The city of Riverside is taking steps to improve safety around the Woodman Drive-Airway Road intersection in preparation for expected economic growth in that area.

Riverside recently was awarded a $20,000 non-matching grant from the Ohio Department of Public Safety to study safety measures at that intersection.

That area became a tax increment financing district in June. Money collected in the TIF fund will finance the actual improvements — increasing safety for vehicles, bicyclists and pedestrians — that will be recommended by the study.

“We’ll use the safety study as a basis to do projects from street lighting to stop signs to banners,” said Bob Murray, the city’s director of planning and economic development. “One of the first steps was to put the TIF in and now that the TIF is in place, we have a funding mechanism to continue on what else we want to do.”

The study must be completed by Oct. 1, 2013, City Manager Bryan Chodkowski said.

“The relevant information that comes out of this safety study can then be applied to what will eventually become the Airway TIF master plan,” he said. “Once the Airway TIF has accumulated funds, we’ll use those funds to look at ways not only to beautify that district, but also how to coordinate those with the safety measures identified in the study.”

The Airway TIF district consists of 53 acres. There are 61 parcels and nearly $15.4 million in market value, Murray has said.

This type of TIF will use the “piggy bank” method, in which the city won’t use any of the money until it actually is available, which could be as early as the second half of next year, Murray said.

“There are no glaring concerns there,” Murray. “We just know we can do it better. Along with making sure it’s safe for the users, we want to make sure we accommodate the businesses up and down there, too. That’s the second priority of a study like this.”

A $50,000 study to evaluate that entire corridor will be planned once it can be funded by the TIF account, Murray said.

Seven new outlots have been created, and they are expected to generate at least $8 million in new construction in the Airway Shopping Center area, city officials have said. One of the outlots will be occupied by a new McDonald’s, replacing the vintage-style McDonald’s located on the southwest corner of Airway and Woodman.

Chodkowski said McDonald’s has submitted an amended site plan and the city is currently reviewing it.

“You just have so much more traffic utilizing these roads,” Chodkowski said. “They were never originally designed and constructed to handle this type of volume. … At the end of the day, this study will be very valuable.”

Peggy Henthorn, who manages the Airway Shopping Center for Cleveland-based Mid-America Management, would like to see either sidewalks or a bike path constructed from the residential area behind the shopping center to Airway Road.

“As we start developing more out there and as Riverside grows, it is all about the safety of the people and people walking,” Henthorn said. “We love when people come and solicit our businesses by cutting through the parking lot. It’d just be a little safer to have the city implement some other way.”