Village hopes to welcome Intel, preserve charm
As Licking County prepares Intel Corporation’s $20 billion computer chip facility, Alexandria officials and residents are determining ways to welcome in change without destroying the village’s charm.
Alexandria’s population fell to 483 in 2020 from 517 in 2010, according to the U.S. Census. But locals anticipate that number will start rising again once the Intel facility, which is about 7 miles away, is fully operating in 2025.
Village Mayor Jim Jasper said the village needs to prepare for growth appropriately, so Northridge Local Schools and the St. Albans Township Fire Department are not overwhelmed.
“We want to welcome some growth, we need some growth. But we want at same time, to preserve our rural atmosphere,” he said.
Greg Sturgill, the village’s administrator, said some residents would like the one stoplight village to stay exactly the way it is, however that’s unlikely.
“There will be change. It’s a matter of managing it in a reasonable way,” he said.
The village is not currently working on its own comprehensive plan, Jasper said. Instead, some village residents are on a committee to revamp St. Albans Township’s plan, which is being done by former Johnstown City Managerjim Lenner.
Kay Heidtman, a 20-year resident of the village, would like Alexandria to stay as it, but knows it’s not realistic.
“It’s kind of sad to see but it’s life now,” she said. “I’m not happy about it, but I got to live with it.”
For Heidtman, who is 79, the development will be a massive change, however not everyone in the village will feel as she does.
“But our younger generation, they’ll grow up with it and they’ll, you know, just blend right in,” she said.
Considering a merger
One way to control growth in the existing village and the surrounding area is for the village and St. Albans Township to merge. The matter has been discussed for months at village council meetings and among the St. Albans Township trustees, who are split on the issue.
“Right off as soon as we heard about Intel, people was telling me ‘Jim, we want to stay rural. We want to stay the way we are pretty much at any cost.,’” Jasper said.
Jasper said while he hasn’t heard from everyone, the ones that do stress the importance of keeping the area rural. For many, they moved to village to get away from big developments.
A merger would have to approved by the voters in both the village and the township. The village has already started the process to place the issue on the November ballot, Jasper said.
“I’m always for putting something on the ballot that can be,” he said. “I think if people can vote, they should have the opportunity.”
The village and St. Albans Township
Trustee Bruce Lane have been researching the concept because New Albany keeps annexing land further and further east.
“Eventually we could, if we do not merge with the township, we could end up being surrounded by New Albany,” Sturgill said. “Not something that I would look forward to but I’m hoping to be dead by then.”
Jasper said because municipality and township mergers are so rare, it has been difficult finding information on the logistics of the process. But officials are looking to Pataskala, which merged with Lima Township in 1997 after a citizen petition passed, for guidance on the process.
“We plan to meet with them again more formally and ask questions about what they would do different. Try to benefit from their hindsight,” Jasper said.
But merging is not the only option. In April, local development experts explained during a St. Albans Township Trustee meeting that zoning overlay districts and joint economic development districts could prevent annexation without merging the two entities.
Jasper said if officials discover big red flags as they continue their research, they’ll stop their efforts to put it on the ballot or won’t turn it into the Licking County Board of Elections.
“But we haven’t found that smoking gun yet,” he said.
While it seems unconventional to place the merger on the ballot before all the questions have been answered, Jasper said, it’s an effort to save time.
“We feel like there is an urgency to do it,” he said. “If it doesn’t happen in November, we may have lost more township than we would have cared to.”
Preparing for growth
While research on a merger is ongoing, leaders in the community are doing what they can to prepare for a possible inflex of residents.
Prior to the Intel announcement in January, the Alexandria Public Library was already on the State Library of Ohio’s waitlist for a strategic plan, something coordinated by the state library for free, said Carrie Strong, director of the Alexandria Public Library. She hopes it will be done either this fall or winter.
Strong said the Alexandria library will evaluate community expectations of the library and ways they can improve their services. She said they’ll also look at expanding programs because if people from cities move to the area for Intel jobs, they may be accustomed to more services that a larger library offers. Strong would also like to add to the library’s technology services.
“With Intel, I think that’s an opportunity that we can maybe partner with them and improve the educational opportunities for our students locally,” she said.
Strong knows first-hand what is following Intel’s move to Licking County. While she and her husband, Bob, served in the U.S. Air Force, they were stationed near Rio Rancho, the Albuquerque, New Mexico, suburb where Intel has had a major manufacturing presence since 1980.
“Rio Rancho didn’t exist before Intel. Intel built a city around Rio Rancho,” she said.
Based on the development she saw in New Mexico, Strong said the village needs to plan for improvements to the roads, water and sewer lines, and electrical wiring.
It also needs to determine where additional housing can be built.
Strong wants Alexandria to avoid the negative impacts of quick development she witnessed in New Mexico.
“When you grow fast, if you’re not prepared for that growth, there are opportunities for things to creep in and now they are experiencing issues in that area,” she said.
David Klawitter, pastor at Alexandria United Methodist Church, said he would like the village to start holding informational meetings to share the little information that has been released about Intel in an effort for people to understand the development can be positive for the area.
Klawitter said his congregation will be a group that welcomes construction workers, Intel employees or other new folks to the area — and he hopes the greater Alexandria community will do the same.
“There’s gonna be a lot of people coming into the area, and we need to make them feel as welcome as possible,” he said.
Adding local commercial business to the center of the village, Klawitter said, is a crucial first step because it will help draw new residents in who can help preserve the village’s history.
“It’s going to be imperative that we bring younger people and younger families in order to, you know, pass the baton to and say, ‘OK, it’s yours now. We’ve done it as long as we can. Now it’s your turn to keep the village moving forward.”