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..... The opinions expressed in these articles and features are those of their author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of McANA or the opinion of its Directors or Officers. |
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Comprehensive
Plan One of the objectives of land use planning is to balance the needs of a community with the available resources. In practice, this balancing is often difficult to achieve. The challenges involve balancing multiple land uses with often competing social, political, and economic goals, all the while striving to maintain the health and sustainability of the ecosystem. Well-balanced land uses should result in a successful, fully functioning community. In Indianapolis/Marion County, well-balanced land uses should also help resolve concerns with tax base equity. Marion County has 61 separate taxing districts. To achieve true tax base equity, land use must be “balanced” for each distinct taxing subdivision. The Plan should also strive to achieve balanced land use in order to help minimize the isolation of families and individuals based on age, income, race or disability by recommending a range of residential uses to support the population. The impact of land uses on the physical and economic environment must be considered when balancing land uses. The possible impact of land uses on air quality, water quality, flood control, and drainage must be considered as well as the capacity of the infrastructure needed to serve an area. Employment and residential areas should be balanced geographically to minimize transportation problems. One of the implications of balancing land uses is that different land uses will end up neighboring each other. How these diverse uses are mixed or buffered should take into consideration the intensity of the land uses. Intensity of use refers to the level of activity associated with a type of land use. Generally, the higher the level of activity associated with a land use, the higher the intensity. Measures of an area’s level of activity include the number of people and vehicles that enter and exit the area; the area’s physical development; and the area’s impact on adjacent land uses and sewer, water, drainage, transportation and ecological systems. In this context, the “impact” of a land use is generally associated with the negative effects on nearby land uses and the burden it places on existing systems. Effective communities are planned and designed to function well. Ideally, a community would be built around a dense mixed-use core and radiate outward with less intensive uses. Indianapolis is fortunate to have a number of mixed-use cores throughout the city upon which to build. While the Regional Center and the “Old City” are important centers of activity, various included and excluded cities and towns also serve as important mixed-use building blocks for a vital City. While mixed-use development should be encouraged, in those instances were mixed-use is impractical the following principles of land use planning and intensities are being used to formulate the planning recommendations contained in the Comprehensive Plan:
Upcoming Comprehensive Land Use Planning meetings are:
Tuesday,
January 13 Tuesday,
January 20 Tuesday,
February 3 Tuesday,
February 10
All meetings begin at 7 p.m. For more information or to be placed on the Indianapolis Insight mailing list, please call (317) 327-5155. www.indygov.org/indianapolisinsight
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