LEWIS CENTER — The Orange Township Board of Trustees recently approved another portion of the Kerbler Farms development, Slate Ridge.
At their meeting on Feb. 16, trustees approved an amended development plan for the Slate Ridge Single Family Planned Residential District (SFPRD). The Orange Township Zoning Commission had previously recommended conditional approval of the application for Slate Ridge on Jan. 26.
Divergences to lot width, lot depth, side yard setbacks, building setbacks, rear yard requirements, and building height limits were granted.
The changes include that the SFPRD will consist of 219 condominiums on nearly 106 acres, with east and west sub-districts, and nearly 54 acres of open space. “Units shall be restricted to two-car garages minimum,” states the submittal. “Off-street parking for two cars will be provided in each residence’s garage driveway.”
A proposed extension to Home Road from U.S. Route 23 through the Graphics Way intersection is also part of the development, with an adjacent trail dedicated to Orange Township. Graphics Way would be extended from the Menards stub to Home Road, with a private road connecting the two. In nine years, Green Meadows Drive would be extended from the Menards stub to the Home Road extension.
“To the extent Green Meadows Drive is extended north, to promote connectivity, traffic circulation and access, the land owner will reasonably cooperate with its adjacent parcels as requested by county and/or township officials,” states an addition to the submittal.
Kerbler Farms owns the property and has filed four applications to the zoning amendment for all 288 acres. The group is not a homebuilder, but it’s rezoning and selling tracts. The Ohio Mulch Landscape Supply building is just north of the site on US 23, and at the southwest corner of the site on US 23 is a Verizon service building. To the south of the proposed condominiums is the Slate Ridge planned elderly residential community and the Slate Ridge multi-family residential community; and to the north is the Lewis Center Ravines Condominiums.
“The land owner has worked closely with Orange Township officials over the past two years in providing the township the needed land for the US 23 Bridge abutment and connecting trail,” the submittal states.
Last year at this time, the Delaware County Board of Commissioners approved a development agreement with the Schottenstein Real Estate Group and the Kerbler family. It was announced in a news release as a “major multi-use development project in Orange Township” adjacent to Mount Carmel Lewis Center and Creekside Industrial Park to the east of US 23.
“The project will combine 300 units of multi-family housing with single-family housing, a senior-care facility and retail, light office and industrial development,” stated the release, which touted the project as an example of public-private partnership that creates diversified development and another east-west corridor in Delaware County.
“The Home Road extension is a critical piece of infrastructure that has been talked about for almost 20 years,” said Trustee Ryan Rivers in the release. “This will open a new corridor for transportation and commercial development.”
“The Kerbler property was previously viewed as a potential site for only single-family homes,” Delaware County Economic Development Director Bob Lamb said in the release. “This project brings office, retail and industrial uses to the community, thereby diminishing the potential demands placed on the Olentangy school district.”
Previously in 2018, the township, Delaware County Finance Authority and Olentangy Local Schools forged a tax increment financing agreement with the developers “projected to generate $36.7 million in revenues that will support these infrastructure improvements and local schools,” the release stated.
