Welcome to the new and improved website of the Columbus Planning Division! You will find a far more comprehensive set of web pages with information, documents and applications to assist the neighborhoods we serve and the customers that work with our boards, commissions and panels.

The Planning Division is principally engaged with the built environment, undertaking plans and projects that enhance the physical character of our neighborhoods, districts and areas. This occurs through traditional physical planning and urban design solutions to assist neighborhoods, as well as a variety of projects that we undertake. The Division also staffs 12 separate boards, commissions and panels that are charged with reviewing changes to the built environment. 

The Planning Division provides guidance relative to changes in the built environment. The Division prepares area and neighborhood plans, and promotes their implementation, recommends changes to zoning codes to implement plans and maintain pace with changing development patterns and trends, and plays a key role in growth policy and joint planning with neighboring jurisdictions. Commercial overlays are a critical part of this work, as well as recent new code updates such as the modernization and “greening” of the city’s parking code.

The Planning Division manages the city’s outstanding historic districts and resources. The Division includes the Historic Preservation Office, which is charged with managing building activity in the city's 18 historic districts and 59 individually listed properties on the Columbus Register. The office is also responsible for Section 106 review of federally-funded projects. 

The Planning Division promotes ethics in planning and the city’s broader planning policies. The Planning Division subscribes to the code of ethics adopted by the American Planning Association. Working under Mayor Michael B. Coleman's Columbus Covenant, Development Department strategic priorities, and the 1993 Comprehensive Plan, the Planning Division undertakes its responsibilities consistent with a set of planning principles that ensure consensus-based, realistic and implementable neighborhood planning. For a review of the division's 2009 accomplishments and a summary of the 2010 work plan, please see the following brief report.