Sunbury's Evolution: From Village to City

Step into the dynamic world of Sunbury, Ohio as City Administrator Daryl Hennessey reveals how this small town is managing its dramatic evolution from village to city status. Four years after crossing the 5,000-resident threshold, Sunbury faces unique challenges balancing explosive growth with preserving its cherished small-town character. Topics covered include the following.

• The city adopted a charter giving it more local control over decision-making processes
• Assuming responsibility for state routes through the city created new maintenance obligations
• Sunbury spans about seven square miles with a disproportionately large geographic footprint relative to its population
• The city is actively diversifying its tax base away from 75% residential property valuation
• Amazon Web Services is making a $2 billion investment in a data center on the east side of Sunbury
• Approximately 2,200 new housing units are in various stages of development, with almost half being multi-family or non-traditional single-family homes
• Council has committed more than $3 million to develop JR Smith Park with active recreational amenities
• Major summer events include the Farmer's Market, Memorial Day Marketplace, 4th of July celebration, and Sunbury Sizzle and Sounds in August
• Delaware County Transit is helping with workforce access by offering flexible $2 rides from Sunbury to nearby destinations in Delaware.

For more information about development projects and upcoming events, visit www.sunburyohio.org or contact City Administrator Daryl Hennessey at dhennessey@sunburyohio.org.

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:01

Welcome to Central Ohio Matters, the podcast where we delve into the issues that shape Central Ohio's future. Each episode features in-depth conversations with local leaders, visionaries and changemakers driving progress in our region. These conversations offer insights into the challenges our communities face and the solutions being crafted to move them forward. Here are your hosts, michelle Gatchel and Ryan Rivers.

Speaker 2 0:25

Ryan, we've got a great show. Today we are talking to Daryl Hennessey. He is the city administrator for the city of Sunbury and I thought it would be nice to kind of talk to him a little bit about what they've seen improve or change since they have gone from a village to a city four years ago. So, daryl, thank you so much for joining us and filling us in on all things Sunbury.

Speaker 3 0:53

Well, hello, michelle Ryan, good to be here, good to have you.

Speaker 2 0:57

So, daryl, I know you kind of started right after Sunbury was incorporated into a city, but you've been there, you know, through all the different changes that they've had to go through to become a city. And so what were some of those changes, like, what were some of the big changes?

Speaker 3 1:15

So in October of 21, after the last census, the city's population exceeded 5,000. So we were at 6,600 at that time and the state designated us a city at that point. So yeah, just a little short of four years ago, we became a city and I arrived in the city of Sunbury in about three years ago. So I've seen most of the transition, but not all of the transition. I came in, worked for another city administrator who was here during the transition. So yeah, there's a lot that happens when you become a city. There are some great things about becoming a city. There are some challenges associated with it as well, but we mostly think that the opportunities certainly outweigh the challenges associated with that.

Speaker 3 2:02

I would say one of the big things that happened when we became one of the first things that happened, just as we were transitioning from a village to a city is the city adopted a charter, and so you may hear some communities have a charter, some communities don't.

Speaker 3 2:16

Some cities have a charter, some cities don't. A charter basically is a local constitution that basically spells out the authorities that you have as a local community. If you become a charter city, generally, what you're doing it to become or to have a little bit more local control over decision making. The form of government, some of the state statutory framework doesn't apply to your community because you've adopted a charter. So we did that. We actually did that in 2020. So, in anticipation of the transition from a village to a city, and we're now actually at the five-year window and we're about ready to make some amendments to our charter and we've talked a little bit about that as well- One of the other big changes that happens as a result of becoming a city is that in Sunbury we've got two state routes that come right through the center of town, actually crossing in the middle of town when you're a village.

Speaker 3 3:13

The state is responsible for those state routes that go through your city, and by responsible I mean they have control over access issues, they have control over maintenance, they have responsibilities that the city doesn't necessarily have, but once you become a city you do take on those additional responsibilities. So it's on the city. Now, anytime there's a development that may occur along the state route that occurs within the municipal boundaries, we now have a little bit more control over how it accesses the state route. But we also, like I said, have the responsibility of maintaining the road as well, which is, you know, can be a pretty costly proposition.

Speaker 2 3:50

So, and are those 37, and what?

Speaker 3 3:53

Yeah, so state route. Well, so it's state route 36, or it's US 36, state route 37, and then it's state route 3 across, just right outside our historic, our historic downtown. So and and maybe the final thing I would say that's pretty significant in the way that at least the city of Sunbury has transitioned from village to city is with respect to its planning efforts and its zoning ordinance. We've always had our zoning ordinance, but generally we used to rely on the assistance of the county to help us with planning issues, planning related issues, kind of land use, development uses, if you will. And when we became a city we've actually taken on more of the responsibility associated with doing the long-term planning in the city. You know, when I think of Hatties and Berry, I think of the really cute little downtown responsibility associated with the with doing the long-term planning in the city.

Speaker 2 4:45

You know, when I think of sunbury, I think of the really cute little downtown and then the harley davidson uh place right up there by the highway. Um, and then tanger outlet yeah kind of little triangle, but there's so much more in the works right now yeah, actually that that is a great point.

Sunbury's Geographic Footprint

Speaker 3 5:07

I'm glad you raised that, because some people do think of sunbury as being tango outlet and the um uh, the harley davidson store and actually those are technically in the township but the city actually has, but they have a. They have a sunbury mailing address, so people think of them as being sunbury. I get it. The other thing is that we actually but interestingly enough, we actually do extend farther west than that. We actually jump over the interstate and have some corporate boundaries that extend to the like I said, to the west of State Route 71, or US Interstate 71.

Speaker 3 5:44

So, yeah, it's one of the things about the city of Sunbury is actually it has this really significant footprint. We are about seven square miles in total and when you think about and we stretch about, you know one end of town to the other end of town actually is about seven miles. That's a lot of, that's a lot of geography for the population that we have today. When you think of a city like Powell, for example, I mean I think Powell's footprint is about four square miles and they're, you know, two to three times the size of the city of Sunbury. When you think about the city of Delaware, you know their geographic footprint, I think again, is around eight to nine square miles, again, not significantly bigger than the city of Sunbury, but you know their population is what? Six, seven times the city of Sunbury. So we've got the challenges associated with this sort of large geographic footprint and as a result of that, you know, we've got more roadway, we've got more utilities to maintain, but we also have more land opportunities and development opportunities.

Regional Partnerships and Development

Speaker 4 6:51

You talked about planning and zoning kind of the future of Sunbury as far as from a regional standpoint. What are the partnerships, who are you working with when looking at Sunbury where you are? And then the overall future you know of the region and plans and kind of what you know fits where.

Speaker 3 7:10

Yeah, we, you know, we have great working relationships with the county. You know, maybe that hasn't always been the case in some jurisdictions, but we have had an outstanding relationship with Delaware County.

Speaker 3 7:26

Like I said, we relied on them when we were a village for several services, primarily planning related, but lots of other services as well. The state of Ohio is another great partner. So, like I said, we actually jump over I-71, and then we've got those two state routes that come through. And then we've got those two state routes that come through. So, while we have taken on actually an ODOT-initiated project but will dramatically impact the city of Sunbury and its development, and that is the installation of a new interchange, so just south of the 36-37 interchange off of I-71, they have awarded a contract to build a new interchange just south, about a mile from that that will connect to what is ultimately called Sunbury Parkway. So that'll be another east-west connector that gets traffic off of 71 into our downtown and even through the downtown.

Speaker 3 8:41

So, as we think about partners moving forward. Odot is certainly a key partner for us and with us. And then maybe the final point I would make is we've got lots of private development partners as well. I mean, as you think about land that surrounds the city or that has already been annexed into the city, you know those are decisions of individual property owners who have said that you know they would like to be connected with the city of Sunbury in a meaningful way because they're looking for services. They might be looking for the zoning opportunities that we have over a neighboring township. You know, or whatever I mean it's, you know the utilities, the infrastructure. You know they see that, I guess, as an opportunity to perhaps, you know, build out their property in a denser way than they might be able to do in the township. So private developers are definitely a key partner of ours as we think about the future of Sunbury of Sunbury.

Speaker 2 9:48

Along those lines I saw the Wilcox communities have stepped up and are going to be developing a mixed-use area about 115 acres. When does that start and what are we to expect?

Speaker 3 9:57

Yeah, that is, as I was looking back on, kind of what's happening in the city of Sunbury. We've got eight active developments right now and that does not even include the Wilcox project that you just referenced. So Wilcox has recently annexed land into the city of Sunbury. This is also located west of 71. They will build their product, which is a for rent kind of ranch style home, and and then they're partnering with another developer who's going to do a denser three story walk up apartment complex in that area as well, and then to the southern end of that development will be commercial properties that will ultimately front to the parkway that I was just talking about a little bit recently.

Speaker 3 10:43

So yeah, that's a great example of you know working with a private landowner who, you know, wants to convert land into some use that we think, as it fronts this major you know arterial roadway that runs east to west, that a higher and better use would be something that has this mixed use development that you're just talking about and as you think about all of the kind of the bigger issues that might be happening in the region with respect to just workforce and housing and affordability and what have you.

Speaker 3 11:16

You know this is a product and actually opportunity. You know, I mean there are certainly young professionals looking for a different type of product than maybe a, you know a single family home. But there are also, you know, people who are aging out of their homes, who are might interested, who might be interested in this type of product. So you know, that's also part of the kind of the overall strategy of any community, but certainly the city of Sunbury, to provide for a diverse range of housing options. You know, for that fit all these demographics and all these, you know, age groups.

Speaker 4 11:52

We also have in the news the development of Amazon Yep. Can we talk a little bit about what the council brings?

Speaker 3 12:02

Yeah. So one of the things that we had we meaning the city council here in Sunbury, one of the concerns I think they had when they started to look at the data, it's 75, roughly 75% of the property valuation in the city of Sunbury is residentially based in the city of Sunbury is residentially based and we thought there's not enough diversity in sort of the property mix and the taxing structure in the city of Sunbury to sustain it long-term without placing a pretty significant burden on property owners long-term. And so they made the conscious effort I would say probably it certainly started a couple of years ago to help find a way to diversify land uses in and around the city of Sunbury and so, with the help of some private developers to the just to the east of Sunbury, annexed almost about 1600 acres of land total. It's been zoned for limited industrial use. Acres of land total. It's been zoned for limited industrial use. And the first user to come along to use a portion of that property and I think it's about 200 acres of the 1600 total is Amazon Web Services. So they're looking to put a data center in that location.

Speaker 3 13:18

Data centers are, you know, they're big users of water, they're bigger users of energy, but they're bigger investors in terms of you know property valuation and you know the property tax benefits associated with the development like that.

Speaker 3 13:34

They're generally pretty light on service needs, so you know that can certainly be a win for the community serve its needs.

Speaker 3 13:39

So you know that can certainly be a win for the community and their job numbers. While the direct number of jobs isn't particularly high in this case, I think Amazon committed to roughly 50 new full-time jobs, but there are at least double that number of full-time contractors on site all the time. You know who are, who are working at the facility and they're paying. You know income taxes into the city as well. So I know that I know who are working at the facility and they're paying you know income taxes into the city as well. So I know our mayor likes to say that when Amazon committed to a $2 billion investment in the city of Sunbury the east side of the city of Sunbury if you think about the new high school and grade school elementary school that were built in Sunbury just back they came online in early 2022, that this is a 20-fold investment, 20 times larger investment by a single private developer than was spent on that entire complex that the school just recently built, so it'll contribute in a very, very meaningful way.

Housing Balance and Diversification

Speaker 4 14:49

You know property taxes to support schools and other property tax dependent organizations. So, daryl, as far as diversifying the tax base, bringing in business in the private sector, there is also the demand for housing within the region. How do you see, as far as the business, that balance between business and housing and the housing stock, as far as having that for your young professionals, families and your empty nesters?

Speaker 3 15:18

Yeah, yeah. So you know, when the city was, when Sunbury first became a city, it had roughly 2,400 housing units in total. Most of those we did have a few apartment developments, but not a lot. Most of the development that's in Sunbury single family home and certainly the newer development you know might be on roughly a third of an acre. So you might what you might typically think of as a suburban development happening here in the city of Sunbury.

Speaker 3 15:55

You know, in just the last, I'll say just the last four years, we have approved, I think it's 2,200 additional housing units in the city of Sunbury that are now in some stage of development, construction or maybe still design, if you will. So I mean the city is definitely very conscious of the fact that there is a there is a larger, you know, housing shortage issue going on in the central Ohio area. I mean we again, we benefit from, you know, the desire that people have to move to central Ohio. We benefit from the job opportunities that exist around the city of Sunbury. Like I said, we want to diversify our tax base in such a way that we're contributing not only on the housing side but also on the job side as well. So the first thing I guess I would say to that is that, yes, you're absolutely right that there's a balance here. So diversifying doesn't mean that it's all going to happen on the commercial industrial development side. That would not be a balanced approach.

Speaker 3 17:07

What we have done at those 2,200, roughly 2,200 housing units that are, you know, in some stage of development almost half of them are, yeah, just short of half of them are going to be multifamily development or multifamily units, or a townhome product or this Wilcox product that I was just talking about, which is, you know, a single story, four home, kind of ranch style home for rent. So we do see that as meeting other segments of the, you know, the housing market and the need in the in, in in central Ohio and and certainly in Sunbury. We've got our fair share, though, of other single family third acre lot development again that we were talking about earlier on. Of those eight new developments that are actively underway, you know five of them are, are that more historically or traditional kind of, again, single family development, third acre lot, that type of thing. So we're definitely trying to strike the right balance.

Speaker 3 18:09

You know, time will tell as to whether or not we've ultimately been able to do that. The other thing I would say then on this point is that as you look at development happening up here in the Sunbury area and Michelle had mentioned the Tanger Outlet area, which again is Berkshire with the Sunbury mailing address we need to also be aware of the fact that there are other jurisdictions that are approving developments as well, and they've approved some denser developments in and around the Tanger Outlet Mall. So one of the things I feel like we need to do and council has said to me that they would like me to do this, and that is at some point, I do think we need to identify whether we've reached some level of saturation on any particular product and then use that information to kind of instruct how we move forward.

Speaker 4 19:01

We haven't done that survey yet, or that assessment yet, but it's certainly something that's on the radar Any shift for your downtown area from where it's been in the past to kind of looking forward for types of businesses there.

Downtown Preservation and Community Events

Speaker 3 19:19

Yeah, so a great point Michelle had mentioned a little bit earlier. I mean we think very you know, when you think of the city of Sunbury, you probably do think of the historic town square. So this, you know, what we think is sort of this quaint little area with stores that surround it and you know residential units that are, you know, that can be up to 100 years old in and around the square. So it's a unique place. We're lucky to have that much green space in the center of our town. It really is a magnet for community events and it definitely draws people to our downtown. So it's definitely a priority of council to find a way to preserve the square because in many ways that preserves the small town feel.

Speaker 3 20:06

Although all of this development may be going on around Sunbury and it is Sunbury, maybe people will think of Sunbury again as the historic town square.

Speaker 3 20:16

So the investments that are around that, we have formed a committee to deal with streetscapes and traffic, you know those kinds of planning related matters. We haven't really finalized those plans specifically, but what I will say is I know council is committed to making additional investments in the core and even if it's not right there at the square, for example, we do have a community park that we call JR Smith Park. It is oh, I don't know. It's two blocks from the town square. Council has committed to investing probably over $3 million to develop a splash pad, a pavilion, walking trails, a playground, a pickleball court. You can't develop a park without a pickleball court these days. I don't think so. It would be the single largest investment we've ever made in a park, and most of the Sunbury parks have been passive. I mean, they've been green space, there's maybe a pavilion, but really they've not been actively programmed. So this JR Smith investment will be one of the one of our first attempts to really get into more active programming in our parks.

Speaker 4 21:31

Do you have any events for the summer for the park or town?

Speaker 3 21:36

square. Yeah, so we, as you know, we're nearing the Memorial Day holiday. This is the kickoff to community events Over the holiday weekend. We'll have our farmer's market starting up, we'll have a Memorial Day marketplace on Memorial Day, and then our veterans do a salute to fallen heroes. We actually have the Fallen Heroes Memorial as well in the city of Sunbury.

Speaker 3 22:06

That is the statewide place of remembrance for those who have died as a result of the war on terror, and what they'll do is they'll do an event that day to commemorate all the those who have died as a result of the war on terror. So you know there's, and what they'll do is they'll do an event that day to commemorate all the veterans who have, you know, given their lives to, you know, to the cause and to support, you know, freedom, the freedoms that we have today. So, so that kicks off our summer. The 4th of July is probably our biggest single event. You know it's a parade, fireworks, it's a festival over at the middle school. And then the last major event that we have, and we'll do that on our town square will be we call it Sunbury Sizzle and Sounds. It's a music festival, a food festival, a family event, the kids zone. I mean it's a great event.

Speaker 2 22:53

So third Saturday in August One last question, going back to the businesses. I saw March maybe Mercedes of Sunbury is coming in. They broke ground. Are there other businesses you kind of mentioned, you know, but that your industries that you're trying to attract right now because you're in this growth spurt your industries that you're trying to attract right now because you're in this growth spurt.

Business Expansions and Transportation Options

Speaker 3 23:23

Yep, well, let me say this that the two of the city's largest employers are doing expansions right now. So, as you drive into town from the west side, hitachi, astimo it used to be American Shoah, it's had a couple of names through the years, but it's the same plant. It is our single largest employer and they're currently finishing up an expansion of their facility right now where they're adding, I think it's 40,000 to 50,000 square feet to the back and they'll improve their overall production levels, I think, by a factor of 20%, something like that.

Speaker 3 23:52

They support Honda, they support Harley-Davidson with suspension systems. So they are a major employer expanding in Sunbury. We're happy to have them doing that. And one of our other major employers, also on the manufacturing side, is Ohashi. So it is, you know, another company, like I said, long time business here in the city of Sunbury, digging deeper roots into the city. You know they've got a great workforce. Although they may not draw them all from the city, they may draw them from the surrounding communities and we're happy to say that, that they've expanded as well.

Speaker 3 24:27

The final thing I would add is that one of our again not too far from the, from the downtown or from the town square, we do have at least a developer at the moment who's looking into perhaps doing a craft brewery kind of concept. You know outdoor activities, just a really great, you know kind of hip experience, if you will that maybe we haven't had it's walkable from our downtown, so you know that of hip experience, if you will that maybe we haven't had it's walkable from our downtown, so you know that's in the early stages. He's pretty optimistic, it happens. We're doing what we can to support him.

Speaker 2 25:03

So if residents would like to find out more, just about development and growth in their area, or have suggestions for things they'd like to see happen, who should they contact? Where should they go to read more about it?

Speaker 3 25:18

Yeah. So on the city's website we do have information about all the developments that come to our Planning and Zoning Commission. So wwwsunburyohioorg is where you go and look up development projects. It's under the zoning section, under government zoning, planning projects, development projects. You can find out what's at least been submitted and is actively being reviewed by the city. We do try to also, you know, hold community forums and town hall meetings when we've got a project that's about to kick off.

Speaker 3 25:56

We're about to widen the State Route 37 portion to the east of Sunbury. We'll be doing a public engagement exercise later this year. So again, you can find that on the city's website. You can always contact me as the city administrator at the city of Sunbury. So my email address is dhennessey at sunburyohioorg and I can connect you to the right member of staff who you know might be working on that project. So and then our council meets the first and third Wednesdays of every month. Those meetings are certainly open to the public. We do have on our website live streaming of all the public meetings. So that's way to to watch it without necessarily having to commit that evening to do that. But it's also a way to keep track of what's going on in the city of sunbury transit wise.

Speaker 2 26:44

You know when you're building all these homes, for you know yep affordable housing? Is there transit that goes from like sunbury to delaware or?

Speaker 3 26:57

transit, yeah, so. So just last year I want to say it was in the september october time frame uh, 2024 um, delaware county transit. So dct, they expanded their flex service to the city of sunbury. What that means is that it's it's's think of it kind of like an Uber system of sorts. You can go to the Delaware County Transit site. You can say you know, I'd like a ride from point A to point B, as long as it stays within the. There's a defined geographic area. It doesn't go all the way over to the city of Delaware yet, but it will take you out to Tanger Outlet Mall. It will take you to all the schools in the Big Walnut School District. It'll take you to Galena. So if you can call anywhere within that, they'll pick you up, take you to the site, drop you off. It's $2. It's amazing. You know the fact that you can get, you know, from point A to point B in this. You know this geographic area at that particular rate. So they just started that program.

Speaker 3 27:58

They do that in the city of Delaware. They've expanded the hours in Delaware to include more into the evenings and into the weekends. Currently in the city of Sunbury it's it's limited to weekdays and I think it ends at six o'clock in the evening, I think is the time. So it's not perfect, but it is our first, you know, real opportunity to have transit available for staff or for citizens. We don't have Delaware County Transit does not do kind of fixed route. So when you think of transit you might think of a bus that goes down a route. You pick it up on certain times, you know every day, and whatever you get from point A to point B, this is a much more flexible way to do that. It really is the hopefully the future where transit is headed.

Speaker 3 28:47

And we're lucky to have them. We're lucky to have them in Sunbury.

Speaker 2 28:51

Well, Darrell, I want to thank you so much for joining us and filling us in on all things Sunbury.

Speaker 3 28:57

Yeah, happy to do it and appreciate your interest in the city. Thank you, Darrell. Thank you.

Speaker 1 29:03

Thank you for listening to this episode of Central Ohio Matters. Be sure to like, share and download. We cover government policies, healthcare challenges, housing and business developments, transportation solutions, education and innovation. If you know of a good story we should be talking about, go to the radio station website and fill out a contact form Directed to Michelle Gatchel, host of Central Ohio Matters. Thank you,