Allen County, Indiana’s, Communities Align their Zoning Ordinances

A few years ago, Clarion Associates worked with Fort Wayne and Allen County, Indiana, on their Legislative Streamlining Project. As part of a broader effort to promote quality economic development, the city and county decided to align and simplify their development review and approval procedures, as well as almost all of their zone district regulations. While a handful of very urban zone districts appear only in the Fort Wayne ordinance, and a few very rural districts appear only in the Allen County ordinance, the entire middle range of residential, commercial, and industrial zone districts use identical land uses, dimensional standards, and other development standards. To achieve this goal, city and county leadership first had to agree that sending consistent signals about desired types of development, levels of quality, and required public improvements were important components of good economic development. Recently, two smaller Allen County communities – Huntertown and Woodburn — came to the same conclusion, and decided to align their zoning ordinances with those of Fort Wayne and Allen County. So now one of the most populous counties in Indiana has four different communities with zoning ordinance that work similarly, look alike (as shown in the picture above), send a consistent message to developers and potential investors, and implement clearer and more objective paths to development approval.