Another 200,000 homes in 10 years? Columbus betting on zoning code overhaul to get it done

Between a view of the Columbus skyline, a nearby park and a soon-to-be coffee shop, Tyler Puhl is overseeing the construction of an apartment building that offers everything someone might want in an urban neighborhood.

To top it all off, the complex is just steps from the Short North and the company that owns the building even calls it the "finest residence in central Ohio." Still, when Puhl walks the halls of the limestone structure, he's reminded of something that's missing.

"I'm in a building right now that I wish was three or four stories taller," joked Puhl, president of Wood Companies.

The seven-story building is six inches shy of being a high rise, but Puhl said it took a decent amount of work with area neighborhood commissions to bring it to fruition and to that height.

It's a debate that developers like Puhl are familiar with as they try to thread the needle on things like building height, parking spaces and approval from various neighborhoods. But they're issues that slow the process of building housing at a time when Columbus needs more homes than ever before, Puhl said.

Central Ohio must add around 200,000 housing units throughout the next 10 years as the region's population begins to swell to more than 3.1 million, said Columbus City Councilman Rob Dorans. As of today, Columbus' zoning code would only allow for an estimated 6,000 new units in that time period, Dorans said.

The shortage is why Columbus is overhauling its 70-year-old zoning code before the region loses its chance at getting ahead of the looming housing crisis, Dorans said.

"Zone In," as the city is calling it, will make changes in phases to streamline and shorten the housing development process. The initial phase could rezone 13,000 parcels along the city's main transit corridors.

Under those changes, Dorans said the city could add 88,000 more units — still short of the total needed but closer than what is allowable under the current code.

"We have a supply and demand problem," Dorans said. "I would say it's a crisis. ... and we know that crisis is only going to worsen."

What can Columbus learn from other cities on housing?

Even with Columbus' zoning changes, it may take years for an impact to be felt.

Between three to nine years after zoning reforms, cities have seen a 0.8% increase in housing supply, according to a study from the Urban Institute. The increase in housing was predominantly among more expensive units while there was "no statistically significant evidence" found that more lower-cost units became available or became less expensive.

To make a dent in housing, Columbus needs to all but eliminate the zoning code, said Roger Valdez, director of the Seattle-based center for housing economics.

"Elected officials in this country are still not bright enough or they act at will to screw themselves up to say: 'Well we're going to increase density but impose all these requirements,'" Valdez said. "In doing so they accomplish nothing."

While Valdez prefers officials "take the zoning code, put it in front of city hall and set it on fire," he said cities unwilling to do that should dial it back over time to eliminate the restrictions that hamper housing.

Columbus is far from the first city to enact a new zoning code to tame a housing shortage. Austin, Minneapolis, and others have retooled their zoning and found varying degrees of success in spurring construction.

Minneapolis began implementing zoning changes as far back as 2009 that led to more multi-family dwellings and kept rental rates flat, even as they increased across the rest of Minnesota, according to Pew Research Center. In Austin — another state capital Columbus is sometimes compared to — the median home price dropped 8.2% from 2022 to 2023, Dispatch sister-paper the Austin American Statesman reported earlier this year.

As in other cities that retooled their zoning, it's difficult to know just how much of a role code changes actually played in price declines in Austin, said Yonah Freemark, a researcher at the nonprofit Urban Institute.

"The fundamental problem is that a lot of nondocumented evidence is thrown around about what cities have done," Freemark said. "We don't have clear enough evidence that it's the zoning change itself that has caused a change in Austin."

With its surging population and rapidly expanding economy, Austin isn't a great Columbus comparison, Freemark added. For another reason entirely, it may not be one Dorans wants Columbus compared to either.

Austin officials tried not once, but twice, to redo its zoning code to increase housing. That's something Dorans wants to avoid.

"I feel like this proposal is not just a half measure here ..." Dorans said. "We're not just getting around the edges of it."

'No silver bullet' to housing shortage

If Columbus City Council adopts a new zoning code in July, one thing may still prevent a spike in new housing — the rising cost of construction.

Residential construction costs increased 14.6% in 2021 and 15% in 2022, according to the National Association of Home Builders. Prices rose much slower in 2023, though they still grew by 1.3%.

Those costs, Freemark said, could put a damper on how much Columbus' zoning changes will increase housing. That's why subsidizing housing is important in order to ensure more is built, Freemark said.

City Council in December created a "Community Reinvestment Area" for the entire city, which grants a 100% tax break for new residential developments for 15 years and largely applies to apartment complexes that designate some units for affordable housing.

"In my view, there is no silver bullet to housing issues in the United States," Freemark said.

If there's one thing Puhl hopes the city's zoning overhaul addresses, it's allowing developers to build out sites to their full potential.

Allowing for taller buildings makes it so more residents can live on one plot of land. That helps tackle both the housing shortage and lets developers fully use the land they're building on, Puhl said.

But denser development has come under intense scrutiny in Columbus in recent years.

In 2021, residents of German Village and Schumacher Place protested an apartment complex being built at a former Giant Eagle location on Whittier Street. Although it eventually moved forward, neighbors complained it was too tall and didn't mesh well with the area.

Such debates could become more common with the zoning changes, though Dorans said officials want to allow for larger buildings in a way that "allows the fabric of (individual) neighborhoods to stay the same, but gently increases the density."

Of the 1,600 structures throughout German Village, just 11 buildings are taller than three floors, said Sean Kessler, executive director of the nonprofit preservation-focused German Village Society, which is separate from the neighborhood commission. While the nonprofit is supportive of the zoning changes throughout the city, Kessler said he it shouldn't dramatically alter the historic nature of German Village by adding more taller buildings.

"We don't want to mess with this great gem that we have in Columbus," Kessler said. "If we have those mass-density kinds of places, it's a negative impact to the historic district."

Despite past pushback, Puhl said he hopes residents in various neighborhoods don't approach it as a "developer versus homeowner" situation.

Not only is allowing more density what's needed, Puhl argued, but it's what people who are moving to Columbus want. And if the region can't give people what they're looking for, it may prove harder to stem the housing crisis in the first place.

"Limits on height do create a limit on housing ..." Puhl said. "Victorian Village, Italian Village, German Village: these are such cool places. People want to live there, right? So, why not let a lot more people live in these places."

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus area needs 200,000 more homes: Will zoning update be enough?