By Mark Ferenchik
A five-story apartment building geared toward graduate students and young professionals might go up along N. High Street between the Short North and Ohio State University this year.
City leaders hope that the building will spur other projects to fill in the gaps along High Street, but some neighborhood leaders and residents fear that the building might make too big of a statement.
“We haven’t seen the last request for more density along High Street,” said Susan Keeny, the zoning chairman of the University Area Commission. “In some areas, it’s not appropriate.”
The city’s Board of Zoning Adjustment approved a variance in January to allow a building as tall as 75 feet in the area zoned for buildings no taller than 35 feet. The University Area Commission had voted against it.
The developer, Kohr Royer Griffith, could break ground at the northeast corner of N. High and E. 7th Avenue in the Weinland Park neighborhood by fall, if architectural reviews and other issues can be resolved by then, said John Royer, the company’s president.
The building would go up along the street, adding a similar urban look to the streetscape as the new Kroger store, located just to the south. “Our location is a very key component to trying to keep the Short North and campus and Downtown merging together,” Royer said.
The building’s 86 apartments would be on the top three floors. The second floor and part of the first floor would be for parking. Plans also call for ground-level retail stores, including a pharmacy.
Columbus Planning Administrator Vince Papsidero said the city wants to see more high-density, mixed-use developments along High Street to connect the Short North with the South Campus Gateway area and the Ohio State University campus.
“We definitely want to see that kind of density take place on a commercial corridor,” Papsidero said. “If you want to have successful neighborhood retail, you have to have housing within walking distance.
And although residential neighborhoods border High Street, the area needs more housing to strengthen the retail corridor, he said.
University Area Commissioner Tom Wildman said he fears that the project will encourage more like it.
City staff members who reviewed the proposal reported that the building would not be out of character for the area and pointed to the five-story buildings at the South Campus Gateway less than a half-mile to the north and the eight-story Jackson on High condominiums just to the south in the Short North.
A 2002 plan for the area calls for a one- to three-story building on the site, but “It doesn’t reflect today’s economic realities,” Papsidero said. He said younger people want to live in denser urban areas, and plans should be updated to reflect that.
Commission members spent years developing plans for the area along High Street as a footprint to guide developers, Wildman said. “This company, they have absolutely ignored the guidelines and decided to build whatever they want to build.”
The developer would tear down a building housing a Dollar Tree store and a laundry, and eliminate a large surface parking lot to make way for the project.
Laura Bidwa, vice president of the Weinland Park Community Civic Association, said some Weinland Park residents are concerned about losing those businesses and that the new units would cost too much for many in the neighborhood.
Campus Partners, Ohio State’s nonprofit development arm, has always envisioned closing the gap between the Short North and the South Campus Gateway, which it developed, said Campus Partners President Doug Aschenbach.
Many people would find the building an attractive place to live, he said. “I think there is a demand for living in the urban environment that goes beyond undergraduate students.”
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