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The Athens Planning Commission recommends a zoning change for housing near The Ridges

By: David Forster
Posted on: Thursday, January 22, 2026

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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) — An organization that supports people with behavioral health challenges is hoping to land $2 million in grant funds to build housing in Athens for its clients.

The first step is to get some property on Dairy Lane rezoned, quickly. If the rezoning doesn’t happen by March 12, the organization will lose out on the grant.

The Athens Planning Commission voted Wednesday to recommend that the City Council make the change. If the council takes up the request at its meeting on Monday, the soonest it could vote on the rezoning is March 2.

The recommended zoning change was made on behalf of the Athens-Hocking-Vinton Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services Board, better known as the 317 Board.

The board wants to build 15 one-bedroom homes on land adjacent to property it already owns, where its central office is located. It’s just down the street from a recovery home the board operates.

The property is owned by Ohio University and is part of the area known as The Ridges, the former site of an asylum where for decades people with mental health issues were institutionalized.

The 317 Board still needs to buy the land from the university. But with the grant deadline looming, it first needs to get the property rezoned from educational use to multifamily residential.

A zoning change requires a public hearing with a 30-day notice, which is why the board has barely enough time to meet the deadline set by the Ohio Housing Finance Agency, which is awarding the grant funds, but only for properties that already have the necessary zoning to build housing.

The 317 Board needs multifamily zoning because even though the housing will be single-story, single-occupant homes, they will be built in clusters of three, sharing walls like a triplex. This is not allowed under the city’s other residential classifications.

Service-Safety Director Andy Stone, who sits on the Planning Commission, noted that recent proposals to build low-income housing in Athens have met with strong resistance.

“People have come out of the woodwork opposed to the projects. Why is this one different?” he asked David Mott, the attorney representing the 317 Board.

Mott noted that the property where these homes would be built is not in a neighborhood or even adjacent to one. Other property in the area is already zoned for multifamily housing, and much of the land around it is undeveloped.

Frankly, it’s out of the way. … It does not disrupt a neighborhood,” Mott said. “It is designed as light development to provide some much needed housing to a very vulnerable portion of our community.”