Council Hearing Nov. 5 Recaps Zone In Phase II Comments
The city will summarize what residents said about rezoning mixed-use corridors, industrial land and campuses before the 60-day comment window closed Oct. 24. Status: Hearing Nov. 5.
Columbus residents who weighed in on the second round of the city's zoning rewrite will get to hear what everyone else said on Thursday, November 5. Rob Dorans, council president pro tem, who chairs the Zoning Committee, posted a public notice on October 26 for the third of four fall hearings on Zone In Phase II. It runs 6 to 8 p.m. in the council's chambers downtown.
This session is a readout. City staff plan to present a summary of the responses gathered through the Zone In online survey during the 60-day comment period, which ran from August 15 to Friday, October 24. Phase II is the part of the code overhaul aimed at three kinds of land: corridors ready for more mixed-use building, industrial and warehouse sites, and campuses for businesses and institutions. The city describes the whole project as an update of a zoning code that is about 70 years old.
The first two hearings drew council members out of City Hall. An August 27 session at Galloway Ridge Intermediate School walked through the draft code and map, and a September 16 meeting at the King Arts Complex covered the proposed new districts. Both featured presentations from Luis Teba of the Department of Development and Shannon Pine of Building and Zoning Services.
Anyone can testify. Speakers can sign up ahead of time by emailing council contact Kevin McCain, listed on the notice, or sign up in person that night, and each gets up to three minutes. Written testimony has to arrive by 3 p.m. that day with the words written testimony in the email subject. Anyone at home can watch the live stream on CTV or the city's YouTube and Facebook pages.
The notice does not give a date for the fourth hearing or say when council might vote on the Phase II code and map, and it includes no comment totals. The outside help is already paid for: in August, council added $750,000 to the city's contract with Lisa Wise Consulting through Ordinance 2294-2026, raising it to about $4 million so the firm can stay on through the end of Phase II.
If you own a home or business near a commercial strip, an industrial park or a hospital or college campus, this phase decides what can be built next door. Track it in Real Estate, see our brunch by neighborhood guide for a stop afterward, and see what is near City Hall on the Downtown page.
