MOUNT VERNON – The Mount Vernon Municipal Planning Commission recommended approval of a comprehensive development plan for 102 acres of land along Newark Road zoned for Planned Neighborhood Development to construct Liberty Crossing, a neighborhood with 477 residential units.
The Planning Commission met on Jan. 12 to hear the Liberty Crossing comprehensive development plan proposal and a request for a change to the Colonial Woods condominium comprehensive development plan.
The development is proposed with 93 single-family homes, 42 detached patio homes, 112 townhomes and 230 multifamily residential units.
Scott Mallory of Highland Real Estate, the project developer, referred to the 2021 Knox County Forecasted Housing Need study conducted by Kenyon College in collaboration with the Knox Area Development Foundation.
“Basically, it summarized the shortfall that the county and the city are experiencing on an annual basis is 400 units,” Mallory said.
Additional housing should help businesses that say they can’t expand because new employees can’t be recruited without available housing, he said.
The plan addresses the housing gap, according to Mallory.
“It addresses the gap that we see in senior housing, it addresses the gap in rent product and addresses a starter home gap and the single-family gap,” he said.
Mallory said a study by the group that found nearby archaeological sites found none on this property. But if evidence were found, construction would have to be halted to comply with any laws.
The patio homes are geared toward older empty nesters, with the townhomes expected to provide homes for young professionals who want home ownership but can’t afford higher down payments.
Gary Smith of G2 Planning + Design said some turn lanes would be required to get people in and out of the development and to make sure traffic continues as people make left turns, he said. However, the city won’t be paying for those improvements.
John Yoder of Key Realty of Mount Vernon, speaking in support of the development, said Knox MLS data shows that the county has a 90-day supply of housing.
“A healthy balanced market would need four to six months’ supply. So we’re obviously dramatically below healthy market,” he said.
Dave Culbertson of Howard Hanna Real Estate Services said when COVID happened, people realized that they didn’t have to live in the big cities and could work from home. So they fled those cities to live in places like Mount Vernon, Lancaster, Newark, Marysville and other outlying communities.
He said in his 67 years, he’s seen the community grow.
“But I’ve also seen our best and brightest younger people leave because housing was unavailable. Jobs were not available,” Culbertson said.
Walt Sperry of Rangeline Road was concerned about traffic safety. Rangeline Road comes out to North Road, just below the crest of North Road, which Sperry called the most dangerous intersection in the county.
Protecting his farmland was also important. The Liberty Crossing property backs up to his property and is not fenced, so residents need to keep off the farm property, he said.
Marty Huebner, who lives on Newark Road directly across from the proposed development, said he’d welcome anything to slow down traffic. He asked the developer to extend sidewalks from the property down to connect with the existing sidewalks at Blackjack Road.
Tim Burton of Rookwood Road was skeptical about the Intel project addressing housing needs, as he believed most of those workers would consider Columbus over Mount Vernon. He also expressed concern about the estimated 900 cars he expects from the fully developed property.
Colonial Woods plan changes tabled
Mayor Matt Starr said the Colonial Woods condo development comprehensive plan change was tabled until March because there were still some issues between the current condo owner’s association and the developer. The existing condo association believed no more condos could be built without 100% approval of its owners. At the same time, the developer wanted to change the comprehensive development plan to set up a separate development with its own condo owners’ association.
He said they would iron out the issues and return them to municipal planning in March.
