The City of Columbus released the public review draft of Zone In Phase Two on August 20, a proposal that would rewrite the zoning rules for more than 70,000 parcels, roughly 41 percent of the city’s land. The public gets 60 days to weigh in, starting Monday, August 25.
In this guide
This is the second phase of Zone In, the city’s first comprehensive update of a zoning code that has stood since the 1950s. Phase one, adopted in July 2024, created six new districts along the city’s main street corridors and covered about 4.7 percent of Columbus. Phase two covers nearly ten times that ground.
What phase two covers
The draft, titled Economic and Housing Opportunity, establishes nine new zoning districts across three kinds of places: additional mixed-use corridors where housing and neighborhood businesses can sit together, industrial and warehouse districts, and campuses such as hospitals, universities and major employment centers.
For most residents, the mixed-use districts are the ones to watch. They allow apartments and small businesses on the same block, drop minimum car-parking requirements so builders decide how much parking a project needs, and permit accessory dwelling units, meaning backyard cottages and garage apartments, on parcels with residential uses. Several of the new districts also offer extra building height to projects that include affordable housing. The Industrial Mixed-Use district, for example, tops out at five stories but allows seven with that bonus.
What it means for your street
Nothing changes on the ground yet. The draft is a proposal, and City Council is expected to vote on a final version in the fourth quarter of the year. Existing homes and businesses keep operating under the rules they were built with, and the new districts change what can be built going forward.
To see whether a specific address is included, the city’s interactive zoning map shows every parcel in the proposal and the district it would get. The full draft code is online as well.
What it means for the city
Columbus has added roughly 120,000 residents since 2010, and the city says the region needs to double the number of homes it builds each year to keep pace with growth projected to reach 3 million people by 2050.
Existing zoning code on the books works against that, because it leans so heavily on variances and rezonings that even simple projects get negotiated one at a time, which the city says adds the kind of cost and delay that deters investment. Pre-approving apartments and small storefronts in places that already have jobs and bus service takes that fight off the table for a lot of projects. The bet is that more homes competing for the same renters and buyers slows how fast prices climb. The draft would also clear up an existing headache for homeowners: about 950 single-family houses sit inside the areas covered by the new districts, and the city says more than half of them don’t match the zoning they sit under today. Zoning doesn’t build anything on its own, so this should be a slow change that shows up over the coming years.
How to comment
The comment period runs August 25 through October 24. Residents can take the survey on the Zone In site or visit the Zone In Gallery at 141 N. Front St. Downtown, where staff walk through the proposal in person. The gallery is open 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 4 to 6 p.m. weekdays, plus 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays. The Zone In team will also be at the Rise Up CBUS events at Colerain Elementary School on August 27 and First Church of God on September 10. Questions go to zoningupdate@columbus.gov or 614-645-5343.
What happens next
City Council takes up a resolution of intent to rezone on Monday, August 24. After the comment window closes, city staff review every comment and prepare a final proposal for Council, expected before the end of the year. Phase one drew more than 1,900 comments after its draft came out, and this proposal covers far more of the city.
