This is <10 mins from my house. My neighbors on our local "Next Door" forum are pissed. The proposed site would be in Berkshire Township, near Sunbury, Ohio (think 1 exit north of polaris by route 36 and the new Tanger Outlets or about ~7 miles north of polaris). Here were the latest township meeting notes:
• The Planet Oasis project is in the very early stages of development. The developers held a press conference on June 28, 2018 announcing their plans for the project. State, County and Local officials were invited to attend, as well as press and interested parties.
• To date, no final development plans have been presented to the Berkshire township Zoning Board, and as far as we are aware, a traffic study has not been completed. All development of this nature would have to go through ODOT and the Berkshire Township Zoning Board.
• The area around the I 71/36-37 is part of a zoning district known as a PMUD (Planned Mixed Use District) The PMUD was created after public hearings by the Zoning Board and public Trustee meetings were held, both of which solicited input from residents. While much of the land is still zoned A-1, the tools are in place to allow for commercial development in the future.
• Township residents voted overwhelmingly (almost 3 to 1) to approve a Revitalization District for that area in 2016, paving the way for restaurants and other entertainment related businesses to locate here.
• A JEDD (Joint Economic Development District) and a TIF (Tax Increment Financing) are in place on these parcels of land to facilitate development of infrastructure and improvements when growth occurs.
• The township has been very clear in expressing its desire to have the bulk of Berkshire’s commercial development occur near that interchange, with less commercial and less residential density radiating out from that area.
This thing seems "pie in the sky" to me. The developers have little to no funding secured from investors as of yet. The overall design/concept needs to be more focused... Its just all over the place.
Many feel they had their press release WAY too early.
With that being said, if they can reign in the design/concept a bit, this could be huge for the area... and I'd love even more tax revenue for our already top-10 school district... but at the same time, alot of this already exists in the area: Dave & Busters in Polaris, Alum Creek Lake and Hoover Lake just south, shit-loads of shopping, restaurants at Polaris, etc. My guess is that it happens, but with a significantly "watered down" version.
I do want to point out, that the guy who is the chief developer of this, David Glimcher, actually does have some history... his company was the one that developed Polaris Fashion Place back in the 90s. Seems like a snake oil salesman/dirtball though.
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