Canal Winchester Messenger - September 19th, 2021

PAGE 16 - MESSENGER - September 19, 2021
www.columbusmessenger.com
Another view of development in Canal Winchester
By Rick Palsgrove
Managing editor
You may have seen the signs in yards
that read, “CW For Smart Growth - No
More Warehouses” and wondered about the
group behind the effort.
About CW For Smart Growth
CW For Smart Growth was formed by
Canal Winchester resident Angie Halstead.
“I created the group when warehouses
began to spring up in places in CW and four
were heading my way,” said Halstead. “I noticed
residents and citizens airing their
grievances on community Facebook groups,
but there was no action being taken - only
chatter. I couldn’t stand by and let this community
we all love, our hard work and
earned equity as well as our quality of life
be destroyed without standing up and trying
to change the trajectory.”
According to Halstead, the group’s mission
is to ensure the community remains a
desirable place “by shifting development
control to the community/residents” and
away from developers. It seeks “smart”
growth, responsible planning that considers
infrastructure, school capacity/educational
opportunities, pollution, safety, the environment,
and transparency of the city’s decision
making process.
Halstead said the group holds occasional
meetings with a core group of residents/citizens,
but it mostly communicates using
chat, Facebook, emails, and by attending
government meetings.
“I am thankful for all the wonderful people
who stood up with me and helped
spread the word, educate, and fight back
against haphazard development happening
in our community,” said Halstead. “We need
more residents to help, because it takes a
village and a few can only do so much.”
Thus far CW For Smart Growth has 779
members on Facebook and others who assist
who are not on the Facebook page, as well
as alliances with related groups in neighboring
communities, according to Halstead.
“Together, we want a better future for
our entire region,” said Halstead. “Canal
Winchester is not an island and we want the
planning of our town and our adjacent communities
to be cohesive.”
The group’s vision of development
Halstead, and fellow group member
Trish Preston, who Halstead said has a
farm on the outskirts of Canal Winchester,
said the group wants elected officials to consider
a pause on development until a development
study and plan are created.
“It is unimaginable that our community
does not have a development plan that outlines
our growth outside of the downtown /
U.S. 33 area,” Halstead and Preston said.
They envision creative innovative development
where tax abatements and TIF’s are
only used to attract development that can
be reconfigured and reimagined as industry
and society evolve.
“Long term peer reviewed studies have
given us evidence that warehouses become
a detritus on communities and contribute to
their rapid decline,” they said. “The short
term financial gains create a long term burden
on future generations and we believe we
should be planning for economic and social
success for multiple generations.”
The group seeks: conservation of greenspace
and public health, incentives for agriculture
to be a priority, measured slow
growth of residential that allows schools to
keep up, infrastructure to come before commercial
development that creates a risk to
the safety, health of residents, and a plan
for increased capacity to meet the needs of
residents “today, in 25 years, and beyond.”
“Haphazard warehousing development
leaves zero capacity to meet those needs
and, as good stewards, we owe it to future
generations to do the best we can to leave
them in good hands, as good as it was given
to us from previous generations,” they said.
Halstead and Preston said the idea that
residential development is the only alternative
to warehousing is incorrect.
“Our community has evolved from a village
rooted in agriculture to a rural / suburban
community,” they said. “We are not an
industrial town. Overall, we oppose warehouses
because the short term financial
gains will quickly be offset by the burden
they create.”
Regarding potential job growth from
warehouses, the group believes “warehouses
are one of many jobs that are being fast
tracked to become automated and robots do
not pay income tax” and that most of the
jobs locally are under 30 hours per week and
average $16-18 per hour with no benefits.
“The promise of upfront dollars to the
schools are fools gold,” Halstead and Preston
said. “In comparison, we sold our soul
for money up front when the reality is we
could have long term sustainable economic,
social and physical development and wealth
in the form of other types of industry.”
Halstead and Preston said warehousing
has a place and “set haphazardly in the
midst of residential development is not that
place.” The group believes the presence of
warehouses in the wrong areas: cause property
values drop, create traffic issues, rising
air and noise pollution, infrastructure that
potentially cannot support truck traffic,
wildlife is adversely impacted, greenspace
and farming disappear, and citizens’ way of
life is hampered.
The group cites that the Columbus’
South East Land Use Plan does not indicate
potential warehouses in areas where Canal
Winchester is considering such developments.
The group characterizes it as a
“scare tactic” that if one municipality does
not develop a site another one will.
City working on comprehensive plan
At an Aug. 30 public hearing, Canal Winchester
Development Director Lucas Haire,
said the city is working to develop a comprehensive
plan to guide it into the future. The
long-range plan is intended to direct the
growth and physical development for 10 to
20 years and can incorporate individual
studies such as city parks, downtown, and
thoroughfare plans into a single document.
According to Haire, the plan would help
build a consensus and commitment from
elected and appointed officials, residents,
staff, and stakeholders.
A comprehensive plan can include: outlining
existing conditions and demographics;
a future land use plan, which, unlike a
zoning map, is only a guide; a thoroughfare
plan for vehicles, pedestrians and transit;
parks and open spaces; a utility master
plan; economic development plan; and implementation
and strategies.
Our Pictorial Past by Rick Palsgrove
A look at downtown CW
This is a view of downtown Canal Winchester, looking northeast from the Ohio and
Erie Canal, as it appeared around 1904. The men in the foreground are laying track
for the Scioto Valley Traction Line interurban electric railroad.