New Dearborn Co. Zone Map Includes Two Ag Districts, Three Residential

The process to update the Zone Map has been ongoing since 2020.

The full zoning map can be seen below. Photo provided.

(Dearborn County, Ind.) – The Dearborn County Plan Commission has approved new Zoning Ordinance and Zone Map changes.

Dearborn County Zoning Ordinances since 1965 have only included one agriculture district and one residential district. In 2020, the Dearborn County Plan Commission and staff began working on the process to create two agricultural and three residential districts.

This was an effort to work towards conservation of the agricultural district and the need for proper development. Read more about the project background here.

There were 40 public meetings on the subject matter and seven workshops to help with public involvement. Throughout the process, there were 110 people that placed comments through the public meetings, approximately 60 citizens who attended the public workshops, and 104 comments received through handwritten comment sheets and/or online surveys.

In the end, the new Zone Map now includes two Agricultural Districts, which are classified as Agricultural and Agricultural Homestead. The Zone Map also went from one Residential District to three (R-1, R-2 and R-3).

On the new map, the Agricultural and Agricultural Homestead Districts combine for 158,776 acres, up 160 acres from the old map.

The three residential districts make up 18,200 acres, which is 897 less than the old map.

It is important to note that zoning does not have anything to do with property taxes. Additionally, if your property was changed from Ag to Res and you are farming your property, you are allowed to continue farming.

Below is a breakdown of the new map:

Agriculture = 125,070 acres

AH             = 33,706 acres

R1              = 13,191 acres

R2              = 4,914 acres

R3              = 95 acres