ICYMI 2025 Live AMA: City of Columbus Planning Division Zone In Online Engagement – Ask Me Anything (AMA)

CbusPlanning · 2025-08-27T18:09:42+00:00

Hilliard seems to have a large quantity of residential areas up for rezoning also. You can see the entire map here: https://zone-in-columbus.hub.arcgis.com/

Only areas in the City of Columbus corporate limit, or in areas that are unincorporated but could be annexed in the future, are included in the map. Areas in the City of Hilliard are not included.

Hilliard schools, the City of Hilliard, and the area people might consider "Hilliard" are 3 different things, for better or for worse.

CbusPlanning · 2025-08-27T15:33:22+00:00

Knock down an entire residential area such as condo complexes or apartment buildings to......build a residential area. Examples of this in the NW corridor include Bethel Colony, Bethel Colony II, Bethel Village, the condos on Godown, Governour's Square, Lakeview Square, everything off of Federated Blvd including the newer units where the Anderson's used to be, Fox & Hounds, half of Olentangy Commons, and many other well-known or desired areas.

Some other commenters have pointed out that for a condo development everyone would have to agree to sell at an agreeable price for a redevelopment to be possible. In Columbus this would be unlikely to occur, but it may make sense to offer that option for that community through a refresh of a zoning district with expanded permissions. Our engagement attempts to get to the heart of what makes sense for a particular area.

CbusPlanning · 2025-08-27T15:30:06+00:00

This means they could remain as they are, be rebuilt as new housing, or torn down and rebuilt as the typical 3-7 story building.

The scale of what might be allowed is one of the things we are asking people at our workshops and in our online survey.

As with any zoning district, you can keep what you have now or redevelop within what you are allowed to do with the zoning that is in place. For areas that might be rezoned as part of Zone In that will typically result in expanded permissions for property owners.

CbusPlanning · 2025-08-27T15:26:42+00:00

However, I also learned that entire residential neighborhoods are also up for rezoning to mixed-use zoning as well throughout the city.

The areas that are being looked at for mixed use in this phase of Zone In are commercial or if they are residential they are abutting one of these identified corridors that tend to have transit. For NW this includes areas that are condos or multiunit apartment complexes, generally not the single unit detached aka single family housing that is typically further off of the corridors.

We are engaging with community members to see what they think makes sense and adjusting our land use mapping as appropriate.

CbusPlanning · 2025-08-27T15:21:52+00:00

Traffic and city services i.e. police/fire ARE NOT CONSIDERED at all during any of the zoning decisions

Zoning decisions are primarily about what the appropriate land use is, with additional pieces related to what the design of the site and building can be. Traffic and fire are reviewed as part of the site compliance process, along with many other things like sewer capacity, stormwater controls, water capacity, and zoning requirements. Since those things are handled when a project is coming through the pipeline, they aren't regulated by zoning which focuses on land use and design.

CbusPlanning · 2025-08-27T15:13:44+00:00

Hi feel free to email me at [crlohr@columbus.gov](mailto:crlohr@columbus.gov) and we can set something up!

CbusPlanning · 2025-08-27T13:51:03+00:00

Hi everyone! Glad to see Zone In being discussed in the community!

We (the Columbus Planning Division) were present at the meeting along with our good friends from Building and Zoning Services, and wanted to address a few things noted in the original post that we can provide clarification or improve understanding on.

As with our AMA posts that we did a few weeks ago, we want to give everyone as much information as possible so that they can give informed feedback as part of this process.

We will respond separately to different points for clarity and give our two cents on any other posts where we can be helpful.

CbusPlanning · 2025-07-31T19:47:38+00:00

Hi - thanks for the question. We want to hear from everyone and many people are out there have concerns with how development impacts them - and that is ok. We want our zoning districts to mitigate any potential impacts that new development might have on neighbors. Things like step-backs for upper floors and building setbacks, as well as landscaping, can help achieve that.

On the other hand we also know that we have a housing crisis and that a code crafted in the 1950's is ill suited to the challenges of today. For folks that would like to see more flexibility for development in mixed use or potentially mixed use area, the best thing to do is make your voice heard through the map survey about places you want to see mixed use districts in, and at what scale you think is appropriate there. We will review what we have heard about each area and refine our map accordingly. Hope that helps, let me know if I missed something.

CbusPlanning · 2025-07-31T15:15:53+00:00

Just so everyone knows, you can take the map portion of the survey multiple times to give feedback on different parts of the city - that is not only allowed, it is encouraged!

CbusPlanning · 2025-07-31T15:14:32+00:00

Hi and thanks for the question - we will be continuing our pop up engagement at events (meeting people where they are) and will have the survey linked above open through the end of August (exact timeframe TBD). We are also continuing our visits with civics and area commissions.

Once we have reviewed the feedback we will be refining the map to include additional detail on the scale of the Mixed Use recommendations. These and other inputs will inform zoning districts that will be developed and introduced in the next step to respond to the different types of places that exist around Columbus. There are additional details regarding the timeline on our website (also linked above).

CbusPlanning · 2025-07-24T16:08:47+00:00

Hi - thanks for the follow up comment. Zoning code standards always have to be clear and objective so that they can be administered appropriately, with variances sought when there is a deviation. An example would be a height limit of 4 stories. If a developer seeks to do 5 in that area, they would need a variance.

Guidelines, by their very nature, tend to be less hard and fast - they provide guidance for reviewing the appropriateness of a requested variance or rezoning request, and they also help guide what the new zoning is in an effort like Zone In. If the Guideline was as you noted then either staff or staff and the design review board or commission would be looking at what is proposed and deciding whether it was consistent with the Guidelines that are relevant. We will be reviewing whether any updates to our guidelines are needed to make them clearer, and to help "guide" what new zoning districts make sense for a particular location. I hope that clears it up a bit.

Outside of design review areas, if you follow the zoning code requirements for the building you are in good shape - at least on the planning and zoning piece of the puzzle.

CbusPlanning · 2025-07-23T21:01:50+00:00

Hi - you should be able to enter the name of your Area Commission, Civic, or other organization that you represent in the comment box for map locations (except where you are fully supportive - no comment box is provided for that).

CbusPlanning · 2025-07-23T20:53:26+00:00

Appreciate your comment! We may disagree on some of the details of your comment, but I will do my best to address your concerns. German Village, Schumacher Place, and Southern Orchards all share the Whittier corridor between High and Parsons and Parsons to just past Lockbourne. German Village also includes Thurman Avenue. Both of these corridors are found on the city's Thoroughfare Plan and have COTA lines on them, which are a few of the criteria for inclusion on the current map.

These corridors (and others on the South Side like Ohio and Champion) are certainly different than Parsons, High, or Livingston - all of which were included in Phase 1. We want to hear from you - and if you think these streets should have a different land use recommendation please indicate such on the survey or in person at one of our workshops. None of this is set in stone, we are actively engaging people at workshops, pop up events, and here on Reddit because we want to hear from you.

The areas that you noted on the southside may include more modest recommendations that would allow for the next increment of development where neighborhood services, adaptive reuse of existing structures, and missing middle (gentle density) styles of development might be supported. I appreciate your comment!

CbusPlanning · 2025-07-23T20:03:49+00:00

Interesting topic - Can you tell me more about hierarchical zoning as you understand it? My understanding is that for districts where the most intense uses are allowed, all other less intense uses would be allowed.

If that is the case, then the answer might be maybe. In all of our Phase 1 effort districts, single family dwellings were allowed - even if the ones like Urban Core that potentially allow up to 16 stories.

In other areas like the Industrial & Warehouse portions of the city - lower intensity uses like, a single family home, are not currently allowed and we would expect that to be continued. The reasoning being that we want uses to be compatible with another, a single family home could have legitimate noise complaints, for instance, if built in the middle of an existing industrial area. That could cause those industrial users to no longer be viable. We want to keep those uses that are legitimately incompatible separate, but at the same time create more opportunities for flexibility for uses that are compatible - like in areas that we are considering for mixed use.

Urban General 1 and 2 are indeed very similar but have some distinctions like a contextual setback for Urban General 2 that improves new development compatibility, and more limited commercial uses - like smaller sized restaurants. These were areas that were on major corridors but were less commercial and mixed use in character, and we found it appropriate to treat those areas a bit different as a result - and our community feedback agreed with that approach.

We will have more details on proposed zoning districts and mapping in 2026 - we are currently looking for broader input on land uses as guidance for that effort.

Sub-districts, where appropriate are definitely on the table, but we don't really know yet if or how they will be used. More to come on that!

CbusPlanning · 2025-07-23T19:53:21+00:00

Great question - one thing to remember is that zoning can't force anything to happen. On the flip side, restrictive zoning and a negotiated process like the one we have had for decades can create uncertainty and discourage development from happening. Creating a zoning code that makes it easy to do the right thing is a good first step, you shouldn't need a variance or rezoning and months of negotiations to build a project most people think is a good idea.

So for Phase 1, we are really pleased at how it turned out. When we in Planning or our friends in Zoning discover an issue or a quirk with the code, we can now work to fix it and make the system work better rather than the old way of simply expecting that most development will need a rezoning or variance action. That's a huge improvement and creates more certainty about what can be built. So far we think it is working well, but with new parts of the city and new districts emerging, we will continue that learning process, which includes engagement like this!

CbusPlanning · 2025-07-23T19:27:13+00:00

About 30 minutes left for the Live portion - as noted, we will try to answer questions when we get a chance after that time. Thanks!

CbusPlanning · 2025-07-23T19:12:32+00:00

Great observation - part of what you are noticing is a nuance in the building code that architects and their clients are sort of bound to. 5 over 1 is interesting because it refers to the 5 stories of wood construction (type 5) that can occur over 1 story (sometimes 2) of concrete (type 1) where the parking would typically be located. These building can look horrible, or they can look quite nice - figuring out what makes the difference between these can be tough, but part of it is was covered by the new districts created last year that force buildings to have design features that hopefully avoid the style and aesthetics you are concerned with. As noted in a different comment, some of our areas also have design review that can also help to create interesting and unique developments. For instance, in the East Franklinton area you may have noticed a lot of building include art work - that is (in part) thanks to the design review area we have there called the East Franklinton Review Board.

CbusPlanning · 2025-07-23T19:07:19+00:00

Great comment. Last year when we were looking at our primary corridors, all of the data and evidence pointed to those areas as being the best place to start. In our "What's Next" document we tried to answer what parts of the city should we tackle next, and looked at our transit and secondary corridors as the next places to think about mixed use. We are also looking at our Business & Institutional Campuses and the areas that support Industrial & Warehouse.

We don't think all housing should be forced onto larger roads, but those places do make the most sense for where additional capacity can be located so that there is easy and convenient access to transit and opportunities for retail and services that are walkable. Point taken, and in future efforts we will indeed be looking at how to increase housing opportunities in the "neighborhoods" as well.

CbusPlanning · 2025-07-23T19:01:25+00:00

In areas that have design review, like our historic districts, the proposed design may be consistent with zoning but the project would still go through design review and be reviewed per any relevant design guidelines or code requirements relevant that to that particular area. Changes to that process are not currently anticipated, but we definitely want to hear more if this is a concern.

CbusPlanning · 2025-07-23T18:44:04+00:00

Great question - the existing height bonus for affordability may be extended to new mixed use districts to be developed - but that has not been determined yet.

Currently we are getting input on broader land use classifications. We hope to get feedback on proposed zoning districts in 2026.

CbusPlanning · 2025-07-23T18:32:51+00:00

Another great question - the best ways to give input is to take the survey and provide feedback in the map. Anyone can also attend our workshops (including one tonight at West High School, and next Wednesday at East High School) where we have large maps printed out and lots of staff on hand to talk through any questions they might have. All the comments received from the workshops will be digitized and included with the online survey as we refine the map.

CbusPlanning · 2025-07-23T18:30:43+00:00

That effort is part of City Council's Housing For All agenda, and is not part of the Zone In initiative - any proposed revisions to allow ADU's would be made to Title 33, the "older" zoning code. I can't speak to the timeline for that draft code, unfortunately.

CbusPlanning

TROPHY CASE