Columbus is giving its airport business park a serious makeover, and the city’s future animal shelter is riding shotgun.
The Columbus City Council has approved a broad rewrite of the AirPark Planned Unit Development this week, clearing the way for more businesses and a new city animal shelter on airport property. The overhaul loosens restrictions that had kept retail and service uses limited to a few corridors and retools open-space rules to allow events and play areas. City and planning officials say the changes reflect the AirPark’s evolution from a traditional office park into a mixed-use employment and community hub.
The council passed the ordinance’s second reading, moving the PUD amendment toward finalization. The rewrite updates the schedule of uses so commercial activity, including restaurants, convenience markets and retailers, can locate more broadly across the Infotech Park, the education and life-sciences center and the Ray Boll Commerce Center. As reported by The Republic, the change also expands provisions for Bakalar Green and the community garden.
What the PUD changes do
The Plan Commission forwarded a favorable recommendation to City Council after reviewing the airport’s request and a staff report. Per the Columbus Plan Commission minutes, the amendment would add a new animal-shelter use category, expand the Open Space 2 provisions and revise the schedule of uses for property roughly bounded by Arnold Drive, Chapa Drive, River Road and Poshard Drive. Staff attached six conditions to the recommendation that must be addressed before the changes are officially written into the code.
Animal shelter and new tenants
The rewrite explicitly clears the path for the Wendy H. Elwood Animal Care Services Center, a project that city documents estimate at roughly $9–10 million and say will be funded by a mix of city, state and private dollars. The shelter is expected to break ground this spring and will add a new use to the AirPark’s toolbox.
The Republic also reports airport leaders have attracted about 14 new businesses to the AirPark over the last 18 months, including Blue & Company, Turnkey Home Solutions and a 10,000-plus-square-foot Walk-Off Warehouse baseball training facility.
Why planners supported the rewrite
Planning staff told commissioners that the AirPark’s original PUD was built around an office-park concept that no longer matches the local market, and that recent investments in trails and sidewalks have made the campus more suitable for neighborhood-serving retail and services. The Plan Commission minutes note staff seeking a “more diverse range of land uses and more freedom to mix and integrate those uses” across the campus. Officials emphasized they still intend to concentrate most retail and restaurant uses near the intersection of Poshard Drive and Central Avenue.
What comes next
With second reading passed, city staff and airport representatives will work through the staff-report conditions and site-specific approvals before permits are issued. Residents and businesses around the AirPark can expect planning and permitting activity to pick up as the city moves toward construction of the animal shelter and other projects.
