November 14, 2022

"Zone In Columbus" announced and there's a great event on Wednesday evening 📣

Get your free yard sign Wednesday night in Worthington!

Good evening, neighbors! We hope you enjoyed the first snow of season and are making the most of your autumnal weekend. This past week, Columbus (finally!) launched it’s zoning reform effort, dubbed Zone In Columbus. We’ve heard that the zoning reform public engagement will get started sometime in the next few months, so make sure you’re on that email list and check out the webpage for updates — but we’ll provide updates too! Some of things to consider with zoning reform are:

• allow duplexes, triplexes, and other medium-density housing in all neighborhoods *by right*, meaning without variances

• eliminate parking requirements, instead shifting to parking maximums

• offer fast-track approvals for projects with affordable housing units

• simplify approvals for accessory dwelling units (ADUs) used as long-term residences

• modernize the role of area commissions in approving housing

These are just a few of the crucial components of zoning reform that can help create a more predictable and equitable development pipeline. Let us know your ideas to make housing easier to build and access!

Related: ‘Undesign the Redline’ Exhibit 🏘

The Zone In initiative was announced in conjunction with the Undesign the Redline exhibit, hosted by the Columbus YWCA. Exploring the history of structural racism and how this inequality continues to impact our communities today, the exhibit focuses on the ways we can “undesign” these systems to support social equity and access to opportunity. A committee of local experts and historians helped customize this exhibit for Columbus, so be sure to check it out soon!

Learn more at Columbus YWCA

November 16: Visualizing Density and Legalizing Housing in Central Ohio 🏢

What: Building Inclusive Communities’ Speaker Series
When: Wednesday, November 16, 2022 at 7pm
Where: McConnell Art Center, 777 Evening Street
Worthington, OH (or virtual)

Why does the word "density" create fear and cause concern in our public conversations about housing? Join Building Inclusive Communities and our special guests Julie Campoli and Eli Spevak to learn why density is misunderstood, and how it can be a key to solving our housing challenges.

***We’ll be giving away some N4MN yard signs at the event, so show up a tad early or stick around after to get yours!***

Panelists

• Julie Campoli, Author, Visualizing Density, Harvard Loeb Fellow

• Eli Spevak, Developer and Zoning Expert, Harvard Loeb Fellow

Learn more

🗞️ News Nugget

A public agency in Cincinnati snapped up 194 single-family rental homes at auction for $14.5 million to prevent them from continuing to serve as cash-cows for investors.

The Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority outbid 12 other investors and has since paid $2 million more toward fixing them up with the goal of selling them to homebuyers of modest means in hopes of addressing the racial wealth gap. In Hamilton County, institutional investors own at least 4,000 houses.

Let's get these homes back into local hands and out of exploitative investment portfolios!

Read the story

💰 The housing market is broken. Exclusively market-based strategies aren’t enough to fix it. ⚖️

Movements for housing abundance often get painted as pro-developer, pro-industry, and pro-free market. At N4MN Columbus, we believe that Central Ohio’s core needs more housing of all kinds. This includes subsidized housing and eventually, de-commodified housing that isn’t a tool for financial speculation. When treated purely as a lucrative asset, housing cannot reasonably serve as shelter for all. Getting a substantial portion of our region’s housing stock off the open market would help stabilize soaring rents for tenants and give families a shot at homeownership. One recent example of this strategy is the Central Ohio Community Land Trust, a 501c3 organization established in 2018 that makes homeownership accessible to qualifying households. Without intervention, people bidding on housing against global investment firms that hoard single-family homes as part of rental portfolios will always lose.

N4MN supports a broad approach to housing solutions that simultaneously expands the rights of tenants while offering a predictable regulatory landscape for housing production.

Replacing the tens of thousands of housing units in Columbus’ urban core lost to demolition since the 1950s is absolutely crucial to restoring the energy and vitality of urban life in Central Ohio. We’re here to advance policies that work toward re-populating our historic neighborhoods with strategies that embrace housing equity, diversity, and access.

🍂 Autumn Housing Happenings 🗞

• Columbus leads Ohio cities in home prices
  11 Nov. 2022, Columbus Dispatch

• Columbus voters approve affordable housing, other bonds
  8 Nov. 2022, Columbus Dispatch

• Columbus housing market may see return to normal, but buck national slowdown
  8 Nov. 2022, Columbus Business First

• MORPC Matters: Central Ohio's appeal brings housing challenges, opportunities
  8 Nov. 2022, Columbus Dispatch Opinion

• ‘A tale of two states:’ Ohio isn’t growing outside of Columbus, report shows
  8 Nov. 2022, WCMH NBC4i

• Columbus seeing cheaper rent — but not by much
  4 Nov. 2022, Axios Columbus

• Older, White and Wealthy Home Buyers Are Pushing Others Out of the Market
  4 Nov. 2022, New York Times

• Columbus named one of hottest, most affordable U.S. housing markets
  28 Oct. 2022, WCMH NBC4i

• Central Ohio housing market begins to stabilize with record high mortgage rates
  27 Oct. 2022, WBNS 10TV

• The Intel effect: How Licking County land and housing prices are rising
  17 Oct. 2022, WBNS 10TV

• How Central Ohio can overcome its ‘code red’ housing shortage
  14 Oct. 2022, Columbus Business First

• Central Ohio's population growth to hasten as economic development booms in the region
  24 Oct. 2022, Ideastream Public Media

• More sellers drop prices as Columbus home sales plunge
  20 Oct. 2022, Columbus Dispatch

• Columbus home sales continue decline
  21 Sept. 2022, Columbus Dispatch

• Columbus area needs to double housing construction to meet demand, report finds
  15 Sept. 2022, Columbus Dispatch

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