Committee hears bill to codify Hoosier Homestead program and create remonstrance process for eminent domain

A House Agriculture Committee hearing reviewed legislation to place the Hoosier Homestead Farm program into statute and to give homestead farms a narrow local remonstrance right when a fee‑simple condemnation is proposed.

Representative Green, sponsor of House Bill 1265, told the committee the measure formalizes the Hoosier Homestead Award Program—created administratively in 1976—and would require ISDA to maintain an electronic registry and provide a local remonstrance process for farms eligible for the award. “1265 simply gives a homestead farm the right to make one final appeal to their local legislative body to review the potential…