About 7,000 Washington Township and Dublin residents will benefit from a LinkUs sales tax project, helping address a lack of pedestrian and bike infrastructure.
The border of Dublin and Washington Township isn't very clear in this area of town, but you can see it when the multi-use path on Shier Rings Road abruptly ends. This $700,000 project bridges that gap with more than $500,000 in sales tax funding, most of which is paid for by residents outside the township who likely won't benefit.
The communities that stand to benefit will foot only 1/4 of the bill, leaving the rest of the budget to other taxpayers in the Columbus area.
That is part of the point of the broader LinkUs initiative, which aims to fill in the gaps in many areas of Franklin County where there aren't easy ways for pedestrians or bike riders to reach a bus stop.
While townships often have this problem, there are many areas missing sidewalks in Columbus city limits and in the suburbs too.
Township Administrator Eric Richter explained that these projects are expensive for a township. When asked by WOSU, Richter didn't say whether townships should consider raising taxes to pay for more of these projects on their own.
"I think that's an individual, case by case, you know, decision based on an individual township. I mean we have some very rural townships in Franklin County with significant amounts of rural areas," Richter said.
While Washington Township is rural in northwestern Franklin County, much of it borders suburban residential areas and commercial hubs that could benefit from more sidewalks and bike paths.
Richter said the township is appreciative of voters for supporting the LinkUs sales tax that made this project possible. The sales tax will fund many more projects like this and improvements to the Central Ohio Transit Authority.
"I know that we were an early advocate and obviously an early recipient, but I know there are ongoing projects all over central Ohio and I just think that when you look out here in the next three to five years, people are really going to be shocked at the amount of network that's getting completed," Richter said.
COTA CEO Monica Tellez-Fowler said there are 80 more projects in the planning stages right now with this sales tax funding. She said there will be many more projects like this around central Ohio that will break ground soon.
"Typically the design doesn't last more than a year though for those projects. So a lot of it will be probably in the next, you know six to 12 months, you'll start to see a real ramp up in terms of construction projects," Tellez-Fowler said.
A full list of sidewalks, bikeways and trails that will be built is on the LinkUs website.
