Judge spares Cleveland from purchasing, destroying dozens of homes near airport

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Cleveland will not have to purchase and destroy some 70 homes near the airport, despite a 2001 agreement with Brook Park, a Cuyahoga County judge ruled.

The ruling stemmed from a decades-long dispute over a planned expansion at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport that never happened. Brook Park sued Cleveland for breach of contract in 2017.

The lawsuit reached the 8th Ohio District Court of Appeals, which found Cleveland did breach the contract. The city, however, maintained that the lawsuit was untimely and that purchasing and destroying the homes would now be unfair.

The appellate court kicked the case back to Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Deborah Turner to decide whether to compel the city to purchase and destroy the homes.

Turner ultimately found that ord