Franklin County Planners Weigh Hayden Run Self-Storage Rezoning

The Franklin County Planning Commission meets October 14 to weigh recommendations on two township rezonings: a five-building self-storage complex on the fast-growing Hayden Run Road corridor in Brown Township, which county staff recommend denying, and a residential lot split in Jefferson Township, which staff support.

County planners get the first word

The commission is the first public body to review both requests, and its role is advisory: it makes a recommendation rather than a final decision. For land the county zones directly, such as the Brown Township parcel, the commission advises the Rural Zoning Commission, and the Franklin County Board of Commissioners makes the final call. Jefferson Township runs its own zoning, so there the commission advises that township's zoning commission and its elected trustees.

A self-storage plan on a crowded corridor

Case ZON-26-11 asks to rezone about 3.57 acres at 7328 to 7348 Hayden Run Road from the county's Rural district to a Select Commercial Planned District, so the owners can build a personal self-storage complex of five one- and two-story buildings with a small office. The owners, Aristotle and Beth Hutras, applied through the Smith and Hale law firm, with Silver Development and Construction listed as the applicant.

The parcels sit on the north side of Hayden Run Road just east of Hilliard, boxed in by large planned Columbus developments: a roughly 105-acre mixed-use project to the west and an approved 264-acre development to the north, each combining housing, a park, and commercial space.

Why staff recommend denial

Franklin County's planning staff recommend denial, but for a narrow reason: the applicant has not yet filed a preliminary stormwater drainage plan that satisfies the county engineer. Staff wrote that, apart from that unresolved drainage question, the department supports the request, and that no review agency objected to the self-storage use itself. The 2024 Brown Township Comprehensive Plan steers the site toward low-intensity, mostly residential use at no more than 30 percent lot coverage in a single building, while the application seeks five buildings and up to 80 percent coverage under the standards of the county's Community Service district.

The township wants a different future

Brown Township told the county it opposes the rezoning, saying the self-storage use does not fit its comprehensive plan and that the Select Commercial Planned District would not even exist under the township's own proposed zoning code. The township said it would rather see the land annexed into Columbus, turned into affordable housing, or kept as park or green space. That proposed code is itself on the ballot: trustees adopted Resolution 9-2026 on August 3, asking voters in the township's unincorporated area on November 3 whether to approve a township zoning plan for the unincorporated area. The township says that if voters approve the plan, zoning authority the county now exercises would move to Brown Township's elected trustees.

A quieter request in Jefferson Township

The second case, JEFF-26-07, asks to rezone about 9.45 acres at 7945 Clark State Road, on the county's east side near Blacklick, from Countryside Suburban Residential to Restricted Suburban Residential so the property can be split into smaller lots. The change would cut the minimum lot size from five acres to one, and county staff recommend approval, calling the request consistent with neighboring homes and with the township's 2025 comprehensive plan, which favors low-density housing of about one home per acre.

What happens next

The commission's votes October 14 are recommendations, not final approvals, and each case has further steps: the Brown Township request still needs the Rural Zoning Commission and the county commissioners, and the Jefferson Township request still needs that township's zoning commission and trustees. This article is based on the published agenda, the hearing notice, and the staff reports ahead of the 1:30 meeting that afternoon, so it does not report how the commission voted. The county's record will show both outcomes, and the November 3 ballot will decide whether Brown Township takes control of its own zoning.