Complete Story
04/27/2015
New Albany Market Street Extension Planned
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Market Street will be extended to connect with Reynoldsburg-New Albany Road by next year, according to city leaders.
The 686-foot extension would begin on the east side of CVS Pharmacy near Ackerly Farm Road and connect at 4653 Reynoldsburg-New Albany Road.
Tom Rubey, development director for the New Albany Co., said the company agreed to pay for the road extension and be refunded by the Village Center tax-increment-financing district.
A TIF is an economic-development mechanism available to local governments to finance public-infrastructure improvements, and in certain circumstances, residential rehabilitation, according to the Ohio Development Services Agency.
A TIF locks in the taxable worth of real property at the value it holds at the time the authorizing legislation is approved, diverting the incremental revenue to designated uses, such as funding the necessary improvements or infrastructure to support a new development.
New Albany spokesman Scott McAfee said the New Albany Co. is expected to be reimbursed for $3.5 million: $2.7 million to build the roundabout at Market and Main streets and $825,000 for the road extension.
Adrienne Joly, New Albany's deputy community-development director, said the city is working to design the road and determine an estimated cost.
The extension has been included in the city's strategic plan since 1998 and is part of the 2014 plan update, according to the city.
The New Albany Planning Commission approved the plans March 16, with chairman Neil Kirby abstaining, and New Albany City Council approved the final plat April 7.
Kirby owns the property at 4653 Reynoldsburg-New Albany Road.
The city is working with Kirby to provide an easement from the road to his property.
City Manager Joseph Stefanov said New Albany also would move a water line from an adjacent alley for the project. It would allow a connection to the Kirby property, he said.
Joly said the water line would connect a gap in the line between Market Street and Reynoldsburg-New Albany Road to help improve water quality.
She said a sanitary-sewer line would not be extended with the road but a "sleeve" be built so a future extension of sanitary sewer could run beneath the road.
