Briana Pace | Southern Indiana Business Report
Phase one of the Dubois County IncCodes project is complete, revealing the findings of a county-wide zoning audit. IncCodes executed an in-depth review of zoning rules and planning documents; identifying community goal disputes, best practices and barriers to filling empty residential areas, and redevelopment.
It’s clear that established, traditional city neighborhoods in Dubois County are “desirable places to live and highly productive uses of land,” according to the Initial Findings Report, but with current zoning regulations, those same models are hard to recreate.
“Zoning codes have just naturally changed over time,” Dubois Strong Economic Development Corporation Executive Director Colten Pipenger said, “and what a traditional lot used to look like in Jasper, Huntingburg and Ferdinand is different than what it looks like when we build now.”
The audit found traditional, historic neighborhoods “produced more value per acre than the suburban-style examples” and accommodated more homes on less land.
Pipenger emphasized the importance of still preserving the communities’ characters and that they are not forcing this on anyone. They just want to be sure that if people want to build homes in the more historical, traditional way of the area, they can.
In Jasper, the historic neighborhood generates nearly 1.6 times more tax value per acre than a suburban area— $1.04 million versus $670,000. Findings in Ferdinand revealed the same value comparison: a historic block generated about $914,000 per acre and $565,000 in a suburban example.
The difference in value per acre was slightly lower in Huntingburg, $607,000 in the historic block and $565,000 in the suburban area; equaling about 1.3 tax value difference per acre.
Pipenger stressed the lack of “middle housing” in the county; duplexes, triplexes. There are detached, standalone, single-family homes and garden-style apartments (low-rise and across landscaped areas), but nothing much in between, due largely to zoning requirements.
“It’s not that we’re not building new houses and new subdivisions that people picture,” Pipenger said, “but it just makes the case that it’s a better use only in the core parts of our cities and towns that have more density, than it is to expand outward.”
There might be four houses all on one city block, all using the same block of infrastructure and services— sidewalks, utility poles, streetlights, trash, schools, water, traffic lights and more. On a suburban block, there could only be one or two houses using the same infrastructure and services that can serve four homes on one block in the city.
The typical lot size in Jasper, Huntingburg and Ferdinand is smaller than the current zoning requirements. In Jasper, the minimum square footage required for an r-3 lot (medium to high density residential zoning) is 7,200 feet, but the existing average is 6,000 square feet.
In Huntingburg, zoning regulations require r-2 lots (low to medium residential zoning) to be a minimum of 10,000 square feet, but a typical one is 6,000 square feet.
Jasper requires a 100-foot minimum frontage for residential lots, but common lot sizes have an 88-foot frontage.
“Now, any of those older historic lots can’t be built on without zoning variances,” Pipenger said.
Already working with local officials; Jasper and Huntingburg mayors, Ferdinand town council president and more, Dubois Strong hopes the regulations will be reevaluated and updated to reduce zoning restrictions by the end of 2026, allowing community members more options for building homes.
“This was kind of an initial audit to see what are the setbacks,” Pipenger said, “and making sure we preserve the community character, but also achieve some of the housing goals that were set out to be achieved through comprehensive plans and other pieces.”