Blue Ribbon Committee presents housing strategy; consultants recommend zoning review, incentives and an "invest-ready" pilot

Consultants from the Veridis Group and Civitas Strategies updated the Evansville Common Council on Sept. 22 about findings and next steps from the mayor’s Blue Ribbon Committee on housing and development.

Andrea Kissel of the Veridis Group introduced the consultants and noted the team has worked with the committee and Mayor Terry to identify barriers and opportunities for housing and economic development. Jack Woods and Pete Olson described a multi-part proposal that includes: publicly posted flowcharts clarifying the development-approval process; a 15-tool incentive toolkit covering standard and less-common incentives; an evaluation spreadsheet to rate projects numerically for incentive eligibility; preapproved building plans to shorten approval timelines; and a recommendation to modernize the city’s zoning code.

Jack Woods said the material includes short-, medium- and long-term action items and that developers consistently told the team "time is money," an observation the consultants used to justify expedited processes and preapprovals. Pete Olson urged code modernization, calling the current code "extremely dense" and noting it can be a costly barrier for developers. Olson said the city could consider technical advisory committee preplanning meetings and an expedited "front of the line" path for projects that clear a small number of technical issues early in the process.

The consultants also described an "incentive evaluation" tool (a scoring spreadsheet) that rates projects on factors such as unit count, rent levels, commercial space, parking and walkability to help DMD and other agencies determine incentive packages. Veridis/Civitas proposed that Evansville be a pilot for an "Invest Ready Communities" certification process the firms are developing to demonstrate a community has transparent, efficient permitting and incentive procedures.

Council members asked questions about whether Evansville’s process is faster than peer communities; consultants said there are efficiencies but also areas for improvement and recommended a deeper zoning/code review and clearer public-facing process guidance. The consultants provided a list of near-term priorities (flowchart posting, zoning review, an economic development strategic plan, downtown revitalization and marketing) with responsible parties and tentative timelines.

The presentation was for council information; no ordinance or formal council action was taken at the meeting on the consultants’ recommendations.