The Dispatch wrote High gas prices won’t stop sprawl

Saturday, June 14, 2008

BY MARK FERENCHIK

Soaring gas prices are prompting potential homebuyers to look closer to the central city to save money, say those promoting so-called “smart growth” for Columbus. They want people to buy in urban neighborhoods where they can walk to the store and bike to work.

But planners and developers say the slowdown in central Ohio’s outward growth is temporary. A regional planning agency says central Ohio’s population is expected to grow by 500,000 by 2030, and 60 percent of that growth will be in unincorporated land, much of it outside Franklin County.

Planners say families still will want a house with a good-size yard in an outer-ring suburb or township where they expect to find good services and reputable schools. Those conflicting views are making it tough on people whose job it is to project where you’ll live and work.

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