Hilliard City Council plans to authorize the transfer of 333 acres of land to Columbus and Franklin County Metro Parks to expand Homestead Metro Park and add natural spaces to the Big Darby Creek watershed, according to a city council ordinance introduced Sept. 14.
If council approves the ordinance at its Sept. 28 meeting, it would massively expand the approximately 44-acre Homestead Metro Park, located at 4675 Cosgray Road beyond the Heritage Trail on its western border, using adjacent city land and the Hill Trail to connect it to hundreds of acres north of housing developments along Scioto Darby Creek Road.
The ordinance also includes a memorandum of understanding between Hilliard and Metro Parks that would allow the park system to maintain
and patrol certain trails, including the Heritage Trail and Hill Farm Trail.
Hilliard plans to transfer around 69 acres of city-owned land directly to Metro Parks, while allowing builder M/I Homes, the company behind the Hill Farm and Hill Farm II developments near Homestead Metro Park, to transfer some of its land to the park system. The council previously voted in June to allow land developer Grand Communities to transfer around 35 acres of its land near Clover Groff Run, which is just southwest of Homestead Metro Park, to the park system.
"This is really the culmination of multiple years of work, efforts from current council members, past council members, certainly [Columbus and] Franklin County Metro Parks and private developers who have all allowed this to occur," Assistant City Manager Dan Ralley told the council Sept. 14.
Hilliard was able to assemble the land for the Homestead Metro Park expansion because of a 2023 City Council policy that requires 70% of land in new developments to remain open space, according to a Hilliard press release.
Tim Moloney, executive director of Columbus and Franklin County Metro Parks, said in a Sept. 15 social media videothat it would take the park system a couple of years to develop wetlands, trails and prairies on the new Homestead Metro Park land.
Homestead Metro Park currently has a pond for outdoor and water activities, a train station replica, a caboose and a ¾-mile paved trail.
City Council is expected to vote on the land transfer during its Sept. 28 meeting at 6 p.m. in Hilliard's Municipal Building, 3800 Municipal Way.
Reporter Nathan Hart can be reached at NHart@dispatch.com, @NathanRHart on X and nathanhart.dispatch.com on Bluesky.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Hilliard to authorize transfer of hundreds of acres to grow Homestead Metro Park
