Columbus officials are planning a town hall meeting next week as part of a study on housing in the city. The meeting will be on Wednesday, March 20 at 5:30 p.m. in the Cal Brand meeting room at Columbus City Hall.
Mayor Mary Ferdon last week mentioned housing as a priority in her state of the city address. The housing study and means assessment is meant to identify existing housing and to recommend future housing, according to city officials.
Ferdon said during her address that the city “is prepared to use tools we have to create new affordable housing units for those who provide backbone services in our community.”
RDG Planning & Design was hired as the consultant for the study by the city and representatives from the firm will be leading the town hall.
Director of Community Development Robin Hilber said that RDG will be collecting and looking at hard data, but representatives want to hear general impressions from the community as well before they make recommendations and give the study’s results.
Small group sessions, consisting of those in housing, non-profits and major employers, have already been going on and the meeting on Wednesday gives those who may have scheduling conflicts during the day to attend, Hilber said.
About 13,000 people commute to Columbus on a daily basis for work, Hilber said, a statistic indicative of a need for more housing availability.
“We know there are some who choose to live here— they just can’t find adequate housing, whether that’s rental or home ownership,” she said.
Hilber also said that by 2030, 20% of the population in Columbus will be those 65 and older as they age in place, so they want to gauge what that demographic wants as well.
“There are a lot of people who are retired who would prefer, instead of owning their home and having that maintenance and upkeep, they would prefer to go to a condo or an apartment,” Hilber said. “So that’s where this housing study, hopefully is going to give that information. You know, are there certain types of housing that are missing?”
The last time the city conducted a housing study was 2012. Hilber said that builders and developers will often ask for the latest housing study, but after learning the last one was done in 2012, realize it’s not a great deal of help.
Additionally, some government grants require a housing study to have been done in the last five years.
RDG will make another visit in April and a draft copy of the study is expected by the end of August, Hilber said.
