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Development Commission approves Founders Park rezoning to allow 60‑unit building despite neighborhood parking objections
Summary
The commission recommended approval of a rezoning to create a new AR‑3 subarea for a 60‑unit apartment building within Founders Park. Neighbors and the Harrison West Society expressed safety and parking concerns but staff and the developer said available garage parking and prior approvals support the change.
The Columbus Development Commission voted June 12 to recommend approval of a rezoning that creates a new Sub Area D2 (AR‑3) within the Founders Park development to allow a 60‑unit apartment building.
Thrive Companies and agent Dave Perry presented the request. Austin Lindsey of Thrive said the proposal would add 60 apartment units on a small parcel of a larger Founders Park redevelopment and that the net change across the entire 20‑acre development amounted to roughly 25 additional units compared with earlier approved plans. “We’ve been working with the city for years on this site,” Lindsey said, adding that parking for the new units would be provided in the adjacent Grove‑format parking garage under an assignment arrangement.
Neighborhood leaders urged the commission to deny the rezoning. Michael Metz, president of the Harrison West Society, summarized a multi‑year record of negotiations with the developer and said the community had repeatedly approved a carefully balanced mix of housing types; he described the most recent change as a late pivot away from townhomes that were expected to front parkland. “We were supportive for years because the plan was balanced; this last switch to a 60‑unit building feels like a departure,” Metz said.
Representatives of the adjacent homeowners association told commissioners they had safety concerns tied to parking and traffic; the HOA president, Samick Shah, said cars regularly block emergency routes and that assigned parking in the garage had not solved overnight parking spillover in practice. The developer and staff said the fire department and traffic management had reviewed the proposal and that the project would include assigned parking in the nearby parking structure; planning staff also recommended approval, noting the site sits within a larger approved mixed‑use redevelopment.
Commissioners discussed the history of the Founders Park approvals, the existing physical constraints on the small parcel and how assigned parking in the garage would be enforced. After discussion, the commission recommended approval to City Council. The zoning change will require concurrent council variances to formalize off‑site parking assignments and other development standards before final city approval.
Thrive said it will continue discussions with the neighborhood about pedestrian connectivity and park frontage and that it expects to work with the city on final ordinance language and parking assignments as the case proceeds to Council.
