AURORA, Ohio — A development company building a mall near this northeast Ohio city ignored a state order barring the destruction of wetlands by clearing 100 trees, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency officials said.

        Heritage Development Co., the Moreland Hills company building a 700,000-square-foot mall on a 128-acre tract across from Six Flags Worlds of Adventure, cut about eight acres of mature-growth trees from wetlands just days after the state issued the protection order, said Kera Allison, an Ohio EPA spokeswoman.

        “We've never had a developer, after receiving notice of a denial, go out and cut down trees in wetlands,” she said.

        No charges have been filed against Heritage officials, but the Ohio EPA and Attorney General Betty Montgomery's office say an investigation is under way. Neither would say what charges the company could face.

        Heritage officials contend their application before the Ohio EPA to allow the company to dredge and mitigate the wetlands did not cover trees.

        “There is no tree ordinance that precludes us from cutting the trees down, so we cut the trees down,” said John McGill, Heritage's president. “It's not a destruction of wetlands. Wetland is wet land. L-A-N-D, not trees.”

        Heritage had asked the Ohio EPA to allow it to fill just over 7 of the 32 acres of wetlands on the property for parking and buildings.

        The Ohio EPA denied that request on June 26, saying that nearly 5 of those 7 acres included some of the state's highest-quality wetlands.

        Between July 26 and Tuesday, the state says that Heritage cleared several acres of those high-quality wetlands.

The evolving N-word
Slurs often adopted by those they insult
Home fix-up help little known
Church opens new school to focus on boys
Families with children at Over-the-Rhine fest
Gun-toting cab driver fighting law
Riot casualties
Vandals damage windows on dozens of cars
PULFER: Charmin exhibit
WILKINSON: Politics
Heart device advised to clubs
Heart problems worry schools
Hidden heart ills killed teen-agers
Tristate A.M. Report
Accusations not first to target priest
City seeks to rebuild
Eat, drink and be mellow; all's cool at Blues Festival
Sycamore implements lightning predictor
8 vying for Lebanon Council
'Cookies' a sweet deal for mentally ill
Developers remove trees from wetlands
Specialty care just what patients need
State suggests that Parma close 8 school buildings
1 dead, 1 missing in eastern Ky. floods
I love ... look-alikes?
Leisurely stroll spans the ages
New event joins old
Ockerman considers curriculum
Search for Major's body moves to dam