Columbus Council to Weigh 216 Demorest Road Apartments on a Church Site

Columbus City Council takes up a rezoning on October 19 that would let Indianapolis developer Kittle Property Group build 216 apartments on an 11.5-acre rural church property on Demorest Road, a Grove City-area site where the local area commission voted 0-8 against the plan over density and traffic.

A rural church site at the city's southwestern edge

The 11.49-acre site sits on the west side of Demorest Road, about 460 feet north of White Spruce Lane, in the 43123 ZIP code at the far southwestern edge of Columbus. It still carries the Rural District zoning it was given when Columbus annexed it from neighboring Jackson Township, and single-family houses surround it on three sides. The property owner of record is Vida Nueva Wesleyan Church, which the city's rezoning file lists, and the applicant is Indianapolis-based Kittle Property Group.

What Kittle wants to build

Kittle's site plan, titled Sycamore Landing and received by the city on May 20, 2026, lays out 216 apartments in five three-story buildings, a density of about 18.8 units per acre. The homes would range from 60 one-bedroom and 96 two-bedroom apartments to 39 three-bedroom and 21 four-bedroom units, with 22 built to be accessible. The plan adds a clubhouse, a pool, a playground, a dog park, walking paths and 377 parking spaces. Limited Apartment Residential zoning, the category Kittle is seeking, allows multi-unit housing, while the current Rural District does not.

An affordable-housing developer, though the file sets no income limit

The site plan commits Sycamore Landing to the National Green Building Standard's Silver level and to the design standards of the Ohio Housing Finance Agency, the state body that awards low-income housing tax credits. Kittle has built income-restricted housing in the Columbus area before: its 260-unit Darby Crossing community was financed in part with $21.3 million in Ohio Housing Finance Agency tax credits, with every unit income- and rent-restricted at 60 percent of area median income. The Demorest Road rezoning file, however, states no rent or income restriction for Sycamore Landing, and no tax-credit award for the project appears in these records.

City reviewers back it, the neighborhood does not

The city's professional staff recommend approval. The Department of Building and Zoning Services wrote that although apartments conflict with the 1994 Westland Area Plan's Institutional designation for the land, the project fits the Columbus Growth Strategy's call to convert faith-based sites to housing. The Development Commission, an advisory board, agreed on May 14, 2026, voting 3-2 to recommend approval.

The Westland Area Commission, the elected neighborhood body, had already voted 0-8 against the rezoning on December 17, 2025. Its written objection points to density and traffic: about 19 units per acre against neighboring land zoned for 3 to 5, on a two-lane road whose nearest Interstate 270 access runs through a single-lane roundabout at Alkire Road. The commission concluded that the site is "not appropriate for the intensity of this proposed development."

What happens next

The ordinance was introduced on May 22, read for the first time by Council on June 22, and referred to the Zoning Committee on June 29; it now returns for a second reading on the October 19 zoning agenda. Council could accept the change, send it back, or hold it for more work, and a vote is not guaranteed on any single meeting date. Readers can watch the October 19 Council zoning session for the outcome, and watch whether Kittle later seeks tax credits that would set the project's rents.