Study of Worthington's housing needs prescribes infill as workers, seniors priced out
A study of Worthington's housing suggests there is demand for 2,000 more residences and prescribes adding smaller, closer together and more affordable options in strategic areas.
The Worthington City Council commissioned Camoin Associates, a New York-based consulting firm, last year to conduct a housing needs assessment. The council voted unanimously to accept the 150-page report last week.
Before voting, Council member David Robinson expressed concern about accepting the report, saying it might indicate members endorse everything the report says, which he said he does not. Robinson said the report is "one-sided" and does not mention, for example, community resistance to high-density apartments that are not done well.
City Manager Robyn Stewart said accepting the report only means the council has received the info in the report and is ready to move forward.
Besides Robinson, the rest of the council expressed more openness to the report's findings.
Council member Beth Kowalczyk said this report tracks with what they've been hearing, including that seniors and young adults are being priced out.
"This also drives economic development. Employers want to be able to locate where their employees can live. And as we fail to address this issue, fewer and fewer employees can live in this community and work where they live," Kowalczyk said.
Worthington, a landlocked suburb surrounded by Columbus, currently has nearly 15,000 residents and about 6,150 housing units. Its 5 ½ square miles are already mostly developed.
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The report determined the demand for additional housing by adding together the estimated number of cost-burdened residents, displaced commuters and a small number of overcrowded households.
Cost-burdened means a household spends more than 30% of their income on housing. The report found that a third of Worthington renters are cost-burdened, and half of those are seniors.
The report refers to displaced commuters as those who work within Worthington and would like to live in the suburb, but cannot due to market conditions.
Robinson took issue with calling those workers displaced, saying it makes them sound like victims who were forcibly removed.
Council member Rebecca Hermann said that in the 1980s, she worked at the AT&T building in Worthington, but could not afford housing for her family in the suburb.
“I couldn’t afford it. So I lived in Worthington school district … I know quite a few renters that haven’t been able to live in Worthington,” Hermann said. “It was displacement … and honestly, I did feel kind of frustrated."
Robert J. O'Brien, a senior housing specialist with Camoin, told the council during a presentation that he does not think Worthington will be able to add 2,000 units, at least immediately, and change will be incremental with modest infill.
"But that's how you start to solve this: Providing more supply that can change the market to make it more affordable, more price attainable for the folks who want to live or stay in Worthington," O'Brien said.
Strategies to diversify housing that Camoin suggests in the report include allowing duplexes, accessory dwelling units, mixed-use development, rowhomes along the boundaries between commercial districts and neighborhoods, patio houses and village-style development with smaller homes on smaller lots. The report also suggests strategies to support existing apartment buildings to maintain affordable housing that's already in the suburb.
O'Brien also cautioned in his presentation against allowing citizens with strong opinions to have a disproportionate say in opposing a development, saying it's a problem every community in America faces. Camoin suggests in its report setting clear protocols for project approval to avoid uncertainty for developers that could keep them away from Worthington.
Robinson said he took issue with the suggestion that Worthington's process isn't already objective.
Other key findings from the report include:
In a survey last year of 676 Worthington residents, 73% of Worthington respondents said the city government should be involved in the housing market to advance housing goals.
As of 2021, only 6% of Worthington residents worked in the suburb and only 3% of the local workforce lived in Worthington.
While Franklin County saw a 10% rise in new housing between 2010 and 2020, Worthington's housing units only grew by 3% during that time.
Demand for apartments in Worthington is strong and the vacancy rate of rentals is at 3.6%, below the 5% that the report says is healthy.
While rents in the area have been increasing faster than in Worthington over the last decade (67% versus 50%), rent in the suburb is still 17% higher than area rents.
Worthington's average asking rent last year was $1,719.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Worthington housing study: infill housing needed to combat high prices
