MOUNT VERNON — “Preserve the land and protect the taxpayers” is the message Jeff Fix has for Knox County as it prepares to adopt an updated comprehensive plan.
A Fairfield County commissioner since 2018, Fix served on Pickerington City Council from 2005 to 2007.
He spoke Monday night at a joint meeting between the Knox County Regional Planning Commission, Mount Vernon City Council, and Board of Knox County Commissioners.
Fix said the Industrial Revolution that started 100 years ago is giving way to the Technological Revolution.
Just as the Industrial Revolution changed the face of Ohio and provided opportunities for generations of Ohioans, he said the Technological Revolution would also benefit future generations.
He cited employers like Intel and Honda providing jobs that Central Ohio cannot fill, the population already in the area, and those who will come here who need reasonable housing as challenges and opportunities that community leaders face.
“Yes, indeed, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and we owe it to ourselves, and more importantly to those who elect us, who depend on us to do everything we can to plan for what’s coming, to manage it when it gets here, and to take advantage of it so that future generations can reap the benefits and none of us can do it alone,” he said.
Like Knox County, Fairfield County wants to use its comprehensive plan to meet those challenges and opportunities. Fix shared insights about Fairfield’s experience updating its comprehensive plan.
Townships and villages play critical role
Fairfield County recently updated its comprehensive plan with the help of Planning NEXT, which is the same company that is assisting Knox County.
Fix said Fairfield’s first version was poorly received, so the county pulled back and went individually to the 13 townships, 13 villages, and school districts.
That, he said, completely changed the dynamic.
“Engaging our townships and villages one-on-one was the most important thing we did in this whole problem.”
Jeff Fix, Fairfield County Commissioner
“Only after having three months of those individual meetings and incorporating all of that feedback into our plan did we have a final version that everyone was comfortable with,” he said.
Fairfield wrote its plan to make it easy for villages or townships to adapt and adopt it for their own.
“If they’re not on board, if they want to fight growth, or worse, stick their heads in the sand and hope it goes away, if any of those things happen, none of this will work,” Fix said.
Fix recounted Pickerington’s growth since he moved there nearly 30 years ago. He moved there because the schools were great, taxes reasonable, and it was close to Columbus.
Today, the city has 50,000 people, it takes 40 minutes to get to work, and the taxes are some of the highest in Central Ohio.
“This all happened because our community leaders way back had no plan for growth and refused to work together,” he said.
“A lot of townships tried to build a fence around the city of Pickerington, and that was the most wildly unsuccessful venture you could imagine.”
Avoiding land wars through a comprehensive plan
Fix said 40 years of land wars continue to this day, to the point that Fairfield County has 12 subdivisions in some form of construction.
“Without appropriate plans, developers took advantage, pitting the city against the township,” he said.
Fix noted that the schools are not what they once were and that the community is changing, although not in a good way. Worst of all, he said, the taxpayers are stuck with all the bills.
“Townships and villages, because they control zoning, hold all the cards when it comes to growth.”
Jeff Fix, Fairfield County Commissioner
“So it’s great to have a plan, but if your townships and villages don’t dig in and get to work, your plan is a really nice document and not much more,” he said.
“The challenge I’m having for us now is to get all those townships and villages to either adopt our plan or create their own.
“To do that, we’re on tour again preaching the mantra preserve the land and protect the taxpayers.”
Preserving the land
Fix said that, like Knox County, Fairfield County likes its rural fields and wants to keep the farms.
Residents made it clear that the agricultural community and most of Fairfield’s townships were not interested in using prime farmland for development.
Preserving the land, he said, is all about building the density.
The historical way of controlling growth is to zone everything agriculture and allow one home on every two acres. Fix said that spreads out development but does not stop it.
Under traditional zoning, 100 homes use up 200 acres. A density level of four homes per acre uses up 25 acres and preserves 175.
“When you go with density, the developer is happy to pay for their own infrastructure, so your taxpayers aren’t stuck with that bill,” he said. “As we repeat preserve the land and protect the taxpayers enough, the township trustees and their constituents have come to understand that building with density is actually a good thing.”
Protecting the taxpayers
Fix said protecting the taxpayers is more complicated and involves using NCAs (new community authorities).
NCAs allow local government entities to establish taxing districts specifically for new developments.
Residents moving into the development pay an assessment, frequently an extra millage on property taxes or a percentage of income tax. Fairfield County uses both assessments.
The government entity uses the money for roads, schools, and other infrastructure needed to accommodate the additional growth.
Existing taxpayers do not pay the assessment.
Fairfield County splits the NCA revenue among various entities:
•40% to the township
•40% to the municipality
•10% to the school district in the developed area
•10% to parks, trails, green space
Dividing the money reduces the historical annexation fights between the municipality and townships.
“Regardless if the development occurs within the township or in the city or village, everybody shares,” Fix said.
“The primary thought behind this is to stop the land wars, to take away the ability of the developer to play the township against the village or the village against the township.”
Of the 10% going to the schools, NCA revenue from residential developments goes toward operational costs for new students stemming from new housing.
NCA revenue from commercial and industrial developments pays for the capital costs associated with schools adding to existing facilities or building new ones.
Fix said Fairfield County is close to finalizing an agreement between the City of Lancaster and Greenfield Township and is working on three others.
“Everybody’s coming on board. It’s working,” he said.
The final piece of the puzzle
The final piece of the puzzle is that Fairfield County funded the creation of a model zoning code written by its regional planning commission.
The code aligns with the comprehensive plan and is provided to the villages and townships for free so they can update their zoning to match the land use plan.
“The key to our long-term success is to have each township and each village have their version of land use plan and to update their zoning to match that land use and do the hard work of creating partnerships with each other so when development comes, and it already is, they’re ready,” Fix said.