local control – The B Square

On Monday at noon, several Monroe County officials gathered to strategize against a land use bill pending with Indiana’s state legislature.

The bill, which is authored by District 62 representative Dave Hall (R), would prohibit local governments in Indiana from enacting laws that prevent development on land based just on the steepness of a site’s contours.

Meeting in the county-owned portion of the Showers complex on Morton Street were county commissioners, the executive committee of the county plan commission, and county planning staff.

In Hall’s bill [HB 1108], the key notion is “slope.” The slope is a measure of steepness, defined in land use laws the same way it was in middle-school math: vertical rise / horizontal run. Continue reading “Steep slopes: Monroe County still looks to curb building, despite possible state regs on local laws” →

2020-05-01 MCHO Screen Shot 2020-05-01 at 5.33.59 PM In a COVID-19 public health order signed by Monroe County’s health officer Thomas Sharp on Friday, a stay-at-home directive was put in place for Monroe County’s residents that lasts until May 15.

Other features of Friday’s Monroe County order include a prohibition on restaurant dine-in service.

That means for another two weeks, life for Monroe County’s residents will look the same as it has under Indiana governor Eric Holcomb’s stay-at-home order over the last month and a half.

So Monroe County will be going slower than most of the rest of the state, based on Indiana governor Eric Holcomb’s revised order, issued earlier in the afternoon on Friday. Continue reading “Monroe goes slow: COVID-19 measures stay in place for two more weeks, as other parts of the state start opening on May 4” →