An expansive community is rising from rolling fields in southeastern Union County with amenities to enhance the lifestyle of thousands who will live there in coming years.
A parade will herald its coming – the Building Industry Association of Central Ohio’s 2013 Parade of Homes. For two weeks in June, the Parade will kick-start the Jerome Village neighborhood, which will eventually be the site of 2,400 mid- and up scale residences spread over 1,435 acres.
Nationwide Realty Investors is the developer of the largely single-family project, its second recent foray into single-family housing in central Ohio. The other is Northstar, a golf course community in Delaware. Nationwide Realty’s biggest Columbus-area projects have been the wildly successful development of the Arena District and the massive undertaking of Grandview Yard that is coming to fruition. Both are a mix of office, commercial, entertainment and multi-family residential uses.
Jerome Village is in the Dublin City School District, itself a magnet for higher-income homeowners. In late winter, Nationwide began promoting the neighborhood with Sunday hours at its visitor center in a historic house, which has been restored and expanded with a more modern addition to the rear to facilitate visitors and business.
The Building Industry Association of Central Ohio’s Parade of Homes, scheduled for June 15-30, will feature a dozen homes by 11 builders. In those houses, nine architectural styles will be on display, divided into three broad categories – classical, Victorian, arts and crafts – that must be used throughout the neighborhood. Parade home prices will go all the way up to the $800,000s, according to the BIA.
An example is Bob Webb Group’s Parade entry, built on a corner lot so that the front faces one street and the three-car garage, built at an angle, faces the other street. Garages must be set back if facing the street with the house. The house will use both vertical and horizontal siding – concrete, not wood or vinyl – and some masonry to “give it that country look,” says Webb’s Neil Rogers. Priced in the $600,000s, the 4,000-square-foot home might be used as a model if not sold during the parade, Rogers says.
Webb, which will be able to acquire two or three lots by virtue of being in the Parade, also “plans to (buy) as many as we can handle” because, Rogers says, “We need Dublin schools and Tartan West is done.” Webb built about 40 percent of Tartan Fields, he says.
The house will have a finished lower level of about 1,500 square feet with a walkout to a creek bed ravine, one of several in the neighborhood.
“We want to preserve the natural terrain and tree lines as much as possible,” says Tina Guegold, vice president of marketing for Nationwide Realty. “A lot of it can be retained. We can maintain trees, ponds, slopes. It’s going to create a great terrain.”
Truberry Custom Homes is building the Parade’s Foundation Home for the sixth time and for the second year in a row. Proceeds from its sale – as well as from sale of tickets to a Parade preview party – go to the BIA’s charitable foundation, which donates the proceeds to charities, including the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Foundation.
Truberry is well on its way to using the natural landscape for its future homes. The company “has 28 beautiful lots to build on,” says Truberry President Lori Steiner. “Most are wooded, many are on cul-de-sacs and some will enable us to build homes with walk-out basements.”
They will feature such architectural elements as front porches, cupolas, tapered columns, colonnades and gambrel roof forms, Steiner says. Homes are sprouting up with balconies on top of porches.
One section of completed homes readily seen from the welcome center, all by Schottenstein builders, reflects building guidelines that the neighborhood’s Design Review Board approves. The homes are of various and numerous colors, all with siding as opposed to masonry or stucco. Color variations are a key element, says Guegold.
Also visible from the welcome center is the dark stained border fence that will surround the neighborhood and the bike and walking paths that will flow throughout it. They’ll connect to 11 miles of paths in Glacier Ridge Metro Park just to the south and have access points for even non-residents to use them, Guegold says.
“We want to be an inclusive community,” she says.
As streets are being built and lots prepared, the community’s character is just beginning to take shape.
Preliminary work is under way on a swimming pool and community center near the south end of the development—Jerome Village will eventually will extend north to U.S. Rt. 42—where a large section is set aside for commercial and retail development. Two sites are set aside for schools.
Near the Glacier Park neighborhood now being developed, a tract is designated for “attached housing,” which Guegold says may become condominiums. There are two other similar designations to the north near the commercial/retail area, though it has not yet been decided what type of housing may go there, she says. On the list of things that may happen eventually are a second community center or pool and a town center with small stores and civic buildings.
Green spaces both large and small are scattered throughout to maintain the natural landscape. They mainly are on either side of the extension of Hyland-Croy Road through the development. The neighborhood will connect to tree-lined streets as well as to paths that will allow children to walk to school and families to walk or bike to the Metro Park.
The Jerome Village Community Authority, a Nationwide-Union County organization, oversees the development. A 9.5-mill tax levy finances streets, parks, pathways, fences and the like. The Design Review Board is an arm of the authority. A homeowners association deals with rules and regulations for property owners.
Looking ahead to completion in 10-15 years, Nationwide Realty put its vision in writing: “Jerome Village will reflect the rural characteristics that emphasize the history of the area with modern amenities that create an comfortable but classic neighborhood. Here, 2,400 homes will range from executive estates to village bungalows with pricing options for all families and budgets.”
Another statement concludes it will be “a place that’s as sensitive to the land and natural resources as it is to those who live here.”
For detailed information, visit www.jeromevillage.com or JeromeVillageDevelopment on Facebook.
Duane St. Clair is a contributing editor. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.
