Metro Parks to demolish four rental houses
Columbus and Franklin County Metro Parks will demolish four rental homes on park property, and any residential leases will now be approved by the parks board following an investigation by The Dispatch that raised questions about rental rates and oversight.
The Metro Parks board of commissioners voted 3-0 on Tuesday to demolish three houses along Amity Road in western Franklin County at Prairie Oaks Metro Park, and one house at Chestnut Ridge Metro Park, located west of Carroll in Fairfield County.
The resolution approved by the board also states that when Metro Parks acquires any structures when buying land for park space in the future, it will dispose of them within six months either by a sale through a competitive process or demolition.
In addition, Metro Parks will tell the remaining tenants living in two of the four rental homes that it plans to demolish that their leases will be termi
nated between 60 and 120 days, but will work with them during the transition period.
"It was our commitment to the board to look at past practices and make them better," Tim Moloney, Metro Parks executive director, said Tuesday at the monthly Metro Parks board meeting at Walnut Woods Metro Park in southeastern Franklin County.
The actions come after an investigation by The Dispatch into the oversight of residential properties owned by Metro Parks. The Dispatch reported in June that Metro Parks leased a stone house, the Benua House, overlooking a lake at Clear Creek Metro Park in Hocking County for monthly rates that Hocking Hills real estate experts said were wellbelow nightly market rates. Among those who leased the 4,700-square-foot Benua House, which has since been demolished, was a group led by prominent Columbus-area developer Mark Wagenbrenner.
Wagenbrenner's Thrive Companies is now building a $650 million residential housing, apartments and retail development within the new 220-acre Quarry Trails Metro Park near Trabue and Dublin roads west of the Scioto River, a portion of which is set to open this fall.
In August, The Dispatch reported that Metro Parks still owns six residential rental properties, including one at the former Hoover YMCA land in southeastern Franklin County that it purchased in 2020 and where a current Metro Parks park ranger has lived for
$800 a month rent.
A now-retired Metro Parks park manager has lived since 1985 at the house at Chestnut Ridge Metro Park on Winchester Pie near Carroll that Metro Parks plans to demolish. The house is on a 39.7-acre parcel the Fairfield County auditor's office values at $340,800.
The tenant, who has paid $400 a month in rent, previously told The Dispatch that he had maintained the property at his expense for years and provides security for the location.
The most-recent rents at the other four residential properties Metro Parks owns:
h One home for $600 a month and two homes for $500 a month at Prairie Oaks Metro Park, located off Plain Citygeorgesville Road in western Franklin and northeastern Madison counties.
h One home currently rented for $500 a month at Battelle Darby Creek
Metro Park, the system's largest park with more than 7,000 acres along the Big Darby and Little Darby creeks in Pleasant and Prairie townships.
None of those rents was approved by the Metro Parks board. Park officials said the rental amounts amounts were determined by property surveys, but the last one was conducted in 2008.
Board member George Mccue said it was a quick turnaround for Metro Parks staff to come up with a plan to deal with the rental properties.
Asked why district officials decided to demolish four of the six rental homes, Moloney replied: "They weren't providing services to the (Metro Parks)."
Moloney told The Dispatch in August that the Metro Parks board didn't want any of its rentals to be a financial burden for taxpayers.
Moloney pointed out that the Metro Parks board will have to make decisions
within six months about what to do with some structures on a 282-acre property in Madison Township that it voted Tuesday to buy for $2.9 million, or $10,284 an acre.
The property is adjacent to Walnut Woods Metro Park, a more than 1,000acre park off Lithopolis Road near Groveport that features an area of tall pines, thick forest and fields adjacent to Walnut Creek. The property will be added to that park.
Metro Parks is buying the property from Daltonna and Craig Crawford, trustee of the Donna J. Miller Trust for Park Land. Metro Parks said 75% of the purchase cost will be paid by a Clean Ohio Fund Green Space program grant. Metro Parks also is applying for a state grant to restore wetlands on 80 acres of that property. mferench@dispatch.com @Markferenchik