HILLIARD

Hilliard reveals conceptual site for community recreation and wellness center

This map shows the proposed site of the Hilliard Recreation and Wellness Campus, as well as the extension of Cosgray Road to connect with Alton Darby Creek Road.

If Hilliard is to build a new community recreation and wellness center, it would be on the south side of Scioto Darby Road and west of the future extension of Cosgray Road, according to a recent conceptual plan for the Hilliard Recreation and Wellness Campus.

Hilliard City Council on Sept. 14 approved the site, as proposed by City Manager Michelle Crandall.

The center would be on the northeastern corner of a 125-acre parcel known as the Jerman tract. The city purchased the land, which is named for the family that once owned it, last year for $4.41 million.

A concept plan for the parcel includes a site for a fourth Norwich Township fire station on the east side of Alton Darby Creek Road at a proposed roundabout at Alton Darby and the extended Cosgray.

“It’s a question we are asked a lot,” Crandall said, concerning where the city would build a community recreation and wellness center if voters approve Issue 22, a 0.5 percentage-point income-tax increase on the Nov. 2 ballot. “This site is centrally located (within Hilliard) and easily accessible to our residents and corporate clients."

Further, identifying a site should help Healthy Hilliard, the nonpartisan political action committee organized to support Issue 22 and promote the initiative, Crandall said.

A detailed concept plan would not be finalized until after voters consider Issue 22, said David Ball, director of communications for Hilliard.

But the conceptual plan shows the community recreation and wellness center, the fire station, a regional recreation trail, athletics parks and sports fields and wellness-related medical offices and retail centers on the 125-acre parcel, which is to the west of Roger A. Reynolds Municipal Park, where the current community facilities are located. The city's community center and the Phyllis A. Ernst Senior Center were built in the early 1970s and connected via an expansion in the 1990s.

The extension of Cosgray Road to meet Alton Darby Creek Road also is included on the conceptual plan.

Known as the Cosgray Road connector project, City Council has allocated $500,000 toward its design next year, and a developer's agreement with M/I Homes for the Hill Farm development at Scioto Darby and Elliott roads sets aside $200,000 toward its construction.

The new intersection at Cosgray and Scioto Darby would not be a roundabout but rather a signalized intersection, said Letty Schamp, deputy engineer for Hilliard.

The traffic volume at the intersection would require it to be a two-lane roundabout in all directions, so it will remain a signalized intersection, she said.

However, two single-lane roundabouts would be built on the extension of Cosgray between Scioto Darby and Alton Darby Creek roads, Schamp said.

A 25-acre parcel west of the Jerman tract, which the city previously has leased to the Hilliard Ohio Soccer Association for its use as soccer fields, would be maintained as open space, Ball said.

HOSA would have the ability to schedule some of the new fields to be built on the south end of the Jerman tract for its use, Ball said.

The Jerman tract would also would be connected via a road into Roger A. Reynolds Municipal Park and to the Hilliard Family Aquatic Center, according to the conceptual plan.

If Issue 22 is approved, the 0.5 percentage-point income-tax increase would increase Hilliard's income-tax rate from 2% to 2.5%. The additional 0.5 increase would generate about $7.5 million annually, according to city finance director David Delande.

kcorvo@thisweeknews.com

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