Projects to alter look of area in Wood Co.

Road widening, a housing subdivision’s construction, and a new solar array are all coming to the area around State Rt. 795 and Lime City Road in northern Wood County.

Rossford City Council last week approved participating in a $2 million project to widen Lime City Road and authorized buying land for the solar array, while the Perrysburg Township Trustees the week before approved rezoning 34 acres for new housing on the township’s side of the Route 795 intersection.

Allyson Murray, Rossford’s city administrator, said the city will cover 20 percent of the $2.5 million estimated cost to widen Lime City between its bridge over the Ohio Turnpike and the entrance to Rossford Elementary School. The school is on the Route 795 intersection’s northeast corner, along with the “R” recreation facility.

The Ohio Department of Transportation will fund the balance of the Lime City project, which is slated for 2027 and includes pavement reconstruction, drainage modifications, designated turn lanes at Route 795, and new traffic signals.

“It’s an excellent project. It will keep it safe, much safer,” Ms. Murray said. “With the school right there, it’s really important and critical that we do everything we can to improve that intersection.”

The triangular parcel on the intersection’s southwest corner for which Rossford will pay $300,000 is “not really a developable piece of property,” council President Caroline Eckel said.

“If we weren’t to purchase it ... ODOT would have to do an eminent-domain/​taking action, and that is usually much more expensive for the municipality and takes longer,” said Kevin Heban, the city solicitor, who also disclosed the planned solar-field use.

Perrysburg Township Trustees’ Dec. 6 approval of rezoning three parcels from an agricultural district to high-density, multifamily residential use, meanwhile, opens the 34 acres involved to a proposal advanced by Redwood Living.

Lawyer Rex Huffman, representing Carol Brossia Stevens and Bonnie Jean Brossia, the current landowners, said the zoning request for the intersection’s northwest corner “has legs to it.”

Single-story, “condo-like” structures with two-car garages, similar to a recent Redwood development on Oregon Road, will be built on 22 acres, Mr. Huffman said. Most tenants are expected to be age 35 and younger, or age 55 and older, he said, and the complex will be in the Rossford school district.

“This is about as good a use as we can find for that property,” he said.

The site is part of a booming area that has First Solar and a Walgreens distribution center nearby, said Mr. Huffman, who also is the Wood County Port Authority’s executive director.

“In 2017 and 2018, we saw a lot of business coming to this area of the county, and now here in 2023, I can tell you we were right, and it has come,” Mr. Huffman said.

Trustee Gary Britten said the Perrysburg Township Zoning Commission and Wood County Planning Commission had previously approved the rezoning request.

“I think it’s good use. I’m happy they reached out to the school district, that’s important,” Mr. Britten said.

“We certainly have job growth in our township,” Trustee Bob Mack said. “And we have to ask the question, do we want the people that work in our township have to live elsewhere or live within our boundaries? I’d prefer them to live in our township.”

Contact Debbie Rogers at drogers@theblade.com.