Projects near Darby worrisome
Two projects near the Big Darby Creek are worrying environmentalists who say more needs to be done to protect the health of the national and state scenic river.
Plain City wants to expand its sewage treatment plant so the village can grow. Developers continue to look at Plain City for new housing as metro Columbus continues to expand.
And developers plan to build homes and apartments on the Far West Side near Alton Darby Creek and Renner roads, with a total of 1,100 new housing units, a $300 million, 369-acre development that the lawyer for the developers calls the biggest residential investment ever in that part of town.
For Anthony Sasson, both are troubling. Sasson, a research associate at Midwest Biodiversity Institute and a member of both the Darby Creek Association and the Big Darby Accord advisory panel, said both projects potentially threaten the stream and the wildlife that inhabits it.
“Storm water is a major issue. And we don’t have evidence that the present stormwater approach adequately protects sensitive fish and mussels in the creek,” Sasson said of Plain City’s plans, which also would expand the village’s footprint along the creek. And the expanded plant would discharge treated water into the Big Darby, he said.
In terms of the Plain City plan, the village wants to expand the capacity of its treatment plant so it can handle 1 million gallons a day, up from 750,000, said Nathan Cahall, the village administrator.
Cahall said the village hopes to begin the $7 million project in spring 2021 and finish by spring 2022.
“It allows us to accommodate a little more than 1,500 new households,” Cahall said.
Much of that already is on the way. Today, developers are building 450 housing units. Another 800 are in various stages of the approval process, Cahall said.
But an Ohio Environmental Protection Agency document from October, with information officials will use to address water-quality issues in the watershed, said Plain City ultimately wants “wasteload allocations for several flows up to four million gallons per day. The comment deadline for that
document – the Big Darby Creek Draft Loading Analysis Plan – is Wednesday.
Cahall said that the long-range sewage-treatment plan Plain City submitted to the Ohio EPA for review contemplates a need for 4 million gallons over the next 20 years, a number Sasson called significant.
Plain City’s estimated 2019 population was 4,586, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Cahall said the village expects to grow to more than 15,000 residents in 20 years.
As far as concern environmentalists have, Cahall said the village is not asking the Ohio EPA for any increase in permitted discharge limits.
“I think the village is very cognizant of those concerns,” he said. “We see the Big Darby as a community and regional asset that is very important to protect in a pragmatic fashion.
“We’re trying to stay within the existing parameters Ohio EPA has in place,” he said.
John Tetzloff, president of the Darby
Creek Association, said he believes developers are interested in the Plain City area because they want to leapfrog Franklin County with its Big Darby Accord restrictions.
“Our approach will be to convince the EPA to require (standards) as they did in Franklin County,” he said.
Jon Melchi, executive director of the Building Industry Association of Central Ohio, said no developers interested in the area told him they were trying to circumvent the Big Darby Accord.
Developers are interested in building homes there because of the Jonathan Alder school district and because Plain City is close to Columbus, Dublin and Marysville.
“It’s a natural growth area for the region,” he said.
But Sasson said that Plain City needs to go back and create a plan that adequately protects the watershed.
In an email, Ohio EPA spokeswoman Heidi Griesmer said Plain City has not submitted a formal application or permit modification request for review. “As part of a formal application or permit modification request, Ohio EPA would establish discharge limits to the Big Darby Creek based on water-quality standards as well as the Total Maximum Daily Load report,” she said.
In October 2019, the city of Columbus withdrew its petition to expand its water and sewer service boundaries to include Plain City and nearby areas of Union and Madison counties because Plain City wanted to amend a “master meter” agreement so it could have exclusive rights to provide water and sewer services in the service area.
Meanwhile, the proposed Sugar Farms development on the Far West Side does not follow Big Darby Accord standards enough, said Tetzloff, even though the Big Darby Accord panel voted 5-4 in favor.
Tetzloff, a member of the panel himself, still thinks Sugar Farms doesn’t have the open space the Accord requires: 50%. In an Oct. 8 letter to Columbus City Council, he wrote that he believes it only amounts to 34%. And he wrote that the proposal does not protect imperiled species because it does not cluster dense development and does not sufficiently control storm water.
The City Council is scheduled to vote on zoning for the development on Monday.
The Sugar Farms development involves two companies: Pulte Homes of Ohio and Harmony Development.
Thomas Hart, a lawyer for the developers, said the companies have worked with the city of Columbus for three years to get things where they need to be.
“We’re complaint with the city definition of open space,” Hart said.
But Tetzloff said that the Columbus staff has accounted for open space more liberally than it should, including mown lawns, recreation areas, retention ponds and acreage from a 27-acre parcel off-site that should not be included.
Greg Comfort, a Harmony partner, said the developers presented the city with a whole checklist of items to consider.
“The city looked at that, reviewed it, came back, challenged us to do a few more things, and at the end of the day they came up satisfied,” he said.
Hart said it would take 8 to 10 years to build out the development. Single-family homes would run in the $300,000 to $325,000 range, he said. mferench@dispatch.com bburger@dispatch.com @Markferenchik @bybethburger