Gahanna's "second jewel in the crown" -- an abandoned landfill that will be reborn this spring as a park, golf course and office campus -- will pick up the last dollars it needs Tuesday.

Franklin County commissioners are set to chip in $2.6 million for bonds that will be sold by the state to cap the landfill, shape the golf course and plumb the site to capture lucrative methane gas.

"You took a piece of property that had no value and was a blight on the community, and you put it to good use," Commissioner John O'Grady told the team of county, city and private developers at a briefing session yesterday.

And, better yet, he noted: "It's a golf course."

The project, in the southeastern part of Gahanna directly across the Outerbelt from Port Columbus, has been dubbed the "Central Park of Gahanna." It will cost about $14 million, with funding from a dozen sources.

The county's money will be repaid over 30 years using profits from the sale of land for the office park, naming rights and methane, as well as proceeds from the golf course.

It's a good investment for taxpayers, Commissioner Marilyn Brown said, after hearing that the development could create 4,000 jobs eventually.

"It's a little bit of risk, as with everything we do," she said. "But it's worth it."

Cleaning up the 88-acre landfill also is adding value to 110 vacant acres that surround it, a major benefit in a city where most of the available land has been developed, said Sadicka White, director of planning and development for the city of Gahanna.

"People would say, 'It's near a landfill,' and now we can say back, 'No, it's near a golf course,'  " White said.

The city has set aside some of that land as a nature preserve with park trails, but White said the rest could be used for as much as 1.2 million square feet of office space near Port Columbus.

"Basically, all of that land was worth nothing without the closing of the landfill; it was worth less than nothing," said Joel Teaford, executive director of the Central Ohio Community Improvement Corp.

None of the land has been sold, he said, but interest is picking up with the last piece of financing falling into place.

The old Bedford landfill, used until the early 1990s, was in foreclosure and was the impetus for Franklin County to form the improvement corporation in 2005. That group works with the county to strip away back taxes due on abandoned properties, clean them up and guide redevelopment.

"There's not much you can do on top of an old landfill," noted Franklin County Treasurer Ed Leonard, who helped create the improvement corporation and has worked on this project for years.

The depth of the landfill would have made it difficult to build anything that required a firmer foundation, Teaford said.

The nature of the land has caused a few hiccups, but the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has given the property the green light.

TMG Golf and Management had hoped to open the nine-hole course a year ago, but troubles with irrigation and the clubhouse held up the grand opening. The company plans to have the greens groomed for next season.

White told commissioners that the Central Park of Gahanna project will be "the second jewel in our crown," alongside the Creekside redevelopment of offices, restaurants and homes in downtown Gahanna.

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