Dubois County IncCodes

Reviewing local zoning rules to make housing development more predictable, support housing options, and ensure regulations reflect how our communities want to grow.

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Dubois Strong Economic Development Corporation has partnered with IncCodes, a nationally recognized zoning and land use consulting firm, to support comprehensive zoning code review and modernization efforts across Dubois County for infill housing.

Dubois Strong will work closely with participating municipalities, local officials, planning staff, and community stakeholders to ensure zoning recommendations reflect the unique priorities, development goals, and character of each community.

This initiative directly supports strategies identified in the 2023 Dubois County Housing Study, including:

· Finding ways to share and reduce development risk

· Increasing the variety of housing options

· Securing and conserving existing housing

· Leveraging existing lots and encouraging new lot development

Through zoning modernization, the project aims to reduce regulatory barriers that limit infill development and “missing middle” housing while maintaining the character of Dubois County communities.

Three Phase Approach

The project will be implemented through a structured, multi-phase process involving Jasper, Huntingburg, and Ferdinand. The resulting framework and principles may later serve as a model for other municipalities.

Phase 1:

Comprehensive Zoning Audit

IncCodes will conduct a detailed review of existing zoning ordinances and planning documents. This includes identifying conflicts with community goals, evaluating best practices, and documenting barriers to infill and redevelopment.

Phase 2:

Stress Testing the Codes

The team will analyze how current regulations perform under real-world development scenarios. This process includes stakeholder engagement, data gathering, and site plan exercises designed to test the practicality and flexibility of existing standards.

Phase 3:

Model Code Rewrite

Based on findings from the audit and stress testing phases, IncCodes will develop simplified, modernized zoning code recommendations tailored for small-town development patterns. The updated framework will emphasize clarity, consistency across jurisdictions, and ease of use for builders, staff, and decision-makers.

The review examined existing zoning standards, comprehensive plans, infrastructure and local development patterns to understand how current regulations align with each community’s goals for housing, growth and long-term investment. One of the clearest findings is that many of Dubois County’s established neighborhoods are both desirable places to live and highly productive uses of land, yet some of those same development patterns would be difficult to recreate under current zoning standards.

IncCodes compared tax value per acre, which measures assessed property value relative to the amount of land used. In each community, the traditional neighborhood examples studied produced more value per acre than the suburban-style examples while also accommodating more homes on less land.