“The longer I live, the less help is available,” company co-owner John Smoll said last month. “It seems like automation is really taking over, and we’re still building homes the way we have built them for centuries with 2-by-4s, a saw, and a lot of labor.”

Smoll calls the new technology a “game changer” as Ohio needs more than 270,000 new housing units to meet current demand. Due to the housing shortage, home values in Franklin County increased by nearly 40% during the triennial reappraisal last year.

“Now, instead of having a crew of four to six guys to build a house, two guys are printing the home,” Smoll said. “A lot of the people coming out of high school today are very familiar with electronics.”

Smoll said he was a skeptic at first about bringing the new product to Ohio’s housing market. His team borrowed a printer that could cost up to $1 million for the project and had to create a mixture of concrete that could hold up to the severe weather common in the Midwest. He said the 1,500-square-foot home, which includes three bedrooms and two bathrooms, is tornado and fire-resistant, and some rooms can be used as a storm shelter.

“We’ve not financed anything like that, never appraised one before,” said Drew Kantonen with Superior Credit Union in Lima, Ohio, after touring the printed home. “I think they’ve gone out on a limb a little bit and taken a chance because, right, no one is really familiar with 3D printing.”

One Columbus-based family traveled 90 miles to see the home for themselves.

“We need a yard. We need a space to let everyone be comfortable and free,” Shawn Austin said from his two-bedroom apartment while sitting next to his wife, holding his newborn, and giving commands to his German shepherd. “The price continues to rise in the housing market, but the quality is not matching the sticker price. That’s not a wise investment at all.”

Austin admits they’ve extended their plan to stay in the cramped apartment, even as rents continue to increase. They are now trying to save money to print their own home.

“The down payment in itself is like a wall,” Austin said. “It’s like a great wall.”

Smoll said the cost to construct the completed home in Wapakoneta came to $160 per square foot. He compares that to a traditionally built home that he estimates at $200 per square foot and calculates at least a 20% savings.

“I think that’s the flawed part. We’re all driven by profit,” Smoll said when asked if these savings would be passed on to a buyer, as 3D-printed homes are eligible for a 30-year fixed mortgage and can appraise similarly to a traditional build. “Our target is to try to build more affordable housing.”

Sustainable Concrete Innovations is now working with the Land Bank in Lima to print homes on empty urban lots. He said increasing density in such areas and reducing home size could also drastically reduce costs.

“It’s literally possible to have a home that you own for the price of a car payment,” he said.

A Columbus developer is currently printing the first 3D-printed home in the Linden neighborhood on land he owns. The City of Columbus said no other permits have been pulled for other 3D-printing projects in the area. Meanwhile, other developers are starting to print more homes and businesses throughout the state.

When asked if opposition has been raised with claims that this new technology is taking construction jobs away, Smoll replied, “I’ve been in this business for over 30 years, and the reality is the jobs are already going away.”

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On Friday, the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas granted a request by the ACLU of Ohio to block certain restrictions around abortion procedures in the state.

The ruling also affects the in-person visit requirement and the state-mandated information requirements before abortion procedures.

The ACLU of Ohio cited the Ohio Reproductive Freedom Amendment to the state constitution, which took effect in December 2023, as cause to challenge those requirements.

Pro-choice advocates have claimed that the law originally was a barrier for women seeking abortion care.

“In November of 2023 when Ohioans passed the Reproductive Freedom Amendment, they sent a really clear message to the state that we want government out of our health care decisions,” said Jessie Hill, an attorney for ACLU of Ohio. “We’re just trying to carry out the promise of that amendment.”

The anti-abortion organization Ohio Right to Life released a statement following the ruling.

“A 24-hour waiting period for an irreversible, life-altering decision does not interfere with a mother’s ability to abort her child. The law merely allows a reflection point for a 24-hour period to give appropriate education and reflection to the finality of the decision to abort,” the group said.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has been fighting the case for months, and his office reacted in a statement after the ruling.

“We have heard the voices of the people and recognize that reproductive rights are now protected in our Constitution. However, we respectfully disagree with the court’s decision that requiring doctors to obtain informed consent and wait 24 hours prior to an abortion constitute a burden.” the statement reads. “These are essential safety features designed to ensure that women receive proper care and make voluntary decisions. These measures were consistently upheld under Roe v. Wade. We plan to appeal this ruling.”

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine previously shared Yost’s sentiments.

“Those guardrails worked well before, and so I don’t see any reason to change those,” DeWine said in May.

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In the first five days recreational marijuana was available at dispensaries across the state, nearly $12 million in sales were reported.

Business at some spots nearly tripled, and that has growers like King City Gardens in the Cincinnati area busy.

The cultivation center sells to about 130 dispensaries. Its co-founder says that number will jump to more than 400 once more places get recreational approval and additional ones are built. It’s using every inch of indoor growing space from the ground up.

“A lot of dispensaries are putting a lot of orders in,” King City Gardens co-founder Caveh Azadeh said. “We’re seeing our products being sold at a much faster velocity than before, so that’s very exciting.”

King City Gardens built up a stockpile of 11,000 pounds. Azadeh said it can have even more plants now that it has its dual license to sell medicinal and recreational marijuana. It’s also growing its staff. At this time last year, it had no employees, but it now has 180, with plans to add more as it opens its own dispensaries.

Some have questioned whether the new recreational demand threatens the medical supply, but Azadeh said he doesn’t think it will because dual cultivators are allowed more plants than existing medicinal growers.

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