By Linda Dillman
Staff Writer
The Central Ohio Transit Authority is offering daily Express and Standard service from their newest site in Canal Winchester.
“COTA began service today from their Park and Ride,” said Canal Winchester Development Director Lucas Haire during a Jan. 7 Canal Winchester Council work session. “They will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Jan. 24 from 6:30-8 a.m.”
Express Service (#52 Canal Winchester Rush Hour) is offered in the morning and evening and Standard Service (#25 Brice Standard) throughout the day from the Park and Ride, located at 6600 Trillium Ave., a new road located between the southeast corner of Winchester Pike and Gender Road.
According to COTA’s 2019 schedule, the first Express bus picks up in Canal Winchester at 6:13 a.m. and the last at 7:07 a.m. It returns to the Park and Ride between 4:52 p.m. to 5:58 p.m. from stops at the Spring St. terminal, South 3rd Street/East Broad Street, and South High Street/West Mound Street.
The single trip cost for the Express/Rush Hour service is $2.75, with discounts available for seniors and children. A monthly pass is $85, with discounts also available.
Destinations on the standard line include the Park and Ride, Winchester Square Shopping Center, Gender Road Towne Center, Reynoldsburg Park and Ride, Mt. Carmel East Hospital, Gahanna Park and Ride, Easton Town Center and Easton Transit Center.
The single cost for the service is $2, with discounts available. The first northbound weekday Standard Service bus leaves Canal Winchester at 5:48 a.m. For information and detailed schedules, visit the COTA website and on social media at @COTAbus.
Residential Appearance Standards
The BIA (Building Industry Association of Central Ohio) issued a Jan. 4 letter to Canal Winchester City Council opposing portions of an ordinance updating the city’s Residential Appearance Standards.
“…we believe that this process has put the homebuilding community in the unenviable position of trying to address many concerns after the document has been developed and moved forward,” wrote BIA Executive Director Jon Melchi. “As stated before, we agree with council that the standards need to be updated.”
In his letter, Melchi said the association was pleased to work with Haire to secure changes to the proposal. However, because of remaining issues the organization believes will “have a chilling effect upon homebuilding in Canal Winchester,” they opposed the proposed ordinance.
The BIA opposed a mandate calling for architectural diversity of a minimum three-lot separation, saying the item “would be among the most restrictive policies in central Ohio” and that it should be reduced to, at most, a two-lot separation.
The BIA also felt the following items should be modified: driveways designed to increase the amount of open space along the street, garages located a minimum of four feet behind the front line of the livable area of the home and certain requirements for four-sided architecture—calling them “excessive” and “increase(ing) costs without improving the quality of the home in any appreciable manner.”
