The Colonial Hills Civic Association

An application to re-zone 20.3 acres at the southeast corner of the Boundless site as a PUD to allow multifamily development, will be considered at the next meeting of the Worthington MPC/ARB, Thursday, January 22, at 7:00 PM, at City Hall, 6550 N. High St.

The complete agenda for the meeting, and the detailed documentation for the Boundless PUD application have been extracted from the City of Worthington website into this PDF: ARB-MPC-Agenda_and_Boundless_Item-01-22-2026.pdf. Images of selected pages are shown below.

Colonial Hills residents who determine that the information in this PUD application is relevant to them might wish to attend this meeting. Also, analysis of what this PUD may mean for Colonial Hills might be found in the Colonial Hills Advocate Together (CHAT) Facebook Group.

A great big Thank You to Event Chair Erin Zelinski Righter and her volunteers for the neighborhood holiday party they put on at the shelter house Sunday, December 14!

Although it was a frightful, frigid 7 degrees outside, inside it was a delightful afternoon as shown in the photos, where guests enjoyed decorating cookies, playing games, doing crafts – and even seeing Santa!

(And now for the photos (Photo Credit: CHCA Webmaster) – please click the “Continue reading” link below to see these pics which have the following descriptions)

_01 Holiday Party #1
_02 Holiday Party #2
_03 Holiday Party #3
_04 Holiday Party #4
_05 Holiday Party #5
_06 Holiday Party #7
_07 Holiday Party #6
_08 Holiday Party #8

The Colonial Hills Civic Association (CHCA), Worthington, wishes to express their great appreciation for the generous gift of a box of 2000 plastic grocery bags donated on October 13, 2025, by the Kroger Charitable Donations Organization, Mr. Mark Bruce, Corporate Affairs Manager, the Kroger Company. This box of 2000 bags are 200 more than what we need every two years, and completed the other necessary supplies which the CHCA purchased for our luminary kit assembly event Saturday, December 6, in which we assembled 902 luminary kits for the 826 homes in our neighborhood – each kit containing 5 pounds of pea gravel, 5 tealight candles and 5 white lunch sacks.

And the CHCA wishes to greatly thank our two Luminary Event sponsors for their very generous donations for this event: The Roof Detective and Erin Hunt Glowacki, the Powell Buehler Group.

Also, I want to heartily thank each of the 34 volunteers, including 12 youth, who assembled all these kits in a record-tying time this year of around 10:50 AM! Please see the photos below which show the fairly good, but seasonable weather for our volunteers that day, which was one of the few non-raining days in the previous week.

And I cannot thank enough our CHCA Trustees, who delivered the luminary kits to each home in their district (plus their year-round work in delivering our Courier newsletters and CHCA membership packets, and some of whom have additional roles within the CHCA) – and many trustees also volunteered for luminary kit assembly. And I must thank Al Smyth, who has continued since 2014 to backstop our event, by delivering to nine trustees who were not able this year to pick up their bundles of kits by 1:00 PM on Saturday, including one delivery to all the homes in one district!

Mother Nature, year after year, inexplicably (knock on wood) had given us fairly, if not completely, no-raining, non-heavily snowing, and unseasonably mild days, for both Kit Assembly Saturday and Luminary Display Sunday. This year for Luminary Display Sunday, Mother Nature gave us two out of three of these conditions, including no noticeable wind – but eliminating the effect of the polar vortex was not possible – so it was a frigid 7 degrees. Thus, although the night was fine for the luminary display itself, it took some resolve on the part of our residents to make it happen.

But, braving the cold, a very high percentage of residents set out their luminaries – although the bone-chilling temperature prevented folks from getting out and walking the streets to enjoy the luminary and holiday decorations handiwork of their neighbors. And although I observed while driving each street that it was not the festive night it usually is, anyone out and about that evening was treated to wonderfully continuous displays of luminaries on many streets – for instance, on E. Selby all the way from the apartments and condos to around Foster, plus the virtual 100% participation on Meadoway, Park Overlook, E. Southington, the west, cul-de-sac end of Loveman, and portions of Indianola and Park Blvd.

Will Pearce
Luminary Event Chair

(And now for the photos (Photo Credit: CHCA Webmaster) – please click the “Continue reading” link below to see these pics which have the following descriptions)

_01 Inside Kit Assembly #1
_02 Inside Kit Assembly #2
_03 Inside Kit Assembly #3
_04 Outside Kit Assembly #1
_05 Outside Kit Assembly #2
_06 Outside Kit Assembly #3

Below are the winners of the 2025 Holiday Decorating Contest! Congratulations and thanks to all who participated. The snow on the ground really helped bring out the festiveness of the displays.

The judges decided to name each display after a Christmas song.

• Best Overall – First Place: 120 E. Riverglen – “Christmas Time is Here”
• Best Overall – Second Place: 524 Colonial – “Nightmare Before Christmas”
• Best Overall – Third Place: 265 Kenbrook Dr – “Christmas is for Children”

Front door category included front porches, yards and sometimes the whole shebang per the judges’ determination.

• Best Front Door – First Place: 5603 Indianola – “Mele Kalikimaka”
• Best Front Door – Second Place: 384 Colonial – “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”
• Best Front Door – Third Place: 547 Park Overlook – “We Wish You a T-Rex Christmas”

Best Retro, Most Artistic and Most Lit Up Categories

• Best Retro: 287 Loveman – “Frosty the Snowman”
• Most Artistic: 435 Park – “Welcome Christmas”
• Most Lit Up: 212 Colonial – “Deck the Halls”

And a huge Thank You to Event Chair Dave Nadolny and his secret judges! And also, thank you to everyone who decorated their homes!

Dave wanted to let everyone know a little history on the signs. “15 years or so ago, the CHCA decided that the annual winners should have a sign in their yard. I enlisted our local Cub Scout pack who did the festive (although odd in some cases) artwork on the back of the signs. I then stenciled the lettering on the front and waterproofed them. They’ve held up pretty well, but I think they are near end of useful life. Maybe new signs and categories next year!”

(And here are the pics, with photo credits to the Secret Judges – please click the “Continue reading” link below to see these photos)

_01 Best Overall – 1st Place
_02 Best Overall – 2nd
_03 Best Overall – 3rd
_04 Best Front Door – 1st Place
_05 Best Front Door – 2nd
_06 Best Front Door – 3rd
_07 Best Retro
_08 Most Artistic
_09 Most Lit Up
_10 Most Lit Up – Back of House

Please sign up, using our SignUpGenius, for Luminary Kits Assembly, Saturday, December 6, starting at 10:00 AM.

We hope to be completed with our assembly tasks by around 11:00 AM, the same as last year, when 29 adult and 13 youth volunteers, completed assembly for 902 kits for our 826 homes in Colonial Hills at 10:50 AM, one of the fastest times on record. Volunteers for any task can include any youth middle-school age or older, and this event is an excellent opportunity for high school seniors to add one missing CHCA event credit for their scholarship application in 2025 before their schedule fills up.

Please sign up for one of these positions:

• Inside the shelter house component assembly (up to 2 volunteers per each of the 8 workstations)
• Outside the shelter house component assembly (up to 9 volunteers, plus the Event Chair)
• Bundling supervisor (1 volunteer)
• Pea gravel shovelers (up to 8 volunteers), who are requested to bring their own standard-size, pointed-tip garden shovel. There will be teams of two people at each of the 4 shoveling station chairs. Each shoveling team can decide how long each member will shovel, while the other team member holds open the grocery bags (team members could switch roles halfway through)
• Bundles concierge (1 volunteer)
• Take down / clean up (1 volunteer)

The same as the previous three years, signing up via our SignUpGenius for a given position and arriving about 5 to 10 minutes before 10:00 AM, will reserve this position for you. After all reserved positions have been filled, we will assign those volunteers who didn’t sign up beforehand, to fill any remaining inside and outside positions — and please note that we very much appreciate all volunteers, whether previously signed up or not, and we have always been able to find a position for everyone.

Dunkin’ donuts, coffee and hot chocolate will be served, and plenty of hand sanitizer will be provided inside the shelter house.

Regarding the Trustees picking up their bundles of kits for their Districts: We are asking the Trustees to start coming over no earlier than 11:30 AM on Saturday morning to pick up their bundles, so as not to increase the number of people present in the shelter house area during the kit assembly timeframe, which is expected to be 10:00 AM to about 11:30 AM, especially if it is not raining too hard that day.

Light Your Luminaries! Our luminary display evening will be Sunday, December 14, starting at 7:00 PM per the instructions which will be enclosed in each resident’s luminary kit.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions, or if you encounter any difficulty using our event’s SignUpGenius.

Thank you,
Will Pearce, Luminaries Event Chair
365 S. Selby Blvd
614-888-8236
willpearce@columbus.rr.com

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.

Let’s all give a Hip Hip Hooray to Event Chair Brittany Smith, who made the 2025 Halloween Party the Best Ever! Brittany gathered all of the candy for the 125-150 trick-or-treaters, and selected some amazing crafts for kids of all ages — even big kids enjoyed making the Bat and Witch Cauldron Shaker Ornaments and the Halloween Pendant Necklaces, not to mention the Fuzzy Doorknob Hangers, Ghost Kid Magnets and Halloween Spider Glasses. In addition to crafts, kids tried their hands at rolling the Giant Dice, Halloween Plinko and the Spooky Ball Toss, where everyone was a winner!!

Thanks to our CHCA VP/Events Alan Miroslaw who posted and publicized this event, we were able to staff not only the craft table and games but also had 9 candy stations with treats!! I want to thank each and every volunteer who participated in making this Halloween Party a success — this would not have been possible without you!!! And speaking of volunteers, we are looking for a Co-Chair for the Halloween Party for 2026 — please consider throwing your “broom” into the ring for this wonderful volunteer opportunity.

Finally, please join me in giving a HUGE thank you to Cynthia MacKenzie and CYMACK Real Estate for providing 150 pumpkins to create Colonial Hills’ very own Great Pumpkin Patch!! Not only did Cynthia transform Selby Park into Pumpkin-Ville, but she provided all those fantastic Trick or Treat Bags, along with a spot for photo ops, complete with hay bales and gorgeous mums.

Halloween 2025 is In the Books!! Thank you, Colonial Hills, for bringing your trick or treaters and joining in the fun of this annual event!!

(And please enjoy the photos with these captions – please click the “Continue reading” link below to see these pics which have the descriptions given below – photographer credit: CHCA Webmaster, unless credited otherwise to Barbara Schwartz-Lilly)

_01 The Pumpkin Patch
_02 The Crafts Table
_03 Preparing the Games Table
_04 At the Games Table – Credit: Barbara Schwartz-Lilly
_05 At the Games Table #2 – Credit: Barbara Schwartz-Lilly
_06 Showing their Pumpkins – Credit: Barbara Schwartz-Lilly
_07 At the Games Table #3 – Credit: Barbara Schwartz-Lilly
_08 The Crafts Table #2 – Credit: Barbara Schwartz-Lilly
_09 Little Pumpkin – Credit: Barbara Schwartz-Lilly
_10 Showing their Pumpkins #2 – Credit: Barbara Schwartz-Lilly
_11 Bouncy Dice Game
_12 Spooky Ball Toss
_13 Collecting Treats
_14 Collecting Treats #2
_15 Giant Spider and Event Chair Brittany in Background
_16 Enjoying the Party
_17 At the Fire Truck
_18 At the Fire Truck #2
_19 Trucks, Pumpkins, and Prez Leslie (Back to Camera)

Boundless and Elford are inviting the Colonial Hills neighborhood to their campus, 445 E. Dublin Granville Rd, to share their proposed development plan which has been updated based on feedback from many groups. Please see the blogpost Boundless/Elford Development Presentation – June 19, 2025 for details, including the drawing, for the Boundless/Elford development plan previously presented on June 19.

Everyone is asked to consider attending this meeting – given the potential impact of higher density housing on our community, you may be interested in listening carefully and sharing your opinion.

Directions to the meeting: head to the Boundless administration building (to the right of the Health Center when you drive in), and Boundless will then assist you to the meeting area.

The CHCA along with local Scouts will be collecting food Saturday morning, November 8.

Please leave your donations on your porch by 8:30 AM, along with the flyer dropped off at your home. Please make sure the donation items are placed in an area that is visible from the street.

Alternatively, if you wish, you can drop off your items at the Selby Park shelter house from 9:00 AM to 10:0 AM

The most needed items are:

• Canned goods
• Ready to eat meals
• Beans, rice, chicken, broths
• Cereal and peanut butter
• Personal hygiene items

Please drive with care on Saturday morning with the many volunteers crossing our streets to pick up the food-drive donations.

Drum roll please!

The winners of the Neighborhood Halloween Decorating contest are:

Spookiest: 363 Loveman – A classic graveyard with a ghost moving to the neighbor’s yard and back.

Friendliest: 322 Loveman – Caribbean pirates.

Most Creative: 215 E Selby – The Dead Zeppelin band is back together again, after death! The hanging ghosts are awesome and the crescent moon behind them is beautiful (no credit to the homeowner for the moon 🙂 ).

Best Effects: 5778 Hartford – Which witch moves? Go by and see. Spooky music too, so roll down the windows if you are viewing from your car. Yes, the judges drive down every single street..

Best Activity: 519 N Selby – Soccer Skeletons at play. The judges couldn’t find a real activity, but these skeletons are very active!

And Honorable Mentions go to the following in no particular order:

1. 332 Colonial, Mowed over Skeletons
2. 291 E Selby, March of the Skeleton Army
3. 417 Kenbrook, Wizard of Oz, no pic, got home and it was underexposed
4. 308 Loveman, Ghastly Glowing Ghosts
5. 287 Loveman, Creepy Twins and Murder Icons
6. 176 Loveman, Glowing abdomen Arachnids
7. 524 Colonial, Monster House
8. 525 Colonial, Arachnid Infestation
9. 368 Park, Skeletal Block Party
10. 492 Kenbrook, Disco Daft Punkins

There are many other great decorations, the judges thanked everyone for making the choices so hard.

(Photos for the winners are below (Photo Credits: Secret Judges) – please click the “Continue reading” link below to see these pics which have the following descriptions)

_01 Spookiest
_02 Friendliest
_03 Most Creative
_04 Best Effects
_05 Best Activity