The Colonial Hills Civic Association

On November 10, Boundless hosted a meeting in the gymnasium on their campus, 445 E. Dublin Granville Rd, for Elford to share their proposed development plans which had been updated based on feedback from many groups for the purchased Boundless property, to build Class A multi-family housing.

Joseph Davy, Boundless Chief Financial Officer, representing Patrick Maynard, Boundless President and CEO, opened the meeting, and stated that Boundless has always been consistent about not opening the gate at Indianola to anything but emergency access, and there is no intention in the development plans to have any through-traffic connection of SR161 to Indianola. Mr. Davy then turned the meeting over to Mike Fitzpatrick, CEO of Elford and President of Elford Development, to review the development plans which Elford had updated from the June 19, 2025 presentation, and to answer any questions/comments from the audience.

Approximately 70 residents attended the meeting, mostly from Colonial Hills, but some were from residential areas to the northwest, such as E. New England Ave. Also, at least four current and/or newly-elected Worthington City Council members were in attendance.

Mr. Fitzpatrick began by explaining that he and his design team had promised to listen to the concerns expressed by residents at the June 19 meeting, and the updated plans were drawn from a blank slate, based on this feedback, and are specific to this site, one of the lowest density projects Elford has worked on. He stated that commitments made in the final version of the plans will run with property.

Mr. Fitzpatrick noted that the main changes from the June 19 version of the plans were:

• The two apartment buildings closest to Park Overlook were reduced from three to two stories, and that the distance between Park Overlook and these two buildings had been increased to be 92 feet from the property line.
• There are separate drives and traffic circles to help traffic to Boundless vs. traffic to the apartments.
• The design for the apartments, with the high pitch of the 2-story roofs, attempts to match the Colonial Hills residential neighborhood. Also, the design of cedar shake and white windows is trying to be consistent with other Boundless buildings.
• The carriage houses on the west side of the development are intended to create a separation from Boundless.
• The walking path through the site is designed to keep pedestrians out of the Boundless area and people’s homes.
• The design reflects a commitment to landscaping, including keeping as many signature trees as possible, and to protecting the stream corridor.

Also, Mr. Fitzpatrick discussed some additional design details:

• This is a Class A Planned Development, with 246 apartment units, comprised of 12 studio apartments, 136 1-br apartments, 64 2-br apartments, 24 2-br apartments with 2 baths, home office and covered parking, and 10 1-br carriage units above the garages (there are no units being built as 3-br apartments) — and with a pool, fitness center and co-working space.
• The development will be on 23 acres; thus, 246 apartments divided by 23 acres equals approximately 11 apartments per acre.
• Parking will be provided, without variances.
• The production schedule will be approximately 18 months.
• The number of estimated residents is 330, and estimated cars parked is 369. 1.5 parking spaces per unit is a standard metric. A traffic study will be done with the city.

Mr. Fitzpatrick then opened the meeting for audience questions/comments and answers, which part of the meeting lasted about an hour. Unless otherwise noted, the answers were given by Mr. Fitzpatrick. These Q. (and/or comments) and A. are summarized as follows in the chronological order of their discussion:

• Q. Price points/affordability? A. Example: approximately $2/sq. ft. times an 800 sq. ft. apartment equals approximately $1,600 rent/month. However, price points are not yet worked out.
• Q. Upgrading / keeping apartments current? A. Planned for every 16 years or so, to protect Elford’s investment.
• Q. Harding Hospital used Indianola for their contractors, with the nightmare of large trucks speeding down Indianola. A. There will be no construction traffic on Indianola.
• Q. Pet friendly? A. Yes, very, with a pet walking area.
• Q. Where will the boundaries be? A. The submission to the City will be very clear as to where the boundaries are. Any commercial uses along the sides are not in the development plan.
• Q. Will Park Overlook inevitably become a parking area due to apartment residents looking for a convenient parking area? A. The City could address this issue of enforcing non-Colonial-Hills residents parking there.
• Q. Possibility of 4-story apartments that back up to the ravine? A. Not likely, since a 4-story building forces an elevator and other development changes (air-conditioned hallways, etc.) that push price points beyond optimal for Elford.
• Q. This development means approximately 1,000 people will be added to the neighborhood. A. No reply given.
• Q. A Planned Use Development (PUD) is a unique zoning that a developer applies for, and is the way The Hartford at Stafford Village and other such developments are done. A. No reply given.
• Q. Rain storm water runoff? A. The planned Storm Water Management System (SWMS) will be better than the currently-existing runoff, but because of the Boundless clientele, the SWMS must be underground.
• Q. Plans to open a west entrance? A. None.
• Q. Plans to widen SR161? A. The plan must make the traffic work for Boundless and the apartment residents.
• Q. Concerns about number of young families for the schools. A. During the public process, the schools look at the mix of anticipated residents to estimate the number of young children. There will not be many 3-br apartments, and no playground area, which should greatly reduce the number of young children.
• Q. The school district said 21% of the apartments would have families with such children. (246 apartments times 21% means approximately 52 families with kids.) A. This will be part of the public discussion.
• Q. To permanently solve the problem of access, such that future City Councils will never give in to pressures to open Indianola to SR161 and Proprietors Rd, we need to figure out alternate access points along SR161. (This is related to another resident’s comment that historically, MORPC had shown Indianola open on a past version of their map.) A. The traffic study, part of the public process, will show the impact to what exists today. What is in the zoning will be legally binding.
• Q. An estimate shows 1700 trips per day, which SR161 cannot handle. A. Elford will bring a traffic engineer to the public meetings.
• Q. Minimum lease requirements? A. Minimum will be 12 months, but residents for Elford’s apartments average 5 to 6 years.
• Q. Can Elford police unauthorized over population in their apartments? A. Yes, Elford manages this very well.
• Q. Some Elford developments, such as NCR at Stafford are unique and colorful, but the apartments in the plan look like typical apartments without curb appeal bordering many Columbus streets – can these apartments be more distinct and separate, or better screened off from Park Overlook? A. No reply from Mr. Fitzpatrick, but another resident noted that they were unable to rent at Stafford because this upscale development had an upscale cost of about $6,000/month rent.
• Q. Does Elford manage all the apartments they develop? A. Elford has 2,000 apartments in Central Ohio, about 95% of which are managed by Elford.
• Q. Will there be elevators in the buildings? A. None are planned, even for the 3-story buildings.
• Q. Will you use tax abatements? A. Yes, Elford is working for tax abatements.
• Q. Will you let the CHCA approve your plans? A. One of our CHCA members present answered this question by noting that the CHCA is not a political organization, that the CHCA is a 501(c)(3).

After the above last question from the audience had been asked, Mr. Fitzpatrick concluded the formal part of the meeting by stating that Boundless/Elford will be sharing updated plans with the community in conjunction with sharing these plans with the City. The meeting then continued informally for about another half hour, with residents asking additional questions of Mr. Fitzpatrick and members of Elford’s design team.

Note: The above statements-made-at-the-meeting report is the consensus understanding of the CHCA Board members and other CHCA members who regularly attend CHCA meetings, who attended this meeting. For analysis of what the Boundless/Elford plans discussed at the meeting mean for Colonial Hills, a Colonial Hills resident may wish to join and access the Colonial Hills Advocate Together (CHAT) Facebook Group.