Is Monroe County planning to change how you can use your property? Here's how to find out

Editor's note: This post was updated to clarify when people can provide input.

Monroe County is updating documents that will dictate how land will be used for the next generation. The changes likely will have far-reaching consequences on matters including jobs, the environment and housing prices.

The deadline to provide input on the proposed changes is Friday, though people will have additional opportunities next year.

Here’s what we know about what’s being proposed.

What’s the CDO and why is the county updating it?

The Monroe County Development Ordinance is a set of local regulations that, broadly speaking, determine what can be built where. That includes areas where people can build homes and how dense those residential developments can be, as well as where people can erect industrial and commercial properties.

The county adopted a comprehensive plan in 2012 and has since updated portions of its zoning regulations but now wants to update all of them, in part to align the rules with the comprehensive plan as well as to improve the rules’ clarity.

A 'pretty duckling': Historic Bloomington bank on Kirkwood could become boutique hotel

Monroe County Planning Director Jackie Nester Jelen said the county now has 45 zoning designations for the roughly 64,000 parcels and 231,000 acres it regulates and is trying to get that number down to 16, in part to make it easier for people to understand what rules they have to follow for their building projects. The county also is reducing the number of allowed uses to 174 — from the current 372.

The rules the county is adopting apply only to land outside the cities of Bloomington and Ellettsville.

What updates are being proposed?

Jelen said some areas, especially north of Bloomington, will have lower density limits while others, including those surrounded by and at the edges of Bloomington and Ellettsville, will allow for greater density.

For example, some areas north of Bloomington that are currently zoned “residential” are proposed to be zoned “rural.” While both zoning designations allow for residential construction, the current zoning allows homes on 1-acre lots, while the proposed zoning would require 2.5-acre lots.

No fires: Burning banned in Monroe County, Indiana, due to elevated fire risk

You can see a draft of the changes at this link: https://tinyurl.com/3epn49d8. You can type in your address to see the new zoning designation.

You can read frequently asked questions at this link, about half-way down the page: monroecdo.com/public-input/

How are Monroe County community members reacting to the proposal?

At one of the listening sessions the county hosted to seek input, residents asked questions about density, economic development and whether the new zoning designations would allow more short-term rentals, indicating they worried about more of their neighbors turning their homes into vacation rentals.

Jelen said short-term rentals, along with accessory dwelling units, or granny flats, have been among the most frequently asked items.

Jennifer Pearl, president of the Bloomington Economic Development Corp., and Mary Morgan, director of housing security for Heading Home of South Central Indiana, voiced concerns at one of the listening sessions about the county’s plan to change about 9,300 acres from the higher-density residential to the lower-density rural designation.

The proposed changes would reduce the share of the county’s acreage with a residential designation to 5.8%, from the current 9.9%. At the same time, the share of acreage designated rural would increase to 87%, from the current 83.1%. Acreage designated industrial would fall by 1%, while the area earmarked for businesses would fall by 12%.

Pearl and Morgan said they worried the reduction in residential acreage would make it more difficult to build homes, potentially exacerbating the current housing shortage.

Pearl said this week that housing costs in Monroe County already are promoting sprawl and pushing many people who work in Monroe County to live in other counties. That means Monroe County loses out on income tax dollars — because people pay income tax dollars where they live, not where they work — and it prolongs those workers’ commutes, which is bad for their wallets and the environment.

“There are some unintended consequences that we see,” Pearl said, though she emphasized that she appreciates the county’s willingness to engage with local residents to seek input.

It's Your Business: See if rules for your Monroe County property will change and comment.

Pearl said the BEDC plans to release in the next couple of weeks recommendations to make sure that Monroe County uses its available residential land more efficiently to relieve some stress on the local housing market.

The median price of homes sold in Monroe County this year is $300,000, according to the Indiana Association of Realtors October report. The median price for homes sold in Lawrence County was 40% lower, at $180,500.

Jelen said the impact of changing 9,000 acres from residential to rural likely would be muted as much of the acreage is in a flood plain or restricted by geographic features such as woods or ravines. In addition, she said, the county, for many of those areas, is simply trying to make the zoning designations match the requirements of the comprehensive plan.

The planning department is required to follow that plan, she said.

Some areas, including on the southeast side of Ellettsville and the west side of Bloomington also would allow for higher density residential construction, Jelen said.

When will Monroe County’s new zoning rules be implemented?

Jelen said she hopes county officials will adopt the changes next fall.

How can you provide input on the changes?

Take this survey: tinyurl.com/35dav92y

Contact the planning department: 812-349-2560 or planningOffice@co.monroe.in.us.

The deadline to submit comments is Friday. People will have additional opportunities to provide input next year before county commissioners approve the proposed changes.

Boris Ladwig can be reached at bladwig@heraldt.com.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Monroe County proposes updates to zoning and land uses