Heath City Council meets Monday night, but members are not expected to vote on the controversial Heath Hills housing development.
The proposal to build more than 500 homes in a rural area recently annexed into Heath has put the city in the middle of a spat between developers and the neighboring village of Granville.
Since school district and municipal boundaries don't have to line up in Ohio, the land in question sits within Granville Exempted Village Schools.
“It's clearly an enormous financial impact on the Granville Schools that will have kind of devastating implications for how we can educate our kids," said Thomas Miller, a former Granville school board president turned concerned citizen.
Miller attended a packed Heath City Council meeting in May with Granville Superintendent Jeff Brown and Mayor Melissa Hartfield.
“It’s taxation without representation and this is not being a good neighbor. You don't do this to your neighbors," Hartfield said.
Granville Schools predicts that Heath Hills could increase enrollment in the small district by as much as 40%. Currently, around 2,500 Granville students attend four schools. Heath Hills could add another 840 students, Brown said.
The influx would almost certainly require Granville to build a new school, which would mean going to taxpayers for more money.
A webpage opposing Heath Hills postulates that Granville taxpayers could see a nearly 10-mill operating levy and a 3.5-mill bond issue, which would cost about $2,000 a year for the average village homeowner.
Residents react
At that May meeting, one man held a sign outside the Heath Municipal Offices reading "Heath kids are Heath's Responsibility."
Wendy Hollinger, of Granville, passed out signs near the door. They read, "lower density," "vote no" and "do unto others."
“So, we do say ‘vote no,’ but what we really want is we (want to) lower density," Hollinger said. "We're not pushing back against development. We need houses in Licking County...but we don't need this many houses on this small amount of land, which will create that many students in a school district in such a short period of time."
Inside, residents filled nearly every chair. People sat on the floor, stood against walls and spilled into the foyer outside council chambers. Sweating, they fanned themselves with Hollinger’s signs. Granville children in yellow t-shirts that said "we matter" struggled to sit still.
Heath Council President Tim Kelley got right to the point.
“Tonight, the intent of council is to eventually postpone the vote on the ordinance on Heath Hills," Kelley said.
Council did ultimately postpone the vote, first to June, and then, at a later meeting, to August.
A chapter in a larger story
The situation with Heath and Granville isn’t a Licking County-specific problem, said Licking County Planning Director Carson Combs.
Combs saw similar conflict in Hilliard, where the school district stretches into the cities of Columbus and Dublin.
The only way to deal with the uneven pressures of growth, Combs said, is for schools and municipalities to work together to find solutions. He also stressed the importance of strategic plans, like the one Licking County Planning is currently working on.
“We're really trying to get a proactive handle on what should be the growth policies moving forward because of all of the pressure that we're seeing," Combs said.
Intel’s chip manufacturing project in New Albany kicked off growth in northwest Licking County. But Combs said developers are also interested in areas in the southwest with easy access to I-70 and U.S. 40.
"Licking County has some of the few remaining good sites with great access to the interstate," Combs said.
Warehouses, manufacturers and data centers have sprung up in the unincorporated parts of the county that Carson oversees. Where there are jobs, houses are needed. So, developers look to build in nearby cities like New Albany, Hebron or Heath.
The developer behind Heath Hills, M/I Homes, has already has built more than a dozen communities of $500,000 homes in central Ohio, from Plain City to Hebron and Delaware to Grove City.
Heath Hills
In Heath, M/I Homes plans to build 504 single family homes on lots no smaller than 7,100 square feet in two areas off Canyon Road.
This summer, soybeans grow on at least some of the land. A spacious neighborhood of about 20 houses sits to the side of the proposed project area.
If Heath lawmakers approve the Heath Hills project, M/I Homes promises to improve Canyon and Seminary roads near the development and give the city land for a park.
Developers also will donate about 17 acres to Granville Exempted Schools to build a new school. If the district doesn’t start construction within a certain amount of time, however, M/I would get the land back with the ability to add about 40 more homes there.
Lingering concerns
Months into the debate over the development, not everyone is sold on the project.
At a recent meeting, Kelley said he would vote against the development after arguing with Law Director David Morrison about the more than $20 million price tag of extending city water and sewer lines to the site.
"Well, we don’t pass zoning, don’t pass the development agreement, they’re not gonna build anything," Kelley said.
"Well, it’s already zoned residential. Somebody’s gonna build something," Morrison said.
"Maybe, maybe not," Kelley said.
"Maybe, maybe not?" Morrison said. "That’s a hell of a risk to take."
Some Heath residents remain concerned about other potential costs of the proposed development. The city may one day need to add a fire station, for example.
But Heath Hills would also bring income taxes and increased property taxes into the city.
It’s complicated — and it’s not over. Heath City Council is expected to vote on the development agreement at their meeting on Aug. 3.
Regardless of the outcome for Heath Hills, growth is expected to continue in Licking County and the rest of central Ohio.
