Ginther urges embrace of zoning reform, LinkUS
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Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther urged residents to embrace the city's zoning overhaul and vote to invest in local infrastructure in his State of the City address last night.
Why it matters: It was an agenda-setting opportunity for Ginther's third term, which began in January.
- Below are his priorities:
👁️ Eyes in the sky: Columbus will have centralized monitoring of hundreds of downtown security cameras by early next year.
- He highlighted the city's drop in homicides this year, while acknowledging a string of recent deadly shootings.
- A new police substation in the Hilltop will also open next year and a Real Time Crime Center in North Linden is expected to open in 2027.
🏗 Quicker builds: Ginther called on the Department of Building and Zoning to create a "fast-track approval process for affordable housing projects."
🏡 Housing goal: The mayor expects the Central Ohio region to get 200,000 new housing units built over the next 10 years to "keep pace with demand."
- However, Columbus built around 5,500 new housing units last year, far from the 20,000 per year average in Ginther's calculation.
- Erin Prosser, the city's assistant director of housing strategy, has said the region needs at least 22,000 new units annually to account for expected population growth.
State of play: The mayor promoted the $8 billion LinkUS plan to create "bus rapid transit" lines on West Broad Street and four other busy corridors, among other infrastructure improvements.
- This will require voters' approval of a sales tax increase at the November ballot box.
- And he noted other efforts to build new bike lanes, sidewalks and trails.
The intrigue: The mayor outlined only a few goals and policies that had not already been announced or implemented.
Between the lines: It was a platitude-heavy speech, even as far as State of the City addresses go.
- Ginther said residents and officials must "roll up our sleeves and do the difficult work" so that Columbus would reach its potential as "that shining city on a hill."
- The mayor did not mention immigration, climate change, green energy projects, local tourism efforts or the proposed passenger rail project.
- Nor did he highlight — as he had previously — the city's legal battles with the Republican-led state government on issues like gun restrictions and flavored tobacco sales bans.