Red light to development preserves PC’s heritage

Dear Editor,
As a citizen of Plain City I feel the need to respond to the recent Journal-Tribune article, “Commercial, residential developments proposed for PC.” The article reports that the Plain City council green lighted the Warner Road development. This development will devour 113 acres of irreplaceable farm land with apartments, single family dwellings, grocery store and hotel.
In 2018 Plain City adopted a development plan under then Mayor Darrin Lane. One alleged goal was to preserve Plain City’s rural heritage. At that time PC residents expressed concern about the obvious reality of farm land being devoured by urban sprawl. Five years later the concern about urbanization is becoming a disgusting reality.
In the 2018 plan there is a large swath of farm land labeled Planning Area. This area is represented in green as farm land under consideration for destruction within Plain City’s tax hungry corporate boundary. The Warner Road development is one of many such developments which will be needlessly appearing off Route 161 in the future. So what can PC residents expect with such wanton squandering of farmland.
Since the 2018 development plan failed to communicate the truth of the future fiasco which will overwhelm PC residents, I’ll do it. The truth is preserving our rural heritage and approving the Warner Road development is a laughable oxymoron.
In the 1970’s Sawmill Road north to downtown Powell, Ohio was a reflection of what Route 33 and Route 161 west into downtown Plain City is today. Sawmill Road, like Route 161, was a two lane road which was surrounded by beautiful farm land. Sawmill Road is now a four lane slog of traffic lights surrounded by all the urbanization headaches the Warner Road project guarantees PC residents with.
Within the next 10 years PC residents can expect Route 161 to become inundated with traffic lights. Today, it takes a commuter over 20 minutes to drive the 4.5 miles to downtown Powell from Sawmill Road and I-270. As this insanity moves forward, a sea of traffic congestion, strip malls, restaurants, hotels, condos, homes and apartments will overrun a 4.7 mile stretch of Route 161 that is currently an Ohio Byway.
In the future it will take a PC resident well over 20 minutes to travel from downtown Plain City to Route 33. In the future our rural heritage will be preserved in pictures in the Plain City Historical Society. In the future developers are going to ignore our rural heritage preservation red light and Plain City will be over run by the sea of headaches I previously mentioned, indeed.
S.A. Carpenter,
Plain City