Worthington Referendum Petition Targets Harding Hospital Rezoning

A Worthington residents' group has submitted 3,976 petition signatures to force a public vote on the City Council's July rezoning of the former Harding Hospital site for 246 apartments, and the Franklin County Board of Elections is expected to decide by mid-October whether the referendum reaches the ballot.

The site and the rezoning

The dispute centers on about 20.4 acres at 445 E. Dublin-Granville Road, a property tied to the former Harding Hospital and now owned by the disability nonprofit I Am Boundless. On July 20, 2026, the Worthington City Council approved rezoning the land from its S-1 designation to a Planned Unit Development, the classification that allows the denser residential plan. The city's Municipal Planning Commission had recommended the change on June 25, 2026, by a 4-1 vote.

The petition and the threshold

The group behind the effort, Democracy Before Developers, gathered names through the summer and turned in 3,976 signatures, according to the Columbus Dispatch. Under Ohio law, a valid referendum petition needs signatures equal to 35 percent of the votes cast in the city's last election for governor, a threshold the Dispatch reported as 3,017 for Worthington. That leaves the group about 959 signatures, or roughly 32 percent, above the minimum before any signature is reviewed. Even at the low end of the 85-to-90 percent validity rate the group's coordinator estimated, about 3,380 names would survive, still above the bar.

What the city approved

The approved plan calls for 246 apartments and two single-family homes, an investment the city puts at about $52.45 million. The apartments break down as 148 one-bedroom, 74 two-bedroom and 24 three-bedroom units. The developer, Elford, has committed 74 of the 246 apartments, about 30 percent, to households earning up to 80 percent of the area median income for 10 years, tied to a requested 10-year, 75 percent property-tax abatement the city estimates at roughly $743,000 a year. Over its full term, that abatement would forgo about $7.4 million in property taxes.

Why residents are objecting

Opponents have argued the project is too dense for the surrounding neighborhood, the objection WOSU described as driving the effort to block the high-density complex. The City Council's July rezoning and the city's workforce-housing terms are the documented case on the other side. CREN did not obtain direct comment from Elford or the city for this report, and this account rests on the city's public project record and the cited reporting.

What is settled and what is not

Several parts of the story remain open. The Franklin County Board of Elections, not the city, decides whether the signatures are valid, and WOSU reported that a ruling is expected in mid-October 2026. The 3,017-signature figure traces to the Dispatch's account of the board's requirement; CREN could not independently read the board's own notice, which was posted only as a scanned document. Reporting indicates the measure would appear on a 2027 ballot if it is certified, though the exact date depends on that certification. A separate Final Plan approval is still required before construction can begin, regardless of the referendum.

What to watch next

The next verifiable checkpoint is the elections board's validation decision, expected in mid-October 2026, which will determine whether the rezoning goes before voters or takes effect as approved. CREN will update this report when the board certifies or rejects the petition.