Granville seeking input on Munson Springs development

A Granville committee needs community input as it narrows down uses for a 57-acre site that previously was slated for controversial mixed use development.

The Munson Springs Steering Committee, which met on Thursday, is exploring potential uses for the Newarkgranville Road property, located to the northeast of the Cherry Valley Road intersection, that includes a park, amphitheater, senior living complex, commercial use and wellness center, said Laura Mickelson, a Granville Village Council Member who also sits on the committee.

Mickelson said the committee has criteria they use to evaluate each idea, including the impacts on the Granville Exempted Village Schools, Newarkgranville Road traffic, and the local tax base.

She said the committee will determine the top two or three concepts during the April 6 meeting and then present them to village council. But before they do that, Mickelson and Granville Mayor Melissa Hartfield stressed the importance of community members weighing in.

“The committee really wants to be transparent because it was such a large purchase, and we do want community input,” Mickelson said.

The park and amphitheater concepts were discussed at the January meeting. The group will tackle the ideas of a senior living complex and commercial uses, such as a brewery, at the Feb. 2 meeting.

On March 2 the group will discuss the idea of a wellness center being on the property. But Mickelson said the committee will also explore the idea of doing nothing with the site, which has been farmland for decades, until more is known about the impacts of the Intel Corporation’s site on the western edge of the county.

Mickelson said there are no specific buyers or developers in mind for the village-owned property, but these are general concepts about ways the site could be developed in the future.

The committee meets the first Thursday of each month in Village Council Chambers at Granville Village Hall and meetings include a time for public comments, Mickelson said.

While the final recommended use for the site will be approved by council, Hartfield said they want plenty of resident feedback before voting.

“You don’t want to do all this in a vacuum,” she said. “At the end of the day, the Village Council represents the residents and the taxpayers who live in this community and we want to do right by them.”

A mixed-use development called “Eaton Woods” was approved in 2018 for the Newark-granville Road property. The development would have been built out in phases to include retail, residential and medical office use structures.

A traffic study concluded significant roadway improvements would be needed for Newark-granville Road if the entire corridor was developed, including possibly seven roundabouts or widening the two-lane road. The roadway construction would have required easements and land acquisition, which would be costly, Hartfield said.

In 2020 the village estimated that just two roundabouts, which likely would have been installed over a 10-year period, would have cost more than $2 million, Hartfield said.

The Southgate Corp. project was fraught with conflict and opposition from potential neighbors, and in 2020 the company announced it was no longer interested in developing the property. Southgate offered to sell the land to the village, which approved the purchase in August 2021 for $3.25 million. Southgate then donated $500,000 toward development of the proposed “Munson Springs Nature Preserve & Historical Site.” The village also secured a state grant and used funds from the sale of the former Granville Township Fire Department Station, Hartfield said.

At the time of purchase, the village set up the steering committee and gave it up to 24 months to formulate and adopt a plan regarding any portion of the land not allotted to the preserve concept and rather for future sale or commercial development. The committee has met monthly to determine the best use of the property, and will wrap up it’s process by November at the latest, Mickelson said.

The committee recommended in October that more than 30 acres of the site’s upper area remain a nature preserve.

Adam Himes, chairperson of the committee, said at the time that portion of the property is unbuildable because of a steep hill that would make it difficult for construction. He added that the site is of historical importance to Granville as well as pre-historic inhabitants of the area.

The village council officially approved that recommendation Nov. 16. mdevito@gannett.com 740-607-2175

Twitter: @Mariadevito13