Homestead Metro Park in Hilliard is about to have a lot more room to roam. Metro Parks executive director Tim Maloney told ABC6 Tuesday that about 330 acres are being added to the park, with plans to eventually open all of the new land to the public.
The deal runs through the City of Hilliard. An ordinance that had its first reading at Monday’s city council meeting would authorize the city manager to transfer two city-owned conservation parcels in the Big Darby watershed to Metro Parks and clear the way for M/I Homes to hand the rest of the conservation land in its Hill Farm developments directly to the park district. The city’s staff report puts the total at 333 acres, so Maloney’s 330-acre figure is just the rounded version.
What is in the 333 acres
Two of the parcels are already owned by Hilliard. One is about 46.6 acres at 4643 Elliott Road. The other is roughly 23 acres off Barbeau Lane, right next to the Heritage Trail and Homestead Metro Park. Hilliard is keeping a 2.2-acre portion of that parcel for the Orangeberry Water Tower and the possibility of adding a second tower.
The city acquired both parcels as conservation open space under the Darby-area zoning requirements for the Tarlton Meadows subdivision. The rest of the land is conservation acreage within M/I Homes’ Hill Farm and Hill Farm II developments. That includes the headwaters of Clover Groff Run, which would be transferred directly from the builder to Metro Parks.
Maloney told ABC6 that the new acreage stretches west into the Darby watershed and will take a few years to develop. The plans include wetlands, trails and prairie restoration, adding another big piece to the protected landscape around the Big Darby. Once the transfer is complete, Metro Parks’ protected land in the Darby watershed will top 10,000 acres.
“It’s the ability for Central Ohio to continue to grow but in a real environmentally sensitive way,” Maloney said.
Metro Parks is also taking over the Heritage Trail
The 333 acres aren’t the only thing changing hands. The same ordinance includes an agreement that would put more of Hilliard’s trail system under Metro Parks’ management.
Metro Parks would take over maintenance and ranger patrols for the 2.4 miles of the Heritage Trail south of Hayden Run Road, along with the connector trail that runs west from Homestead through the Estates at Hoffman Farms and Tarlton Meadows. The agreement also covers the planned extension through Hill Farm to Scioto Darby Creek Road.
Metro Parks already manages the section of the Heritage Trail north of Hayden Run Road. The trails will remain open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year under the agreement, while Hilliard police will continue to have jurisdiction alongside Metro Parks rangers.
Hilliard has been working toward this larger greenbelt for a few years now. The city’s 2023 community plan called for preserving open space along the western edge of Hilliard and connecting those areas with trails leading into the regional park system. The city’s greenbelt map also includes about 35 acres of Clover Meadows conservation land along Clover Groff Run, which city council approved for transfer in June.
What happens next
There’s still a little paperwork to get through before all of this officially belongs to Metro Parks. Monday’s meeting was only the ordinance’s first reading, and Hilliard ordinances go through a second reading and public hearing before council votes on them.
The next regular city council meeting is scheduled for Sept. 28 at 6 p.m. at the Municipal Building at 3800 Municipal Way. Under the agreement, the Barbeau Lane parcel is supposed to be transferred by the end of 2026.
Homestead Metro Park, at 4675 Cosgray Rd., was a 43-acre park before this deal; Metro Parks’ website already lists it at 376 acres, with the 333 acres counted in. The park has a covered bridge, a train station replica, two barns, a 2.5-acre fishing pond and a paved 0.8-mile loop that connects to the 6.1-mile Heritage Rail Trail. Metro Parks lists the park’s hours as 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. through Sept. 30 and 6:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. from Oct. 1 through March 31.
