Neighborhood Nuisance: I-475 expansion could force families out of their homes

TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) - Being forced out of your home by the state is a reality for some people living in Toledo’s Lincolnshire neighborhood.

The Ohio Department of Transportation says it’s planning to expand I-475 and that could require ODOT to seize property, even entire homes.

“When we first found out, we actually found out from your news station, and we were just distraught,” Kelsey Beattie who lives in the neighborhood said.

Beattie and her neighbor, Allyson Viertlbeck, live right next to the highway.

When we moved in, this was going to be our forever home,” Viertlbeck said. “If it impacts us, can they make us whole? Will they make us whole?”

Beattie says the lack of communication is what makes it worse, and she and Viertlbeck just want answers.

“No heads up. No news in the mail has just been honestly the worst part,” Beattie said. “There’s no communication.”

An agency representative says ODOT will notify homeowners whose properties are impacted around the spring of 2025 and ODOT will be seizing property that summer with construction likely beginning in 2027.

ODOT says that while homes may be taken for the project, most homeowners will only have to give up minor slivers of their property.

“You come in and you take what’s mine because you feel it’s necessary for you to do something that’s not even needed,” Beattie said.

The I-475 Neighborhoods Coalition is meeting Thursday night from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Sanger Library Branch to discuss their opposition to the expansion.

If there is a property in your community that has become a neighborhood nuisance, reach out to Sophie Bates on social media or by email at sophie.bates@13abc.com.

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