According to the presentation the 126-acre farm, which is in medium density zoning, will have 375 homes, 105 rear loaded townhomes and 270 single family homes. About 40% of the property will be open space. The development would be ‘amenity heavy’ with plans for a clubhouse, pool, multipurpose field and courts, covered gathering area with a barbeque pit, community gardens, dog park and a trail system. Poss plans on using the City’s Community Village overlay, a zoning tool that provides guidelines for developers that consistently maintains the City’s character throughout its developments.

As for the layout of the development, Hackett said the environmental portion of the development is along the north of the property and is primarily the flood plain and stream buffer. There is also an existing well in that location that was drilled by the property owner years ago just to see how much water it would produce. Hackett assured the commission that a protective area is planned around the well just in case the Town may have need of it someday. The rest of the homes would be in clustered groups (a perk of the Community Village overlay) throughout the property.

Another possibility stemming from the development would be the continuation of the much-desired bypass. This has been discussed before with the prior developer regarding the ‘Worthington Boulevard Corridor’, essentially the southern portion of the bypass that comes off Flow Serve property, across 140, through the southern end of the Sewell Farm, across Harney Road, and eventually connecting with RT 194 via Fringer Rd. The issue with this is the path through the floodplain is unsuitable for a road thus a bridge would be needed and that would be an expensive undertaking that most developers would not be willing to take on.

Poss added that their intentions are to work with the City on the bypass road. "You’ll find a willing partner with us," he said. "We have a top-notch engineer that has a lot of experience in the State with projects like this and you know he is at y'all's disposal."

Councilman Christopher Tillman also asked if any portions of the development would be considered ‘affordable’. "We do not have a LIHTC (Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program) project component as part of this," said Poss. He pointed out the need for LIHTC projects to be near mass transit as a key reason why this type of housing was not part of their plans.

With a lot of questions to be answered about the bypass in particular the developers will have to return with more concrete plans to present. Hopefully with work on the Comprehensive Plan taking place now, The City will be more prepared to discuss plans for the Southern bypass.