Mayor looks to advance 4 Envision Columbus initiatives

The city of Columbus is hoping to start some major improvements in the downtown area next year.

Columbus Mayor Jim Lienhoop says that in 2019, the city will begin advancing the objectives outlined by community members during the creation of the Envision Columbus downtown plan. The first object revealed during the study was walkable downtown neighborhoods.

The mayor said the second major objective will be to increase foot traffic in the downtown area.

Those objectives led to four projects that are moving forward: a hotel/conference center with performance space, an urban grocery, neighborhood revitalization and townhome housing.

He explains that the idea behind neighborhood revitalization would be to fix up some of the dilapidated homes in the community.

The exact path any of these paths will take have yet to be set in stone. The mayor says the challenge will be to find the right developer, who wants to build the right type of project in the perfect location.

Envision Columbus is the first downtown plan since 2005 and the planning is being funded by Heritage Fund: The Community Foundation of Bartholomew County and Cummins.