Welcome to FLOW’s resource hub for Columbus’s Zone IN initiative. Use the quick links below to learn how this policy impacts our waterways and how you can take action.
🔍 Quick Navigation
- What is Zone IN?
- Why Zone IN Matters for the Olentangy River
- What Makes a Zoning Policy Truly Impactful?
- Key Environmental Concerns & Advocacy Points
- How to Comment & Attend the August 27 Meeting
What is Zone IN?
Zone IN Columbus is a multi-year city initiative to modernize our outdated zoning code. It prioritizes transit-friendly design, mixed-use housing, and walkable neighborhoods.
Why Zone IN Matters for the Olentangy River
Zoning laws dictate how land is used, heavily influencing environmental health and public quality of life:
- Green Infrastructure: Proper zoning protects vital parks, wetlands, and natural buffers. Poor zoning allows them to be paved over.
- Flood Mitigation: Smart zoning manages stormwater runoff. This prevents overwhelmed storm drains from causing urban flooding.
- Clean Waterways: Effective policies keep heavy rainfall out of Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs). This prevents raw sewage from contaminating the Olentangy River.
What Makes a Zoning Policy Truly Impactful?
Well-meaning words on paper are not enough. To protect Columbus’s future, Zone IN must include:
- Clear Accountability: Every rule must assign a specific city department or party to ensure compliance (e.g., who guarantees a newly planted tree survives?).
- Measurable Definitions: Current drafts require “open space” but lack strict ecological standards. Ornamental concrete shapes or tiny grass strips do not replace functioning greenspaces.
- Long-Term Climate Resiliency: Planners must design for future rainfall spikes and severe urban heat islands, not just current baselines.
Key Environmental Concerns & Advocacy Points
FLOW has identified critical gaps in the Phase 2 draft. Use these points to guide your public comments:
⚠️ Issue 1: Loss of Existing Natural Protections
- The Risk: Current environmental protections for fragile ecosystems—like the Walhalla Ravine—risk being omitted or overridden by new Phase 2 maps.
- Our Demand: City planners must explicitly display all current protected areas on new maps and legally carry over all existing conservation bylaws.
⚠️ Issue 2: The “In-Lieu” Park Fee Loophole (Title 3318)
- The Risk: Under existing city code sections (3318.09–3318.15), developers can pay a monetary fee to the city instead of building parks or preserving greenspace in their new developments. As Columbus’s population density grows under Zone IN, this loophole will cause a severe decline in per-capita parkland and canopy coverage.
- Our Demand: Tighten the “In-Lieu” ordinance. Fees must be significantly increased to match true land acquisition costs, and funds must be legally locked for immediate, local watershed conservation.
⚠️ Issue 3: Lack of Parks Accessibility
- The Risk: My neighborhood doesn’t have a park nearby.
- Our Demand: Tell policy writers that your community would value a park. Work with your neighbors and community leaders to identify an ideal park location and share supporting information with city planners.
Shown: Great Southern Metro Park, off Williams Rd, Columbus; opened on April 1, 2026.
Image credit: MetroParks.net
Learn more about the Great Southern Metro Park here.
⚠️ Issue 4: Flooding during heavy Rainfall
- The Risk; Our stormwater drains flood. Some predictions show more frequent heavy rainfall in the future and I’m worried the flooding will damage my property.
- Our First Demand: New homes and homes that get new roofs, as an example, could be required to add a specified volume rain barrel tol catch rainwater. The water can be used for watering the lawn, flushing toilets, or other uses. All of the captured water gathered in the cistern will not travel to stormwater drains during the rain, thereby reducing the volume of rainfall the drains must manage.
Shown: Rain barrel installed at a home.
Image credit: CommunityBackyards.org
Find out more about rain barrels here.
- Our Second Demand: Neighborhoods with known flood concerns could identify areas for policy writes to require the installation of rain gardens. Rain gardens are aesthetically pleasing, appearing to be large flowerbeds. They are constructed in a way that they absorb and filter rainwater, preventing some rainwater from inundating drains.
Shown: A rain garden in Clintonville
Image credit: Blueprint Columbus
Find additional information about Blueprint Columbus’s rain gardens, what rain gardens are, and how they work here.
⚠️ Issue 5: Rivers and Bodies of Water are Not Protected
- The Risk: There is a river/stream/body of water that data indicates is not healthy/does not appear healthy.
- The Demand: Require a minimum distance of native, functioning riparian buffer around rivers, streams, and bodies of water to help improve water quality. Prioritize minimum riparian area around bodies of water with poor water quality. FLOW has identified 19 streams with poor water quality in the Lower Olentangy Watershed. The riparian buffer zone distance will depend on whether the land is sloped and what contaminants need to be filtered.
⚠️ Issue 6: The Inner City is Hot
- The Risk: Our neighborhood is hotter during high temperature events than surrounding areas. In other words, our area is an Urban Heat Island (UHI).
- Our First Demand: Provide more shade giving canopy in UHI affected areas. Work with your neighbors and community leaders to provide policy writers with a detailed plan for areas where large trees can be planted and thrive, helping to reduce high temperatures. Tell policy writers to cordon off your specified area to protect the trees from future development. Require trees be planted that are native to Ohio and will grow a large canopy to provide ample shade to your community.
Shown: Shagbark Hickory, Ohio Native Tree
Image credit: USDA Photo/ dispatch.com
Read more about Ohio native trees here.
- Our Second Demand: Provide additional shade and reduce the load on our electric grid by installing more solar panels. Install them over bus stops to give shade and shelter to riders awaiting the bus. Install them over parking spots in parking lots to shade cars from the heat. Install them on top of buildings and houses to reduce electricity bills. Recent heat waves have led to record electricity demand in Columbus due to increased air conditioning usage. There are also more data centers in Ohio which consume large quantities of electricity. As a result, Northern Ohio Weather Experts, among others, warn about potential power outages. The addition of solar panels has a compounding beneficial effect. They provide energy in the event of an electrical grid blackout, reduce the likelihood of a blackout by reducing the load, and reduce the carbon footprint leading to climate change.
Learn more about heat waves, data centers, and potential blackouts here and here.
🛠️ Take Action: Speak Up for the Watershed
- Submit Online Public Comments
Your feedback is highly valued by policy writers to strengthen the code. Tell planners to prioritize clean water, mature tree canopies, and real greenspaces.
Starting August 25th, follow this link to take a survey on Zone IN Phase 2 and provide additional feedback. This commenting period will be open for 60 days.
Do you have additional community concerns that should be added to this list? Please email them to info@olentangywatershed.org
Do you have friends and family in a Columbus community with a zoning issue? Share this article with them!
History (from July 8, 2026 meeting):
Introduction
These comments are in response to Columbus’s Title 34: 2024 Zoning Code (full). Please find FLOW’s comments below regarding Columbus’s Phase One Update (2024 Zoning Code, Title 34) hereby known as “Zone In.”
Praise for “Zone In”
FLOW commends “Zone In” for prioritizing sustainable communities, incorporating sustainability practices, and ensuring climate resiliency as specified in Section A.10.030. By including these elements in city planning, citizens will benefit from green infrastructure in many ways, including reduced urban heat effect, potentially better rainwater absorption leading to less flooding and associated property damage, and improved water quality by reducing stormwater overflow contamination, to name a few. These benefits will depend on the execution and scale of the green infrastructure applied.
Opportunities for “Zone In”
FLOW notes the following opportunities to expand the specific green infrastructure required in “Zone In.”
- Annual rainfall averages are increasing with more common severe weather events. Storm water systems in Columbus are varied; some parts of the city have Combined Sewer Overflows, connecting storm water pipes with sewer pipes. Overflows due to heavy rainfall result in sewage in adjacent rivers.Areas such as Linden and Hilltop have reported undersized systems that are at times unable to handle large volumes of rainfall leading to standing street water and yard flooding.In order to mitigate a portion of this projected additional rainfall and prevent health concerns related to storm water system overflows, more green infrastructure such as rain gardens and rain collecting should be utilized throughout the city.A. Rain gardens allow for some runoff to pool and eventually be absorbed into the soil, redirecting the water away from the storm drains. An increase in impervious surfaces (ie roofs, roadways, and parking lots) will add to the amount of rainfall inundating the current storm water system.B. Incentivize rain water collection systems. Runoff from roofs can be stored in a cistern and used for watering landscape or other non-potable uses. Collecting rain water will reduce the surge of runoff entering storm water drains and by utilizing captured water using city water, it will lower water bills.
- Columbus experiences Urban Heat Island (UHI) effects, causing concern for the safety of vulnerable populations. Dark asphalt accumulates heat making the temperature inside areas of the city rise between 7.5-9 degrees Fahrenheit in many neighborhoods.By utilizing shade trees and putting in preventative countermeasures, the city can reduce the severity of UHI and associated risks.A. Increase the number of street trees planted by CRPD annually (above the 4000 trees per year minus the 1000 trees cut down) and require all existing parking lots to be retrofitted with one tree for every 5 spaces.B. Incentivize the use of solar panels on roofs, to provide shade for parking, and other suitable locations. Reducing the load on the electrical grid, especially during peak usage times and during high temperatures when there is a greater electricity demand, decreases the likelihood of rolling blackouts during high risk heat waves.Trees planted need to be mature, deciduous trees to form a canopy capable of reducing heat in a meaningful way. Small trees or trees that do not have an adequate canopy will not have the same benefits.
- Include frequency of standardized garbage, recycling, and compost receptacles to prevent litter in the streets and in the rivers.
Additional Background on Rain Gardens
This picture shows a rain garden in Washington, D.C. The city has built 19 rain gardens and says they can collectively absorb 48,000 gallons of rainwater, reducing the load faced by stormwater drains.
Chapter E.20: Mixed-Use Zoning Districts, Section E.20.020 depicts districts that are Pedestrian-Oriented versus districts that are Auto-Oriented. In the Pedestrian-Oriented districts, required developers include rain gardens alongside the sidewalks. They will absorb some rainfall and can be done tastefully, adding to the aesthetics of the area. Auto-Oriented areas should require canopy trees and rain gardens in parking lots. This will reduce the urban heat effect and absorb rainfall reducing the load on the stormwater system.
Adding these requirements will help the city in numerous ways including reducing the burden on the stormwater system, decreasing urban heating, and adding aesthetically pleasing elements to our beautiful city. Punitive systems, such as a fine, should be in place for non compliance.
