COLUMBUS, Ind. — Only a few days remain for the public to participate in a survey as part of the city’s first housing study in 12 years.
The final day to fill it the survey is Friday. The 28-question survey can be found at https://www.columbus.in.gov/ and is available in English and Spanish.
The project is being led by the city’s community development and planning departments, which hired Omaha-based consultant RDG Planning & Design in November. The Columbus Redevelopment Commission voted in July to authorize up to $150,000 to fund the study.
Director of Community Development Robin Hilber said there have been 500 submissions thus far. RDG will use the information derived from the survey to assess existing housing, demographics and market demands and identify housing gaps.
Hilber said there will be two additional surveys as well— one for landlords and a workforce study for employers to provide to their employees.
RDG held an open house at city hall for the study near the end of March to gather similar input and Hilber said another is planned for this month. The firm has done held smaller sessions with community groups as well and done similar studies in Iowa, Kansas, Bloomington, and the greater Lafayette region.
Once all the data is gathered, RDG will begin to develop strategies to address where the data demonstrates there is the most need and present their findings and recommendations in August, city officials said.
“It’s such an important issue, it’s also a really big issue, there’s so many different components to it, so getting the information as much as we can— that helps the consultant come up with recommendations that will be very specific to Columbus,” Mayor Mary Ferdon said during the Board of Public Works meeting on April 10.
