The Columbus City Council voted 8-0 to approve the first reading of two ordinances that rezone adjacent properties where a developer says they’re considering a range of housing options, partly dependent on the results of the city’s incoming housing study.
Councilman Chris Bartels, R-District 1, was absent. Ordinances must be passed on two readings to be approved.
“The first request, Vision Housing – Omega Drive, applies to the lots fronting on the Omega Drive circular drive, with the exception of the two that also front Indianapolis Road,” City/County Planning Director Jeff Bergman wrote in a memo to council members. “The second request, Vision Housing – West, applies to an additional +/- 18.6 acres further to the west that currently has access from the north via (County Road) 150W.”
The applicant, Vision Housing, LLC is seeking to rezone the 15.53-acre Omega Drive property from Industrial: General with commitments (I2c) to Residential: Multi-family (RM) and the property to the west from Industrial: Light with commitments (I1c) to RM.
The comprehensive plan’s future land use map identifies both areas as residential, according to a planning staff report.
The Omega Drive site was previously home to a drive-in commercial park that Bergman said has been vacant “for at least 30 years.”
The Columbus Plan Commission on May 8 forwarded a favorable recommendation on both rezonings, and also approved a replatting of the Omega Drive business park that was contingent on the rezoning.
Bergman told the council the properties are well positioned to serve density in some ways— namely they’re near several high volume roads, but transit doesn’t come anywhere near, public parks are some distance away and a car would be required to attain goods and services like groceries.
“Discussion at planning commission was really around the possibilities that a multifamily rezoning could create here, by bringing more population density into the area, and potentially then serving as a catalyst for perhaps some additional commercial developments, which this area is really devoid of at this point,” Bergman said.
In addition to the rezoning, Vision Housing is proposing a new street connection from the existing Omega Drive loop that would come from the west and connect with County Road 150W. Vision Housing would also make improvements to County Road 150W up to where the pavement runs out at 3863 North County Road 150W.
The new Omega Drive street connection and improvements to County Road 150W are commitments upon city council’s approval, along with a commitment for a new sidewalk on the Omega Drive property.
Per the staff report, flood hazards on the sites include 100-year floodplain and 500-year floodplain.
“A portion of the property is located within Flood Zone AE (100-year and 500-year floodway fringe),” planning officials wrote. “The proposed development will be required to meet the standards for development in a special flood hazard area, as described in Section 4.7 of the Zoning Ordinance. These standards include, but are not limited to, constructing the lowest floor of all structures at or above the flood protection grade.”
Kent Anderson, R-District 5, called the corridor between U.S. 31 and I-65 as a “challenged area” and said developing a road network there “is anything but easy.”
“(County Road) 150 is the saving grace of this entire project here,” Anderson said. “Because otherwise we have what would appear to be a local street, going directly into Indianapolis (Road, which is primary arterial), so you’d be jumping four classes of roads, which is the death of traffic movement.”
Both properties, the Vision Housing – West one in particular, have a number of surrounding properties zoned as types of single-family designations, including Tudor Addition, Abbey Place and Abbey Place Park and Princeton Park.
Councilman Tom Dell, D-at-large, noted the RM designation gives the developer more flexibility than if they were to receive a type of single-family zoning designation and asked Bergman if anything would be done to buffer the two Vision Housing properties from the various single-family properties.
Bergman said although the plan commission included no buffering commitments in their recommendation, the zoning ordinance itself actually requires buffers if the properties were to be rezoned RM.
“It’s got buffers all the way around for the benefit of the single-family homes that are adjacent. And then also for the benefit of the multifamily where it’s adjacent to industrial or commercial zoning,” Bergman said. “… The zoning ordinance already provides for those things and discussion at planning commission was there wasn’t some additional buffering that was necessary through the commitment.”
