ColDayMan got all cranky when I only showed UrbanOhio Westerville's Meijer, so I had to go back for Uptown...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Suburb of Columbus, right?  Looks nice.

This is a nice downtown, but isn't there a ton of sprawl in Westerville? I seem to remember this being one of Ohio's fastest-growing suburbs in the 90's and 2000's.

That's what I do, Ink.  I inspire you all!

 

Suburb of Columbus, right? Looks nice.

 

Yes, it's very nice.

 

This is a nice downtown, but isn't there a ton of sprawl in Westerville? I seem to remember this being one of Ohio's fastest-growing suburbs in the 90's and 2000's.

 

Yes.  Equate it to Perrysburg with a better downtown but no river.

So this is where Kasich has lived since 2000.  And he's going to continue living there as Governor too.

 

Looks like so many other small Ohio towns except that it appears to be in better shape.

Nice downtown!

 

Coldayman hates Meijer.

There are four or five waves of development in Westerville - some very sprawling, some not so much. Also Westerville school district is much larger than the city itself - including quite a bit of NE Columbus and Genoa Township in Delaware Cty. The Uptown area is mostly from the mid-19th through the 1920s - classic small town Ohio stuff - and services for the college and eventually the Anti-Saloon League folks - rail line and all.

 

Then came waves of development in the postwar period - some interesting, some not so much. I'd say Westerville city is pretty much built out, but the Westerville area - especially in Delaware Cty, which is all horrid sprawl - has plenty of space. Kasich lived in Genoa Twnship not the city of Westerville.

Westerville seems a lot like Wadsworth, in that it was once a small town that is now a "sprawl" city. The downtowns look very similiar, down to the historic theater's that are now used as something else ... an Amish furniature store in Westerville vs. a DMV in Wadsworth.

IIRC that Graeters has a line out the door during summertime.

I like this section of Westerville.  In reality, the only reason Uptown Westerville thrives is because of the sprawl around it.  If it weren't for this development, it would be in the same boat as so many other small Ohio towns. 

It's Columbus they can thank, not sprawl. If they extended their urban grid instead I'm sure it would be just as healthy.

what a nice, well-kept downtown. How far is the Otterbein campus?

what a nice, well-kept downtown. How far is the Otterbein campus?

 

Otterbein's campus is a block or two west of Uptown.

Development in the city of Westerville is mostly on a interconnecting grid (the newer stuff is more curvilinear but there are relatively few isolated cul-de-sac dominated developments). The city is actually pushing Otterbein to head toward the Cleveland Ave./Cooper Rd corridor, which seems to be residual farmland and flood plain for Alum Creek, instead toward uptown. They were supposedly quite annoyed that Otterbein turned a nursing home into a dorm behind Church of the Messiah (who is also quite imperialistic over the northern stretches of the business district). The growth in the district is actually to the south of the old core.

 

I don't know that sprawl explains its success. In an Ohio w/ less sprawl, it is probably even more successful as the dominant node in NE Franklin Cty with excellent rail service into downtown. I'd imagine it would have developed with a higher density than it did. It also does have a 3000k student college which provides a fair bit of traffic (though so many of them go home every weekend, it doesn't have as much affect as it could).