TIm

The Newark area is not at a loss for jobs though. There are so many new businesses moving into the area and creating jobs and new residential developments going in left and right which is a major indicator of economic growth in the area as well. Just go look at the Heath industrial park (which is basically Newark). There are so many new builds happening currently and more stuff keeps getting announced. I don't see why reinitiating industrial use in a predominantly residential area could be a good thing at all. In very recent memory we have had the vegan seafood manufacturing facility, the baby food manufacturing facility, the Carvana facility, Owens Corning is building a new facility, there are a few spec buildings being built, not to mention all the industrial development in Etna that hundreds of people from Newark work in. Also all the non-industrial businesses opening up and expanding. Building industrial in a residential area just so a few dozen people can walk to work just doesn't make any sense when the industrial traffic is going to upset people, the noise is going to upset people and potential by products of whatever it would be used for would also upset people. What they are doing with this site is absolutely the best use. People don't want to live near factories or large logistics operations which is why they are going into places like Etna where the opposition will be minimal. There are thousands of people who live within walking distance of this site so making it something the entire community can benefit from is by far going to be the best use of this space as opposed to slapping a fresh coat of paint on an old building and having dozens of 18 wheelers roll down Main Street every single day.

I really don't think you want a lot of 18 wheelers rolling down this street. The area is not equipped to handle that kind of traffic. Plus there are huge industrial areas on the Heath/Newark border that are entirely undeveloped and situated significantly better to handle an industrial amount of traffic, wear and tear and can easily shoot down to 70 or up 79 to 16 whereas this location would get jammed up quickly at the 16 interchange just west of here. This being redeveloped into a mixed use type of thing is honestly the best type of redevelopment that could happen here. The area is entirely surrounded by residential and low density commercial so transitioning this site back into a heavy industrial use would just anger a lot of people, especially when there is SO MUCH industrial land available basically everywhere else in the area/county. It should also bring some additional life into this area of Newark which honestly isn't the nicest area of the city, especially if those two very divey dive bars actually sell and get redeveloped as well. This area could become a destination as opposed to the pass through to downtown that it has been for ages.

You're exactly right. Basically the school district complaining about this stuff is them just not wanting to be proactive about being prepared for future influxes of housing and students in the area. Their lack of willingness to prepare for the future should not burden the entire Pataskala/Etna area. The cities and towns over there are planning for the future, the school districts need to be doing the same instead of fighting growth and development that they can't stop. 3,200 units will bring an insane amount of money into the area and the influx of new residents will mean the area sees increased commercial and retail growth as well, something they are also planning for. The "we don't want to do more work!" mentality from the SW Licking School District is very disappointing to see and they need to realize embracing change and preparing for the future is absolutely the best method here. If they just keep ignoring the issues, like they clearly would like to do, then the school district is going to get overrun with students, the quality of education will deteriorate and they won't be able to keep up with anything.

https://www.newarkadvocate.com/story/news/local/pataskala/2021/05/28/southwest-licking-schools-study-housing-boom-swell-enrollment/7414952002/ Article talking about the impact of residential development on the Southwest Licking School District. The interesting part in there is the chart detailing all the residential developments in the pipeline in the Pataskala/Etna area. Over 3,200 units between apartments, condos and single family homes and they don't anticipate it stopping once those are all built.

Everybody does drugs. It's usually just less obvious in nice areas.

I haven't been over to that area in a while, but now that the stadium is almost complete have they started work on all the surrounding mixed use projects?

For a building that's going to take 5 years to get open, they are moving pretty damn quick. I know there's a crazy amount of stuff that needs to happen inside the building, but I do wonder at what point during the 5 year construction period this thing will top out at.

With the new stadium, new housing around the stadium and all the residential development right across the river I have to imagine the Arena District won't look so dead after hours in a few years time.

Just drove past the old Lazarus building. Better go and get your last looks because they have started making progress tearing it down from the outside now. They are moving quick over there!

I can confirm! I drove past at about 3pm yesterday and they were very much tearing that thing down. Most of the blue brick was untouched though and I did not see any in the rubble piles. Might still be planning on saving them but I'll have to take another drive over that way to find out.

It's basically start building more housing developments or get left behind if you are any town in the Columbus metro area at this point.

I've only ever been there for concerts and it was an absolute blast. Pretty excited for the 2000 person venue as that should attract a lot of great artists. The current venue is really fun, but going there for an actual popular artists and it's shoulder to shoulder packed in the area where the music is playing.

Does anyone have any news about Otherworld building out the bigger venue at their current location? Haven't heard anything about it since it was announced they were expanding.

Newark is in every definition of the word a suburb of Columbus. It takes less than an hour with no traffic to get downtown. Tons of people from the Newark area, hell even all the way out to Zanesville, commute into Columbus everyday (more so pre-covid obviously). Granville is a huge commuter zone for people like doctors and lawyers who have offices in Columbus as well. Just drive 16/161 west in the morning on a weekday and you'll see what I'm talking about. Those older neighborhoods around downtown Newark though...... still got a lot of work to do in those areas. Petty crime and dilapidated properties everywhere and to go with that you get the absolute joke of a Newark police force which makes those historically rougher neighborhoods even less desirable for people not from the area to move into since if something does go wrong you aren't going to get any help from the police. I've met a lot of people who live in those neighborhoods over the years and while there are a ton of great people in the area, there's also a lot of problems and the stories they tell do not paint the picture of a place I'd be looking to move to.

I have a feeling this development will happen fairly quickly. Went from being an idea to approved pretty damn quickly already.

There are still all these weird pocket farms and fields in the area so I really can't see I'm surprised to see some of them being sold for development. Some of these fields have been for sale for ages.

Yeah this is a great addition, and making it so you can't turn left out of King will be huge. When I use to work in the area and take these roads every single day, it sucked when someone created a huge line of cars trying to turn left onto Sharon Valley from King when traffic was busy in the area. People would sometimes dip down into that houses yard on the corner and try and sneak around which obviously shouldn't be happening.

Franklinton really has a "come develop here, there are no bad ideas" vibe right now while IV is still going to be holding developers to strict standards, design and height restrictions etc. Makes sense why Franklinton is booming, you can build whatever you want there right now. It'll be funny in 20+ years time when east Franklinton residents are becoming the NIMBYs.

I believe they are also nearing completion of the brand new building on the Newark campus, although that could technically be an OSU funded building as it's a shared campus.

Yeah it makes no sense. Going from Newark to Columbus, you get on 16 but end up entering Columbus on 161 and at one point you were on 37 for a split second and in this entire time all you did was drive forward without turning or exiting the highway you originally merged onto.

I moved to Ohio, specifically the Heath area, in late 2016 and the changes I've seen since then have been insane. I've seen more development in Central Ohio in 5 years than I ever did in my ancient New England hometown in over 2 decades. It's really nice to live somewhere where they are actually trying to plan for growth and the future.

Licking County also has so much more space compared to Delaware. It'll be interesting to see if it ever overtakes Delaware in growth or population. I have to imagine it will at some point just because 70 goes straight through the southern border of Licking County and there is tons of room for development of new residential areas for people to commute into Columbus. Although that "some point" is probably many many decades away.

https://www.newarkadvocate.com/story/news/local/pataskala/2021/04/15/pataskala-shapes-development-impact-fees-fund-road-improvements/7191249002/ I'd consider this good news for the City of Pataskala. About a year ago some articles were being published that made the city sound like they were moving more towards an anti big development mindset. This development impact fee is basically telling us that they recognize change is inevitable but that they need to do something to make sure the city can support all the growth. I know traffic and impact on transportation (i.e., road wear and tear, roadway improvements etc.) were a huge concern for the city. Hopefully this comes out to be an agreeable fee to not scare off potential developers.

It's that little sliver of land where they closed off access to 16 where the Bob Evans is I'm pretty sure. It's a part of Granville literally nobody knows is even in Granville. I had done work with people who have businesses right in that tiny stretch and they had no idea they were in Granville until Granville came knocking on the door to complain about the style of sign they chose or something like that.

Those "Keep Etna Rural" people aren't going to be too happy. This was inevitable though and I'm glad they are proposing something that's more than just cookie cutter quarter acre lots for single family homes. That entire area is basically a powder keg of potential enormous developments. Will be super interesting to see how Western Licking County changes over this next decade. Just like a lot of areas in Central Ohio, it'll probably become almost unrecognizable.