Land Use Task Force Drafts Final Report
Published: Friday, December 1, 2023
The Indiana Land Use Task Force offered more than two dozen recommendations during its final meeting on Nov. 14 in Indianapolis.
The task force is an interim study committee commissioned by the Indiana General Assembly to study the following items: Growth trends in rural, suburban and urban communities across Indiana; economic and demographic factors that developers consider in siting projects; how rural, suburban and urban communities can position themselves to attract economic development; barriers to community growth; and areas in Indiana in which food insecurity exist.
The recommendations were contained in a draft of the task force's final report to lawmakers. The Nov. 14 meeting was the last of three meetings during which the task force received input from a wide range of experts on land use, food insecurity and population trends.
The task force offered 16 recommendations relating specifically to food insecurity and farmland. Included among those were the following:
• Develop a model plan for voluntary farmland preservation.
• Encourage local governments to establish an agricultural district zone that protects farmland owners from nuisance suits caused by normal farming practices.
• Create guidelines for renewable energy projects sited on prime farmland, which require a decommissioning agreement, road use agreement, first responder agreement, drainage plan and a prime farmland protection mitigation assessment. This can be avoided if utility grade solar projects are placed on brownfield areas, including reclaimed coal ground.
• Develop a farmland program to encourage young or beginner farmers to enter the production agricultural industry.
• Authorize the state Department of Natural Resources to study best practices for facilitating solar and wind generation construction on reclaimed surface coal mining parcels, including pilot study sites to assess the impact of construction on reclaimed land with a waiver of liability for utilizing these parcels.
• Support communities in strengthening policies that promote healthy food access, including partnering local agriculture with community schools and promoting farmer's markets.
• Investigate the possibility of funding transportation and delivery services for SNAP participants, including potentially increasing SNAP benefits to cover the cost of transportation and delivery services in SNAP benefits.
• Address food insecurity areas with an emphasis on: Improving food access, encouraging use of local foods, streamlining the SNAP application process, and encouraging eligible students to utilize free school breakfast and lunch programs.
• Promote municipal zoning ordinances that allow for infill, small-tract farming to provide locally grown food, reducing food deserts.
• Investigate right to food legislation and a constitutional right to farm resolution.
• Support incentivizing food service and restaurants with tax credits to utilize local foods.
• Encourage direct-to-consumer sales and delivery to addresses in food deserts.
• Educate retailers located in food deserts on how to become eligible for SNAP.
• Investigate ways for the state to act as an intermediary in the SNAP program.
• Ask Indiana's federal representatives to improve SNAP eligibility for retailers.
• Use solely the net income test for eligibility for SNAP benefits, rather than the net income test, gross income test, and asset test.
In addition to these recommendations, the task force offered recommendations relating to planning and zoning requirements for local municipalities; requiring the Indiana Economic Development Corp. to collect population and employment data for each county in the state; creating an infrastructure funding task force as an urgent priority for developers when considering siting of projects; supporting brownfield remediation; addressing barriers to workforce participation such as access to childcare, transportation or medical care.
The task force also recommended establishing a smart growth community program to provide funding to local governments to establish a vision and execute a plan for future growth; studying housing availability, with a focus on the availability of workforce housing; supporting local zoning that encourages "housing friendly communities" with high and medium density housing; supporting increased childcare opportunities for communities; and improving access to medical services in rural communities and blighted communities, including OB-GYN services, trauma centers and general health services.
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