Columbus Zone In Phase II: What the sweeping zoning proposal would change

Columbus is preparing to extend its zoning overhaul across more than 70,000 parcels, a proposal that could reshape where the city allows housing, shops, warehouses and major employment centers.

The draft, called Zone In Phase II: Economic & Housing Opportunity, covers about 41% of Columbus. It is not yet law. A 60-day public-comment period runs through Oct. 24, after which city staff plans to revise the proposal and send a final version to City Council later in 2026.

The central promise is dramatically greater room for housing: the city estimates that zoning capacity in the affected areas would rise from about 13,000 homes over 10 years to about 119,000. That is a measure of what the code could allow, not a prediction of what developers will finance or build.

What Zone In is

Zone In is Columbus’s multiyear rewrite of a zoning code whose basic structure dates to the 1950s. Zoning governs what uses and building forms are allowed on a parcel; changing it can remove the need for property owners to seek individual rezonings or variances, but it does not approve a particular project or require construction.

Phase I, approved by City Council in July 2024, applied new mixed-use districts to about 12,300 parcels along 140 miles of major corridors. The city made follow-up corrections in June 2025 after nine months of administering the rules.

Phase II is much larger. According to the city’s current proposal, it would extend new districts and standards to additional commercial corridors, industrial and warehouse areas, and business and institutional campuses such as hospitals and universities. The goal is to make room for more homes near jobs and services, modernize employment areas and replace negotiated approvals with clearer rules.

Where the process stands

The proposal remains a public-review draft as of Sept. 9. The formal comment window opened Aug. 25 and closes Oct. 24. Residents can review the proposal and parcel map and submit comments on the code or map.

A Development Commission session on Aug. 13 was informational and produced no recommendation. At an Aug. 26 council hearing, six commenters raised concerns including tree preservation, ravine properties and code enforcement, according to a meeting summary.

Those concerns echo an earlier debate over the Columbus Growth Strategy underlying Phase II. WOSU reported that representatives in Clintonville and the Greater South East area questioned whether citywide planning would override neighborhood plans and raised concerns about tree canopy, accessibility and limited review time. City officials said non-land-use goals involving safety, mobility and public investment would remain.

The map and code may change after the comment period. The city says staff will review comments and refine the package in the fall before council consideration in the fourth quarter.

What Phase II would change

The draft would replace legacy zoning with nine new district types covering three broad categories: more mixed-use corridors; industrial, warehouse and logistics areas; and business or institutional campuses.

In mixed-use areas, the rules would allow combinations of apartments, shops, restaurants, services and offices. Single-unit homes would be permitted in every new mixed-use district. The city says roughly 950 such homes sit inside the proposed geography and more than half do not conform to their current zoning.

Four mixed-use districts would allow projects to add two to four stories by participating in the city’s Residential Community Reinvestment Area affordability program. The bonus is an incentive rather than a requirement that all new homes be income-restricted, so the city’s 119,000-home capacity estimate should not be read as an affordable-housing count.

The proposal would also expand a market-driven approach to parking, leaving developers to determine how many spaces to provide rather than imposing fixed minimums. The city could use off-site reviews for larger projects and manage curb space with tools such as accessible spaces, residential permits, paid parking and loading or transit zones.

Industrial and campus districts would receive updated rules intended to accommodate modern manufacturing, logistics, hospitals, universities and business parks while setting clearer transitions where those properties meet neighborhoods. New standards would govern building mass, street frontage and design. Existing historic and specialized review boards would retain their authority.

The city describes the proposal as generally applying to future development. Its FAQ says legally established buildings would not have to be altered. According to the FAQ, existing uses made nonconforming by the new code could continue, be sold or expand by as much as 25%, though those protections could end after a voluntary 12-month suspension or conversion to another use.

What other cities can teach Columbus

Experience elsewhere suggests that zoning reform can make more housing possible, but outcomes depend on what is built, where it is built and whether cities measure results instead of treating capacity as production.

In Minneapolis, Pew reported that the housing stock grew 12% from 2017 through 2022 while rents rose 1%, compared with 4% stock growth and 14% rent growth in the rest of Minnesota. Of nearly 21,000 units permitted, 87% were in buildings with at least 20 units and only 1% were in two- to four-unit buildings. The experience suggests that larger corridor projects may matter more to total supply than small-scale changes alone. But the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis later cautioned that weaker demand beginning in 2020 may explain much of the city’s rent divergence, underscoring how difficult it is to assign a single cause.

Portland offers a more concrete reporting model. The city says its residential infill reforms produced more than 1,400 permits for middle housing and accessory dwelling units from August 2021 through June 2024. Portland’s progress report also tracked sale prices and demolitions, finding that new middle-housing units sold for $250,000 to $300,000 less on average than new detached houses while demolition rates remained steady.

Austin similarly publishes application and approval counts for its HOME reforms. As of Sept. 8, the city reported 904 applications reviewed, 714 approved and 1,421 units approved. But just eight projects used its preservation bonus, according to Austin’s HOME dashboard. For Columbus, that is a warning not to assume an affordability or preservation incentive works merely because it exists.

Charlotte’s experience points to the value of testing standards before adoption. Officials moved to adjust triplex rules after disputes over driveways, parking, trees and the fit of projects on small lots. The lesson for Columbus is that permissive zoning and good site design have to work together.

What happens next

The public can comment on the proposed code and parcel map through Oct. 24. After the comment period closes, city staff plans to review the responses, revise the proposal and present it to City Council later this year.

Council could approve the proposal, amend it or reject it. Any changes to the draft—including changes to the district proposed for a particular property—would emerge through that review.

It may take years to assess the effects if Phase II is adopted. Columbus has limited evidence from Phase I, which covered about 4.7% of the city. Metro-area multifamily permitting rose from 3.4 units per 1,000 residents in 2024 to 4.3 in 2025, while median asking rent fell 1.5% in the year ending in June 2026, according to a Realtor.com analysis. Those figures cover the broader metropolitan area and do not establish that Zone In caused either change.