Open Source: Who’s taking care of Harcourt Road “no man’s land?”

MOUNT VERNON – The “no man’s land” off Harcourt Road and Ohio 229 has earned its war-themed term. 

The former homeless camp is in jurisdictional limbo – owned by the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) and Clinton Township — just out of Mount Vernon’s city limits.

The homeless camp, near the Kokosing River, was cleared out after a fire engulfed the area – forcing the Mount Vernon Fire Department to quell the small blaze. 

Afterward, a group of volunteers and state officials from ODOT cleaned up the land, making it visible for passersby to view the clear water once blocked by vegetation and trees. 

Now a couple of months have passed and the area is starting to overgrow again.

“Unfortunately it’s already grown up and it looks like it did before and I’ve seen people down there periodically again already,” a west-end resident said. 

Mount Vernon Mayor Matt Starr said July 12 at a community meeting with west-end residents that he’d like the “Taj Mahal” near the river to be annexed into the city.

“We’re looking with the state and obviously the (Ohio State) Highway Patrol,” Starr said. 

“There are so many steps involved in doing this. Mr. Broeren (Law Director Rob Broeren) is probably going to have headaches here when we start jumping into that,” Starr said.  

Also at the community meeting, a west-end resident asked Starr if there was a timeline for the annexation. 

Though a timeline wasn’t given, Broeren said once the property is within the city limits it will be subjected to the city’s property maintenance laws. 

When asked if ODOT can maintain the property until the city annexes it, Broeren said, “At this point, we don’t have any levers to get them to do that because it’s not in the city. Once we annex it and bring it into the city, we’ll be able to then impose our property maintenance rules on them to get them to clean it up.”