Rep. Kendall Culp, R-Rensselaer co-leads a land use-focused task force on Friday, Sept. 8. Photo taken from a screenshot of a livestream.

By Leslie Bonilla Muñiz
Indiana Capital Chronicle

INDIANA — A state task force focused on land use delved into site readiness, regulation challenges and demographic changes during its first meeting Friday.

Legislation creating the task force gave it five issues to examine: growth trends, growth barriers, developer siting, local self-investment and food insecurity.

But all roads lead to one destination for task force co-chair and farmer Rep. Kendall Culp, who said he’s hoping to learn how Hoosiers can “bring economic growth to our communities.”

Co-chair Sen. Blake Doriot, R-Goshen, previously served as Elkhart County surveyor for 25 years, and now runs his own land surveying business.

The task force includes additional lawmakers from both parties, and non-lawmakers with experience in agriculture, economic development, food, real estate, residential construction, planning and more.

Preparing a site for construction can make or break a project, various industry presenters told the task force Friday.

Businesses often consider the availability of water and wastewater service, broadband service, and other infrastructure necessities, along with the workforce available.

But some parts of Indiana still aren’t connected, and extending infrastructure to serve a development can make it prohibitively expensive.

Sen. Jean Leising, R-Oldenburg, said that’s “holding back” rural development.

“In part of my [district], people are drinking filtered pond water and cistern water,” Leising added. “There’s no water they can reach through a well, and there’s no infrastructure for a real water system there.”

Developers said utility challenges, particularly in hooking up to wastewater services, were further crunching the housing supply.

Lawmakers have approved a revolving loan fund to help finance housing-related infrastructure work, with an emphasis on communities with under 50,000 residents. But House Enrolled Act 1005, worth $75 million over two years, only recently went into effect.

The state has also received nearly $900 million in federal broadband grants, and has put its own money toward such efforts, but the real work — implementation — is ahead.

The Indiana Economic Development Corp., a quasi-public agency, often works with interested companies on site identification. And it’s gone further, surveying the state to identify nearly 1,800 potential sites, said Senior Vice President of Community Affairs Mark Wasky.

Some of those are mega sites — like the mammoth development in Boone County — that the IEDC and others are getting shovel-ready.

Local governments should also invest in site-readiness, said Indiana Economic Development Association board member Mike Perleberg.

That means knowing what kind of industry a locality wants to attract — advanced technology or agribusiness, for example — and tailoring sites to industry needs, he said.

Density can make infrastructure adds more cost-efficient — but developers on Friday took shots at local land use regulations they said prohibit such development.

National Homes, for example, mass-produced starter housing for the influx of soldiers returning from World War II — and for their growing families.

“They were great houses that a lot of people still live in today … [but] you couldn’t rebuild that house in most communities across state of Indiana, because the zoning regulations don’t allow it,” Indiana Builders Association CEO Rick Wajda said.

Local governments can use zoning — a way to regulate how property in their communities can be used — to set safety, environmental and other standards. But developers said zoning can also outlaw efficient development.

Michael Dale, who directs Zionsville’s community and economic development efforts, said Hoosier communities could update their long-range planning documents, particularly with provisions allowing denser and mixed-use developments.

Smaller minimums for lot sizes and setbacks — the distance between a building and the street — could also boost development, he said, along with incentives for infill development.

Lawmakers appeared amenable.

Quality of life was top of mind for presenters and task force members alike.

That includes affordable housing, child care, good schools, health care, walkable spaces and more.

And individual Americans are beginning to move where they want to live — and finding jobs there after the fact — rather than the other way around.

It’s why Indiana recently authorized a second $500 million round of its Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative, known as READI 2.0: to boost the state’s quality of life, place and opportunity.

The task force will meet next on Oct. 2, and then for the third and final time on Nov. 14.