Marysville Annexation Referendum

Growth Paying for Growth

• No TIF Requested
• $3M infrastructure paid by developer
• 10 ac land donation to school district
• Similar size and mixture as Green Pastures
• Developer funding all utilities to site

What is this about?

Three landowners have requested to change from being governed by Paris Township to become under the governing control of the City of Marysville. Marysville City Council and Union County Commissioners as elected officials approved the annexation request.

Why State Route 245?

Take a look at the 2018 Marysville Comprehensive plan, Page 53.
Of the areas that are highlighted in yellow for Suburban Residential, the city has reached limiting factors. Mill Valley has reached a limit of growing to the North. Areas filling in the South around SR38/SR736 have limited options for sustaining the traffic and would require major road improvements to get traffic to Scottslawn or SR4. East of US33 and South of US36 will add traffic to a struggling intersection at US33/US36 or US33/Scottslawn.

The West side has more capacity to handle demand and without city investment. (see traffic volume Page 29)

How did we get here?

This has been an ongoing conversation over the past 25 years. At that time, the landowners were told no more housing, Marysville wanted jobs and wanted to fill in existing development options. Following this time, Mill Valley, Coleman Crossing, Cooks Point, Scott Farms, Chestnut Run, etc. filled in those options.

In 2014 we met with four colleges to discuss a regional campus combined with an innovation park. We met with the city and county to discuss these ideas that would drive jobs. Those leaders, surprised us and said our land should be housing and that they desperately needed housing. The Innovation Park concept was then implemented on Industrial Parkway by the city.

With this new direction, and the confirmation in the 2018 comprehensive plan, the landowners sought to find a developer that would deliver a plan in alignment with what the community directly planned.

Two of the landowners have aged past normal retirement age and developed health issues that make continued farming untenable.

Taxes

No TIF is requested. The road and utility improvements are being paid by the developer. In fact, the developer is paying to the city an extra $500K beyond the estimated costs as a contingency. Land is being donated to Marysville Schools. This is growth paying for growth.

HOA will maintain private streets, not the city.

Traffic

The intersection at NW Parkway with US33 and SR245 is failing. ODOT says it’s a D but not bad enough to fix it right now. The redevelopment of the old Kroger Plaza will add traffic to this interchange. The Kroger redevelopment was not asked to improve the NW Parkway interchange. Instead, the Stillwater Farms developer is funding $3M of improvements to fix an intersection that is already broken. This is growth paying for prior growth.

Population

The Honda investments in Marysville (and other employers) drove employees to want to live near their work. As that population retires, if they don’t move away, demand from replacement employees drive the need for more housing.

Marysville graduated 408 students last year. If 10% want to live/work in our community, we need 40 units of housing per year. When we pay to educate our HS students and they leave / can’t stay, we are funding the future of another community.

Separately, the city has invested in the US33 Innovation park with a goal of 6 jobs per acre. If that goal is reached, 900 jobs will have been added and with it, 700 units of housing demand. Housing is where jobs go at night.

8,400 jobs are unfilled within 20 miles of Marysville.

In the history of supply and demand, restricting supply never reduces the price or the demand.

The owners feel a civil responsibility to support the housing needs. Without adequate supply, rental and home ownership becomes less attainable. As the cost of housing increases, table food becomes a compromise. Our churches, schools, Impact60, and the Hope Center are already experiencing demand for helping meet nutritional needs. The landowners directly support those efforts.

Housing Mixture

Having seen the patterns of development in Marysville over the past 30 years, the landowners wanted to partner with a developer that would pay their way and deliver a cohesive mixture of housing opportunities. We looked at the success of Green Pastures which delivered a community that supported multiple housing needs: rental, patio, and single family. Stillwater Farms offers a similar mixture as Green Pastures and on the same 200 acre footprint. Green Pastures did well for delivering road improvements such as traffic signals. The comprehensive plan asks for 3-6 units per acre. Stillwater Farms is 3.2 units per acre.

Going beyond the pattern of Green Pastures, Stillwater Farms provides 10 acres for Marysville Schools with supporting utilities and infrastructure. In accordance with the Marysville Comprehensive Plan, Stillwater Farms improves the Green Pastures development model by adding a community pool, gathering space, and integrated walking paths.

Look at page 18 of the Marysville Comprehensive Plan and you will see the top 4 items in the word cloud are: Apartments, Senior Housing, Places for Families, Apartments or condos.