Columbus Underground takes a deep-dive into Quarry Trails development project

Screenshot: Google Maps (07/06/19)

A 220-acre Metro Park – with 118 acres possibly open by 2020. Hundreds of standalone homes, multifamily units, and apartments. And almost 80,000 square feet of retail, restaurant, and office space.

These are all coming to the intersection of Dublin and Trabue roads, just south of The Glen, according to a deep-dive published by Columbus Underground on the proposed Quarry Trails Metro Park and mixed-use development.

It's a project about which Metro Parks officials and northwest Franklin County parks and recreation departments are enthusiastic – but one that's also brought out concerns from area residents about how much traffic the intersection can handle.

Quarry Trails will be the twentieth park in the Columbus and Franklin County Metro Parks system. Once open, it will offer visitors biking and mountain biking trails, canoeing and kayaking, and rock climbing.

Per Columbus Underground, the initial, 118-acre "phase of the Metro Park ... is now scheduled to open some time in the fall of 2020." That phase "will ... include two large lakes and a waterfall".

The mixed-use component of Quarry Trails is advancing, too.

"Plans for the development ... have been mostly finalized and are likely headed to Columbus City Council for approval in September," Columbus Underground writes.

The area will be a "pocket neighborhood", which means residents will "have a 220-acre park out their front doors,” Steve Bollinger of Wagenbrenner Development told Columbus Underground.

Area residents' concerns are mostly focused on the increased traffic the development will cause.

Wagenbrenner has "conducted a local traffic study that found its project would need a stop light and turn lanes," per Columbus Business First, but locals want "a larger regional traffic study for the area," and they "want it done before the project gets approval" from city council.

But it's hard to stop progress once the wheels are in motion.

"Wagenbrenner wants to start infrastructure work in the fall, submit for rezoning by the end of the year, and go vertical early next," Columbus Business First reports.