Dubois County gets comprehensive planning update, public outreach and zoning questions on the horizon

Where future solar farms, battery storage facilities and other large-scale projects can be built in Dubois County may ultimately come down to a planning document and the county’s approach to zoning based on that document.

Philip Roth, senior planner and project manager for American StructurePoint, the firm the county hired to draft a comprehensive plan, updated commissioners on the status of that effort Monday. He was careful from the outset to frame the document as guidance rather than law.

“It is not a regulatory document. It does not become law. It is simply a statement of county policy that influences land use, transportation infrastructure, and other issues that are of interest to the community,” Roth told commissioners.

Roth said the document’s vision statement, shaped by a steering committee, a public survey and focus groups, centers on preserving the county’s rural and agricultural character even as Dubois County grows at a rate Roth described as unusual for a rural community — growth he said is expected to continue. Public input so far has centered on five themes: protecting agricultural and rural heritage, housing availability and affordability, transportation and infrastructure capacity, economic development, and more transparency in how the county makes land-use decisions.

The county does have an earlier comprehensive plan, developed years ago in connection with funding tied to Interstate 69, but it was never formally adopted. Under Indiana law, formal adoption requires a plan commission, and Dubois County doesn’t have one — which is part of why Roth has been presenting the current document as more of a strategic framework than a binding plan, at least for now.

Much of Monday’s discussion centered on what setting up a plan commission would actually change.

Roth walked commissioners through the difference between an advisory plan commission and an area plan commission.

Under an advisory commission, the existing extraterritorial jurisdictions held by Jasper, Huntingburg and Ferdinand — the three communities in the county that already have their own plan commissions and zoning and subdivision regulations — would stay in place.

An area plan commission would eliminate those jurisdictions entirely and transfer the county’s planning and zoning authority over the cities’ extraterritorial planning fringes.

Roth noted that under the current setup, with no county plan commission in place, the county has no mechanism to control or veto if Jasper, Huntingburg or Ferdinand decides to expand its extraterritorial jurisdiction, which can extend up to two miles beyond city limits under state law. Jasper has already pushed close to that two-mile maximum. Huntingburg and Ferdinand have more room to grow, though Huntingburg’s options are significantly limited by the floodplain.

The question of jurisdiction carries particular weight for the Mid-States Corridor. Roth said roughly 80% of the corridor’s length within Dubois County falls inside the planning jurisdictions of either Jasper or Huntingburg, meaning those cities currently hold most of the land-use authority over the route. Two stretches fall outside any existing jurisdiction: a two-to-three-mile section at the county’s northern end and a roughly five-mile section to the south, near where the corridor is expected to meet Interstate 64.

Roth said those gaps could become more relevant to county oversight if an area plan commission is established.

Regarding alternative energy, Roth said the plan is currently focusing future development in two areas along the county’s western edge, citing existing transportation infrastructure and distance from population centers as the rationale. He was direct, though, about the limits of any future ordinance.

“You would not be able to prohibit alternative energy from locating everywhere in the county. This is very clear in state law. You would need to make sure that there are some areas within the county that could be developed by alternative energy,” Roth said.

He added that the firm has had difficulty scheduling meetings with both the alternative energy industry and the agricultural community, and that outreach to both groups is ongoing. Those conversations could shift the recommendations on where alternative energy sites would be located.

If the county does eventually adopt zoning, Roth said it would need to cover the entire county outside the three cities’ jurisdictions — there’s no way to exempt any particular area entirely. But that doesn’t necessarily mean heavy regulation everywhere. He floated the idea of a minimal zoning ordinance for the unincorporated county built around two priorities: agricultural preservation and some restrictions on where alternative energy could be sited. He acknowledged that even a light-touch ordinance would carry staffing implications, and raised a few possible paths forward, including contracting with Jasper or Huntingburg for planning staff or hiring an outside sole-proprietor planning consultant.

Roth said the project is entering its third and final phase, with another round of public outreach planned for late June and early July, targeted conversations with agricultural and alternative energy stakeholders, and a first full draft expected to go before the steering committee in August.

Individuals opposing solar have pushed for some form of regulatory process; however, before Dubois County can adopt zoning, it must complete its comprehensive plan and determine how to proceed.

“If you decide you want to do zoning, you would need to have a comprehensive plan serving as the policy basis for zoning, but that doesn’t mean that you are required to do zoning in order to have a comprehensive plan,” Roth clarified. “In other words, you can’t have zoning without a plan, but you can’t have a plan without zoning.”

During public comment, Dubois County resident Mark Nowotarski pushed back on the amount of public input the process has received so far, saying he was disappointed it had largely consisted of a single survey and planned events in conjunction with Jasper and Huntingburg.

Commissioner Chad Blessinger responded by committing to an open public forum and some open sessions before any final decisions are made on the plan.

Nowotarski also used his comment time to argue that the county needs to widen its lens beyond economic development as it faces a wave of large projects, from solar farms and battery storage systems to the prospect of hyperscale data centers.

“Everything just can’t be about economic development. We need to balance sensible growth with preserving and protecting our community,” he said. “People in this county are not opposed to economic development, but it should not destroy what we already have.”