Don Scott land use discussed

Planners at Ohio State are discussing possible uses for about 400 acres of undeveloped land near the OSU airport, but local community groups want to have a say in how the land will be used. Peggy McElroy, president of the Northwest Civic Association, said residents east, west and south of the airport don't think the land is good for residential use because of noise and emergency landings. The group represents the community on zoning, development and traffic matters. They want the land to be used for recreational, not commercial or residential, purposes. Don Scott Field, the area surrounding the airport, is bordered by Dublin-Granville Road on the north, Case Road on the south, Godown Road on the east and Sawmill Road on the west. OSU began purchasing parcels of the land in the 1940s which were used to develop the airport, protect it, and act as a buffer for residents in the area, said Anne Dorian, director of real estate at OSU. The airport occupies half the land space, said Kenneth Newstrom, airport director. The next biggest user is the agricultural department, which uses the land for pasturing animals and growing crops, he said. Other uses include aerodynamic testing at the aerospace engineering department's wind tunnel. Making money is a priority in deciding how the land will be used, said Jean Hansford, senior campus planner. A park or a golf course would be appropriate uses for some of the land. A park would be unlikely because it would not be profitable to OSU. Putting office buildings on the land is also another possibility, he said. "The question we are asking now is what can we do that would be a better use of the land," Hansford said. "Our aim is to protect the airport and the high-quality residential areas surrounding it." Whatever the land is used for, residents are trying to be diplomatic with OSU, said Jayne Hopper, spokeswoman for Northwest Coalition, a group that represents the far northwest community on zoning, development, and traffic matters. "We realize that OSU is not giving a gift to us," Hopper said. "We know they have to make some money," she said. Hopper said the community members she has talked with don't want the land to be overdeveloped like Sawmill Road. "Most of the people I've talked to don't want to see commercial development like strip malls and retail stores," Hopper said. "We have enough of that," she said. Hansford denies recent media reports that the land will be used for a mixed bag of retail, office, industrial, residential or health care-related development. He said such development would work against OSU's goal of protecting the airport and finding realistic uses for the land. "Let's take health care, for example," Hansford said. "If you were being treated for a medical condition would you want to listen to roaring airplanes overhead? It doesn't make sense." Although there hasn't been an appraisal done on the land for years, the land near Sawmill Road could be profitable for OSU, said Sharon Rogers-Barron, real estate coordinator for OSU. In a budget prepared Friday, OSU received $98,000 in rental income from non-OSU parties, Dorian said. Some of the total acreage of 1,380 is leased to Worthington Industries for hangars, she said. Other sources of income stem from a rental house on Dublin-Granville Road, a small restaurant, farmland and the Federal Aviation Administration which operates a control tower at the airport. "The new phase of the project is to get the surrounding community involved during the planning," said Carol Mackey, senior vice president of Columbus-based Carey Leggett Realty, a consultant for OSU who was hired to study land use. About 11,000 people live within a one-mile radius of the airport, and 90,000 live within three miles, Mackey said. An open discussion about the future of the land will be held May 6 at Beightler Armory, 2825 W. Dublin- Granville Road. The time has not been determined.