Columbus residents are about to get a first crack at steering real city money into their own neighborhoods. Councilmember Nick Bankston will hold a public hearing on Wednesday, April 29, 2026, at 3 p.m. in the Council Chambers at Columbus City Hall to unveil steering-committee recommendations for the city’s first participatory budgeting pilot.
The proposal would move the process into the idea-collection phase and, as laid out by the steering committee, would give residents in each council district $1,000,000 to propose and vote on neighborhood projects. The hearing follows months of work by a resident-led steering committee and will accept both written and limited in-person testimony.
What the steering committee recommended
The council formally recognized the steering committee’s work in early April, after the group drafted recommended rules, outreach strategies, and process safeguards to guide the pilot. According to the Columbus City Bulletin, the committee was led by Participatory Budgeting Coordinator Melissa Bila and focused on equity and broad community participation.
As outlined in Councilmember Wyche's newsletter, the pilot is expected to move through five phases: process design, idea collection, proposal development, voting, and project implementation.
Funding and operations
Council added $9 million to the 2026 Capital Improvement Program to fund projects selected through the participatory budgeting cycle, and it also authorized a separate $225,000 appropriation to support the initiative’s operating costs. According to Columbus Legistar, the $225,000 will cover participant stipends, contracts with community conveners, and allowable food and beverage costs for in-person meetings.
The ordinance was put forward as an emergency appropriation so staff and partners could begin work immediately, a signal that city leaders want the pilot up and running, not sitting on a shelf.
How to weigh in
Per a post by the Columbus City Council on Facebook, written testimony should be emailed to [email protected] with the subject line "participatory budget hearing" by 10 a.m. on April 29, and in-person remarks will be limited to three minutes.
The council’s March newsletter had previously listed a hearing for April 6, indicating the published schedule was updated in recent council communications. Residents who cannot attend in person are therefore encouraged to submit written testimony by the stated deadline.
Why this matters
Participatory budgeting gives neighborhoods a direct voice over public capital spending and can shift decision-making power to residents in underrepresented communities. Large participatory budgeting cycles have moved significant sums in other cities, for example, New York City allocated millions during its FY2026 cycle, a model local officials have cited while designing Columbus’s pilot.
For additional context on the civic impacts of participatory budgeting, see the analysis from the Harvard Kennedy School and recent results reported by the New York City Council.
After the April 29 hearing, city staff and the steering committee plan to begin collecting ideas from residents and to partner with neighborhood conveners to translate promising concepts into fundable capital proposals. Council documents say staff will work with community-based organizations to support Budget Delegates and outreach during the cycle.
For the full text of the steering committee, see the Columbus City Bulletin. For the legislative language that funded the pilot, see Columbus Legistar.
