Columbus overhauling more than 70-yr-old zoning code to streamline process for developers

Major changes are coming to city of Columbus zoning code by next spring, and city officials say they don't want any residents or neighborhood groups to be caught by surprise by the overhaul of the more than 70-year-old rules on building and development.

City officials said at a public meeting Aug. 21 that the proposed zoning changes under its "Zone In" effort are meant to streamline the process, making it easier for developers to gain city approval without the need to obtain variances — or exceptions to the rules routinely made by City Council on a case-by-case basis. They say their hope is to "modernize" the code into a more lenient process that will eliminate delays, keep up with the city's growing population, and ease the housing shortage in the future.

"Council will vote early next year for some kind of a change," Council President Shannon Hardin recently said at a meeting on the plan, saying he didn't want residents to feel the changes are being rushed through, and that now is the time to be involved.

The Dispatch reported in January 2022 that a consultant's report recommended a bold plan: "repeal and replace Title 33- Zoning Code, in its entirety." The zoning code regulates how a property is zoned, what can be built on it, parking and other factors.

The first changes will come along major city transportation corridors that are serviced by COTA buses, affecting more than 11,000 parcels, said Keven Wheeler, an assistant development director for growth policies. Wheeler repeated to a group of about 50 members of the public who met at the Gillie Senior Community Center in Northland that zoning is a tool of exclusion, and "it's been used to discriminate," and doesn't "support equity."

"We know that the current code isn't going to get the job done for us," Wheeler said, and it is helping to keep housing costs high. "...We have too much commercial zoning and not enough customers" for those businesses.

While no decisions have been finalized, Wheeler highlighted that 80% of the targeted transportation corridors currently ban residential development, either totally or on the ground floor, and that a current 35-foot height limitation and off-street parking requirements make it costly for developers.

Much of the city's projected population growth could be absorbed by the more-dense transportation corridors, Hardin said.

"There's a tsunami of people coming to Columbus over the next few decades," Hardin said, adding that it's time to prepare for it.

But some Clintonville residents at the meeting seemed wary of the push, expressing concern that the zoning code will be eased to make it easier to build more apartment towers and create more multi-family housing in single-family home neighborhoods. They wondered aloud who really was behind the major new zoning initiative, city residents or politically connected developers?

"What is the money that is driving this train? Because this train did not leave the station until somebody bought a ticket," said Sandy Simbro, 76, referencing the millions of dollars in campaign contributions that developers have showered on city officials over recent years. "... All you've got to do is just follow the money. It's as old as time."

"Change is hard," Hardin told The Dispatch as he left the meeting. "... We are going to change (the zoning code) next year."

Asked if the zoning code changes are being driven by developers, Hardin replied: "No, I think this is about growth. This is about making sure that we can not just build more housing, but, truthfully, build transit," by getting more housing within a short walk of public transit options.

Simbro, a former Clintonville area commissioner, told the city officials that their attempts to justify pro-developer changes as a plan to attack historic racial discrimination and "redlining" are being thrown around "casually."

"If there is anything in our city code that directly says 'redlining,' or infers redlining, get it out of there now" without waiting until next year, Simbro said, because such activity would be blatantly illegal.

The new Columbus zoning code will — by design — deliver more urban density to provide more housing. But Judy Minister, a Clintonville real estate broker, pointed out that "not everyone wants to live in an apartment forever."

The National Association of Realtors says the average stay in apartments is three years, she said, noting that the new migration pattern for people coming into Clintonville is from apartments in the Short North.

"Those young people are tired of their dense urban living, and they're coming north to Clintonville," she said.

The new zoning code appears to encourage more apartments, Minister said, when what the city needs is more single-family homes. She noted that some 22,000 apartments were built in 2022, mostly in Columbus.

"So something about our zoning code is allowing for growth now," Minister said. City officials should avoid the "reckless pattern" of rushing changes because there is a claimed "crisis," she said.

"The bottom line: Columbus is growing," said Council President Pro Tem Rob Dorans, who as chair of the zoning committee is ushering the changes through the process. "Whether people like that or don't like that, that's the facts of life.

"Change is hard for everybody. No one likes to see their neighborhood change. ... But that's just inevitable with the amount of people that are coming to Columbus, that are going to come to Columbus. ... We've got to have somewhere for them to live. We've got to have transit and other things baked into these" new developments.

Columbus mayoral candidate Joe Motil said that when the city eliminates the need for variances, "your concerns and opinions will no longer matter." Motil believes a recent city awareness campaign on the history of redlining is connected to the zoning push, "as a scheme to further encourage gentrification in black neighborhoods and allow for developers to be given free reign over future zoning regulations and development standards."

Motil said it it couldn't be clearer these new zoning changes "are developer driven, and what is in their best interest."

“Columbus leads the Midwest in population growth fueled by historic job creation, and our housing supply has not kept pace," said Cameron Keir, spokesman for Mayor Andrew Ginther's campaign. "Our city needs more housing at all price points, in all neighborhoods, and our zoning code update will ensure our growth benefits everyone."

City officials will be drafting the zoning code changes for the initial corridor areas through the end of this year, and will present them to the public in early 2024 for feedback. After any revisions, the updated code will then go before City Council for a vote in spring or early summer of 2024.

Following passage of the new zoning code for the corridor areas, city officials plan to begin to draft an updated code for neighborhoods and other areas of the city.

wbush@gannett.com

@ReporterBush

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus officials say population rise, housing driving zoning changes