State Approves $1.57 Million in Esplanade Land Buys for Kent State
Ohio Budget Office releases money for 9 properties to link campus with downtown Kent
Photos
Officials in Columbus gave the OK Monday for Kent State University officials to spend $1.57 million buying land to extend the Esplanade from campus into downtown Kent.
The Ohio Office of Budget and Management Controlling Board signed off on the university's plans to spend the money on nine properties in the neighborhood west of campus.
The bulk of the expenses approved Monday, $1.51 million, will pay for six parcels owned by Portage County Commissioner and Kent resident Chris Smeiles. The balance will be split between two other property owners, Dorothy Meyer and RHS Development, Inc, for three parcels, according to the controlling board's meeting agenda for Dec. 12, 2011.
The Kent State University Board of Trustees approved the land buys in September.
So far, the university trustees have approved spending more than $6 million buying land in the neighborhood west of campus since 2007. And that total excludes the $3.28 million expected for construction costs to actually build the pedestrian and bicycle pathway linking the campus to downtown.
In June, university officials said they had secured all the key properties necessary along the proposed Esplanade route, but that they were still working on buying additional properties necessary to provide landscape buffer areas for the Esplanade extension.
Scroll down for past coverage on Esplanade land buys:
Matt Fredmonsky
12:07 pm on Tuesday, December 13, 2011
This has been our most-read story of the morning, yet I'm surprised no one has commented. Do you think the Esplanade is an important part of the downtown revitalization or just a waste of money and land?
Chris (Kit) Myers
2:53 pm on Tuesday, December 13, 2011
OK, Matt, here are a couple comments:
1) 3.28 million for a glorified sidewalk. Hmmm.
2) Property to be torn down more than a hundred feet away for an esplanade buffer zone. Buffer against what? Tiger tanks?
No, it's all about the Campus Link or Gateway project or whatever the final name will be.
I am seventy-five and intend to keep my very nice student rental on South Willow Street for three or so more years. It is my retirement and I enjoy making a nice, reasonably priced, home for students while they are here. Until then, the university, my alma mater, can just bug off and go buffer themselves.
So be it!
Hugh Wonderly
10:24 am on Monday, December 19, 2011
I think the idea is a good one, in principle. The cost of $10,000,000 is ridiculous though. Who is ultimately going to foot the bill for this? No wonder Ohio is so deeply in debt. Unless this entire project was paid for by an endowment I cannot support this massive waste of money. How much did the renovation of the student center/library area cost? And for what? So it looks a little nicer and I mean little, than what was already there. In the end these superficial projects are completely unjustifiable, particularly at a time when Ohio is in such a fiscal mess. I love bike paths, but this is spending that is way out of proportion to the benefits.