Green space map to guide preservation

With the Columbus metro area expected to add up to 1 million people by 2050, the Friends of the Lower Olentangy Watershed group wants to ensure that the green space near the river is preserved as development pressures increase.

The nonprofit group received a $25,000 grant from the Columbus Foundation to map the green space in the watershed between the Delaware Dam in Delaware County and the confluence of the Olentangy and Scioto

rivers north of Downtown Columbus.

The Lower Olentangy Watershed Greenspace Plan would generate a vision to preserve green and open spaces there, said Dan Sharpe, the Columbus Foundation’s vice president for community research and grants management.

Laura Fay, the science committee chairwoman for the watershed group, said the proposal to bring the Cleveland Browns training camp to Tuttle Park, along the eastern bank of

the Olentangy near Ohio State University, prompted the idea for the effort. The Browns backed out of the deal in December 2016, but the proposed camp would have taken up much of the park.

“We are wanting to see how much natural space we have to protect the river, how much open space to create,” Fay said.

The initial mapping includes known plans for parks and open spaces, plus conservation easements, private holdings and homeowners’ associations with dedicated green spaces.

“We’re talking about the entire watershed,” Fay said.

“We want buffers along our tributaries, green space.”

The final plan, to be finished by May 2019, will suggest ways to preserve the streams and the Olentangy River valley.

The Olentangy group will hold a meeting at 1 p.m. Jan. 17 at Liberty Township Hall, 7761 Liberty Road in Powell. “We want everyone’s input,” Fay said.

Fay’s organization is developing the plan with the Delaware County Regional Planning Commission; the Columbus Department of Recreation and Parks; the Franklin Soil and Water Conservation District; the Delaware Soil and Water Conservation District; the Appalachia Ohio Alliance; the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission; Delaware County Preservation Parks; and the city of Upper Arlington.

Sharpe said it will be a coordinated effort to align data and information to create a cohesive plan.

Ryan Pilewski, Franklin Soil and Water’s watershedresource specialist, said he will be helping to create a mapping program that gathers all the data on the watershed’s open space into one database.