Heath subdivision could add an estimated 960 students to Granville schools

A proposed 600-home development in the Granville Exempted Village School District could bring as many as 960 additional students to a system that is virtually at capacity in its elementary and intermediate schools, according to district calculations.

District officials and members of a strategic planning task force, which for two years has been studying ways to manage growth, will discuss the challenges ahead for the 2,600-student district during a public meeting at 7 p.m. on Jan. 15 in the high school theater.

M/I Homes, of Columbus, is proposing at least 540 houses, with the possibility of more, on about 225 acres just east of Grand Pointe Drive, according to Granville Superintendent Jeff Brown. He said the land, which is roughly between Rt. 37 on the west and just beyond Canyon Road on the east, is in the Granville school district but in the City of Heath, and the Heath zoning code allows for about five houses per acre.

The Granville Elementary and Intermediate schools are at 95% capacity now, Brown said. 

“Input from the community will be important in developing options for growth in the future,” he said last week. “Those options, ultimately, will go to the board of education for their consideration. The goal is to make sure the community knows how we will respond to growth.”

The district plans to hold three community meetings to share information and receive feedback, he said, and the strategic planning task force members will be part of those meetings to share their findings.

“I like to have options within options so we can pivot to address other possibilities that might come up – not just the current development proposal or for the next 10 years, but for the next 30 or 40 years,” Brown said.

Granville Schools have never seen a housing development the magnitude of the one being discussed for what has been farmland in Union Township. The last big development in the school district was Park Trails, which is 354 houses within the City of Newark.

Brown said he has had several conversations with Heath Mayor Mark D. Johns about the development. While the school district has no formal say in developments such as this, Johns said he wants the district to be informed as plans evolve.

“It’s been a relatively slow process,” Johns said last week. “I think the general public thinks development happens faster than it does. When there have been significant updates or significant information that Jeff (Brown) needs to know, I have tried to make sure he knows. What he wants to have is accurate information as far in advance as he can get it. That’s what I have tried to do.”

And Johns said he has been an advocate for the school district when talking with the current landowners and the developer about school district needs as they plan the subdivision – such as a request for land for an elementary school within the development.

M/I Homes has donated land for schools in some other developments in central Ohio, said Brown, who had experience managing rapid growth when he served as an administrator and interim superintendent at Olentangy Local Schools north of Columbus.

“I have had multiple meetings with Superintendent Brown on development in this area,” Johns said. “One of the things he made clear to me early on is that he felt it would be good for Granville Schools to have a school site located in this area.

“In meetings with the developer, because Jeff has told me about the need for a school site, I have championed that with the developer,” Johns said, noting that the latest rendering of plans for the subdivision show a site for a school.

The preliminary site plan indicates that about 14.5 acres could be available for a school. Both Johns and Brown said there is no formal agreement on the school site at this point, but it is an ongoing point of discussion.

Brown said that a new school would require going to the ballot with a bond issue to pay for it. He also said that Granville Schools will need to ask voters to renew an income tax before it expires in 2028. And the district will need an additional property tax levy to operate all of its schools, according to its five-year financial forecast.

Brown noted that property owners in new subdivisions in the school district – even if they are within another municipality, such as Newark or Heath – are required to pay property and income taxes to the district.

Park Trails residents pay property and income taxes, as well as a special assessment that was negotiated years ago with the developer and the City of Newark, Brown said. The district cannot levy a special assessment on residents of a new subdivision.

M/I Homes is likely to ramp up the formal planning process with the City of Heath early this year, and it could take a year before plans are approved.

“Once a development like that is approved, you’re looking at years and years down the road before build-out is achieved – which is a good thing,” Johns said, so that growth in population, school enrollment and other effects of growth don’t hit the community like a tsunami.

Heath is experiencing rapid growth and embracing it.

In addition to the M/I proposal, Heath is preparing for development of the Central Park project, including commercial and retail businesses, and 1,800 housing units – single-family, apartments, townhouses and assisted living – on 320 acres west of Walmart and north of the Licking County Airport. That project will be in the Heath School District.

A subdivision of about 240 homes is planned on Irving Wick Drive east of Rt. 79, and talks have begun about another housing development on about 140 acres north of Irving Wick Drive East in the same area. Those two developments would be in the Lakewood School District, Johns said.

Rapid growth of jobs in central Ohio has left the region with a housing crisis, and Johns said Heath is seeking to help address that.

“I’ve been mayor for 15 years now, and have heard concerns from our employers about being able to find talent,” he said. “One of the things that will allow us to continue to grow is to have more people living in our labor shed. We already have a lot of people who drive a significant distance to work in Licking County.”

In Granville, the strategic planning task force preparing for growth in the school district looked at enrollment projections, facility capacity analysis, and considered infrastructure such as where water and sewer lines run, because they are key to development.

“For two years, we’ve been going through the process of understanding the demographics and the potential growth – and how we would need to grow as a district,” Brown said. “We met with township trustees, the village manager, real estate agents, and fiscal hawks from across the community. We had about 40 people on that strategic planning task force.”

The task force’s work shows “that Granville’s enrollment is poised to grow significantly in the next five to 10 years,” Brown said in a Dec. 18 memo to district families, which also said that “the district’s K-6 buildings are nearing or at capacity. Long term, additional facilities will be needed to meet increased enrollment.” 

The firm of Fanning Howey of Columbus will work with the district, the strategic planning task force and the community to develop a master plan for the future, Brown said.

Granville Village Manager Herb Koehler, a member of the task force, said that while the proposed development isn’t in the village or Granville Township, its residents will be part of the Granville community.

“There’s a lot we can do to help shape this,” he said, “and understand that they will be new community members and we should welcome them.”

Alan Miller writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.