Hilliard Community Plan Provides Setting for Latest Scene in Local Politics
Too Fast, Too Slow. Too Sprawl, Too Tall. Too Much and yet Somehow not Enough - Our Shared Story of Growth and Development in Hilliard Opens a Contentious Election Cycle.
Hilliard City Council members have not been in lockstep of late with the latest difference of opinion concerning the future development of Hilliard as outlined in the recently adopted community plan, also previously known as the comprehensive plan.
City Council on April 24 adopted the community plan 5-2.
Council President Omar Tarazi and Councilman Les Carrier dissented.
That dissent has manifested into a “Save Hilliard” meeting, from 3 to 6 p.m. Sept. 17 at Oties Bar and Grill - 5344 Center St, Hilliard, OH 43026 (updated)
The gathering is meant to provide an opportunity for those opposed to the underpinnings of the community plan to gather and discuss alternatives to it, which calls for too much mixed-use development and apartments, according to Tarazi.
Tarazi and Carrier produced a 5-minute, 17-second video on the You Tube platform, promoting the meeting and spelling out the kinds of development that they say can happen if Hilliard’s planning and zoning commission and City Council were to approve the kinds of development speculated in the video.
You can view the video here:
The community plan was first revised in 2011 and again ten years later, in 2021. Libby Gierach, president and CEO of the Hilliard Area Chamber of Commerce, chaired a committee of volunteers tasked with revamping a community plan for a city that had grown by nearly 10,000 residents.
The community plan, according to Gierach, is a tool to guide growth in the city for the next ten years.
It encourages growing inward rather than outward, continues to focus on Old Hilliard, encourages revitalization along Cemetery Road, additional walking and biking opportunities, and encourages more mixed-use projects that are to bolster the city’s growing tax base, according to Gierach.
“While not every recommendation in the plan will be supported by everyone, it reflects the committee’s direction, the input of hundreds of other community members, and an understanding of data and trends,” Gierach wrote in a preface to the community plan.
The 160-page community plan addresses land use and development, economic vitality, mobility and connectivity, and parks and public spaces.
It also includes focus areas such as Old Hilliard, the Cemetery Road corridor, the Interstate 270 corridor, and the retired railroad corridor.
Read the entire plan here: [link] https://hilliardohio.gov/hilliards-comprehensive-plan/
The community plan suggests parts of Old Hilliard might have buildings that reach five stories, according to the plan. A color coded map indicates where two-story, three-story, four-story, and five-story structures are suggested if and when development occurs.
In the Cemetery Road corridor, the plans illustrate a concept in which a “village mixed use” style project could be developed on the north side of Cemetery Road, possibly including the current site of J.W. Reason Elementary School, which is being evaluated for potential reuse or disposition by the school district, according to the community plan.
The concept plan also calls for village residential on the south side with a parallel east-west alley south of Cemetery Road to provide access in lieu of direct access to Cemetery Road if a project were to come to fruition there.
The text of the plan states it is a “long-term policy” whose full implementation “will involve a host of city departments.”
But Carrier and Tarazi say the plan is a clear sign to the central Ohio development community that such policy is favored in Hilliard, pointing to a number of recent real-estate transactions they claim portends the nature of development that lies over the horizon.
“They are fixed on a vision and that’s how it’s going to be, but not everyone wants that… I do not agree with the direction of the city and the administration,” said Tarazi, adding that he believes the community plan will become part of the zoning code.
City Council has yet to consider whether it will amend the city’s zoning code to allow for the kind of development outlined in the community plan.
That is why, Carrier and Tarazi both said, the elections for Hilliard City Council and Norwich Township Trustee in November are critical.
“The kind of development we are to have depends on the outcome of the election,” said Tarazi, who withdrew his candidacy for re-election to City Council that he gained in the Republican primary in the spring to instead run for the non-partisan fiscal officer of Norwich Township.
Carrier, who is the middle of a term, does not risk losing his council seat to vie for a Norwich Township Trustee seat.
If he loses his bid, he says he will remain on City Council but if he wins, he would assume the township seat and resign from City Council.
“It’s another way to serve my community and help out,” Tarazi said of his Norwich Township campaign.
But Tarazi also acknowledged it is an insurance policy if there is not a “preferred outcome” in the race for City Council.
If City Council was to advance the kinds of development Carrier and Tarazi fear, then they say their positions in Norwich Township could be used to mitigate the kinds of development proposed because the city charter requires the assent of Norwich Township and the school district to approve an tax-increment-financing deal the city might wave in front of a developer, Tarazi said.
But one such developer, Andy Warnock, chief executive officer of the Westwood Collective, said he is “disappointed” with the context of the video.
Westwood Collective has had a hand in the development of The Junction by Westwood, Westwood Field House, Sexton’s Pizza, Legacy Smokehouse, and Firefly Winery.
Warnock said he envisions future development in Old Hilliard and the Cemetery Road corridor to resemble that found in historic Dublin, on the west side of the Scioto River, rather than Bridge Park on the east side.
Warnock called the depictions and speculative nature of potential development in the video “reckless,” adding the material is delivered in a manner that makes it appear as if it is already approved for development and not the opening stages of a ten year plan.
Councilman Pete Marsh echoed the sentiment.
Marsh called the video “detrimental” in several ways.
“Its purpose is not to inform but to frighten. We need to have good conversations about the kinds of development that are to come to Hilliard and that’s hard to do when before the conversation can even begin, people are in their corners.”
The dissent can also have a chilling effect on developers courting the city and pursuing unrelated projects, said Marsh, adding he views the video and the Sept. 17 meeting as a “political agenda.”
While Carrier and Tarazi each say they acknowledge such appearances can’t be altogether avoided, it is still the future of the city and not political aspirations at stake.
Councilwoman Peggy Hale, who has aligned with Carrier and Tarazi on several issues as a dissenting block of votes, approved the community plan but said she wants to see compromises as the expected discussion moves toward codifying permitted kinds of development.
“There is room for adjustment without discarding the entire process and plan, (and) I look forward to continuing to work with council, the residents, and the city to move forward in an intelligent manner with balanced growth,” Hale said.
It seems like the plan after finding that your opposition to the plan is not shared by the majority of council nor the broad coalition of community input, is to seek a different role that can be used to obstruct that progress, while treating it like another divisive, permanent campaign instead of governance.
I'll be happy if the meetup in the 17th drums up more community engagement, but I'm saddened that it's a reactionary, NIMBY-fueled rally of malcontents instead of an open dialogue. This seems to just be emulation of the divided, combative, toxic political culture at the national level applied to the municipal scale. I don't like it one bit.
Don't be afraid of growth Hilliard! Follow the plan you devised and sdjust as necessary. Hilliard doesn't need to be "saved"