Community center, park, land reserve top recommendations for 57-acre Granville site

A 57-acre village of Granville site previously slated for a controversial development could one day be home to a community center, public park or land reserve based on recommendations from a community committee.

After nearly two years of research, the Munson Springs Steering Committee recommended Wednesday to the Granville Village Council a community, center, public park or land reserve as the best options for the Newark-Granville Road property, northeast of Cherry Valley Road. The full report is available on the village's website.

Adam Himes, chair of the committee, said since he last appeared before council in October to recommend the northern 32 acres remain a nature preserve, the committee explored potential uses for the rest. He said it brainstormed a list of 20 ideas and eventually picked six uses to explore further based on criteria council provided.

The committee spent the first half of this year evaluating the six concepts, which were land reserve, public park, housing, senior living, specialty commercial and community center.

The steering committee ranked its recommendations and broke them into two tiers: community center, public park and reserve in the first tier, which garnered the most committee support; and a senior living complex, specialty commercial and housing in the second tier.

Himes shared how each could be developed over the lower 25 acres. A community center would require selling the lower part of the site to the Granville Recreations District, which would then build a 90,000- to 120,000-square-foot building. It would contain spaces for community meetings and events, athletic and recreation facilities and a wellness center developed in partnership with a health care system. It could also contain an outdoor community pool.

Melissah Pawlikowski, vice chair of the steering committee, said the difference between the two tiers was significant. She said the senior living, specialty commercial and housing concepts would have "profound impacts" on the community, partly because of increased traffic in the area.

A housing development would pose unique challenges because it could result in Granville Exempted Village Schools needing a new building to accommodate more students, something Superintendent Jeff Brown addressed as an ex officio member of the committee, Pawlikowski said.

"When we made these tier one and tier two, they're not really like one, two, three, four, five, six," she said. "The final three have drastic and dramatic impacts that we viewed, by vote, as negative to the community."

Council members thanked the committee for its extensive work to create the thorough and concise report.

"This is exactly what we had hoped for," Mayor Melissa Hartfield said. "I thank you so much for spending two years of your lives working around meetings and trying to sift this out. I know this was a lot of work, so thank you so much."

Council accepted the committee's report but did not taken any further action. After the meeting, Village Manager Herb Koehler said council members will ruminate on the presentation over the next few weeks and will likely hold a working session in early fall during which council members can decided how to proceed.

Koehler added that no matter what concept the council decides to pursue, there will be plenty of public meetings during which residents may provide input.

The 57-acre site was previously slated for mixed-use development called Eaton Woods, which the council approved in 2018. It would have been built out in phases to include retail, residential and medical office buildings.

The Southgate Corp. project was fraught with conflict and opposition from potential neighbors, and in 2020 the company announced it was no longer interested in developing the property. Southgate offered to sell the land to the village, which approved the purchase in August 2021 for $3.25 million. Southgate then donated $500,000 toward development of the proposed "Munson Springs Nature Preserve & Historical Site." The village also secured a state grant and used funds from the sale of the former Granville Township Fire Department Station.

At the time of purchase, the village set up the steering committee and gave it up to 24 months to formulate and adopt a plan regarding any portion of the land not allotted to the preserve concept.

In October, Himes recommended the upper area of the property remain a nature preserve. He said at the time that northern 32 acres of the property was unbuildable because of a steep hill that would make it difficult for construction. Plus, the site is of historical importance to Granville as well as pre-historic inhabitants of the area, he said. Village council subsequently passed a resolution stating so later in the fall.

Granville council sets public hearing for outdoor refreshment area

Besides receiving the Munson Springs report, council also took another step forward regarding a Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area, or DORA, within which patrons 21 and older may purchase alcoholic beverages from licensed businesses and carry their drinks within the DORA boundaries during set times and dates. The DORA application may be viewed on the village's website.

Generally, the area would include the north and south sides of East Broadway, between Linden Place and North Prospect Street, and North Prospect, between East Broadway and East College Street.

DORA permit holders would include the former Hashi restaurant, The Pub on Broadway, and Day Y Noche on East Broadway, as well as Three Tigers Brewing Co. and The Lot Beer Co. on North Prospect Street.

Village council will hold a public meeting on the matter at its next meeting Aug. 2. Hartfield said that hearing will likely continue to council's Aug. 16 meeting as well. With many people on vacation this time of year, Hartfield wanted to ensure residents are informed about the proposal.

"I'm a little worried about the neighbors not knowing because I've had a couple people come up to me and say 'What is that?' that don't even know this is going on," Hartfield said. "And so I know we do. And I know people who are in the business do. But I'm not sure some of the immediate residents do."

mdevito@gannett.com

740-607-2175

Twitter: @MariaDeVito13

This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Community center among top recommendations for 57-acre Granville site