Licking County planning effort hopes to curb uncertainty around Intel growth
The under-construction $20 billion Intel project in Jersey Township has brought uncertainty to the region surrounding growth and the future of the county landscape.
While nothing can completely eliminate uncertainty surrounding the effects of such a massive development, a local planning effort spearheaded by the T.J. Evans Foundation hopes to at least mitigate it.
During a breakfast Wednesday morning with the Licking County Chamber of Commerce, Sarah Wallace, Evans Foundation chairwoman, gave an overview of their Framework planning effort in conjunction with Columbus-based consulting firm Planning NEXT.
Editorial:Your input is critical to Licking County's planning for Intel
Wallace said the goal of Framework was to be the "neutral convener" of local governments and organizations to help plan for the growth surrounding Intel. Because her family has been invested in Newark and Licking County for generations, she said she wanted to do what she could to facilitate conversations between different organizations.
"This is a time of tremendous change in our county," she said. "I just wanted to do whatever I could do to be of help."
The participating jurisdictions are: Licking County government; the cities of Newark, Heath, Johnstown and Pataskala; the villages of Alexandria, Granville and Hebron; and the townships of Granville, Harrison, Jersey, Liberty, Monroe, St. Albans and Union.
First Federal Savings, Heath-Newark-Licking County Port Authority, Licking Memorial Health Systems, Park National Bank and Southgate Corporation joined with the Evans Foundation in pledging to contribute 65% of the cost of the planning effort. The remaining 35% will come from the public entities.
The funding has allowed the foundation to hire Planning NEXT, a planning firm based in central Ohio, to work with Kevin Hively, founder of Ninigret Partners, an economic consulting firm based in Rhode Island.
By bringing local governments together, Wallace said they will not only be able to project a stronger, unified voice, but they are also allowed to plan across jurisdictional boundaries. She noted planning is critical to maintain a community that residents find desirable.
"We really need to shape our future and not just sit back and see what happens," she said.
Jamie Greene, with Planning NEXT, said the effort has already received more than 800 responses to its one-question survey of what people want. He said efforts are being made to solicit input from as many people as possible, including going to events ranging from chamber breakfasts to high school football games. He encouraged attendees to not only complete the survey themselves, but to also encourage friends and family members to participate to ensure they receive diverse input.
Greene noted that while the Intel project and its ancillary developments will radically change parts of Licking County, he said it would not transform everything. He then showed a map of the outline of Interstate 270 over western Licking County to demonstrate how much land the county has. Part of the planning process will be to determine how much land the Intel project will need and how much locally is available for development.
"There's a lot of capacity," he said.
Framework's goal is to complete gathering initial input by the end of November and then begin working on building goals. While both Wallace and Greene said it is difficult to say what the end result will be, they are hopeful to provide policy proposals to local governments to enact.
Greene said that it will likely be some time before it is known how wide the impact of Intel will be in Licking County, but that should not stop community leaders from working toward a common plan.
"We're going to have to be real comfortable here in not knowing everything we'd like to know," he said. "This is a critical time to be helpful and hopeful."
This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Licking County planning effort curb uncertainty around Intel growth
