Steuben County Lakes Council "Soundings"- October 2010

A version of the following article appears in "Bobber Watchin'," the newsletter for the Steuben County Lakes Council..

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The Steuben County Plan Commission is happy that we have been asked to compose an article for “Soundings.” Even though we have done this in the past, we feel there is still a lot of mystery about what exactly planning is and what the Steuben County Plan Commission does.

Our goal is to shed some light on some planning tools, share some planning history, summarize the permitting process, and share some of the innovations and reforms we have been working on.

It was very easy for my family and friends to understand what I was studying as an undergraduate in an architecture program. Architecture. Got it. However, when I entered graduate school as a planning student, it took longer and longer to describe exactly what I was studying. To this day, I don’t think my grandma completely knows what I do.

Planning is a very broad field (with many specialties) that is a combination of art and science. In general, the goal of planning is to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the community now and into the future. Planning is concerned with generations, not election cycles; we take steps to make the community better and safer in the future than it is today.

Planning Tools.
The most basic-and most important-element of planning is to have a vision of what the community wants to be. This vision is documented in the comprehensive plan, sometimes called a master plan.

The material covered in comprehensive plans may vary from community to community, but they all outline what the community wants to be in 10-20 years. Comprehensive plans are developed under the direction of the Plan Commission with community input, usually at public meetings. Indiana requires a community to have a comprehensive plan before it can engage in planning and zoning.

Zoning ordinances are the main tool that communities use to reach the goals of their comprehensive plan. Zoning ordinances define what uses are permitted in different zoning districts. They define developmental standards, setbacks, height, coverage, etc, for the different zoning districts and sometimes for specific types of uses. This means that property owners may not be able to do whatever they may want to do. In exchange for this loss of some freedom, property owners gain freedom from unreasonable development or use of neighboring properties. Just like comprehensive plans, zoning ordinances are developed by the Plan Commission with community involvement.

History of Planning.
Planning may not be the oldest profession, but it dates back to the earliest human settlements in present-day Turkey and Iraq. Planning was present in the Americas even before the Pilgrims arrived in Massachusetts. The landscape of Indiana and most of the Midwest was divided according to a plan outlined in the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. This is where townships and mile roads come from.

Planning started to become more formalized in the US in the late 1800s with the City Beautiful movement. The first city-wide zoning ordinance was adopted by New York City in 1916. (It was enacted in reaction to new skyscrapers that were blocking the sun from the streets below.)

In 1935, the Indiana State Planning Board and Works Progress Administration prepared the first planning study of Steuben County. It recommended the location of future boulevards, creation of a plan commission, steps to prevent over-crowding of the lakes, development of protected game and natural areas, and adoption of a community-wide comprehensive plan and zoning ordinances.

It took us a little while, but Steuben County adopted its first master plan in 1970 and its first county zoning ordinance in 1972. A new comprehensive plan was adopted in 2006, and we hope to have the funds to review it rigorously again in 2011. A new zoning ordinance was adopted in 2008 and has been amended annually.

Permit Process.
Comprehensive plans, zoning ordinances, and permitting requirements can and do change through time and vary greatly from one community to another. It can be confusing for Steuben residents to know what projects might need a permit and what the standards are because these have changed from the past and because we have a high number of seasonal and new residents.

Permits are required for most improvements to property within the Steuben County Plan Commission jurisdiction. The typical process will take the applicant through the highway department (if any driveways are planned), a sewer district, the health department, the surveyor’s office, the plan commission, and the building department. Each department has a specialty and will view projects through different perspectives. A project might be of no concern to the sewer district but might not meet building or planning standards.

Having to go to multiple places and wait for a review can be annoying and frustrating. We are all working to make the process as painless and swift as possible. Sometimes a more in-depth review may be necessary. This can be extremely annoying at the time, but it can save tremendous amounts of money and time in the future. We highly recommend that individuals contact the Plan Commission, and other agencies, as early as possible when starting a project. This action will help avoid delays and additional costs.

Permits should be displayed on the site within 24 hours of being issued and should remain visible through the completion of the project. If somebody is building something and you cannot see a permit, he probably did not obtain one. Perhaps he did not know one was necessary. If you are comfortable, feel free to remind the individual to contact the plan commission. If not, you can contact the Plan Commission, and we will investigate the matter further.

Innovations and Reforms.
We are aware that the Plan Commission may not have a sterling reputation. To better serve the citizens, we have begun some minor and major reforms.

We are making efforts to improve transparency and accessibility. Signs are now placed on all properties with petitions before the Plan Commission or Board of Zoning Appeals. We have begun a weblog to share information about planning, agendas, results, code enforcement, and more. We have begun posting staff reports online. All of our meetings are streamed online and recorded for later viewing, pending technical issues. We have worked with the GIS coordinator to develop a Citizen Input feature to allow citizens to report code violations or request information about properties from the county. We have also been working to develop an online permitting system!

We are making efforts to improve understanding of planning and developmental standards. We have developed several informational pamphlets and will continue to develop more. We have written articles for various newsletters and presented before several community groups. (We would be extremely happy to speak to any group that wants us!) Together with the Purdue Extension, we have hosted educational webinars.

Less exciting, but extremely important, we have been reviewing many of our processes, from the permitting at the counter to code enforcement to auditing how much an application really costs the county. Many of these processes have not been rigorously examined for a long time, if ever. We are very excited because this reviewing will allow us to better serve the community in a more efficient manner and will reduce errors.

Conclusion.
This article has covered a lot of material. We hope it has helped you to better understand planning what the Steuben County Plan Commission is doing.

We have been going through many changes these past couple of years. Change can be difficult, but we firmly believe the results will be worth the short-term difficulties.

Please contact us if you have questions about a specific project or planning in general, or suggestions about areas we can improve. Thank you for your attention. We hope to work together to ensure an even better future for Steuben County.