Pataskala approves first phase of 153-home subdivision, pauses plans for 2 new warehouses
Pataskala's housing boom is continuing in 2024.
The Pataskala Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously approved the first phase of a 153-home subdivision on Refugee Road at its meeting Wednesday.
The subdivision is part of a larger development called Hazelton Crossing, on the northeast corner of Ohio 310 (Hazelton-Etna Road) and Refugee Road.
Hazelton Crossing, which is within the Southwest Licking School District, is a planned development district established May 6, 2021, as a result of a settlement agreement between the city of Pataskala and Southgate Corp.
The total Hazelton Crossing development encompasses more than 95 acres and is divided into four subareas: 25 acres for retail and commercial, 8 acres for assisted living, 10 acres for condominiums, and 51 acres for single-family homes developed by Rockford Homes.
On Wednesday, the commission approved only a 41-home phase of the single-family home subarea. Plans for the other single-family home phases and subareas of the development will have to come before the commission for approval before developing.
Jim Lipnos, director of land for Rockford, told commission members that the project will likely start construction on the subdivision as early as this month and no later than 45 days.
To accommodate additional traffic from the subdivision, Rockford will widen Refugee Road and add a left turn lane into the development, Lipnos said.
"There's a condition that we cannot occupy any home until that is built," he said.
Hazelton Crossing is just the latest housing development to come to Pataskala. Other developments in progress include Forest Ridge, along Ohio 310, north of Broad Street; Scenic View Estates, north of Keela Drive; and The Meadows at Highlands, at the former High Lands Golf Club.
Plans for two warehouses incomplete
Also during the Wednesday meeting, the commission heard from Todd Ward, senior vice president of planning and entitlements for South Carolina-based Red Rock Developments, as the developer seeks to build two more warehouses along Etna Parkway. Red Rock is developing the 350-acre Red Chip Farms development within the Pataskala Corporate Park.
The 43-acre property is on the northwest corner of Etna Parkway and Refugee Road and is bordered to the west by the roughly 300 acres purchased last year by Microsoft.
According to plans available on the city's website, each warehouse would be 225,120 square feet.
But Pataskala Planning Director Scott Fulton said plans the company provided were deficient. The city has updated its manufacturing standards since Red Rock last applied to build warehouses, and the developer didn't include all the new information now needed. For example, the plans did not include a traffic impact study or provisions for water and sewer service and was missing specifics about landscaping and lighting.
"From a staff standpoint, we can't really review it and give the planning commission any insight to how the proposal meets or does not meet the code because there's just not enough information there," Fulton said.
Ward said Red Rock thought the plans were complete when submitting to the city. He provided some of the needed materials at the meeting, including a letter from the Southwest Licking Community Water and Sewer District stating it would provide utilities to the property, but commission members said they needed more time to process all the materials.
Commission members unanimously tabled the matter until their May 1 meeting.
More than 136 acres along Columbia Road rezoned for manufacturing
The commission members also unanimously approved rezoning three properties along Columbia Road, totaling nearly 137 acres, from agricultural to planned manufacturing with a planned district overlay, which provides additional safeguards as the property develops.
The largest of the three properties is 106 acres at 7482 Columbia Road SW, south of Mill Street and north of Refugee Road.
The property will not have any access points onto Columbia Road. Instead, the property will only be accessed from Etna Parkway through an easement on an adjacent parcel.
Connie Klema, an attorney representing the property owners, said there is no developer in place for the properties, and the owners desire to keep farming it. But they also want the properties well-positioned for future industrial use opportunities because it is within the Pataskala Corporate Park.
mdevito@gannett.com
740-607-2175
Twitter: @MariaDeVito13
This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Pataskala approves first phase of Refugee Road 153-home subdivision
