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Building and Zoning Services budget adds code enforcement staff, registries and expedited review to speed housing projects
Summary
Director Scott Messer told Columbus City Council that the Building and Zoning Services 2025 budget combines permit fee (Development Services Fund) and general fund dollars to finance licensing, weights and measures, code enforcement and efforts intended to accelerate housing production.
Scott Messer, director of Building and Zoning Services, told the council's housing, homelessness and building committee on Jan. 21 that the department's operating plan for 2025 is a hybrid of permit‑fee revenue (the Development Services Fund) and general fund support for newly transferred divisions.
Messer said the department will have a FY2025 budget of roughly $44.7 million, with about $10.5 million from the general fund supporting licensing, weights and measures and the code enforcement division and approximately $34 million coming from the Development Services Fund that is supported by permit fees. The director noted the department issues about 50,000 permits and conducts more than 100,000 inspections annually.
Nut graf: Messer said new staff and technology investments are intended to shorten project timelines and enforce new housing‑related rules passed by council, while new registries aim to make vacant and wholesale acquisitions more transparent to protect tenants and preserve housing stock.
Key initiatives Messer previewed include adding three code enforcement positions dedicated to enforcing rent‑increase notification, retaliatory eviction and other tenant protections passed by council; a continued zoning code modernization (phase 1 implemented last year, phase 2 forthcoming); project managers dedicated to housing projects; an expedited plan review process; and new registries for foreclosure, vacant properties and wholesalers. Messer said the department reduced average zoning timelines for housing projects from about seven months to just over four months after instituting project managers and expedited review.
Messer also highlighted workforce development and training investments supported by development services funds, including a partnership with Fort Hayes to train and hire inspection and construction trade staff.
Councilmembers asked about staffing for the new housing enforcement work. Messer said the three new positions are expected to be supplemented by existing code officers cross‑trained to meet demand and that 311 will remain the reporting portal for complaints.
Ending: Messer said the department will continue work on phase 2 of the zoning code update and implement the new registries in 2025; council pledged to work with the administration in budget discussions over the coming weeks.
