Photo by Jana Wiersema | The Republic City-County Planning Director Jeff Bergman shows a slide of the City View District Plan proposal to Columbus City Council members Tuesday night, Sept. 5, 2023, at Columbus City Hall.
City officials have given their final approval on a concept plan outlining a potential future for nearly 700 acres of westside property owned by Columbus Regional Hospital.
Columbus City Council voted Tuesday to adopt the City View District Plan as an element of the city’s Comprehensive Plan.
“This is a really unique opportunity where someone is, an entity is willing to partner with the city,” said City Councilwoman Elaine Hilber. “I think it’s great that we’re coordinating early on.”
The City View District Plan addresses the site also known as the Garden City Farms property, which stretches east-to-west from Interstate 65 almost to State Road 11/Jonesville Road, and is south of the westside Walmart and north of the Bartholomew County 4-H Fairgrounds. The approximately 690-acre site is owned by CRH.
“The City View District planning process has been a collaboration between Columbus Regional Health (CRH) and the City of Columbus, aided by consultant Design Workshop,” city officials said. “The process seeks to establish a vision for the long-term future development of the property. The resulting plan is intended to serve as both a master plan to guide CRH decision making as property owner and a component of the City of Columbus Comprehensive Plan.”
The Comprehensive Plan provides guidance for future land use and development in the community.
In addition to an approximately 100-acre CRH campus on the northeast side of the site, the City View District Plan includes a variety of residential neighborhoods, commercial centers and a research and development campus. These areas would be connected to each other and nature via “open spaces, green corridors, and amenities that extend throughout the property,” officials said.
According to city/county planning director Jeff Bergman, several steps will need to be taken to eventually develop the land, including annexation, developer selection by CRH, rezoning, subdivision creation, development of infrastructure, and building construction.
“Who’s driving the bus?” asked City Councilman Tom Dell. “Is it the hospital themselves, or are they going to be basically working with multiple groups of developers in the process of this? But who’s coordinating all of that?”
“We’ll definitely be one of the participants up in that northeast corner,” said CRH Vice President of Strategic Facilities Planning and Operations David Lenart. “But when it comes to the rest of this, we’re really going to look at utilizing the land use plan to make sure that as needs within the community present themselves — so if housing’s going to be a need, we will have the space for housing to be developed. And we would work with those developers in conjunction with the city to ensure that we’re following the plan.”
Hilber asked what CRH’s long-term plans are for its current 17th Street campus and whether the hospital is moving. Lenart replied that they are not sure yet.
“I figured that was probably the case, because it’s too early on, but I think those are some of the questions that I’m hearing, is what would happen to the current property, would it continue to be CRH, would it be sold,” Hilber said. “But I guess that’s a long, you’re far away. So roughly, what is your timeline?”
“In excess of 10 years,” said Lenart.
City council members — as well as some individuals running for council in the upcoming election — also had questions about floodplain on the site.
Certain areas of the property are located in flood hazard areas based on maps from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. According to maps included in the plan, part of the northeast corner of the site is identified as floodway, whereas other sections are mapped as 100-year or 500-year floodplain.
“(Floodway) is the most sensitive portion of the floodplain,” said Bergman. “It’s an area where development or land filling activities could potentially disrupt the flow of floodwater, such that it could cause flooding for other properties in and around that area.”
However, the majority of floodplain on the site is categorized as 100- or 500-year floodplain, which means that the flow of floodwater is less sensitive, he said. In these areas, local, state and federal regulations are more geared toward protecting buildings from floodwater than protecting the flow of floodwater.
In addition to floodplain maps, the City View District Plan includes maps analyzing the best areas for development based on a lack of floodplain and other factors. One of these spaces is in the same area where CRH envisions locating its campus, with sections of 100- and 500-year floodplain surrounding it.
“That’s one of the things that we’ll continue to study over the next 12 to 18 months, is understanding what is the current floodplain, if it was mapped under very new, contemporary studies, and then trying to give a resiliency framework to try and understand what is the future impacts of the rivers and creeks and everything that’s on the particular property, how are those going to be influenced,” Lenart told city council.
The city’s current zoning regulations prohibits “sensitive facilities”, including hospitals, from being located in areas mapped as 100- or 500-year floodplain, said Bergman. These facilities also have to have access roads that are flood-free.
“Those regulations are going to come into play as the details move forward,” he said.
Where to learn more
The City View District Plan can be viewed at columbus.in.gov/planning/columbus-current-projects/.
More information on the city’s Comprehensive Plan is available at columbus.in.gov/planning/comprehensive-plans/.
