EVANSVILLE | VANDERBURGH COUNTY AREA PLAN COMMISSION ANNUAL REPORT 2015

The Area Plan Commission is financed by annual appropriations from Vanderburgh County and the City of Evansville. The total budget split in 2015 was 85% County and 15% City.

Information concerning the 2015 Budget and Disbursements is provided in Table 2. Table 3 displays the amount fees collected by Area Plan Commission for all revenue items.

Work on an update of the current Comprehensive Plan continued in 2015. A Draft of a new Plan for Year 2035 was produced and distributed to the APC and the public in 2015. Four public meetings were held on the new draft Plan to obtain comments from City and County residents. The next step to complete the process is to hold a set of adoption hearings on the Plan update.

In 2015, the Area Plan Commission staff continued to research, write staff field reports, and provide verbal comments at the Area Plan Commission and Board of Zoning Appeals meetings on each proposed rezoning, variance, special use, and appeal.

The review of rezoning, variance, and special use petitions is a significant aspect of the Area Plan Commission’s efforts to administer the Zoning Ordinance.

Table 1 displays the number of these petitions filed in 2015, and the action taken by the Area Plan Commission. Table 5 shows the acreage of the approved rezonings.

The Evansville-Vanderburgh County area has three Zoning Enforcement/Investigator Officers .In 2015, there were approximately 1,953 complaint site inspections and, when warranted, these inspections were followed by issuance of almost 890 Zoning Code violation letters.

The Site Review Committee is another of the ongoing review boards of the Area Plan Commission. This Committee meets weekly to review plans for all new commercial development, industrial development, all other non-residential uses, and apartment complexes, prior to issuance of improvement location permits.

In 2015, applicants filed 225 site development plans for review. Of the total number of plans reviewed, 82 percent of these sites are located in the City and 18 percent in the County.Pending and Recently approved projects can be viewed using the Project Status web mapping application.

The Area Plan Commission issues improvement location permits for residential, commercial, and industrial uses before construction activity can begin. In 2015, the Plan Commission processed a total of 1,881 applications for improvement location permits.

Table 6 displays a count of the permits issued by consolidated permit categories. Table 8 shows the number Housing Units permitted by township. 2015 was a good year for multi-family development in the city, especially in Knight and Pigeon Townships.

As designated by State law, the Area Plan Commission has sole authority over the subdivision process.

In the review of a primary subdivision plat, the Area Plan Commission determines whether the plat complies with standards in the Subdivision Code. The Area Plan Commission has delegated the authority to grant secondary plat approval to the Executive Director.

Secondary approval also has multiple requirements that must be met prior to recording the plat. One example involves submittal of a Letter of Credit ensuring that all subdivision improvements are installed by the developer in accordance with City/ County standards. As of December 31, 2015, the Area Plan Commission held 81 active letters of credit for subdivision improvements with a total value of over $5.3 million

Table 1 shows the numerous major and minor subdivision actions taken, while Table 7 shows descriptive data on the 47 subdivisions recorded in 2015.

Staff also worked on amendments to the County Subdivision Code in 2015 that addressed:

• Expiration of primary plat approval;
• Sidewalk issues including: options for the letters of credit or installation before issuance of a Certificate of Occupancy, and procedures for waivers.

GIS WEB MAPPING AND APPLICATIONS

The Area Plan Commission continued to support IT/GIS operations in 2015 by maintaining numerous GIS layers along with the development of several mapping applications.

GIS PROJECT ASSISTANCE

Area Plan continued to assist various departments on GIS related projects including the Building Commission; DMD, Vanderburgh County Assessor and several others.

Area Plan is responsible for the update and maintenance of the following GIS Data:

• All Annotation – Property Dimensions, Lot Numbers, Addresses.
• APC Errata – Layer indicating land division not meeting Subdivision Code requirements.
• Deed Lot – Land division created by way of deed.
• Easements – Easement location and type.
• Parcels – Parcel Boundaries maintained in conjunction with County Assessors.
• ROW – Road, railroad, and vacations of rights of way.
• Street Network – Street network data and address ranges.
• Special Use Docket – Special Use filing boundaries.
• Subdivisions – Recorded subdivision boundaries both minor and major.
• Sub Lot –Subdivision parcel lot lines.
• Zoning – Zoning petition boundaries and classification.
• Zones With Conditions – Identifies zoning petitions with specific conditions.

Currently the existing City/County GIS maps are not accessible from mobile devices. APC has developed and begun beta testing a mobile ready and responsive zoning map as a replacement for the current zoning map. Zoning Map (Beta)

The APC Executive Director and staff serve on the following committees beyond the Subdivision and Site Review:

• Downtown Design Review
• Evansville MPO Technical
• Flood Advisory
• Local Emergency Planning
• Pigeon Creek Greenway Advisory
• GIS Technical Committee

The Area Plan Commission holds the designation as a State data center affiliate for the Evansville Metropolitan Statistical Area, and is a depository for Census data. The APC routinely disseminates this information as a public service. Census statistical information has been added to our web page Comprised of tabular data and web mapping applications.

To increase staff knowledge on information that will allow the Plan Commission to better serve City/County residents, the APC staff received training in online webinars. Several of the staff members participate in continuing education programs on an ongoing basis to meet professional certification requirements, such as for the American Institute of Certified Planners, Certified Floodplain Managers, Professional Engineers, and GIS.

• Comprehensive Plan Update Review & Adoption:
View Draft
• Set hearings with the APC and elected bodies to adopt final plan
• Start working on accomplishing Plan policies listed in the first 5-years of implementation

Develop and adopt Rules of Procedure for APC & BZA

Document qualifying CRS activities to stay eligible for the program

Coordinate on Other Planning Efforts (Redevelopment Plans, University Parkway Corridor Plan, etc.)

Form a University Parkway Corridor Study Group for a corridor study involving possible overlay zones, a technology park, etc. – this would require some County funding

• Zoning Code Updates
• Electronic Message Board Signage
• Accessory Structures -- Allow to be larger than principal use in footprint & height (County only)
• Ownership Property Line Adjustments and Lots of Record
• Wireless Telecommunications Ordinance
• Allowing Staff Approval of Minor PUD Changes
• Temporary Sign Exemptions to Sign Requirements (County only)
• Buffer Yards for Commercial/Industrial Uses

• Subdivision Code Updates:
• Adding Standards on Safety & other Issues
• Rewrite existing Subdivision Procedures

• GIS Initiative
• Complete georeferencing of lot of record scanned images.
• Create raster overlay of lots of record georeferenced data.
• Create Parcelizations GIS Layer.
• Continue to develop mobile accessible zoning mapping application.
• Train Staff to Edit APC Errata GIS Layer.
• Create Subdivision Review App.
• Finalize online permit application form and map extension.
• Continue Expansion of GIS Open Data and availability.

Honorable Lloyd Winnecke.

• Dr. H. Dan Adams, President
• John Friend, Vice President
• Al Lindsey
• Conor O’Daniel
• Dan McGinn
• Missy Mosby
• Constance Robinson
• Jonathan Weaver
• Stephanie Brinkerhoff-Riley

• Joe Kiefer, President
• Bruce Ungethiem
• Stephen Melcher

• Angela Koehler Lindsey, President
• John Montrastelle, Vice-President
• Ed Bassemier
• Mike Goebel
• Jim Raben
• Stephanie Terry

• Bob Stobbs, President
• Mallory Lowe, Clerk-Treasurer
• Steve Kahre
• John Sanders
• Paul Freeman

• Stacy Stevens, President
• Bill Pedtke, Vice Pres.
• Dr. H. Dan Adams
• Dewey Colter
• Marty Amsler
• Roger Lehman
• Lynn Lowe
• Jeffrey Mueller
• Jeffrey Mueller
• Joy Payne
• Paul Kumar
• John Montrastelle
• Bruce Ungethiem

• Stacy Stevens
• Cheryl Musgrave
• Jonathan Parkhurst
• Bill Pedtke
• Becky Kasha
• Gregg Utley
• Mike Zehner