Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

New Albany - Community Authority

New Albany sure does things differently ?– obviously they have influential people- yet they also utilize a different approach. Long ago some PATA members shared with me information that they had individually gathered before PATA formed as to New Albany?’s use of a Community Authority. These individuals had tried to get City and School?’s officials here to take a good hard look at this approach for our community. The efforts fell on deaf ears. Some one recently forwarded an update of the Community Authority information in New Albany (which they had taken to council members ?– and still received not action)

New Albany (whose School District does not match the city parameters) is a Private Community Authority - started out with 4 Franklin County Government appointments & 3 developer appointments. The area was determined & the New Albany City Council has since increased it & assessed 9.75 mils on New Development to go into a fund from which money is given or loaned to Non-Profit community improvements.
$26 M went to the high school
$2 M went to a Community Health & Wellness center
3 schools have been built
1 Fire Station
1 Library improved roads, sewers, parks

All developments are required to donate a set ratio for Park Purposes/Green space - now allowing a Cash donation in leiu of park land.

The complication is that to set up a Community Authority (CA) ?– within Ohio ?– the land being developed must have one owner and be above 500 acres. New Albany accomplishes this with the New Albany Land Company (deep pockets). Upon development the new owner is assessed a ?“fee?” ?– which is much like other states impact fees and used to help support the needed infrastructure these new developments will place as a burden to the community. Since our farms drop one by one directly to different developers this makes a CA very difficult.

Obviously, with connections New Albany gets the roads in and attracts the businesses.

However, New Albany residents still are fighting continual pressures on their school system, with double digit enrollment increased projections in the coming years. A CA has merit ?– as does a ?“resident?” who can attract businesses ?– as New Albany has. But alias our Pickerington City fathers have not moved on setting up a Community Authority and we still wallow in the houses.

New Albany is not ?“Mystery Community?” XXX, but maybe we could learn something from them.

Hilliard NOT

Let me answer the question in the negative. It is not Hilliard. Even though they have seen the light and are beginning to look at curbing their residential growth. The new Mayor admitting that the city cannot sustain this continued residential growth. To their credit they have used much of the transportation recourses that were available to them, like the interstate and the rail lines. They woke up in time I believe.

By Dakota

No....not Hilliard



Dear Dakota,

You?’re right?….. it?’s NOT Hilliard. But, it?’s a tough way to win a contest by guessing who is not ?“Mystery Community XXX?”.

However, a little comparison to Hilliard & Pickerington is in order. Hilliard went through a rampant explosion of residential growth, with the encouragement of their former Mayor and much of Council. Their residents have faced very high bond and levy issues for the results of this one sided growth. Quite possibly the ?“sticker shock?” of this woke their residents up to the reality of the Cost of Community Services that plaque many growing communities. In late 1999 a newer face appeared into the elections with a campaign platform of ?“managed growth?”. Under such a commitment to expand commercial development to strengthen the city?’s tax base, the ?“not in the same good old boy?’s camp?” candidate won the Mayoral seat. His challenges since January 2000 are to expand the city?’s commercial tax base (which as of May was reported to be at 36% - a figure more than double Pickerington?’s), focus on road improvements to facilitate the needed commercial development, and fight those on Council that have a ?“different agenda?”.

The New Mayor?’s approach is to ?“strike an even balance?”. He and the city are now focusing their efforts on 4 parcels of land. On many of these parcels ?– one of which was zoned only for residential development - they are changing the land use to that of a mixture of retail, commercial and residential.

Here is a little of the breakdown - as detailed in the OVERHAULED City?’s master development plan.

1. 205 acres of Trueman West ?– of which 122 acres are commercially zoned.
2. 320 acres of Ansmil - of which 180 acres are zoned for office & retail.
3. 146 acres of SOMA ?– of which 47 acres are to be built out as stores, restaurants and hotels, there is a residential component in the plans and a (future) northern section to be built out as office buildings. The ?“hope?” is that the residential ?–retail sections will bolster the taxes needed for the road improvements to develop the office component.
4. 155 acres of the Highlands - which is completely zoned for industrial & warehouses.


Lets take a minute here and compare this to Pickerington?’s recent glut of annexations.

1. 245 acres of the Diley Farm ?– zoned PR4 520 approved (EMERGENCY) houses.
2. 149 acres of the Kohler ?– Painter Farms ?– zoned R4 340 +/- houses (scheduled for an EMERGENCY vote on 9/18 as it is proposed by Council Member Craig Maxey)
3. 210 acres of the Steiger ?– Withman ?– Clark Farms ?– proposed zoning PR4 ?– likely 300+ houses. Should we thank someone for the names of the schools and a portion of the children that will help fill them?
4. 199 acres of the Hill Road nine parcels ?– given ?“free sewer & water?” taps to annex into the City with R4 zoning ---- undetermined how many homes we can fit in there.


Another glowing difference to ?“Mystery Community XXX?” and Hilliard is their approaches to infrastructure improvements. Although Hilliard had a $7.5 million dollar reserve balance (May 2001)?– their plans are to finance the needed road improvements through TIF?’s. TIF?’s are the same tool used by Pickerington, who on July 2001 reported a combined debt of $13.5 million. Let?’s remember that ?“Mystery Community XXX?” was doing its improvements with available funds.

However - Hilliard is a nice guess (or should I say non-guess). It sure has its growing pains and is taking steps to continue to grow ?– but now in BALANCE.