First Evans Farm resident will move in by end of November
Front porches, steps and an old-time neighborhood feel are incorporated into the new homes at Evans Farm, a 1,250-acre residential and commercial development in southern Delaware County.
More than two years after it launched, Evans Farm, Delaware County’s “new urbanist” community, is preparing to welcome its first residents.
The first homeowner will move into the 1,200-acre residential and commercial development this week said Daniel Griffin, a partner in Evans Farm Land Development Co.
In all, about 2,200 homes are planned for the community on Lewis Center Road east of U.S. 23. They will be built on small lots by custom builders around a small “downtown” in a traditional neighborhood with parks and sidewalks, a blend called new urbanism by developers.
Among the first residents are Troy Magaw and his family, who plan to move into Evans Farms in the next week or two. Magaw said he was attracted by the new urbanist concept and the Olentangy school district for his kindergarten-age daughter and son in preschool.
The family paid $65,000 for a 45- by 140- foot lot, larger than old city lots but smaller than most new suburban lots. The builder 3 Pillar Homes is constructing their home, which will cost $450,000 to $500,000.
“We pictured German Village or Grandview with longer, skinnier homes,” said Magaw, 36.
He is looking forward to the walkability of Evans Farm and the chance to know his neighbors. Magaw said he barely knows the people who live near him now in Pataskala.
“You can park your car when you get home from work and you’re not in your car driving a bunch of places,” he said. “You can walk everywhere.”
To get a feel for a new urbanist community, he and his wife spent a weekend at Norton Commons, a new urbanist development in Louisville.