BANI Newsletter- February 2010

The following article appears in "The Higher Standard," the newsletter for the Builders Association of Northeast Indiana. www.ba-ni.com

Last month, we discussed some proposed changes to the Steuben County Zoning & Subdivision Control Ordinances. This time, we will give an update and talk about the ordinance amendment process in general.

Ordinance Amendment Update. The Steuben County Plan Commission (PC) held a public hearing to consider the proposed changes on January 6. The PC voted to forward the proposed changes to the County Board of Commissioners (Commissioners) after a public hearing. The Commissioners conducted their first reading of the proposed changes at their January 19th meeting. They are scheduled to conduct the second and third readings of the proposed changes at their next meeting on Monday, February 1.

Following that reading, the proposed changes will be officially on the books. The Plan Commission Office has prepared new versions of the Zoning Ordinance and Subdivision Control Ordinance. The updated versions will be available on the Steuben County Website, www.co.steuben.in.us, several days afterwards. They will be available electronically immediately; contact us if you would like us to send you a copy. We will also have available a packet to allow people to update previous versions of the Ordinances without having to print all of the pages.

Ordinance Amendment Process. How Zoning Ordinances are amended may be almost as mysterious as how they are adopted in the first place. The process is generally similar within the State of Indiana but varies from state to state. Indiana outlines the steps in state law, and the Steuben County Zoning Ordinance further defines the process locally.

There are two basic paths to amending an ordinance. The PC may start the process, or the PC may be directed to amend the ordinance by the Commissioners. For a member of the public, the path is a little bit longer; he must start by petitioning the Commissioners to direct the PC to amend the Ordinance.

All proposed changes to an ordinance must have a public hearing before the PC, with proper legal notification in the newspaper. Members of the public are free to comment on the proposed changes during the hearing. The PC forwards the proposed amendment to the Commissioners with a favorable, unfavorable, or no recommendation. The Commissioners may accept or reject the amendment. If accepted, it becomes official.

Annual Ordinance Reviews. The Steuben County PC has implemented a policy of annual reviews to the Zoning Ordinances. This is done to address any issues that have surfaced in the previous year and to keep the ordinances current. It is much easier to make minor changes than to wait and make large changes.

We have conducted two annual reviews (even though the “new” ordinances only became effective sixteen months ago) and have passed two amendments to the ordinance with another coming soon through this process.

Throughout the year, Staff reviews the ordinances and notes frequently requested variances. Even though the previous round of changes is not official yet, we are already starting the process for the end of this year.

Citizen Initiated Reviews. While Indiana Law and the Steuben County Ordinance do not specifically address how members of the public may request ordinance amendments, there is a method available. The process must be officially initiated by either the PC or the Commissioners.

A member of the public may request to appear before the Commissioners and make his case for a proposed amendment. The Commissioners may then decide to initiate the process and direct the PC to prepare an amendment.