This article is part of a Worthington Pulse special edition on the city's draft comprehensive plan. Start with the Resident's Guide to the draft plan, which links the full series.
The draft comprehensive plan's opportunity areas chapter (printed pp. 139-184) is where the document gets specific: named streets, named sites, and building heights. It covers the five places "where change is anticipated, encouraged, or should be strategically managed". The designations are policy guidance, not rezonings, but they set the expectations the city's future zoning code will enforce. Here is what the plan proposes for each area, with page references so you can check the maps yourself in the full draft.
Wilson Bridge: the tallest buildings in the plan
The Wilson Bridge corridor is called "Worthington's primary economic engine" and the city's "front door from I-270" (p. 140). The plan says it can "accommodate greater intensity than most other areas of the City," and its height guidance is tiered (pp. 144-145):
- A Mixed Use Core, centered on the former mall site and the parcels visible from I-270, contemplates 6 to 10 stories, the greatest height and density anywhere in the city.
- A broader Mixed Use General area allows 3 to 6 stories with structured parking.
- A Mixed Use Edge fronting West Wilson Bridge Road across from established residential steps down to about 3 stories, and a Corridor Neighborhood Office zone on East Wilson Bridge tops out at 2.5 stories next to neighborhoods.
The draft notes the High North mall redevelopment plan was previously approved but delayed by market conditions, and that a regional developer has recently acquired multiple aging office properties along the corridor (p. 140). Developer Crawford Hoying, which owns five buildings on West Wilson Bridge Road, presented detailed designs to the Municipal Planning Commission in June.
The corridor's vision includes a network of publicly accessible plazas and greens, outdoor dining, and multi-use paths connecting east-west and into the neighborhoods (p. 143). A feasibility study of the High Street and Wilson Bridge Road intersection, one of the city's highest-crash locations and "the primary entry point" to the area, is currently underway. The Wilson Bridge Road and Rieber Street intersection is also flagged for safety enhancements, including raised crosswalks and a possible no-turn-on-red (p. 147).
North High: 1033 High Street and a park called Tucker Creek
The North High corridor between Old Worthington and Wilson Bridge holds the plan's two biggest reinvestment sites: the 1033 High Street property and the former corporate campus at 6700 North High Street (p. 149).
On 1033 High Street, the draft acknowledges the site's unresolved status directly: "a mixed-use rezoning proposal was denied by City Council and remains subject to ongoing litigation. As a result, the site's ultimate redevelopment form and timing remain uncertain".
What the plan does offer is a statement of what the city wants whenever redevelopment comes. Eight site principles call for concentrating mixed-use buildings along High Street, requiring step-down transitions to surrounding neighborhoods, limiting vehicle access points to prevent cut-through traffic, and protecting the Tucker Creek corridor with "permanent no-build areas" (pp. 152-156). An illustrative concept shows a "Tucker Creek Park and Preserve" with roughly 5 acres of passive creekside preserve and about 6 acres of active park space (pp. 153-154).
The draft also publishes a fiscal estimate for an illustrative development program on the site: 200,000-300,000 square feet of office-anchored mixed use would net the city roughly $860,000 to $1.3 million per year, while the residential components would run negative. The full program nets out to a total annual gain of roughly $180,000 to $320,000 (p. 155). The plan states the tradeoff plainly: more office means more fiscal benefit, while more residential or retail reduces it.
The corridor itself is directed toward gradual change: buildings moving closer to High Street with parking behind, plazas and green spaces punctuating the frontage rather than a continuous wall of buildings, and better walking and biking connections to Old Worthington (p. 150). One long-term idea: realigning the sharp-angled High Street and Worthington-Galena Road intersection, where the city owns nearby property, though the plan says that "requires significant study" (p. 158).
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Old Worthington: deliberate continuity
The historic core's direction is to stay what it is. The plan calls Old Worthington "the historic and symbolic heart of the community" (p. 159) and its strategy reads accordingly (p. 160):
- Maintain the prevailing one- to three-story scale along High Street.
- Establish a clear rehabilitation preference for contributing historic structures, evaluating rehab and adaptive reuse before demolition.
- Protect the Village Green and keep ground floors along High Street active with storefront retail and dining.
- Support sensitive infill, upper-story residential, accessory dwelling units, and small multi-family consistent with Architectural Review District standards.
On parking, the plan points to a recent study that found overall utilization moderate outside of special events, and directs the city toward shared-parking agreements, enforcement, and wayfinding before adding any new supply. Structured parking would come only if demand and fiscal analysis justify it (p. 160).
South High: pressure from the Columbus side of the line
The southern High Street corridor, from Old Worthington down to the Columbus border, gets a new variable: Columbus's "Zone In" initiative recently upzoned adjacent Columbus parcels to allow buildings up to 4 stories with limited or no setbacks (p. 174). The plan frames this as both opportunity and development pressure Worthington must manage on its side of the boundary. South of Selby Boulevard, the west side of High Street is Worthington while much of the east side is Columbus.
The plan's answer is a gateway strategy (p. 168): establish a clear southern entrance identity at High Street and Selby Boulevard, support vertical mixed use with active ground floors, and step building heights between Old Worthington's historic scale to the north and the taller Columbus context to the south. Most of the frontage is designated Corridor Transition at 1 to 3 stories; a Rush Run Mixed Use pocket near the stream crossing allows 2 to 4 stories, with the stream itself treated as linear green space with trails and outdoor dining (pp. 169, 173). Areas along Rush Run west of High Street would become passive green space protecting the stream and steep slopes (p. 174).
The corridor's high-risk intersections are High Street at Selby Boulevard and High Street at East Lincoln Avenue; Lincoln is Columbus-owned, requiring cross-jurisdiction coordination (p. 172). The Village of Riverlea, which touches the corridor's west edge, is called out for coordination as well (p. 167).
The Northeast Area: jobs first, and a line about Indianola
The Northeast employment district along Huntley, Proprietors, and Schrock Roads is the plan's implementation of the Northeast Area Plan adopted in 2024, now branded Forge Fields at Rush Run. The draft is unambiguous about what the area is for: "This district is not envisioned as a residential-led mixed-use area. Its primary function is to preserve and strengthen employment capacity, modernize aging building stock, and ensure infrastructure readiness for innovation-oriented and supply-chain industries" (p. 175).
The strategy includes protecting core industrial and flex areas from non-employment encroachment, encouraging voluntary parcel consolidation where reinvestment needs it, and aligning water, sewer, and roadway upgrades with employment growth (p. 176). Larger parcels in the Forge Fields Mixed Use designation could support buildings up to 6 stories as redevelopment occurs (p. 183). Rush Run, the stream running through the district, is named its "defining natural feature," to be preserved as an ecological corridor and green amenity with paths connecting north toward the Community Center and McCord Park (p. 178).
Within the district, the Boundless campus along Route 161 gets its own designation as a mixed-use zone: campus-style office, institutional, and residential uses up to 4 stories, with vehicular access concentrated at the Route 161 and Proprietors Road intersection (p. 182). One commitment will interest nearby residents: "No new vehicular connections to Indianola Avenue" (p. 182). A 246-unit apartment proposal on the Boundless site is currently in the city's review process.
The Municipal Planning Commission accepts public comments on the draft on Thursday, July 23.
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