Explanation
BACKGROUND: The purpose of this ordinance is to repeal Ordinance 1765-2025 in its entirety and replace it with a new ordinance. The new ordinance, contained herein, will change the entity’s name with whom the City enters into agreement and authorizes the assignment of the agreement to another entity.
Ordinance 1765-2025, passed by Columbus City Council on July 14, 2025, authorized the Director of the Department of Development to enter into a grant agreement with Reserve at Maryland Avenue LLC for development of 84 housing units in an amount up to $2,020,000.00 and to reimburse construction expenses incurred prior to execution of the purchase order. The project is known as The Reserve at Maryland. As the development deal was finalized, the development team determined it was best to enter into a grant agreement with the City through the Oregon Corporation for Affordable Housing (OCAH), an Oregon nonprofit corporation, and then OCAH shall assign the agreement to Reserve at Maryland Ave, LLC, an Ohio limited liability company.
The Reserve at Maryland Avenue is a proposed 84-unit, multifamily development to offer income restricted housing to current and future residents of Columbus’ Near East Side. The project, which is in a Qualified Census Tract and within a specifically designated CRA target area within the City of Columbus, is an important part of the Near East Side Plan for revitalization.
Connect Housing Blocks, an industrialized unit manufacturer in Columbus, will manufacture the individual dwelling units. The concept of modular units has many advantages: they are more environmentally sustainable and produce 70% less waste than a traditional stick build and are less weather dependent and more time efficient to build. Due to the nature of building the units off site in a manufacturing facility, each unit is a separately licensed industrialized unit that is inspected in the factory, which leads to less burden for municipalities for inspection...
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