Grow Licking County tells Pataskala council jobs up but utility limits curb new projects

Grow Licking County executives told the Pataskala City Council on a regular meeting night that the county has exceeded several growth targets since 2018 but that utility constraints in and around Pataskala are limiting the city's ability to capture new projects. Alexis Fitzsimmons, executive director of Grow Licking County, said the nonprofit's mission is "to drive prosperity in Licking County through business attraction, retention, and workforce development." She told the council that, through the end of 2024, the organization has helped create "more than 10,000 jobs," facilitated "more than $800,000,000 in new payroll," and reported more than $50,000,000 in private investment, and said median household income rose substantially in that period. The presentation emphasized manufacturing, transportation and warehousing, retail trade and construction as the county's largest concentrated industries. Fitzsimmons said those industry concentrations informed the county's site inventory and outreach: Grow Licking County submitted 61 properties in response to state and local project leads last year and said it responded to roughly 52% of project inquiries in 2024. Gabriel Feldman, economic development manager for existing industry and workforce development, described the organization's business retention and expansion (BR&E) work and workforce initiatives. "85% of growth and job creation in any given community comes from expansions within the community rather than new industry coming in," Feldman said, describing business visits, a skills-gap analysis and a soft-skills working group that involves area schools and career programs. Council members pressed presenters on utilities in the Pataskala Corporate Park. Fitzsimmons said electric capacity in the corporate park is "lagging," and that water and wastewater capacity is also a constraint across parts of western Licking County; she said those limits have reduced the number of project submissions for Pataskala in 2025. Presentation slides from a recent infrastructure luncheon, which Grow Licking County provided to council, include material from PJM that forecast a potential gap between demand and available generation in Central Ohio as early as 2027. During the meeting a council member asked whether a new wastewater plant would be online in 2026 or 2027; the response at the meeting was 2026. Fitzsimmons and Feldman said regional agency schedules and drilling for new wells are in progress but that the water infrastructure is not coming online quickly enough to meet some lead requirements this year. Council members also asked about on-site generation options. Feldman said there have been some discussions and at least one company explored a combined-cycle facility, but that those facilities typically must be located near high-capacity transmission or gas mains and face technical and regulatory constraints. He described a distinction between behind-the-meter generation that serves a single large user (such as a data center) and front-of-meter projects that would require approvals through the Ohio Power Siting Board. Fitzsimmons said Grow Licking County convenes an infrastructure committee to educate and support local grant applications and noted the group hosted an infrastructure luncheon focused on electric capacity and the regional grid. She told council members she would provide the PJM and luncheon slides for their review. Feldman described other Grow Licking County efforts including marketing and a property library, career-pathway videos for students, a childcare task force aimed at expanding childcare to support workforce participation, and housing strategy discussions that aim to balance growth with farmland and small-town character. He said Grow Licking County partners with JobsOhio and local stakeholders on site readiness and outreach. The presenters did not propose any city action for immediate vote; they offered to answer follow-up questions and to share their presentation materials with council.