INDIANAPOLIS — The City of Indianapolis is being lauded by the American Planning Association Indiana Chapter (APA-IN) for Indy Rezone, a comprehensive update of the city’s zoning ordinances. The APA-IN Awards Committee selected Indy Rezone to receive the 2016 Award for Outstanding Best Practice. The award celebrates and recognizes how innovative planning methods and practices help to implement a plan.
“This award showcases the three years of hard work and detail put into this project” said Department of Metropolitan Development (DMD) Director Emily Mack. “Indy Rezone will help bring about redevelopment in the city’s urban core and throughout Indianapolis.”
The awards committee recognized the scale of the effort to update the city wide zoning for Indianapolis. The panel found the stakeholder engagement, which included building a consensus among 21 advisory panels, very impressive.
Highlights of the new code, which takes effect April 1, 2016 include:
• Simplifying the code by combining 14 ordinances into a single ordinance along with a quick reference guide. For instance if you wanted to locate “restaurant” at a glance, you could find all the zoning districts that allow that use. This can also be used to market a property by showing the permitted uses on a certain parcel.
• Development regulation changes will address environmental concerns, offer incentives to preserve trees, require more landscaping for commercial and industrial parking lots. An example of this would be to install bio-swales to catch storm water runoff to minimize pollution of waterways.
• In certain parts of the City a smaller or secondary dwelling unit will be permitted on lots with a single-family detached home. This is to increase housing options and can include a new way for aging in place such as a parent.
• A new zoning category of mixed use has been introduced which will allow for developments that combine residential and commercial uses. Before, this type of use was generally limited to the downtown area.