Far Northwest Coalition

JAN 2003 FNWC MINUTES

FAR NORTHWEST COALITION ( FNWC )

FAR NORTHWEST COALITION
P. O. BOX 340285 COLUMBUS, OH 43234

January 29, 2003

The Far Northwest Coalition (FNWC) met for its regularly scheduled meeting at the Northwest Library. Members present of the FNWC Board were John Best, John Murley, Mark Seeger, Eric Goldsmith,
Scott Fair & Rich Herner.

John Best, FNWC President, opened the meeting at 7:00 pm with introductions of the FNWC members.

The Minutes from the previous meeting held November 26, 2002 were approved as presented. Rich Herner gave a short Treasurer’s Report.

Peggy McElroy of the Northwest Civic Association was present. Best noted that she was running for a seat on the Columbus City Council. In addition, Jeff Pharion of the Code Enforcement Department was on hand and supplied the FNWC with a summary report of code violations over the most recent period.

Best noted that he had received an e-mail from Maureen Lorenz who chaired the Parks & Rec Master Plan group. She noted it has been in the works for over 3 years and was very large and they are in the process of trying to figure the best way to release the information to the general public. Best said he would ask a representative from Parks & Rec to visit the FNWC at a future date to discuss the plan.

Best then reviewed several of the various zoning issues that had come before the FNWC during the past year. He also briefly talked to the group about the Trust for Public Lands and on contacting them concerning the Antrim property and trying to keep the area for future parkland development.

Michelle Williams, the City of Columbus liaison to this area spoke about City priorities with the budget cuts and how that affects the capital improvement budget for the year.

Andy Zarins, City of Columbus engineer and Phil Fry of URS spoke to the group and answered answers, concerning the Hard Road project. They said that the plans are pretty much done, only a few environmental commitments that were being worked on remained. They said they can’t sell (bid) the project until they all of these approvals. They noted that as far as the state & federal government were concerned, all of the right of way issues had been addressed. Construction is set to begin Spring 2003 and have the 1st phase (Phase B) finished by the end of 2004.

They said that the 1st phase (Phase B) will start just west of Smokey Row and go to almost Linworth Road. It will basically be 5 lanes, 4 lanes 11 feet wide with a 10 foot turn lane. There would also be some additional lanes at major intersections. There will be a 4 ½ foot bike lane on each side, as well as a 3 foot grass strip and a 5 foot sidewalk. There will be 3 traffic lights in this phase; one each at Smoky Row and Hard, Saddle Run / Fallhaven & Hard and in front of the high school. The project will have a railroad overpass to allow traffic to continue moving, even when a train is present. The speed limit is set to remain at 35 MPH, even though the project has been designed to handle 40 MPH.

The facing material on the railroad overpass is to be a form patterned concrete, buff in color, with an anti-graffiti specification. The project will have a tree lined median, but the median has not yet been decided whether it will be concrete or grass. The project will be bid both ways. It was noted that if the median were grass, local civic groups would be asked to maintain the median areas. The trees will be saw tooth oak and green ash with 2 inch calipers. The project street lights will be of the cobra cutoff variety.

The group voiced concern over the new city park to be built on Hard Road, east of the high school. The consideration was for access to the park with curb cuts, turn lanes and the like. The FNWC asked that the engineers contact the Parks and Rec department and talk about where entrances might be and so on; that way perhaps the entrances, curb cuts, etc. can be built just the one time and the City would not have to tear out medians and curbs at a later date to be able to access the park.

Phase C of the project will be the next work to start. It will run from Linworth Road to State Route 315. That section should sell in the Fall 2005 or early 2006 and have a 2 year construction period. The group looked at the current plan for the proposed intersection of Hard Road and St. Rt. 315 and the peculiarities of the intersection as proposed.

There being no further business to come before the FNWC, the meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,



Rich Herner
FNWC Secretary