MANSFIELD, Ohio — Members of the Richland Young Professionals (RYP) brought their thoughts and ideas to the table Wednesday during a discussion about the campus district development along Lexington-Springmill Road.
Developing a campus district near and within The Ohio State University at Mansfield and North Central State College campus has been a subject of interest for the past few months. Leaders of the project are especially interested in the developmental and economic impact it could have on the community.
Already, there has been some development along the Lexington-Springmill corridor with the Buckeye Village apartments. Dr. Stephen Gavazzi, dean and director of OSU-Mansfield, said of Buckeye Village, “That was very, very important for both sides of the campus because in many ways, we could not grow if we did not have more and better places for our students to live.”
He noted, “We’ve been doing tremendous recruitment efforts in northeast Ohio. In fact, our second largest student population now is coming from Cuyahoga County, so we needed places for those students to live. We’ve had 100-150 students a year on a waiting list for the 200 beds that we have in the Molyet apartments. So now with Buckeye Village, we have the first 230 of what will eventually be 500 beds, at least, on that property.”
With 500 new students, he continued, that will bring the residential total to 700 students. So for the Ohio State side of campus, they will have gone from 10 percent residential to about 50 percent residential. “And that changes the dynamic of everything,” Gavazzi said.
Thus, Gavazzi, along with other supporters of the campus district were eager to hear what the young professionals had to share about this project because, “When you get a vibrant residential student population, the next natural economic development from a residential standpoint is the young professionals because there is a constant mix–businesses that serve students tend to serve new professionals, as well,” he said.
Brian White, planner and project manager at OSU-Mansfield, said that the idea of the campus district would be to build a “walkable” district that would offer retail, residential, entertainment, academic, health and wellness and recreational opportunities, with links to other area amenities and activities.
He noted, ” Temporary housing or non-permanent housing is very restrictive here, and that’s a big need that this campus district and downtown Mansfield can fill.”
He also pointed out that one of the benefits of this project is that they get to work with a “clean pallet” in terms of what image they would like for the campus district to have.
Matthew Stanfield, RYP member, commented, “Aesthetically, I would like to see it really rooted in the communities.” He said Mansfield already possesses a strong aesthetic that has an industrial appeal. “I think something like that could possibly work well out there,” he said.
Fellow RYP member, Jay Miller, asked if plans are in place for how the district is developed so that it doesn’t become segmented and therefore not “walkable.”
Brian McConnell, another RYP member, responded, “Ontario right now is talking about doing a zoning overlay for not only the campus district, but looking at all of Ontario and how it’s zoned, so they can accommodate for more walkability like putting sidewalks in so to your point you’re not spending all of your time in your car.”
Miller also asked if the college campus would be willing to use some of its land for this district.
“I think our campus is in play,” said White.
Gavazzi affirmed that statement, noting that talks about selling 65 acres of campus land to allow for a Home Road extension have been ongoing. “We are willing to sell that,” he said of the 65 acres on the southeast side of campus. “Not because we necessarily want to get rid of the land, but we know that we’ll never build that road. There is no economic reason for us to do that, but there would certainly be a reason for us to sell that land…to help the county.”
He added that the frontage property of campus on Lexington-Springmill is also fair game for development.
To make this project work, it will take a “multi-jurisdictional effort,” White noted.
“I think one of the big benefits I see of this project to our community is it’s going to make us collaborate and cooperate on scale that we have not seen in a very, very long time,” he said.
