After a court fight, a rewritten zoning rule and a second round of plans, the City of Bexley and nonprofit developer The Community Builders have broken ground on 43 mixed-income apartments in two buildings, one on East Livingston Avenue and one on North Cassady Avenue (via WOSU).
The two buildings are both three stories. The larger one, at 2300 E. Livingston Ave., will have 27 one- to three-bedroom apartments and 27 off-street parking spaces, according to the city's project page. The second, at 420 N. Cassady Ave., will have 16 apartments over a ground floor planned as a new city senior center, with 24 off-street spaces and seven more on the street.
WOSU reports the units are for households earning up to 80% of the area median income, with some rents as low as $300 a month. The main money behind the deal is federal low-income housing tax credits awarded through the Ohio Housing Finance Agency. Neither the city nor the station has published a total project cost, and no general contractor has been named publicly. Leasing is expected to start in early 2028.
George Tabit, senior vice president of development for The Community Builders' Great Lakes region, told WOSU that family affordable housing "in an affluent suburb with top tier schools and top tier resources is fairly unique."
Getting here took most of a decade. The city put out a request for affordable housing developers in 2019 and picked The Community Builders, the Columbus Jewish News reported in 2024. The developer filed zoning applications in late 2020, and the Board of Zoning and Planning approved conditional use permits. Neighbors appealed. City Council upheld the board, but a Franklin County Common Pleas judge reversed that decision in August 2022, and in September 2023 the 10th District Court of Appeals agreed, finding the city's conditional use language was ambiguous, according to the city's project timeline.
Rather than give up, Bexley changed the rules. In May 2024, council passed an ordinance clarifying when residential uses are allowed as conditional uses in commercial districts citywide. The Community Builders held a new round of neighborhood meetings, filed fresh plans in early 2025, and won final approvals from the zoning board, the Architectural Review Board and the Tree and Public Gardens Commission in March 2025.
Work is already well along. The city's October update says demolition is finished on Livingston and foundation work has started, while demolition at the Cassady site is expected to run through most of this month. The northernmost lane of Livingston Avenue is closed near the site, and the city warns neighbors to expect heavy equipment and noise at both locations.
The Cassady building's ground floor, roughly 3,500 square feet in the city's description, is meant to replace a temporary senior center of about 1,900 square feet that sits on the same site. WOSU put the community space at 4,000 square feet. The city says it will ask residents for input as planning for the center moves forward.
Why it matters for Contractors
Two small buildings won't make or break anyone's year, but both sites are just getting out of the ground. If you work around east Columbus, it's worth finding out who's running the job. The city lists a project manager for The Community Builders and the city building director as contacts on its project page.
The bigger lesson is in the timeline. A conditional use permit that looked settled got knocked out by a neighbor appeal and sat in court for years. Bexley fixed it by changing the code, not by fighting the same permit again. If you build infill in older suburbs, know whether your project rides on a conditional use, how clearly the code is written, and how long the appeal window stays open before you commit money.