Stonequarry Crossings
Vandalia Purchases Land for Future Development
Approximately 200 acres purchased
CLICK HERE FOR PRELIMINARY SITE PLAN
CLICK HERE FOR DESIGN STANDARDS/PUD

    With an eye towards controlling future development, the Vandalia City Council unanimously voted to purchase approximately 200 acres of land on the City's west side.
    The property to be purchased is currently owned by multiple interests and is bounded by the Airport Access Road on the west, Peters Pike on the east, Route 40 --- National Road --- on the North and Stonequarry Road on the south. The purchase price for the three contiguous parcels of land is approximately $4.2 million. The land being purchased is already zoned for a number of uses, including office, highway business, industrial and agriculture. All of the land is currently being used for agriculture.
    The land will continue to undergo an extensive use study to determine appropriate uses. Once the study is completed, a site plan will be formulated and the site will be marketed for development. It is expected that any development will include a mix of office, commercial and retail uses.

  Vandalia Mayor Bill Loy explained that the future use of the land in question has been a subject of long-range plans for many years. "We"ve known for quite some time that this land represents a major opportunity for the community to grow,” he said. “By making this purchase, we control our own destiny - not just in terms of how the land will be used – but in the physical quality of the development. We’ll be able to influence and define the character of the community for years to come.”

“With this move, we are taking control of development in Vandalia for the next 20 years,” said Vandalia City Manager Jeff Hoagland. “By owning this last major parcel of undeveloped land, we’ll be able to control the quality and type of development that goes in. This insures that in a very competitive environment, we’ll be able to maintain and extend our reputation as a high-quality community in which to live and work.”

The practice of municipalities owning land is not new. In the past decade, a number of Montgomery County municipalities have purchased land expressly to control development. “It’s happened in Englewood, Clayton, Huber Heights, Brookville, and Kettering just to name a few,” Vandalia Assistant City Manager Rob Anderson said. “The mayor and council have charged us through policy and direction to pursue economic development, and municipal-led development gives us the greatest amount of control in the City’s development.”

Anderson also stressed that development on Vandalia’s west side is one piece of a larger puzzle. “We’re committed to seeing development continue in the Northwoods Boulevard, Miller Lane and Benchwood Road areas,” Anderson said. “There is a tremendous amount of activity underway in those areas as development continues.”

Hoagland said that the land being purchased will not undergo any immediate changes. “I want to stress that this purchase is not being made for any impending project,” he said.

Hoagland said the benefit to Vandalia in purchasing the land will be long-term and lasting. “We don’t anticipate the land being completely developed for another 20 years,” he said. “But as this land is used in economic development, Vandalia citizens should know that we will recoup this investment many times over.”

Loy also stressed that energies focused on the City’s west side are part of a larger overall plan. “Our downtown area is now and will continue to be a focal point for economic development,” Loy said. “We believe that this land acquisition will allow us to create additional users for our downtown and complement any future efforts there.”