COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX) — More than 750 leaders from Central Ohio, on Friday, gathered for the annual Economic Development 411 Conference.
Central Ohio’s population is projected to hit 3.15 million by 2050. That means the region needs more housing and better infrastructure.
The conference showcases how the region’s elected officials; economic development and business leaders and community influencers are preparing the region for growth in 2025.
ED411 Discussion Highlights:
- The Future of Economic Development: Learning how local economic development organizations, One Columbus, and state partners collaborate to drive regional economic growth through a unified approach.
- The Future of Community Planning: Discovering how strategic planning and collaboration can guide housing, industrial, and commercial development to shape a community’s vision and ensure sustainable development.
- The Future of Infrastructure: Experts from Nevada, Arizona, and Texas travelled to Columbus to share lessons they learned in securing large-scale projects, the regional challenges that follow, and how to prepare for transformative growth.
- The Future of Talent: Gaining practical insights and real-world solutions from experts bridging workforce and education gaps to develop a skilled, job-ready workforce for in-demand industries.
- The Future of Your Story: Exploring a proven 7-part framework for crafting clear, story-driven messaging, and gain practical tips to strengthen communication that will move your organizations and communities forward.
This week, ABC 6 asked Central Ohio residents what concerns or questions they have about the growth the region is experiencing. Most of the responses revolved around housing, taxes and transportation. ABC 6 brought those questions to some of the leaders in charge.
Through the Regional Housing Coalition, Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther committed to supporting the development of 100,000 necessary housing units. Central Ohio needs to create about 200,000 to keep up with the population growth. Experts at ED411 said it’s up to the local jurisdictions to create their own housing policies.
“They have it within their wherewithal to designate land and provide support in terms of the infrastructure that is needed for those plans,” Principal of Planning Next Jamie Green said.
Worthington Assistant City Manager David McCorkle said they are working on new ways to tackle the housing crisis.
“It’s been a while since we have done a comprehensive plan update, but we are taking this opportunity to engage our community and that will set the stage for the next several decades of planning for the city.,” McCorkle said. “We are not a community that is well situated for dense developments. What you are going to see are opportunities for incremental growth that starts to address the housing need.”
Part of the planning process for Central Ohio is learning from other states that already have dealt with major growth. Experts from Nevada, Arizona, and Texas traveled to Columbus to share lessons they learned in securing large-scale projects and the regional challenges that followed.
Over the last several decades, Arizona has secured several significant, large-scale projects including Intel. ABC 6 asked leaders from Arizona how they overcame challenges with housing and transportation.
“We were dealing with the same issue; there was not enough housing,” Sapna Gupta said. “It was an opportunity to expand the type of housing that was available and to explain that this growth does not have to be at the cost of quality of life.”
Gupta is the Assistant to the Deputy Director at the Maricopa Association of Governments.
For us, the biggest lesson is that this is a great opportunity for us to grow in a thoughtful way.
Gupta said her team also worked through transportation challenges, especially around their major tech sites.
“We worked to develop wider arterial roads, expand the highway and the highway interchange so not only the construction equipment could get there, but that the workers could get there in time without causing gridlock to the surrounding communities,” she said.
Executive Director of the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission, William Murdock, said Central Ohio is working to create a passenger rail service that would connect Columbus with other major cities around the region and beyond.
“We’re working on passenger rail to connect Cleveland with Columbus and Cincinnati, and the cities in between like Newark and Marysville and Delaware,” Murdock said. “That’s really important to the future of the region.”
Murdock said we can expect to start seeing infrastructure for that passenger rail within the next five years.