Jeff Beam is the chair of the Affordable Housing Alliance of Central Ohio’s “Build Committee” and serves as executive vice president at the Ohio Capital Corporation for Housing. Both nonprofit organizations are located in Columbus and share a mission of expanding affordable housing.
We can fail to acknowledge change. We can fail to plan for it. We can fail to act. Change marches on anyway; these failings only leave us vulnerable and unprepared.
For 70 years, Columbus’ zoning code has failed to keep up with the changing world.
The current code was written in a time with starkly different household compositions, domestic roles and shopping habits from today’s reality. The code embedded bias and exclusion that the civil rights movement had not yet begun to address. It didn’t even contemplate the urgent need to respond to a warming planet. Each of these factors has transformed our housing needs, yet Columbus’ 1950s era zoning remains entrenched.
Against this recalcitrance, rents are skyrocketing, a generation grows disillusioned with the dream of homeownership, homelessness swells and central Ohio’s competitive edge in the global economy — our cherished quality of life — stands at risk.
Zone In inspired by city's beauty
Thankfully, Zone In meets today’s housing crisis with bold action. It respects valuable lessons from our past, creates agency in our present and builds strength for our future.
The Affordable Housing Alliance of Central Ohio and all 40 of our member organizations are proud to support this revamp of our outdated and dysfunctional code.
These updated laws protect the best of our past.
Zone In was inspired by what’s right in front of us: a beautiful city with connected neighborhoods.
Places like German Village, Olde Town East and Clintonville were built before the 1950s, before our zoning laws made it impossible to replicate these mixed-use, gentle density and transit-oriented designs.
These neighborhoods have diversity, vibrancy and architectural charm that cultivate life-long neighbors. They have housing that supports small businesses and retail that supports residents. Zone In removes the artificial constraints to creating similarly vibrant places elsewhere in the city.
Of course, not all our history is worth revering or repeating. Zone In finally lets us shed the parts that carried out segregation and division. And the parts distorted to support the exclusivity of the automobile, making modern public transportation all but impossible.
Today’s Columbus shows confidence through collaboration.
Columbus can't be locked into stagnation
In approaching this change, a less mature city might have feared engagement, limited participation or pushed reform into the shadows. Instead, Zone In is a vibrant, visible process, featuring hundreds of local meetings and over 10,000 public comments from every corner of our city.
A less mature city might have done too little, only tinkering around the edges, or too much, throwing out the past in a futile attempt to create a clean slate. Columbus, instead, strikes the kind of balance that can only come through listening and inclusion.
Sadly, there are tiny fragments of our community who resist change and would lock us into another 70 years of stagnation.
After years of deliberation, they claim we’re moving too fast.
After countless news stories, they claim they've never heard of it. After tens of thousands of evictions and record-breaking housing inflation, they claim there’s no purpose.
The problem with Columbus housing:$8,000 a month Short North apartment makes idea of renting in Columbus more unimaginable
These are extreme minority views, with the concepts behind Zone In enjoying overwhelming support.
Nevertheless, the Affordable Housing Alliance of Central Ohio commends the city for listening and responding appropriately by adopting reasonable guardrails and compromises that ease good faith concerns.
Strong future for Columbus lies ahead
Most importantly, Zone In is charting a path to a strong future for Columbus.
This month, by considering the Zone In proposal, the city council gets to decide whether our laws promote vibrant neighborhoods or continue to artificially and arbitrarily limit where residents can live.
They decide whether we lay the foundation to close our affordability gaps or continue to lose precious greenspace to sprawl while driving costs skyward. They will decide whether we will have housing rules that are more transparent, more predictable and better able to meet our housing needs.
The Affordable Housing Alliance of Central Ohio knows that more homes are needed if we are going to solve our affordability challenge. We also know increased supply is not sufficient on its own.
For our region to truly get a handle on our housing needs, we must continue to expand initiatives that lower rents, create legal protections for tenants and open the doors to homeownership for those who’ve been excluded.
The Affordable Housing Alliance wholeheartedly supports Zone In as an essential step toward a region that continues to thrive.
Jeff Beam is the chair of the Affordable Housing Alliance of Central Ohio’s “Build Committee” and serves as executive vice president at the Ohio Capital Corporation for Housing. Both nonprofit organizations are located in Columbus and share a mission of expanding affordable housing.
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