As the Worthington group Democracy Before Developers waits to hear if its zoning referendum to block an apartment complex will make the November 2027 ballot, some residents in Worthington worry the referendum may hurt future development in the city.
The land is currently owned by “I Am Boundless,” a nonprofit organization that assists people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The organization is selling the land at East Dublin-Granville Road to fund a new autism center, building renovations and more employees.
One of Democracy Before Developers' main complaints is that they felt Worthington City Council didn’t adequately listen to their concerns about the apartment complex. However, Annina Parini, president and CEO of the Worthington Chamber of Commerce, said there were a lot of compromises with the coalition during the planning process.
Those compromises include less units on the property, limiting buildings to two stories and including single family homes in a “transition” area. But those compromises appear to not be enough for Democracy Before Developers.
“There's just a difference between being heard and being agreed with,” Parini said. “The council voted unanimously to approve it and the people whose job it is to evaluate density, design, transition, and neighborhood fit reviewed this project and approved it. I think we need to respect that process.”
Worthington City Council voting unanimously to approve a development project is also notable. In 2025, Worthington residents voted in four council members who campaigned on increasing development in Worthington. A change, Parini said, from how the city has operated for the last decade.
“For the past 10 years, we've kind of been deadlocked with some of the former members of city council, with their agenda of no significant development changes to Worthington,” Parini said. “I think that's why we were so excited about this Elford project and the fact that it unanimously passed city council. That's a huge kind of win for something happening in Worthington and not just remaining stagnant.”
Shawna LaRue Moraille, chair of the Community Relations Commission in Worthington, drew the comparison between the opposition to building an apartment complex at the East Dublin-Granville Road property and opposition to developing the property that once held the United Methodist Children’s Home. That property has been in development limbo for more than a decade.
“It was two years after I started serving on the commission, we were horrified that we did not have the right dialogue with the developer that owns that site,” LaRue Moraille said.
As for this property, LaRue Moraille said she thinks Democracy Before Developers is a NIMBY, or “Not in my backyard,” group. The group disagrees with that assessment, claiming they’re not against development of the property, but more in opposition to the density of the planned project.
LaRue Moraille doesn’t buy it. She said the rhetoric she’s heard from the group “is the definition of NIMBY.”
“I think that they have evolved maybe slightly from being ‘only park’ people to, ‘yeah, let's do a little bit of housing. Let's do patio homes’ and things like that,” she said. “When you say ‘not here,’ it is the same as ‘not in my backyard.’ It is exactly the same. And it's unfortunate, because it'll never help move Worthington forward.”
Parini and LaRue Moraille also worry that this referendum could negatively impact Worthington in the long run.
“It's going on the November 2027 ballot,” Parini said about the referendum. “We just have to hope that Elford doesn't walk away and Boundless is left holding the bag with no funds to renovate their autism center or hire 60 to 80 new employees. It's just super disappointing if we have to wait that long for this project to move forward.”
Parini also worries that this referendum may affect how developers see Worthington.
“Every developer considering Worthington will get the message that any decision, no matter how thoroughly vetted, can be relitigated by petition,” Parini said. “We just have to be careful that we don't get even more of a reputation of being difficult to work with, because that's not the Worthington I live in or that I believe in.”
Democracy Before Developers expects to hear if they have enough valid signatures to make the ballot by the middle of October.
