By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
For years, Bowling Green officials have talked of the housing shortage in the city.
So the Bowling Green Community Development Foundation is asking the city to change zoning for 37 acres to allow for a potential 150 new single-family homes.
The acreage, at the southwest corner of Brim and Newton roads, is currently zoned M-3 business park.
While Bowling Green is flush with rental housing units – making up 64% of all housing in the city – it has seen very few new single-family houses being built in recent years.
In 2022, the city’s planning office received 17 requests for new construction permits for single-family houses.
The lack of housing options is blamed for people buying homes in Perrysburg and Findlay and commuting to Bowling Green for work.
The land requested to be rezoned is owned by the city’s community development foundation, and sits in the northwest edge of the city, close to industrial sites along Newton and Van Camp roads.
Kati Thompson, the city’s economic development director, noted that the property at Brim and Newton roads has been marketed for industrial use for more than 20 years, with no success. Industrial growth is primarily taking place on the north and east areas of Bowling Green, while residential growth is happening on the west.
“Residential use of this property aligns with natural development patterns,” Thompson wrote in the zoning application.
Bowling Green Economic Development has been working to attract housing developers to the city to address the housing shortage. According to Thompson, a “regional developer” is interested in building a 150-home subdivision on the acreage if it is rezoned to R-2 residential.
Bowling Green Planning Director Heather Sayler said her office has not yet drafted a staff report on the zoning request.
“But it makes sense to me, especially with proximity to the Community Center and schools,” Sayler said.
A Planning Commission public hearing on the zoning request for the 37 acres will likely be held in April.
