What the Tuscarawas Regional Technology Park will actually look like is beginning to take shape.

The master plan for the park at New Philadelphia was unveiled Friday during ceremonies that included presenting a $200,000 check from the Ohio Department of Development toward expanding utilities into the site.

Heinz Stucki, director of the Tuscarawas County Community Improvement Corp., said the organization commissioned the creation the master plan.

“The master plan will guide us as we convert a former mine site into a venue with an inviting sense of place and which will be a unique offering in the market place,” Stucki said. “Approximately two-thirds of the site will be developed into lots with buildings in which tenants employ people with technology skills earning high wages. The remainder of the site will be left as green space with ponds, wooded areas and walking trails. The plan will be a road map to a facility that nurtures both the minds and souls of the people that work there.”

Stucki said the CIC invited submissions from two dozen engineering and architectural firms, all based in Ohio, and interviewed the top eight candidates. Kinzelman Kline of Columbus was selected, being paid through a grant from the Kimble Family Foundation of Dover.

“They had a good track record of doing similar projects,” Stucki said, adding that the firm developed a strategic plan for Tuscarawas Campus of Kent State University at New Philadelphia. “Our objective is to maximize the potential of the site in terms of its physical features and maintaining its natural setting while still combining that with the economic development goals for the project. We don’t want this to be another industrial park.”

Sarah J. Richardson, senior landscape architect for Kinzelman Kline, also stressed that the goal was “we don’t want you to find a park anywhere else like this.”

“We want to create a fabulous place to work and not destroy the beauty and natural charm of the site,” Richardson said. “We wanted high-tech, but with a very simple and clean design. We’ve really tried to make it reflect New Philadelphia and Tuscarawas County and specific endeavors going on in the county. There are some really interesting and great things happening.”

A consideration in designing the park is that over the past few years, businesses are more often moving to where the people are, especially if there is a target workforce. Previously, people moved to where the jobs were, she said.

“Creative people have different expectations, not only for their jobs, but their lives and environment and a sense of community,” she said. “Combining those objectives with the community’s natural beauty can create a special place.”

The site is arranged to provide 28 potential development parcels that are clustered in campus-like pods to enhance opportunities for interaction and collaboration among the companies locating there, she explained.

“This physical arrangement provides multiple benefits: reduced development costs, preservation of open space and the views and it enables each phase of development to feel complete,” she said.

“The development has been generally organized into three regions that reflect the existing physical structure of the site: the Valley, Upper Meadows and Lower Meadows. General design guidelines will be developed to clarify the planning concepts.”

Buildings will vary in size, but plans are based on ones of about 12,000 square feet and one to two stories tall. They will be “very modern, clean structures, primarily glass and metal facades.” An example of the type of building is the Advanced Science and Technology Center on the nearby Kent State-Tuscarawas campus.

The park will be developed in clusters, with parking behind buildings or otherwise shielded. There will be thickets of small, ornamental trees.

“Each cluster of buildings is defined by a manicured common space that is set within the overall meadows of the site,” she said. “The building clusters are connected by flowing bands of trees, plants and an extensive system of walking trails.”

She said a majority of the site will be planted with wildflower meadows to reduce maintenance requirements and to improve wildlife habitat.

“This will be a special place to do business and research,” Richardson said. “It will have modern facilities set in nature. It truly will reflect the county’s slogan of ‘living well and working smart.’ ”

Groundbreaking ceremonies are expected late this fall, Stucki said.

Plans call for developing a business incubator facility and 28 lots for private businesses using the acreage located between University Dr. NE and Ridge Rd. The location is considered ideal because it is close to Kent State-Tuscarawas and its technology center and Buckeye Career Center.

About 100 acres would be developed with the rest used as green space. The goal is to provide about 600 jobs. A second phase calls for creating the business incubator facility to assist start-up companies.