Columbus Zoning Code + Map Update

Urban Analytics + Scenario Planning

Nov 7

Written by Dacie Doucette

Columbus Zoning Code + Map Update

Columbus, OH · 2022–2024

Client: City of Columbus
Location: Columbus, OH
Year: 2022–2024
CP Role: Subconsultant to Lisa Wise Consulting
Practice Area: Zoning + Code Reform
Team: Alex Steinberger, Principal-in-Charge; Rachel Cotton, Project Manager; Lanier Hagerty, Analyst

cascadia-partners-columbus-zoning-code-map-update-line-chart-of-achievable-sales-price-img0762.jpg

cascadia-partners-columbus-zoning-code-map-update-img0763.jpg

cascadia-partners-columbus-zoning-code-map-update-line-chart-of-achievable-sales-price-img0762.jpg

cascadia-partners-columbus-zoning-code-map-update-img0763.jpg

The Challenge

Columbus wanted more housing along its major corridors, but its zoning held back what developers could build. Decision-makers needed evidence before supporting changes.

Our Approach

We measured housing capacity along the corridors under current zoning, then modeled what the proposed changes to ground-floor uses, parking, height, and setbacks would add. A dynamic Residual Land Value model showed the minimum rents that would make redevelopment feasible, and return-on-investment models tested incentives for affordable housing.

Outcome

Columbus City Council unanimously approved the Zone In code overhaul in July 2024, creating six mixed-use districts on 12,300 parcels.

Related Projects

Summary Block

This block has no content yet. Items you add to the page connected to this block will display here.

Projects

Housing PolicyHousing Needs + Capacity AnalysisPolicy EvaluationFeasibility + Market AnalysisDevelopment Incentives

This article was written by Dacie Doucette, founder of Hunch Theory Web Design & SEO, a Portland-based web design and digital marketing company.

The idea was simple: to help business owners take the guesswork out of web design and make their online presence something they’re genuinely excited about. I work closely with passionate business owners and community leaders, turning their vision into reality with sites that not only look great but also connect with their customers and help their businesses grow.

I bring a mix of marketing theory, intuition, and my creative touch to every project.

https://hunchtheory.com

Tahoe Housing Initiative

Missoula Unified Development Code

Spatial Planning + Placemaking

Conceptual planning, test-fits, streetscapes, and master plans that make places walkable, vibrant, and inclusive — with the design and economic analysis to show they can actually be built.

Visioning + Long-Range Planning

Comprehensive and general plans that frame alternative futures, surface trade-offs, and set a direction the community owns — not one it inherits from a process it didn’t trust.

Urban Analytics + Scenario Planning

Growth modeling, fiscal impact analysis, and policy evaluation that let communities test alternative futures before committing — decisions made with eyes open to uncertainty, not in spite of it.

Real Estate + Feasibility

Site feasibility, pro forma, public-private partnership structuring, and development strategy for public-sector clients navigating the gap between what a place could be and what the market will currently support.

Zoning Code Reform

Code audits, zoning updates, form-based codes, and design standards written for adoption and legal review — not just policy aspiration. Pro-forma-driven analysis that tests whether new standards produce the outcomes they promise.

Housing Policy

Housing needs analyses, production strategies, and middle-housing policy calibrated to local markets and state statutory requirements — so plans produce housing, not just goals.

Environment + Sustainability

Urban forestry, parks and open space planning, climate action, and environmental equity analysis — treated as a land use problem alongside core planning practice, not as a separate sustainability track.

How We Work

1. Road-Tested Futures

We structure work around alternative futures rather than a single recommended path, stress-testing strategies against market, regulatory, and political conditions before clients commit. Scenario planning, feasibility analysis, and housing needs assessments form the analytic foundation — so decisions get made with eyes open to uncertainty, not in spite of it.

2. Visually Striking Storytelling

Sophisticated analysis is only useful if non-technical audiences can engage with it. We translate quantitative findings, policy choices, and design ideas into plain-language narratives, diagrams, and renderings that a council member, a property owner, or a neighbor can see, debate, and act on — without simplifying the substance underneath.

3. Hands-On, Equitable Engagement

Quality process creates quality outcomes. We engage authentically, not transactionally — designing processes that meet people where they are, in their language, their venue, their schedule, so communities feel genuinely heard, not simply consulted. We integrate that input with the technical work it’s meant to inform, to create outcomes shaped by the community.

4. Place-Based Designs

Two convictions drive our practice: a plan only matters if it can be acted on, and planning works best when it’s grounded in a real place. Every plan, policy, and analysis we produce is anchored to specific places — drawing on local form, history, and patterns of use so ideas can be visualized, debated, refined, and built. Grounding the work spatially is what makes spatial planning more than a label.

5. Market-Feasible Strategies

A plan is only as good as its adoption rate. We are clear-eyed about the financial, regulatory, and political obstacles to realizing equity and sustainability, and we build those conditions into the work from the start — pro forma stress-tests, code drafts written for legal review, strategies calibrated to what the market will actually support and build.