Letter: Three suggestions for the new county zoning ordinance

Dubois County is considering adopting a new Zoning Ordinance that will govern unincorporated county land for the next decade or longer. The Plan Commission holds its public hearing on the draft on Tuesday, November 17. I have read the draft, and I want to share three suggestions that I think would make it stronger.

First, the Plan Commission could require a public hearing for heavy industrial projects in the Rural District. The current draft allows truck terminals, container storage, scrap yards, and storage of flammable or explosive materials to be built anywhere in the Rural District, which covers most of the county, without a public hearing and without direct notice to neighbors. Requiring a public hearing for projects of that scale would ensure that neighbors learn about them before they are approved.

Second, the Plan Commission could extend the mailed notice radius for large projects. The current draft requires notice only to property owners within 200 feet of an application site, but required setbacks for projects like data centers, nuclear power generation, and utility-scale solar range from 1,000 to 2,000 feet. Matching the notice radius to the project’s setback would ensure the people most affected are the people who hear about it first.

Third, the Mid-States Corridor route could come off the draft zoning map until the project receives federal approval. The project has not received a federal Record of Decision, and Dubois County formally voted to withdraw from the Regional Development Authority that was funding it. When a route is on the official zoning map, planners, developers, and realtors treat it as real. Land values shift along the route. Projects get approved assuming the highway will come. The county starts reshaping itself around a highway that has not been approved.

I submitted a letter to the Plan Commission with these suggestions and several others, including specific suggestions for tightening the data center definition in Section 152.37, which the current draft leaves open to developers splitting a single large project into smaller pieces to avoid the limits. 

The hearing is Tuesday, November 17 at 6:00 p.m. in the Courthouse Annex Commissioner/Council Room, 602 Main Street, Jasper. It is the one formal opportunity for residents to speak on the record before the ordinance moves to adoption. Residents who cannot attend can submit written comments to the Dubois County planning office before the hearing.

Maggie Marystone
Jasper