East Franklinton Creative Community District Plan

A nine-month planning process that began in 2011 focused on specifically attracting and retaining young 'creative class' residents who cannot afford the city's increasingly gentrified neighborhoods. The East Franklinton Creative Community District Plan, prepared by an interdisciplinary team led by Goody Clancy, calls for the creation of an arts and innovation district on 200 acres of distressed, partly industrial land just west of downtown Columbus. Measures to ensure the district's residents can remain in the area include affordability mandates for new development, freezing of existing property taxes for existing residential parcels, and artist live/work tax credits.

As many as 2,000 new lofts, live/work houses, and single-family houses will be built, along with nearly 50,000 square feet of stores, cafes, and galleries. There is potential for more than 100,000 square feet of adaptive reuse of industrial buildings for artist studios and entrepreneur/small business incubator space. The new district is projected to become home to 3,600 to 4,800 new residents. Already under development are the adaptive reuse of two warehouses and one new mixed-use project.

East Franklinton Creative Community District Plan: A diverse group of community members came together to define a vision for the creative resurgence of East Franklinton, a neighborhood just west of downtown Columbus, Ohio.