Ohio lawmaker calls for stronger local land-use plans, backs housing-finance tools

Representative Brian Loren, a member of the Ohio House and a longtime planner, called for stronger local comprehensive land-use plans and clearer zoning rules to ease the state's housing shortage and make development more predictable.

Loren, who said he has a master’s degree in city and regional planning and serves on committees covering growth and development, transportation and local government, said the state should pass legislation that ensures community participation in planning and creates enforceable timeframes so local plans are not merely aspirational. “From the state level, what we need to do is concentrate on legislation that empowers communities,” he said.

He argued that predictable zoning helps guide density toward main corridors and preserves neighborhood character farther from collectors. Citing recent changes in Columbus that allow greater density on main corridors, Loren described this approach as a form-based strategy that concentrates traffic and activity where infrastructure exists.

Loren also discussed his recent appointment to the 15-member Ohio Housing Finance Agency (OFA) board. He said the agency’s role is to steer budgeted funds and financing incentives toward projects that expand affordable and workforce housing, often by scoring projects on amenities and traffic-mitigation measures and offering developers percentage-based breaks (he said programs typically range “around 4% or 9%”). “Those incentives get people in a house,” Loren said, adding that mixed-use projects tied to local economic drivers can supply the workforce needed by large employers in central Ohio.

On transportation, Loren said project scoring must account for how people will move in and out of denser developments, noting Ohioans’ continued reliance on cars while stressing that integrating transit and traffic mitigation is important when evaluating projects.

Loren said another priority is cutting red tape and speeding approvals so projects that rely on state incentives do not lose funding while awaiting local entitlements. He described pending bills, including the Reigns Act and a regulatory-sandbox measure, as efforts to simplify permitting and clarify criteria so projects can proceed if they meet defined standards.

He said the bills he is drafting aim to improve predictability — from zoning to permitting to building-department approvals — so developers and communities know where they stand and projects can move forward without losing eligible incentives.

Loren said he plans to introduce legislation that strengthens community participation in comprehensive-plan development and sets clearer timelines for executing those plans. The bills were at an early stage at the time of the interview; Loren said he is working to get stakeholders “at the table” before formally filing proposals.