When Ohio State University announced plans to require all sophomores to live on campus by fall 2016, area residents, property owners and businesspeople had a lot of questions about the long-term impact. Those hoping that city planners would answer those questions are still waiting.

When Ohio State University announced plans to require all sophomores to live on campus by fall 2016, area residents, property owners and businesspeople had a lot of questions about the long-term impact.

Who will rent those big houses? What will happen to property values in the neighborhood?

Those hoping that city planners would answer those questions are still waiting. The University District land-use plan, a draft of which is to be discussed at an open house tonight, doesn't directly address those questions.

"At this point, we're waiting to see what the impact will be," said Erin Prosser, a member of the plan's working committee and director of community relations for Campus Partners, OSU's nonprofit development arm. "We don't necessarily want to jump the gun with solutions when we don't know what the consequences will be."

Residents will be able to kick around that and other parts of the draft plan from 6 to 7:30 tonight at Indianola Church of Christ, 2141 Indianola Ave.

The draft concentrates high-density mixed-use development along N. High Street and Lane Avenue. The densest residential development is concentrated where it always has been - in an area bounded by Woodruff Avenue, Summit Street, 11th Avenue and N. High Street.

"The whole thing is about directing density," said Doreen Uhas Sauer, who leads the University Area Commission.

Close to half the land in the University District contains housing, and the district is the city's most-densely populated area, with 43,996 residents in 2010, up more than 5 percent from 2000.

But some believe that the university and city leaders need to address what will happen to rental housing there once thousands of sophomores are required to live on campus.

Ohio State is tearing down 11 buildings and erecting 10 new ones near Lane Avenue and High Street, a $370 million project. Eight buildings will be dormitories, and 3,200 beds will be added to campus.

About 15,000 students live in the neighborhoods near the university, where rental housing now has a 99 percent occupancy rate, Prosser said.

"The most-intense development is close to campus," city planner Mark Dravillas said. And there's supposed to be what he called a "healthy balance" between students and nonstudents farther away from the university.

In a sense, focusing the density close to High Street and maintaining lower density farther from campus addresses the sophomore question, said James P. Bach, the chairman of the University Area Commission's planning committee. "The fear of what's going to happen with the sophomores moving back to campus is not as great as people outside the university district might think. It's not seen as a bad thing."

Roger Deal, who lives in the Northwood Park neighborhood, said many homeowners support the sophomore rule, hoping it will lessen parking problems and force landlords to lower rents, allowing families with children to move in.

Plans are used to guide neighborhood development, but developers can request zoning changes. That concerns people such as David Murchie, a King Avenue resident who opposed a 48-unit apartment complex at 160 King Ave., just south of campus. He and others said the complex would put too many apartments in too small an area.

The Columbus City Council approved a zoning variance in July, allowing it.

"I think the plan is fine if people stick to it, but if city council passes every variance that is in front of them, then it is pointless to even have a plan," Murchie wrote in an email.

Harvey Graff, a member of the Indianola Forest Homeowners Association who is an OSU English and history professor, said he's tired of dealing with rowdy student behavior and trash. The plan could address those types of problems if enforced, he said.

"Without a plan, I think the problems of other areas move northward," said Graff, who believes that the university must create more-serious incentives to spur more OSU faculty and staff members to buy University District houses.

Dravillas said he hopes the city council will vote on the plan by the end of the year.

To see the draft plan, go to http://columbus.gov/planning/universitydistrictplan/.

mferenchik@dispatch.com

@MarkFerenchik