Union Township, Heath reach pact

Goal: Prompt growth, slow annexation

The City of Heath and Union Township have reached an economic development agreement that will bring utilities critical to promoting future growth while limiting the ability of Heath to annex into the township.

The two entities are forming a joint economic development district, or JEDD, which is an economic development tool that allows townships to collect income tax on commercial properties within a defined area. In this case, the defined area will be subjected to Heath’s 2% income tax.

With development intensifying throughout the western side of Licking County, this marks a major step forward for one the county’s largest townships geographically.

It’s Union Township’s first JEDD and first economic development agreement since a 1994 community reinvestment area, a development tool that provides property owners tax incentives for investing in property improvements.

Union Township has approved the agreement and Heath City Council is expected to vote on it during its meeting at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

In a joint interview Feb. 1, Union Township Trustee Roger Start and Heath Mayor Mark Johns shared details behind the agreement and how it was formed.

“Throughout our conversations putting together the terms of the JEDD agreement, I think both sides had a strong focus on trying to establish an area where economic development opportunities could flourish and provide, in the future, job opportunities for people who live here today and will be living here tomorrow,” Johns said. “Having that as the focus, having that sort of as the overarching goal of what we were trying to accomplish, I think helped us get to where we wanted to go.”

Start said the Intel Corporation’s computer chip facility being built on the western side of the county spurred the township into moving forward with the JEDD.

“In today’s Intel environment, there needs to be as much cross jurisdictional collaboration as possible, and I believe we are making huge strides here and accomplishing that, at least for the township and the city of Heath,” Start said.

The JEDD area includes 38 parcels that amount to about 2,600 acres in the

south-central portion of the township, roughly from south of Refugee Road, west of Ohio 37 to Gale Road and mostly north of Interstate 70 with a few parcels south of the interstate. Some existing businesses in the area, such as Pigeon Roost Farm and National Trail Raceway, have agreed to join the JEDD and can tap into the water and sewer once it’s available. The majority of the properties are undeveloped farm land.

The agreement is for an initial 50year term and with automatic renewals every 25 years unless the township or the city give notice of no more than a year and no less than six months prior to the renewal, Johns said.

The JEDD agreement also outlines how the revenue will be split between the city, township, and the Southwest Licking Community Water and Sewer District, which is providing utility services to the area.

Heath will receive and process tax filings and as a result will get 5% off the top of the revenue. Then Heath gets 10%, the water and sewer district receives 20% and Union Township gets 70% of the net revenue, Start and Johns said.

Start said the township has wanted to provide water and sewer to the area around the Ohio 37 and U.S. 40 intersection for a number of years, and had explored a JEDD with Hebron that would allow for the village to provide water. But the township and village couldn’t reach an agreement for a variety of reasons, Start said, mainly because the village would not agree to non-annexation agreement or to provide sewer.

When discussions with Hebron ended, the township received a proposal from SWLCWSD in spring 2022 that included agreeing to provide water and sewer service at its inside rates, which Hebron could not do, Start said.

“You’re still competitive as it relates to your utility rates,” Johns said of the importance of inside rates.

Having access to water and sewer is key if Union Township wants to bring in any kind of future development.

“I don’t want to say that water and sewer is the single most important aspect of opening up land for development but it’s pretty darn close,” said Grow Licking County Executive Director Alexis Fitzsimmons.

She said one of the big topics related to economic development is risk reduction. A company won’t locate to an area or a developer won’t develop land, she said, unless they know their risks and have the ability to reduce them.

“In these more recent years, part of that risk reduction has been really making sure that the availability and reliability of utilities like water and sewer are there,” she said.

Services will not be ready immediately as SWLCWSD has to construct utilities lines with water coming first and sewer following, Start said.

But once the township knew water and sewer would be provided by the utility district, Start said the township could work with any qualifying municipal partner to levy the income tax.

“That’s where the non-annexation agreement with Heath became a part of the discussions,” he said.

Start and Johns said they spent about nine months working on the JEDD agreement, which states that the City of Heath can only annex properties within a certain area. The main segment of land that can be annexed is generally north of Beave Run Road, east of Canyon Road and south of the railroad tracks, Johns said. A few additional properties to the west of Canyon Road that were already in the process of annexing into the city are also included in the annexational area.

Johns has said previously that more housing is needed in the area, and the city has approved a 244-home subdivision on Irving Wick Drive East. But the non-annexation agreement creates a hard line in Union Township that the city can’t cross.

“If somebody, a landowner, outside comes to Heath and says we would like to annex, unfortunately Heath would have to say (no),” Start said.

After watching Jersey Township lose thousands of acres to annexation over the last 20 years, Start said the non-annexation agreement was imperative to the township.

“This is a unique JEDD, in that you have a non-annexation agreement outside of the JEDD area,” he said. “I don’t know if there’s been one done like this to be honest with you.”

While Start and Johns were unclear on the number of acres in the annexational area, it includes dozens of properties, some of which are more than 100 acres.

“Heath is not even 60 years old. If you look at the land that was annexed into the city of Heath in the last 60 years … I’m not even sure it would equal all of that,” Johns said.

Johns said he doesn’t anticipate the city will annex all of the eligible properties over the next 50 years, partly because it’s a massive area that the city would have to expand police and fire protection to as well as care for the roads.

The non-annexation agreement protects the upper third of the township, which is mostly in the Granville Exempted Village Schools District.

Granville Superintendent Jeff Brown said having the non-annexation agreement in place means the district, which is already planning for growth, can plan accordingly for facilities based on the residential zoning. For example, Union Township only allows one home per five acres but Heath zoning allows for four homes per acre, he said.

“Those numbers dramatically change what we might have to do from a construction and building development perspective,” he said. “I think just that one zoning piece adds some consistency from our vantage point of being able to build out according to that zoning that we’ve actually been planning on this entire time.” mdevito@gannett.com 740-607-2175