now faces a challenge brought on by its own success: keeping its residents safe.
North Ridgeville started drawing in more residents in 2000, when then-mayor David Gillock launched a major sewer system upgrade. That behind-the-scenes infrastructure move, reported by Cleveland.com, unlocked the city's west side for a wave of new home construction.
And then the boom hit.
From 2002 to 2006, the city issued about 437 new home permits each year, helping to build more than 40 percent of the homes that exist today.
Since then, the population has soared by an impressive 68 percent, with an estimated 37,504 people calling North Ridgeville home in 2024, according to the US Census.
With shiny new developments springing up and families flocking in, all signs point to a success story for the once-sleepy suburb.
But beneath the surface, the cracks are showing - and locals are sounding the alarm.
In response, North Ridgeville is now confronting a critical challenge: protecting a surging population amid a widening gap in emergency services.
'People don't hate growth - they just want it to be done responsibly, safely and with forethought,' resident Cali Zingale, a City Council candidate, told Cleveland.com.
'We're always catching up instead of looking ahead,' she added. 'If we're going to keep growing, we need to be planning first.'
Just over 20 years ago, when the city's population hovered around 23,000, the community trusted that in an emergency, police or firefighters would arrive in the blink of an eye.
Now, they aren't so sure.
Fire and police staffing levels have remained largely unchanged for the last two decades, even as the population has climbed over 60 percent - and the effects are being felt throughout the community.
Annual fire department calls have tripled since 2000 - rising from 1,850 to 5,260 by 2023.
Yet over that same 23-year span, the number of full-time fire department staff grew by only seven - rising from 33 to just 40 employees.
Adding to the challenge, both fire stations sit on the city's eastern side - leaving the rapidly growing west side, according to residents, underserved.
'The runtime right now over to the west end is 12 minutes,' Councilwoman Holly Swenk told Cleveland.com. 'So, if your house is on fire, if you need an ambulance, you have to wait 12 minutes.'
Average emergency response times were under seven minutes in the northeast and southeast areas, but stretched to eight minutes and three seconds in the northwest and nearly 12 minutes in the southwest.
'We have all these developments over there that don't have quick access,' Swenk added.
Built for just 900 students, the high school also feels stuck in the past - now packed to the brim with more than 1,400 teens squeezed into every available classroom.
'It's significantly overcrowded,' David Pritt, assistant superintendent for North Ridgeville City Schools, told Cleveland.com.
To handle the overflow, trailer-style mobile classrooms now sit behind the school - temporary band-aids for a building that's long outgrown its limits.
But the overcrowding has sparked real fear among parents, especially after a levy to replace an aging elementary and high school failed to pass in 2023, Cleveland 19 News reported.
And it's not just a struggle to find space in overcrowded classrooms - many students and parents are also facing a daily challenge just getting to school, thanks to a critical shortage of bus drivers, News 5 Cleveland reported.
In 2023, the district widened its no-bus zone from 1.5 miles to 2 miles - leaving nearly 700 additional students without access to school transportation.
Then, in August, district operations director Matt Yunker announced a troubling update: the district was short seven bus drivers, dropping from 45 to just 38, as reported by the outlet.
'It is purely a matter of we don't have the bodies to put in buses to transport kids to and from school right now,' he added.
Another casualty of its own rapid success, North Ridgeville is now struggling to keep up with the infrastructure demands of its own explosive growth.
'Yes, the new homes help us pay for things now, but every new home also adds more wear on our roads, more students in our schools and more emergency calls,' Zingale told the outlet.
'We can't just look at what we're gaining - we need to factor in what we're losing too,' she added.
Though the city's footprint keeps growing, the pace of residential construction is starting to slow - bringing North Ridgeville to what current Mayor Kevin Corcoran warns is 'a financial brick wall'.
The inevitable 'brick wall' marks the moment when revenue from new development can no longer disguise the real cost of running - and sustaining - a city stretched to its breaking point.
Since taking office in 2020, Mayor Corcoran has sought to diminish his administration from the rapid growth policies of the past, reassuring residents that under his leadership, the city's expansion has significantly slowed (pictured: work on a residential neighborhood)
'Now that the growth is slowing, we're starting to get pinched because we don't have that growth to help support the increases in finances,' Corcoran told Cleveland.com.
New construction may raise property taxes, but North Ridgeville sees only a small slice.
For every dollar collected, just 15 cents ends up with the city - the rest funneled is to the school district and Loraine County, living the city with limited funds.
Now, residents watch anxiously as every resource in their once spacious community dwindles - along with their growing sense of safety and security.
Resident Shellie Kearsey told Cleveland.com that she's tried to actively engage - raising concerns about safety force staffing and budget transparency to officials for years.
Yet, she says her efforts have been met with near silence.
'Why, when we address the mayor with the issues, nothing is ever addressed?' Kearsey told the outlet.
'I've asked numerous questions, I've been to numerous meetings,' she added. 'All I get is a blank stare.'
Now, the question looms: can Ohio's fastest-growing city keep up with itself - or will North Ridgeville's boom turn into a costly collapse?
Mayor Corcoran, Councilwoman Swenk, assistant superintendent Pritt and the North Ridgeville Fire Department did not immediately respond to Daily Mail for comment.