Gov. Mike DeWine is convening a task force to chart the future of state land around Mapfre Stadium that the city of Columbus wants for a new Crew practice facility and community sports park, and it's unclear how long that process will take or what it will recommend.

Asked Thursday if he was effectively saying the state needs to slow down and think about its own interests in the land, DeWine responded: "Well, sure."

"I think the Crew and the Columbus Partnership have come up with a very interesting proposal that would provide some great things for the community," DeWine said. "But as you start to go through the process of where parking is going to be, who's going to be where, you just have to kind of look at the big picture.

"I believe we'll be able to resolve this" with all parties feeling they got a good outcome," he said.

The task force will be co-chaired by Mike Curtin, a longtime Columbus Dispatch reporter, editor and executive who became a two-term state representative, and Lydia Mihalik, director of the Ohio Development Services Agency.

The city's Mapfre proposal had exposed a big "left-hand, right-hand problem," where various entities were making long-range plans without coordinating with one another, Curtin said.

Those entities included Ohio State University, which has a long-range plan to develop 17th Avenue as a gateway to the university from Interstate 71; the Ohio History Connection, the state museum that currently plans to expand its facility; and the Expo Center and State Fair, with an ongoing need for large amounts of parking, Curtin said.

"All involve a very important state asset, and nobody's looking at a state master plan," Curtin said. "The state has an obligation ... to ask what's the highest and best use of the fairgrounds for the long term."

Nothing is off the table — even examining whether the fairgrounds could potentially move to a new location, Curtin said.

Mihalik said she doesn't believe the various parties have competing interests, but "complementary interests."

In March, Virgil Strickler, general manager of the Ohio Expo Center and whose Ohio Expositions Commission board controls the property, said he opposed the city's Mapfre plan. Minutes from the March Expo Center Commission meeting show that Strickler met with backers of the project "informing them that the state of Ohio owns the land, not the city of Columbus."

Strickler told The Dispatch in March that he was never contacted about the plan before community leaders announced it in December.

"We use every inch of parking we can get our hands on for those events," Strickler said then.

The Mapfre plan would consume 23 additional acres of current parking, transforming it into new private practice fields for the Crew SC, community sports fields, and a new city indoor sports facility. The plan would take away 1,750 parking spots, but 1,550 of those could be replaced, including at a state armory on the other side of I-71 from the fairgrounds, according to plan drawn up by the Ohio Department of Transportation and presented to the Expo Center Commission last month.

Alex Fischer, CEO of the Columbus Partnership, a group representing the largest companies and organizations in Columbus and who has been instrumental in the Crew SC negotiations, said the creation of the task force doesn't represent a speed bump in the Mapfre plan, noting that DeWine has been a big backer of the effort to save the Crew. The task force is about "how could we make other improvements and make sure we do it in an integrated way," Fischer said.

The task force "is a great part of the continued collaborative efforts regarding the land and all of its assets," Robin Davis, spokeswoman for Columbus Mayor Andrew J. Ginther, wrote in an email.

The 20-member task force is strongly represented with state officials and others who have annual events at the fairgrounds, including: Strickler; Dorothy Pelanda, director of the state Department of Agriculture; Col. Richard Fambro, superintendent of the State Highway Patrol, which has its training academy at the site; Burt Logan, executive director of the Ohio History Connection; and members representing The Arnold Sports Festival, Ohio Cattlemen's Association, and the All American Quarter Horse Congress.

Columbus City Council President Shannon Hardin will also sit on the panel, as will former city council member and current state Sen. Hearcel Craig, architect Curt Moody, and others.

bbush@dispatch.com

@ReporterBush