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County consultant outlines comprehensive-plan options, flags Midstate corridor and planning‑commission choices
Summary
A consultant presented a draft county comprehensive/strategic plan, described choices between advisory and area plan commissions (noting zoning implications), and recommended public outreach this summer, while flagging the Midstate corridor and alternative‑energy policy as issues for public discussion.
Philip Roth of American StructurePoint told the Dubois County Commissioners the county is approaching the third and final phase of development of a comprehensive plan and previewed options for how the county could proceed on land-use policy and potential future zoning.
Roth emphasized that a comprehensive plan in Indiana is a policy document, not a regulatory ordinance: “It is not zoning. It does not become law. It is simply a statement of county policy that influences land use, transportation, infrastructure and other issues,” he said. He described two principal governance pathways for county land-use oversight: an advisory planning commission that leaves municipal extraterritorial jurisdictions intact, and an area plan commission, which would consolidate planning and zoning authority and remove municipal two‑mile extraterritorial jurisdictions.
Roth highlighted the Midstate Corridor, explaining that about 80% of the corridor currently falls within Jasper or Huntingburg planning jurisdictions; he suggested the county consider where higher-intensity uses should be encouraged or restricted and noted that alternative-energy siting (solar and battery) was proposed in the plan’s preliminary land-use map for western parts of the county served by transportation infrastructure. “We are proposing that alternative energy be primarily focused on two areas in the western part of the county,” he said, while reminding the commissioners that state law prevents the plan from completely prohibiting alternative energy countywide.
Roth said the plan team will begin another round of public outreach in late June–July (including surveys and community events) and aims to provide a first draft to the steering committee in August. Commissioners asked questions about how an area plan commission would affect existing municipal planning and extraterritorial jurisdictions and whether the county could adopt minimal zoning for large agricultural portions of the county. Roth replied that an area plan commission would shift planning authority into the county for areas now in municipal fringes, and that a minimal or permissive county zoning ordinance could be crafted to vary the degree of regulation by geography.
Several commissioners noted they expected further public engagement before any formal adoption or move to zoning. The consultant encouraged outreach to agriculture and alternative-energy stakeholders to refine recommendations before the draft stage.
