Developer proposes 'blue-collar' incubator on Summer Road; seeks planned-district rezoning

Todd Farris, the property owner, and Jess Miller presented a concept plan for a mixed-use "blue-collar incubator" on Summer Road during a Pataskala City Development Committee meeting. They said the project would require rezoning the parcel to a planned district to consolidate several existing zoning designations and allow a mix of flex office, storage/garage bays and a small commercial outparcel.

The proposal is intended to provide secure, small-scale spaces for contractors and tradespeople to keep trucks and equipment and to lease small office/storage combinations. "I kind of see this as a blue collar incubator," Jess Miller said. "There's no place for guys like me who are starting a business from scratch to keep our trucks and keep our tools." Miller identified himself and gave an address during his remarks.

The committee pressed presenters on several technical and safety questions. Committee member Andy asked whether the school had agreed to emergency-access arrangements; Miller said he had a written agreement with the school permitting a gated emergency access through the school parking lot and that the developer planned to add three to four parking spaces in trade for the access and to paint no-parking lines. "We're actually gonna increase that parking space," Miller said. He also told the committee the gate would be for emergencies and not regular traffic.

Presenters said the development would be built in phases. Todd Farris said the first phase would likely include five or six of the planned buildings; individual units would be flexible, with interior layouts allowing about 1,200 square feet to be combined into 2,400 square feet if tenants needed more room. Farris said the plan currently shows a mixture of buildings: a forward-facing outparcel for commercial use, two mixed-use flex-office buildings and a gated storage/flex area behind them that tradespeople could use for materials and trucks.

A central technical hurdle the presenters identified is Pataskala's planned-district open-space requirement. "One of the things that's common through all of them is this requirement for 35% open space," Farris said, adding that setbacks and required quads could push the site to the threshold before adding usable open space. He said the team would likely seek relief from that standard to make the project viable under a single planned-district designation.

Committee members raised operational and safety limits the city would likely expect. Andy and others asked how the city would prevent the incubator from becoming a storage yard for nonoperational uses; planning staff described a certificate-of-compliance approach tied to unit addresses so that an occupant operating as a plumber, for example, would hold the appropriate certificate for the specific unit. Committee members and the mayor asked whether buildings would be electrified and whether any outside storage would be allowed; Miller said buildings would have electricity and there would be no outside storage.

Members also asked about activities that would harm property or pose environmental risks; Miller said heavy industrial production, painting cars and welding would not be part of the plan. "I wouldn't want people welding. I wouldn't want people painting cars," he said, noting those activities tear up property and have drainage and safety implications.

Presenters said they will run the plan and any access arrangements by the fire department, work through the development-text rules, and take the rezoning application to the planning commission. No formal vote or ordinance was taken at the committee meeting. The presenters said they were preparing to file an application and wanted informal feedback before submission.

The committee suggested the team prepare documentation of the schoolaccess agreement, clarify the development text to distinguish incubator uses from storage units, and propose specific relief for the 35% planned-district open-space requirement when the application is filed. The mayor and other committee members expressed general support for the concept while emphasizing the need for clear limits on hazardous activities and strong screening and buffering where the site adjoins the school.

Next steps: the applicants plan to file a rezoning/development-text application and the city will review it with fire, planning staff and the planning commission before any ordinance is drafted for council consideration.