Concerns are mounting over the next step in Columbus' quest to overhaul its zoning code to ease growth and development throughout the city.
Multiple area commissions are refusing to endorse the next step in the city's Zone-In plan, which could create one uniform land-use map. Right now, the 21 area commissions dispersed throughout the city create their own maps, telling the city how land should be zoned and potentially redeveloped into housing, commercial businesses, public amenities or industrial space.
The city held a public hearing on Nov. 19 at Columbus City Hall to discuss this proposal, called the Columbus Growth Strategy. The city also asked each area commission to decide whether to send a letter of support with a deadline by the end of the month.
Mark Dravillas, a planning administrator with the city's Department of Development, said at the hearing the land use maps need an update.
"They served the given community at a given time, but they really didn't have one guiding force and one connecting point to all of them. Without this unified citywide framework, it is harder to modernize the zoning code," Dravillas said.
At least two of the area commissions, the South East Area Commission and the Clintonville Area Commission, have voiced concerns over the proposal and what they call a tight deadline imposed by city officials to consider its plan. Other area commissions, like Downtown Columbus and North Linden, expressed support for the change.
If passed, Dravillas said this will be the first time the entire city has one land use plan.
These land use maps are essentially a loose framework that lays out broad stretches of land that should support a different type of zoning. Zoning code, on the other hand, sets the required standards for what can be built in each zoned area.
For example, more than three-fourths of Clintonville is zoned as single family with room for multi-family and commercial space closer to the North High Street corridor.
South East Area Commission Vice Chair Mark Harper's area of the city stands to be heavily impacted by growth. He said one uniform map could disregard their map, which was just updated in 2018.
"We have a lot of growth. And so that land use plan was ultimately us trying to prepare for what was coming, like the city's doing with Zone In. On a base level there is concern if it does override that," Harper said.
More recently, the community released its "Eastland for Everyone" community plan, which set a vision for critical areas of growth in that part of the city. This includes the site of the demolished Eastland Mall.
Harper said there is a disconnect in the city with who wants to carry out this plan and who doesn't. He said he thinks the majority of city council wants to diverge from the "Eastland for Everyone" plan, but the Department of Neighborhoods and Mayor Andrew Ginther are more supportive of it.
City officials argue many of the land use maps need to be updated. The South East area has been recently updated, but some maps date back to 1994.
Kevin Kilbane, the city's Department of Development deputy director, said in a statement that when there is a conflict between the proposed citywide map and an area commission's map, the citywide map will supersede the relevant land-use components of existing area or neighborhood plans.
Kilbane said many of the outdated maps the city wants to address vary in the level of details provided, and in many cases, give what he called outdated or inconsistent land-use assumptions.
"That patchwork can make it difficult to apply policy consistently across all Columbus neighborhoods," Kilbane said.
He said the Growth Strategy provides a single, modern land-use framework informed by both existing plans and extensive public feedback gathered through Zone In.
"Establishing a shared citywide baseline helps create a more predictable and equitable starting point for future growth and development, so that all neighborhoods are working from the same guiding principles rather than varying, decades-old assumptions," Kilbane said.
Kilbane clarified this update only applied to land use categories that are the current focus on Zone In. This is about 50% of the city's parcels focused on mixed-use corridors, industrial and warehouse areas, and business and institutional campuses.
A third and possibly final step for Zone In is expected to address the unimpacted 44% of parcels. This land is mostly housing areas inside neighborhoods separate from more commercial and industrialized areas that are currently being addressed.
Clintonville Area Commission Chair Brittany Boulton said her group was largely concerned with the short timeline given by the city to digest this idea and voice support. Her group authored a letter to the city saying they would decline to endorse the plan, but are not directly opposing it.
Boulton said there is a still a lot of mixed feelings among Clintonville commissioners around the best ways to achieve more housing options, more affordability, more density. She said superseding the local land use maps could circumvent what the neighborhood would want to see.
"(The land use map) is meant to help guide across the city what are we doing to try to embrace more housing. I think I am super supportive of finding more housing options, more affordability," Boulton said. "But I think we just need to have some more conversations that are specific to our community before we can give it a full throated endorsement."
Kilbane said other elements of area or neighborhood plans – such as goals surrounding safety and mobility, and capital improvement recommendations – will remain in place and continue to inform planning and zoning discussions moving forward.
Boulton said many in Clintonville have concerns over how zoning updates will impact the tree canopy. She said there wasn't a lot of information about the impact on accessibility.
"It would be helpful to kind of had a have a holistic conversation about how they how all of these different pieces of legislation interact with one another," Boulton said.
Kilbane said more detailed zoning reforms for this current phase of Zone In — where building types, heights, transitions and district-level standards are shaped — will be developed in 2026. That work will include another extensive round of public engagement, and Area Commissions will continue to play an important role in providing feedback alongside the broader Columbus community.
Harper, who studies public administration and political science, said he understands why Columbus wants a consistent land use map. He said having some sort of "skeleton framework" or master plan will aid neighborhoods like his.
He contrasted the South East area with more identifiable neighborhoods like German Village. He said places like this have an identity, while the South East area is still trying to shape theirs.
"For the rest of us who were acquired in the 1970s and 1980s and 1990s because of suburban sprawl and still to this day, we have no real unique — and this is on a broad brush — there's really no uniqueness. It's all a bunch of patchwork on trying to bring us up to some form of cohesion," Harper said.
Kilbane said there hasn't been a vote scheduled yet on the Columbus Growth Strategy.
