City of Jeffersonville to Create Unified Development Ordinance
The City of Jeffersonville is embarking on an effort to update it’s 20-year old Zoning Code and in doing so incorporate its 22-year old Subdivision Control Ordinance into one Unified Development Ordinance (UDO). While a number of changes have been made to these existing documents over the years, these minor changes have not kept pace with the major changes we’ve seen in our City and the big shifts we’ve seen in the development patterns that shape our community in the last 20 years. Therefore it is time for an Update. We are now engaged in pulling these two documents together and modifying them to meet the City’s needs in the coming decade.
UDO now available
Below are links to the adopted Unified Development Ordinance and adopted Zoning Maps, as well as a user friendly guidebook to the changes that we’ve made to the document.
opens in a new windowUnified Development Ordinanceopens PDF file
opens in a new windowZoning Mapopens PDF file
Overlay Districts Mapopens PDF file
opens in a new windowFinal Draft UDO Guidebookopens PDF file
To learn more about the document and/or to comment on the document, please see below.
Process
Over the past year, Department of Planning & Zoning staff have been working on an update to the existing Zoning Ordinance and Official Zoning Map. The process started with presentations to both the City Council and Plan Commission. The update process included a full analysis of development in the City over the past 5-7 years, as well as an analysis of the recently adopted UDO’s of Greenwood, Ft. Wayne, and Clark County. Additionally, staff conducted a multiple week online survey, held several workshops with City staff, elected officials, members of the development, design, and engineering communities, and members of the general public. This work provided us an idea of best practices to include in the new UDO, and helped determine any changes or modifications that were needed to guide development in Jeffersonville going forward.
Staff presented the first draft to the City Council and Plan Commission in February, and from there held additional workshops, including with City staff and the development community, to assist in reviewing the document and to gather feedback. Staff also hired an independent zoning professional out of Indianapolis to review the UDO. Further revisions were made, and a Final Draft has been completed and uploaded for review by the public. The intent of the department is to present the Final Draft of the UDO and the new Official Zoning Map to the Plan Commission on June 29, 2021 for recommendation to the City Council.
Issues Addressed
The following are some of the issues that we’ve addressed:
- Updating regulations for new subdivisions that have not been changed since 1998
- Creating more flexibility for commercial redevelopment in older parts of the City (Tenth Street Corridor, Allison and Middle, Claysburg area, etc.)
- Establishing design guidelines for commercial, multi-family residential and mixed-use developments in the Downtown
- Reducing the number of overlapping overlay districts
- Reducing the number of repetitive variance requests handled by the department
- Addressing internal processes that have changed since 2001 but aren’t adequately reflected in the Code
- Revising small portions of the zoning map, mostly in the older portions of the city, to better reflect desired development outcomes.
The opens in a new windowFinal UDO Guidebookopens PDF file is an easy way to get more information on all issues addressed.
What this means for you
For most people who live and/or own property in the City, this zoning code update will have little impact. Our intent with this update is to create a newly formatted document that is not a radical shift from the current one. While the document will be edited and reorganized for ease of use, for the most part, it will look and act much like the current document. For example, the standards that govern existing single-family residential lots throughout most of the City will not change much. There will be very few changes to industrial and agricultural zone districts as well. We will continue to ensure that adequate protections and buffers remain between existing single-family residential uses and other more intense commercial, industrial and large multi-family residential developments.
That said, there will be some areas of the City where some significant changes and even some rezonings may occur. Where zoning changes may occur, we will make every effort to alert property owners in those areas before changes are made and create allowances to opt out of the proposed changes if so desired.
All in all, we hope that the new UDO will result in better development outcomes throughout the City while protecting the quality of life we have come to expect in Jeffersonville.
Coments/Feedback
The Planning Department welcomes your comments and feedback. Please use the form below to provide us any comments, concerns or questions you might have.
You may also reach out to Shawn Dade in the Planning Office at
812-280-4733 or at sdade@cityofjeff.net
Thanks!
Your Planning Staff.
