“This is a tool created by the state of Ohio for municipalities like us to help encourage development,” City Manager Bryan Heck explained. “Any type of public infrastructure to advance the development would be included.”
That includes roads, utilities and other hard infrastructure necessary to support the development, which is anticipated to include retail, restaurants, multi-family apartments, patio and single-family homes. The development would take up 400 acres along East National Road near Bird Road.
The city has approved a Community Reinvestment Area for new single-family residences there to receive a tax abatement for the first 15 years.
Springfield Clark-Shawnee School District has objected to the development because Superintendent Brian Kuhn said the schools would take in too many new students from new housing without adequate funding to support them.
The school district projects an increase of nearly 400 new students based on calculations for the number of children per home in the expected 635 single residential component of the Melody Parks project. Kuhn has indicated the current buildings in the district were not built to accommodate that kind of growth.
Heck maintains the increased value of the property, which has been zoned as agricultural in the past, will help fund the school system. The commercial/retail component of Melody Parks will not get the tax abatement.
Assistant Mayor Rob Rue thanked representatives of the Columbus-based developer, Borror, during the commission session for “continuing to press on in a difficult development culture. Thank you for your continued investment and interest in Clark County development.”
Borror’s $400 million plus development will be the largest project of its kind in decades in the Springfield area.
It remains unclear what a vote earlier this month by the Central CEDA Regional Planning Commission (CEDA) will have on the project. The CEDA board, by 4-3 vote, denied separating a plot of land for housing in Melody Parks. Board members who voted it down did not cite a rule that the project would violate, and supporters of the project have indicated they are studying options.
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