Harlem Township calls off negotiations with Westerville amid Intel development
WESTERVILLE, Ohio (WCMH) – The proposed merger of Westerville and a neighboring township to help preserve the integrity of both amid the Intel development has come to an end.
The Harlem Township trustees voted on Wednesday to discontinue discussions related to the merger, citing “abuse” the board received from residents on something trustees said wasn’t a “done deal.”
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“It took me back when this first came out, I thought, ‘Wow, we’re going to do that,’ but the thing I liked about it was there’d be a negotiation period and then if the trustees saw something that they thought was worthy, taking it to their residents,” Harlem Trustee David Jackson said during Wednesday’s trustees’ meeting. “They would put it on the ballot, then the residents got a say. It wasn’t an automatic thing by any means like all the people around here were running around saying it was a done deal. It was not.”
Jackson said all the abuse Harlem’s strategic planning committee took was “ridiculous and just uncalled for.” According to Harlem Trustee Carl Richison, that committee voted to disband during a meeting Tuesday night, a disbandment Richison and Jackson approved via vote.
“I’m sorry that they were subjected to such abuse and the carrying on by the residents during this process,” Jackson said.
The merger was first proposed in February in an attempt to fight changes development fueled by Intel’s semiconductor plant construction in Licking County would bring to the small township.
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“The risk is that land for farms and families become warehouses,” Richison said at the time. “Ohio law doesn’t give townships the power to prevent it. Only cities can do that, which is why the committee has recommended that the Harlem Township trustees move forward with an intent to merge with Westerville.”
On Thursday, the day following the trustees’ vote, Westerville issued a statement saying that even though the township ended negotiations, the city would still help its neighboring municipalities.
“Westerville will continue to serve and advise our neighbors to the east as development and potential annexation takes shape,” the city’s statement reads. “Westerville is committed to working with Harlem and any regional partners to pursue thoughtful, well-planned growth that facilitate continued strong public services, responsive public safety and crime prevention, safe schools and neighborhoods, job creation and overall economic stability.”
Westerville’s statement further clarified that while the aim was to have the proposed merger appear on November’s ballot, Harlem requested the ballot initiative be moved to next year.
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“While this was one scenario to continue to move forward in good faith, we are aware Trustees, staff and volunteers have been inundated with outcries of criticism from opposing parties in recent weeks,” the statement reads.
Backlash from Harlem residents to the proposed merger was almost immediate, with the trustees being inundated with opposition at a meeting one day following the announced negotiations.
“I live, as the crow flies, about a mile and a half or two miles from the Intel plant, where I live personally. And I bet there isn’t a week goes by that I don’t get a flyer in the mail from some realtor wanting to buy my land. It’s family land. My dad bought that little farm out there in the 1930’s,” Allen Fling, a lifelong resident of Harlem, said at that meeting.
A second meeting on March 6 brought more of the same sentiment from residents.
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“We like it the way it is,” Harlem resident Peggy Kuntzman said at that meeting. “Maybe I’m old and that’s what we like is things just the way they are. And they won’t be, we know that. But we really don’t want it to be Westerville. If we wanted it to be Westerville, we would’ve bought a house in Westerville 32 years ago.”
At the start of Wednesday’s meeting, Harlem Trustee Matt Jaeger resigned from the board. No reason was given and it is not clear if his resignation was tied to the negotiations with Westerville.
Harlem Township is a 26.5 square mile piece of land between New Albany, Westerville and Sunbury. The 2020 Census shows just over 4,500 residents. Richison said that number is now right at 4,800.
The merger idea came from a two-year strategic planning committee that was put together by the Board of Trustees after the announcement of Intel bringing massive development to nearby Licking County. Most land in Harlem Township is a short drive from the Intel site.
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