PATA History Pages

Pickerington Developers Move on to Lancaster

Not Just Trying to Control Lancaster politics

Nobody should be surprised to see in print what everybody has known...When the political cronies who once controlled Pickerington, set their sites on the rest of Fairfield County, those who support them are cashing in on the political influence they apparently wield. One can only hope that Lancaster will learn from Pickerington's mistakes before they make their own.

From the Columbus Dispatch January 29 issue:

HOUSING HOT SPOT
NEW HOMES, NEW LIFE IN LANCASTER
Fairfield County seat no longer 'sleepy town'

Thursday, January 29, 2004
NEWS 01C
By Mary Beth Lane
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Illustration: Photo, Graphic


LANCASTER, Ohio -- Stonington Village is finished, and the Villas at Sherman Bluff are nearly finished. Stone Glen and Misty Meadows are on the way, as are Brentwood Estates and the Villas at Roxton Ravine.

Lancaster has suddenly become a hot spot for developers, like Pickerington and Canal Winchester before it. Condominiums and single-family homes are fast overtaking farm fields and dotting the Fairfield County seat with new developments.

And the area's building boom could accelerate next year when the Rt. 33 Lancaster bypass opens.

Lancaster is part of a central Ohio housing market that's so robust that overall sales of single-family homes increased 9.2 percent last year. That set a record for the third consecutive year, according to the Columbus Board of Realtors.

The trend is evident in Lancaster, a city of 35,335.

"We're not the sleepy town we were 20 years ago,'' said Richard Mark, Lancaster's assistant city engineer.

"It was a record-setting year. In the second quarter of 2003, we issued more building permits than we issued in one year -- since the Highlands.''

That's River Valley Highlands. Dominion Homes started work on the development, near Rt. 33 at Lancaster's northern edge, in 1997. Other out-of-town developers soon followed.

Dominion has built 500 homes there -- average price $170,000, and popular with residents who commute to jobs in Columbus -- and has plans for 400 more, said Senior Vice President Lori Steiner.

For older homeowners, ranch-style condominiums are proving particularly appealing here, as they are nationally. Lancaster's empty nesters and retirees are exchanging large houses and acreage for a simpler home, attracted by sales pitches such as: "No maintenance. No mowing. No shoveling.''

That's the message on three signs staked outside the Villas at Sherman Bluff. Named for the Civil War general and Lancaster native William Tecumseh Sherman, the collection of stone and wood-framed condos is more than half done and will total 108 units when complete.

Richard Weaver and his wife, Mary Ann, are enjoying the ease of their two-bedroom condo; they moved in a year ago from a nearby neighborhood.

"We had a 2,000-square-foot house and about an acre of ground,'' said Weaver, 67. "It was just getting to the point where it was too much for us to handle.''

Especially after his open-heart surgery. Now Weaver works out five days a week at the Sherman Bluff clubhouse, and chats with neighbors while walking his two dogs around the tidy enclave on Rt. 37. Most of their neighbors are around their age.

"There are really nice people here,'' he said.

Stonington Village, a 44-unit condo development that has drawn former Mayor Art Wallace and other retirees, also has sold briskly.

Southgate Corp., its Newark-based developer, has now started building 58-unit Stone Glen. Average price at both: $160,000.

"Lancaster is a nice community,'' said company President Robert O'Neill.

The developers did their homework before deciding to build here.

Pickerington-based Berry and Miller Construction Inc. did a countywide direct-mail marketing campaign before deciding to build Sherman Bluff.

"When we mailed to Lancaster we just got inundated by calls and requests,'' said Daryl J. Berry, the company president. "People said, 'If you build this in Lancaster, we will buy it.' There was a serious need.''

His company is now planning the Villas at Roxton Ravine, a 100-unit development on Lancaster's west side, close to where a bypass interchange will be. Like Sherman Bluff, the price range will be $130,000 to $180,000.

"The area that's going to see the most growth is going to be on the south and southwest because of the bypass,'' Berry said.

In that same area along West Fair Avenue, Rockford Homes plans to build 156 upscale single-family houses, priced from $175,000 to $250,000, plus 60 ranch condos costing $150,000 to $160,000, company President Bob Yoakam Jr. said.

Nearby, a different single-family-home development called Misty Meadows has broken ground.

City officials are pleased at the housing boom but are hoping that commercial and industrial development grows as robustly and keeps the local tax base broad.

"If all we got was residential growth without any commercial or industrial growth, that would become a significant burden to our ability to pay for police and fire services,'' said City Council President Steve Davis.

mlane@dispatch.com

Lancaster Development

The Columbus Dispatch