What was once a controversy around Ohio State’s neck is now $2.5 million in its purse.The Firestone Estate, a 1,500-acre site in Bath Township near Akron, was sold Oct. 6 to Bath developer John Chlebina for $12 million cash, a little over three years after it was bequeathed to OSU for $5 million from the Firestone Estate.The controversy centered around the fate of the wetlands and forest located on the property. When Bath residents learned of OSU’s plans to sell it for development, they voiced their opposition.’We were concerned about preserving the fate of the Yellow Creek watershed, which helps clean the drinking water for Bath Township residents,’ said Javad Keyhani, a member of OSU’s Student Environmental Action Coalition. ‘People were also concerned about protecting its value as a natural historical and scientific site,’ Keyhani said. The Trust for Public Land, a land conservation group based in San Francisco, was one of Chlebina’s chief rivals in acquiring the estate after the Biskind Realty Company, of North Olmsted, Ohio, backed out of a $13 million contract with OSU last year.The Trust was also prepared to pay $12 million for the estate, but only had $10 million in cash.Th’It was in the best interest of the university,’ said Robert Haverkamp, OSU vice president for business and administration. e OSU Board of Trustees decided to sell to Chlebina for several reasons.’Their deals were more complicated. It would have taken longer to sell to them, and by waiting we would have incurred more of an expense. We wanted to sell the property as soon as possible.’As it turns out, the estate would have been developed no matter who won the bid.According to Haverkamp, the Trust was planning to develop part of the estate to help pay for the acquisition.’The Trust is a good, reputable organization, but they were always short of the dollar amount. It wasn’t as clean of a deal as we wanted,’ Haverkamp said.The Trust, however, said that it had no choice but to put some of the land up for development.’Really it was the stance that OSU took that forced the development into the equation,’ said Al Raymond, director of projects for the Trust. ‘We were forced to respond in that manner since we were bidding against developers. What the community wanted, that’s what we thought of first.’The other developers were more concerned with how the land can be developed, Raymond said.’They don’t have a lot of money, so when they can’t get money from private donations, they would have to sell off the difference for development,’ Keyhani said. ‘I think their intention was to preserve the majority of it.’So how is the estate going to fare in Chlebina’s hands?Haverkamp said that a contract is being arranged between Chlebina and Bath Township to protect the land deemed to be in danger.’It was all finalized when we made the deal. Bath purchased 370 acres of the most environmentally sensitive areas, with the option of buying another 34 acres,’ Chlebina said.He explained that 311 acres were sold to a developer with the stipulation that one-third was to remain as open space. The rest would be reserved for constructing single family homes on lots of one or more acres.Other purchases include 59 acres to construct a school and 211 acres purchased by the Medina County Parks Board. Many lots between five to 30 acres were sold to area residents. The Firestone estate house, along with 64 acres, was sold to a Bath resident.’Over half of the land will be preserved. I haven’t had any negative requests or complaints because we gave everybody what they wanted,’ Chlebina said.’The 370 acres that was sold to Bath Township was surveyed by the Army Corps. of Engineers, and it was their opinion that at least 400 acres should not be developed for environmental reasons. It isn’t environmentally conscious to sell land to Bath when the land wouldn’t be developed anyway,’ Keyhani said.The other parties involved, however, don’t seem to be displeased with the deal.’The outcome turned out well for the community. It’s important that we focus on the end result, and I think the end result was a good one,’ Raymond said.Haverkamp echoed these sentiments.’We’re happy that we have made the deal, and we think this is what Raymond Firestone would have wanted.’