This is the first in a three-part series looking at Intel, and how the largest private commercial investment in Ohio’s history will impact Knox County. Part II is Saturday, and Part III is Sunday.
MOUNT VERNON — In the days after Intel announced it would be coming to Licking County – signaling the largest private commercial investment in Ohio’s history – one question ran through Jeff Gottke’s mind:
How are we going to plan for this?
The Area Development Foundation (ADF) president knew the project would impact Knox County. Intel has said it plans to invest $20 billion in the site – with the potential for up to $100 billion over the next decade – creating an estimated 20,000 jobs (both direct and indirect) in the process.
It will be located 12 miles south of Centerburg and 21 miles south of Mount Vernon.
So, Gottke picked up the phone. He started calling regional partners, such as the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission and One Columbus, asking if they were planning to develop a regional growth strategy in response.
“I keep hearing from them that they’re going to do something,” Gottke said with a grin. “Because when I talk to them, I say, ‘This is great. I hear ‘generational’ and ‘transformative’ thrown out. But what are we gonna do in Knox County? Do you have some sort of regional plan that we can collaborate on together to accommodate whatever this growth is?’
“What I keep hearing from them is, ‘Probably, but we don’t know what it is yet, or when, or what we’re gonna do.'”
This answer didn’t satisfy Knox County’s top economic development official.
“We don’t have time to wait for the regional partners to figure out what they’re gonna do about it, and then we don’t know how that’s going to impact Knox County,” Gottke said.
“We’ve gotta control our own destiny here.”
So, Gottke decided to take matters into his own hands.
He developed a local strategy, through research and conversations with other economic development officials, that would involve a core group of approximately 75 community stakeholders, as well as the public.
It would feature internal collaboration and external consultation, and potentially a cross-country trip to see one of Intel’s current host communities in-person. It would mean a year’s worth of intensive planning, all with the goal of preparing Knox County for the decades ahead.
“(The) ADF is perfectly situated to do this kind of stuff,” Gottke noted. “I mean, it’s kind of why we were founded back in the ’50s – to develop the Industrial Park and prepare for growth and site development and all that kind of stuff. This is what we’ve been doing for 75 years or so.”
Thursday marked three months since Intel officially announced it would build in central Ohio. Here’s what Gottke and other local officials have done in the time since – and how they’re planning to prepare Knox County for the company’s arrival.
The plan
The first meeting of the minds took place Thursday, March 3 in the basement of the Knox Memorial building.
It involved approximately 20 people. They were local government officials, business leaders, housing experts and more – all handpicked by Gottke and the ADF to serve on the steering committee that would lead Knox County’s Intel planning efforts.
The afternoon meeting lasted 90 minutes. Gottke explained to the group everything he knew about what was coming to Licking County, and those in attendance asked questions. They began to think out loud about what this might mean for Knox County – not only their professional sector, but the community as a whole – and they began to share notes.
This was the beginning of what Gottke envisions to be a year-long process, all aimed at developing a detailed and actionable plan for Knox County moving forward.
“Whatever the product is that comes out (of this process), I want it to have specific strategies listed at the end,” Gottke said. “And next to that, I want it to say who owns it – who can (implement) this strategy.”
Gottke believes Intel’s potential impact on Knox County can be broken down into five categories: Housing, business/economic development, workforce/education, transportation and government.
He believes the majority of Intel’s impact – at least initially – will be felt in the central and southern portions of the county. This includes Mount Vernon, Centerburg, and the southernmost townships, which will all be located within 40 minutes of the project site (the average work commute in America is 30 minutes, according to the U.S. Census Bureau).
“It’s countywide,” Gottke said of the planning process, “but we’re focusing on within that 40-minute drive first because that’s where the development’s gonna happen first and that’s who needs to be ready first.”
Gottke used this framework to determine who would be invited to the table during the planning process.
“When I looked at those (five) categories, I thought, ‘OK, who are kind of the leading stakeholders within those categories?'” Gottke recalled.
He said he wanted stakeholders from across the county, but particularly those who work within Intel’s 40-minute radius.
“Then I convened all of them (March 3) and we said, ‘Hey, here’s what we’re up against. You guys are experts. What do you think?'”
The group – mainly top government officials, CEOs, school presidents, engineers and developers – suggested what Gottke had already envisioned: The involvement of additional industry peers.
“Their answer was, ‘We don’t know,'” Gottke recalled. “‘So let’s talk to people that have more boots-on-the-ground expertise.'”
This led to the formation of five subcommittees, focused specifically on the categories mentioned above. They would include zoning officers, planning commission members, education officials and project managers – all with daily on-the-ground experience in their specific sector.
These subcommittees will meet regularly in the coming months, Gottke said, to discuss the challenges and opportunities that lay ahead in their respective sector. Members of the steering committee will also be present; Matt Starr, for example, could attend multiple subcommittee meetings, given that he is Mount Vernon’s mayor (government) and the chair of the Municipal Planning Commission (housing).
Then, after these meetings take place, the steering committee will assemble to consider feedback and strategize. Gottke said the ADF, which is sponsoring and convening these conversations, will likely hire a consulting firm to help the steering committee during the planning process.
“From there, it just becomes a (conversation around), ‘What are our opportunities and what are our threats?’ You do a little SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis,” Gottke said. “And then it’s coming up with some strategies for how we can prepare ourselves for all of that growth.”
Gottke said the public will have a say in the planning process — likely this summer, once a consulting firm has been hired and the initial stakeholder conversations have taken place.
“Good plans always involve community input,” Gottke said. “So once we have a direction, then we’ll start engaging the community on this kind of stuff, too.”
He also envisions a group of local stakeholders taking a trip out west, either to Hillsboro, Oregon or Chandler, Arizona (where Intel already has manufacturing plants), to learn first-hand how nearby communities have been impacted.
The end goal is to produce an actionable strategy for the county to follow in the years ahead. But what that might look like? Even Gottke is unsure at this point.
“Maybe it’s time to update the county comprehensive plan and do it that way,” Gottke said.
The committee could create a countywide land-use map, detailing which sites would be fit for housing and which ones would be better for commercial development.
It could develop a list of infrastructure projects that would coincide with this map, ensuring Knox County’s ability to handle whatever growth it deems acceptable.
It could manufacture a curriculum strategy for local school districts and higher-education institutions, greasing the workforce pipeline and creating job opportunities for local students.
It could develop a strategy for established local businesses to take advantage of Intel’s arrival – either becoming a direct or secondary supplier to the tech giant.
“I don’t know what they’ll produce for us yet because I haven’t finished talking to all of those groups,” Gottke said.
But he does believe the initial planning process will take about a year. And when it ends, Gottke envisions individual stakeholders leaving with tasks to complete. The ADF will then check in regularly with those stakeholders to make sure those tasks are being completed and to help in any way possible.
“So if that’s, ‘Hey, the airport needs a website and a marketing campaign,’ great – here you go, airport. You take that on. And then we’ll check in,” Gottke said. “It would really be up to ADF to make sure that all those boxes are getting checked.
“But there’s gonna be so many different stakeholders that own so much of this that I want that list to have who should do it attached to it as well. So you can just cut it out and pass it out (and say), ‘Here’s your homework, everybody. Get going.'”
While the initial planning process may last a year, Gottke said it won’t stop there. He envisions more stakeholders joining the conversation in the months and years ahead, as Intel’s impact on Knox County becomes clearer and more defined.
“I can see this morphing and changing areas over time. It’s not set in stone. I designed it so that it would be a flexible group,” Gottke said.
“This is a years-long effort, so I don’t know if those groups will keep meeting. But what I’m hoping to get out of this is some specific strategies that each of those (groups can use) that can be employed, that would impact each of those categories.”
The overall purpose of this strategy is simple, Gottke said: To get out in front of the growth – and plan for it – in order to control it.
“We’ve gotta have a plan,” Gottke said, “so that when housing developers come or businesses show up, we can say, ‘This reflects our community values. This is the kind of growth we’d like to see here.
“If it fits, great; if it doesn’t, you’ll have to go somewhere else.'”
‘Cautious optimism’
Gottke and other local stakeholders believe Knox County is already ahead of its neighbors in the planning process.
The county’s four villages – Centerburg, Danville, Fredericktown and Gambier – are already in the midst of updating their strategic plans, through the financial and organizational backing of the ADF and the Knox County Foundation.
That process began five years ago, long before Intel decided to build here.
The county updated its comprehensive plan in 2018, and is expected to update it again in 2023. The city updated its strategic plan last year and is expected to continue planning efforts this year.
“There’s a lot of great stuff that’s already happening that plays directly into this,” Gottke said. “It’s almost like we knew this was coming, but we didn’t. It was lucky that we did some of this stuff.”
The news of Intel’s decision only heightens the importance of these efforts and others, Gottke said. Other local stakeholders agreed.
Starr, who is involved with the steering committee and several subcommittees, praised Gottke for his work so far. He said collaboration and transparency will be key during the planning process.
“I think it’s actually perfect timing,” Starr said. “The best outcome is sharing (the planning process) with the community and keeping it out in front of everyone, so we know where we’re heading and we’re all paddling in the same direction.”
Bob Boss, the regional president of Park National Bank, expressed a similar sentiment.
“I think the planning part is the most important part of this. If you plan correctly, you can make this a positive (development). If you’re not prepared, it’ll get away from you,” said Boss, who is involved with the steering committee and business/economic development subcommittee.
“If we work at it the way we should, we’ll control our own destiny.”
Roger Yarman, chair of the Knox County Regional Planning Commission and member of the Intel steering committee, preached patience.
“It’s gonna have to be thought out really well,” he said. “I’d hate to see people jump into it and say, ‘This is what we need to do, period,’ and do it. And then five years later, it’s wrong.”
It’s still early, several stakeholders noted. The ADF’s steering committee does not have a name – and Gottke declined to disclose the names of those involved, noting, “we haven’t discussed how public it will be.”
All five subcommittees have met separately for the first time over the last month, with the business subcommittee convening for the first time Monday.
“Meetings initially will be held in private until we figure out what we’re doing,” Gottke said. “We’re not trying to hide anything, I’m just not sure what direction this is going to go yet. And it’s really about the end result and not who’s in the room.”
But Gottke said there is already excitement locally about what lays ahead.
Along with organizing and launching the steering committee, Gottke has also spoken to roughly a dozen boards and councils over the last month, sharing what he knows about Intel’s new project and what it means for Knox County.
He said attendance at those meetings has been abnormally high.
“Jeff schedules a lot of meetings,” Gottke said of himself, half-jokingly. “These are the most well-attended meetings. Everyone comes to these because they’re so interested in them.”
The feedback has been largely positive so far, Gottke said. Most have said they view Intel as an opportunity, rather than a burden.
“I was at one (meeting) not too long ago, and only one person said, ‘Well, we don’t want it here,'” Gottke said.
“Everybody else has been like, ‘Well, this is a big opportunity, but we’ve gotta do it right. And we’ve gotta do something that reflects the community values, and we have to do something that’s gonna fit in with Knox County and compliment it.'”
Gottke described it as “cautious optimism” – the feeling Knox County seemingly has right now, as a historic commercial development awaits down the road.
“One of the questions I always ask is, ‘How do you feel about the opportunity presented by the Intel development?'” Gottke said. “And the highest answers are ‘excited,’ ‘optimistic,’ ‘cautious’ and ‘apprehensive.'”
Construction is expected to begin in Licking County this fall. Intel will begin production in 2025.
But Knox County – as it has been, either intentionally or unintentionally, for half a decade – is already planning. Gottke and the ADF have made sure of that.
“I didn’t want to wait for somebody else to decide that they need to help us,” he said with a grin. “Like I always say, ‘If we don’t have a plan, someone else will make one for us.'”
