In My Opinion - by Bob Ruth
September 22, 2026 — Bob Ruth
Grove City’s so-called Bridge-to-Nowhere project took a small step forward when a 611-acre rezoning ordinance was introduced at last night’s (Sept. 21) City Council meeting.
The huge tract, across Rt. 665 from the sprawling Franklin County dump, comprises about 60 percent of something Mayor Ike Stage’s administration grandly dubs the Southwest Regional Medical and Innovation Gateway.
Skeptics – including In My Opinion – have dubbed it the Bridge-to-Nowhere because a major component of the overall project is a $30 million-or-so overpass spanning I-71 that would link the Mount Carmel Medical Center area to 1,000 vacant acres west of the interstate highway.
Stage hopes the proposed bridge would eventually encourage developers to build medical, research, office, laboratory and green-energy facilities on all that vacant land.
It’s a lovely dream.
But skeptics note that the rezoning ordinance, which is scheduled for a vote by Council on Nov. 2, is not sponsored by any big-time real estate developer. In fact, it isn’t sponsored by any developer, big or small. Instead, the applicant is Mayor Stage’s chief of staff, Charles W. Boso Jr.
And that’s the problem, skeptics say. The Stage administration reportedly has not lined up any serious commitment from any developer to build anything on the vacant acreage generally bordered on the west by Harrisburg Pike, the south by Rt. 665 and the east by Haughn Road.
And without concrete commitments, the expensive proposed overpass could wind up permanently linking the Mount Carmel area to nothing more than vacant land, skeptics argue. Ike Stage’s dream could wind up morphing into a multimillion-dollar waste of taxpayers’ money, skeptics add.
If history is any indicator of the future, the project – or at least the southern half of the project – will be a hard-sell to developers.
In 2004, the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio (SWACO) bought 226 acres of farmland across Rt. 665 from the landfill. At the time, SWACO officials envisioned the land developing into a series of waste-recycling businesses.
SWACO, which operates the county dump, bought the land after a private company – Ruscilli Development of Dublin – spent seven years trying unsuccessfully to develop the acreage into an industrial park.
The 226 acres are now part of the Southwest Regional Medical and Innovation Gateway (Bridge-to-Nowhere) area. And all of it is still farmland.
