State of the City: A Growth Strategy for Westerville

The 2023 State of the City, the City of Westerville’s premier annual event, focused on the desirability of Central Ohio for quality of life, cost of living and business investment. As City Manager Monica Irelan acknowledged, “the secret is out on Central Ohio.”

Irelan addressed a crowd of more than 200 attendees on Westerville’s strategy to balance those factors and find success with community amenities and high-quality delivery of public services.

“Westerville has always grown reasonably, responsibly,” said Irelan. “We stay focused on our strategies while resisting the temptation to react to trends, instead being increasingly steadfast and proactive.”

Irelan mentioned the exponential growth in the region based on investments in communities around us and high levels of interest in development in Westerville’s commercial corridors.

“Westerville is actually number 21 out of 28 of the fastest-growing cities in Central Ohio, so not the fastest and not among communities with the most space to grow. However, cities all around us are growing at their quickest pace ever,” she said. “For example, the City of Sunbury’s rate of growth is more than 50%; New Albany’s is more than 40% and our friends at the City of Hilliard have grown more than 30%. Westerville cannot accommodate that level of growth, but we have to be ready for opportunities and investment that come our way because of the wide interest in this region.”

Irelan points to the recent investment of land east of Westar Place on Africa Road as an example of strategies that will keep Westerville’s local economy strong, balance the tax burden through commercial investment and add community amenities that residents want.

“This is an investment by the City that assures under-developed land brings jobs and those amenities, but has standards to meet success metrics that are Westerville-specific,” said Irelan. “We have a proven track record of acquiring and positioning land to promote revenue-generating purposes that are consistent with our long-range community planning.”

Emphasizing strategies that consider economic development directly related to our standard of living, Irelan also stressed the importance of job creation and access to services like education and health care.

“In communities like Westerville, economic development drives advancements in technology and innovation, which promotes sustainable and inclusive growth,” she said.

The message was one of Westerville’s commitments to vision and planning, with an eye on opportunities that make the most sense for Westerville. To learn more about the State of City event, please visit www.westerville.org/soc