Upper Arlington zoning board splits over National Church Residences campus plan; site plan fails, plat amendment recommended to council

On Oct. 1, 2025, the City of Upper Arlington Board of Zoning and Planning considered a major site plan from National Church Residences to redevelop 2233–2335 Northbank Drive with a new headquarters office and two senior-housing buildings and ultimately failed to approve the plan after a roll-call vote that recorded four nays and two ayes. The board then voted to offer a positive recommendation to City Council on the related plat amendment and attached several conditions.

The central technical dispute was a city sanitary sewer and multiple private utilities located in an angled easement along Northbank Drive. Assistant City Manager Jackie Thiele told the board the existing sanitary sewer could be straightened but doing so would require relocating private utilities and that, “we're estimating a total cost of about, 290,000,” an estimate she emphasized was preliminary. Resident engineer Joe Tribble presented an alternate sketch and argued a more limited realignment could be done “in the ballpark of $30,000 to $35,000,” a figure city staff disputed on the basis of invert elevations and slope requirements.

National Church Residences representatives said the requested variance — a reduction in the maximum building setback on Northbank Drive — was needed because existing underground utilities and recorded easements predate current setback rules. Kevin Brown, director of senior-housing development for National Church Residences, said the applicant accepted staff-recommended conditions, including returning to BZAP for final approval of the western senior housing building, limiting building-mounted signage to halo illumination, and coordinating any proposed shared-use path with the Parks and Recreation Department.

Designer Susan Hines explained the lobby location and double-height entry are integral to the office program and the building’s wayfinding. “The position of the office building on that northeast corner is really important to the site,” Hines said, adding that moving or substantially condensing the lobby would reduce visibility, remove required parking, and change internal programmatic relationships.

Neighbors urged postponement and design changes. Several speakers asked that the office massing be pulled farther north or that the lobby be redesigned to reduce visual impact on the lakefront neighborhood. Nick Davis and others raised procedural concerns, alleging a wave of coordinated support emails had arrived and noting one resident letter had been omitted from the public packet; staff acknowledged the omission and said it was an oversight. Jim Fisher, a neighborhood commenter, suggested using part of an economic incentive the city is considering for the project to help fund sewer relocation if the developer would agree to design changes.

Board members were divided. Some members said the project meets the city’s major-site-plan standards and stressed the public benefits — nearly three acres of added green space, improved pond maintenance arrangements and new sidewalks — while others said unresolved design and neighbor-impact issues warranted a continuance or a stronger commitment from the applicant to shrink the office massing or the lobby. City staff reiterated that easement vacations and private-utility relocations are compensable and schedule-sensitive and that the city’s invert data show a longer replacement is needed to meet minimum slopes in some proposed alignments.

The chair called for a motion to approve the major site plan, including variances that would reduce required setbacks for the office and senior-living buildings to reflect existing easements; the motion failed after a roll-call vote that recorded four nays and two ayes. The board then voted to forward a positive recommendation to City Council on the plat amendment associated with the major site plan; that recommendation carried. The board also attached conditions to its action, notably that the western senior housing building’s final design return to BZAP for approval with notice to nearby property owners, that building-mounted signs use halo illumination, that the City Forester approve any landscape plan before tree removal, and that Parks and Recreation approve the design and use of the proposed recreational path along the lake.

Next steps: the plat amendment will go to City Council for final action, and BZAP will review the western senior living building in a future public session. City staff and the applicant indicated they would continue technical coordination around utilities and design options; residents said they will press for additional changes and clarification on costs and timing for any utility relocations.