Richland County growth: Food. Solar. Spec buildings. Cannabis dispensaries.

ONTARIO — Fast food, renewable energy, a spec building and recreational cannabis dispensaries.

Ongoing economic development takes many forms, according to Richland County mayors.

Mayors from eight cities and villages gathered Wednesday to talk about the state of economic development, housing and more during a mayoral panel hosted by the Richland Area Chamber & Economic Development.

Several shared economic development highlights from the previous year and goals for 2025.

Ontario may develop CIC

The city of Ontario will soon be home to new Starbucks and Raising Cane’s franchises. Avita Health Systems is developing a cancer care center in the former Sears wing of the Ontario Center. The city is also working to develop a Community Improvement Corporation (CIC) to further spur development.

If approved by village council, Ontario would contract the Richland Community Development Group, part of the Chamberm to assist with establishing a CIC, provide economic development guidance and manage resources for long-term and strategic growth. 

A CIC is a nonprofit that can establish public-private partnerships, serve as an administrative agent for grant applications and issue bonds with approval from city council.

A board of directors for the organization would be made up of at least 40 percent of its members being elected or appointed public officials.

The proposed resolution also outlines the CIC’s administrative responsibilities, including submitting regular reports to City Council and ensuring all actions taken by the CIC are subject to the policies, procedures and approval of the City Council when required by law. 

Mansfield mayor said ‘exciting things’ are coming

In Mansfield, city officials voted to contract with the Richland Area Chamber for services following the retirement of longtime economic development director Tim Bowersock.

Adena has expanded its footprint and is building a second spec building, which Mayor Jodie Perry said should help attract businesses to the area.

“For those that aren’t in the business, that just means they’re building a building that they don’t have an end user identified for yet. But that makes a big difference in economic development,” Perry said.

“It comes down to speed, risk and money. How fast can a business get open and operating and making money, which is what they’re there for. . . Having a building that’s going to be pretty much ready to go is really going to give us a great leg up when we’re responding to economic development leads.”

Perry said she saw an increase in both residential and commercial developers reaching out to city during the second half of 2024.

“We’ve had businesses expanding within the city of Mansfield. Some are smaller, some are larger,” Perry said.

“A lot of what we did in 2024 is setting the stage for things that are going to come in the future. Nothing I can announce, but some things that I think people will be excited about coming to the city of Mansfield,” she added.

Shelby working toward green energy

In Shelby, economic development spans taken the form of a Dunkin’ Donuts and Mickey Mart set to open in February and Lloyd Rebar continues to expand.

“We are in process of getting a 10-megawatt battery energy storage system in place,” Mayor Steve Schag said. “The batteries are there. We’re waiting on components. We hope to, in quarter one, have that operating in conjunction with our 2.5 megawatt solar field.”

“If you’ve never seen Tesla batteries up close, these are Tesla batteries, and we’re quite impressed with that.”

Meanwhile, Shelby’s Community Improvement Corporation is continuing its work on the South Parklands area and renovation of the Shaw Building on the corner of North Gamble and Main Street.

Lexington eyes beautification projects

Both Lexington Mayor Bob Jarvis and Bellville Mayor Teri Brenkus mentioned economic development as a challenge they hope to address in 2025.

Jarvis described Lexington as “landlocked” — meaning there’s not much land available for residential or commercial development.

It’s an issue the village is looking to resolve by extending Ohio 97 towards Hanley and Lexington Springmill roads. The village recently received a grant to do a feasibility study on the project.

Jarvis said he hopes the extension will create more lots that can be zoned for light industrial and possibly residential use.

Other development efforts include ongoing beautification projects downtown. The village’s CIC purchased the former Lexington Plaza property last year and will be turning it into a green space.

“Once the weather breaks here, we’ll get topsoil in and get it seeded,” Jarvis said. “We’ll look to put some type of structure on there to kind of make a gathering space.”

Brenkus said Bellville’s downtown businesses are mostly offices, which doesn’t drive a lot of traffic.

“We are still struggling with the downtown businesses. The buildings are not full yet,” Brenkus said.

Mansfield mayor expects movement on marijuana dispensaries in 2025

One form of economic development that’s unlikely to take off in most of the county is marijuana dispensaries.

Many municipal bodies voted last year not to allow cannabis sales. The village of Bellville enacted a moratorium so residents can vote on it later this year.

Lawmakers in Mansfield voted in August to allow up to three dispensaries within city limits, provided those businesses meet state requirements and also comply with existing city zoning codes for business districts.

“We do have three applications in and a fourth that has interest,” Perry said. “We’re trying to work with them just to make sure that it’s done as safely as possible for the community.”

Perry said she’s often asked why there are no dispensaries in town yet. She said the delay is at the state level.

“The other question I’ve gotten everywhere is, ‘This was approved last year. Why are you holding it up?’ That’s not us. That’s the state of Ohio,” she said.

“The process is at the state level right now. (Dispensary operators) are waiting to get their licenses and then they will come back to the city for their zoning. I do expect that they will start moving here fairly quickly.”