The following is an article in Omblogsman, a blog series by Jim Rawlinson, Regulatory and Permitting Ombudsman at Develop Indy, a business unit of the Indy Chamber.

Hello readers! Friendly neighborhood Ombudsman here! In this edition, we are getting away from thrilling looks at zoning classifications, exciting dives into HVAC hood specifications, and adventures into site plan requirements to focus on a whole different side of economic development: inclusive growth.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
The biggest topic on the minds of economic development professionals in Indianapolis in the last year has, unsurprisingly, been tech. But the other topic, possibly the more important for all of us in the long-term, is inclusive growth.

In 2017, the Indy Chamber took part in a study by the Brookings Institute looking at how we, along with a handful of other cities, are growing. It brought up a number of startling statistics, and the reality is that Indianapolis, like most of the country, has a growing inequity problem. Simply put: people in poverty in Indianapolis have a harder time getting out of poverty. Although there are many highly successful pockets of wealth around the city, there are also many with shocking levels of poverty.

The Indy Chamber is focused on inclusive growth and improving opportunities for our citizens that are impoverished to move up the economic ladder. Community and neighborhood development are as important as they’ve ever been, and 2018 is a year when they will be the focus of not only the City of Indianapolis, but our broader economic development efforts as well. Addressing inequity and poverty are central to providing a great quality of life here in Indianapolis. Community development is economic development.

Make Your Personal Impact on Community Development
How can you get involved? When my wife and I bought our first house in Little Flower on the east side, one of the first things we did was join the local neighborhood association and become board members. My best advice if you want to get to know your neighbors and make your community a better place, start there. Find out who your neighborhood group is go to a meeting. If you don’t have a neighborhood group, start one!

A great event to start with is Keep Indianapolis Beautiful’s “Great Indy Clean Up”, which is in April. You can sign up here. If you have more questions about who your neighborhood group is or how you start one, go talk to the Indianapolis Neighborhood Resource Center.

Maybe neighborhood groups aren’t your thing. If you don’t have the time to commit to one, another way to become active is to get to know your local Community Development Corporation and get involved with them. There are many CDCs all around Indianapolis doing fantastic work in the trenches and they all need your support, whether it’s operational or financial. Hold on to your hats, I’m going to drop some names here but it’s only because they all do tremendous work and deserve recognition:

Near-East Side
NEAR (Near East Area Renewal)
Englewood CDC
John H Boner Center
Promise Zone
Irvington Development Organization
Community Alliance of the Far Eastside (CAFÉ
South East Neighborhood Development (SEND)

West Side
West Indy CDC
Westside CDC
International Marketplace Coalition

North Side
Near North CDC
Mapleton Fall Creek CDC
King Park CDC

Midtown
Broad Ripple Village Association
Martindale Brightwood CDC
Riley Area Development Corp

If you have more questions about what CDCs do or how to get involved with what they are doing, check Local Initiatives Support Coalition (LISC). They provide financial and technical support to all of these groups and more.

I almost hesitated to make that list because there are endless amounts of people doing fantastic work in their communities all around this City who deserve credit and your support. These are just a handful that I’ve worked with. The important thing to keep in mind is that the Indy Chamber, Develop Indy, these CDCs, even the City of Indianapolis can make this a priority but we can’t do this alone. If we want to make our communities better, it starts with all of us.

The following is an article in Omblogsman, a blog series by Jim Rawlinson, Regulatory and Permitting Ombudsman at Develop Indy, a business unit of the Indy Chamber.

Friendly neighborhood Ombuds-man here! I work every day with businesses large and small to help them through the permitting process. Some days I’m advising a small business on a kitchen remodel, others I’m working with engineers constructing skyscrapers downtown to help coordinate and keep their projects on schedule. Over the last couple of years I’ve seen it all, well maybe not all, but a lot. Today I’ll try to impart some honest, straight up pro tips that you can choose to use as they apply to you.

PRO TIPS:

DON’T TEAR DOWN THAT SIGN!
Many existing signs are grandfathered under code. When you tear them down you have just re-started the permitting process. Most times you are actually allowed to update or reface a sign, avoiding the permit/variance process. Always check with the City before you take anything down. To go a step further, sometimes even if your contractor says they will handle permitting it’s a good idea to double check. They will be pulling the permit but once the sign goes up it is your problem if it’s not in compliance. Fortunately, there’s an easy way to follow your contractor’s permit application here: http://permitsandcases.indy.gov/citizenAccess/

CHECK YOUR ZONING BEFORE DOING ANYTHING.
I’ve mentioned this in previous blogs but that’s only because it’s so vital and such a common mistake. We’ve developed a tool in conjunction with Open Counter that allows you to check the zoning of an address or find other places where your use is permitted: (https://indianapolis.zoningcheck.com/ ), and if you want to find out more about the permits required and the costs associated, check out Open Counter (https://indianapolis.opencounter.com/ ). Trust me, you’d rather address a zoning issue ahead of time than have to deal with it when you are ready open and wait a couple of months to get (or, even worse, not get) a variance approval. This can quite literally kill or seriously damage a project. Which brings us to…

“YOU NEED A VARIANCE” DOESN’T MEAN “NO” (OR “YES”)
Redevelopment of a property can be complicated and you may be required to seek a variance to be permitted to do what you want with the space. Many people hear “you need a variance” as “you can’t do that”. It’s important to know that this process actually exists is to allow you to do what you want to do when reasonable. There is a process and cost associated with it but depending on the scope of your project it’s very possible to get a variance approved and go along your way. It’s also important to note, though, that it can be expensive (minimum of about $2500) and take 30-60 days. And you aren’t guaranteed to get what you want. It is possible to get through a variance process yourself as a business owner but, unless you’ve been through it, I would highly recommend hiring a code consultant. They’re well paid but if you really need them they usually worth every penny.
LET US WALK YOU THROUGH IT.
City Staff are interested in helping you get your business open as quickly as possible. Generally they are willing to work with you to find a way to yes if they can. Call me or the city and ask if you can go through your project ahead of time with staff. They can raise any red flags on your plans that you may have missed. It’s a lot easier to adjust some plans on paper than it is to do it in the middle of your construction.
PULL PERMITS!
Just, do it. Besides avoiding fines and stop work orders when you get caught, if something goes wrong it protects you, the business, from a lot of headaches trying to fix it.

CHECK WITH THE PROS.
One of my biggest surprises when I started at the Indy Chamber was the amount of free services we offer businesses. The Develop Indy team is here to help with real estate searches, exploring incentives, and working with City Administration to get you open as fast as possible. The Entrepreneur Services team offers free one on one coaching, financing and many other services!

The following is an article in Omblogsman, a blog series by Jim Rawlinson, Regulatory and Permitting Ombudsman at Develop Indy, a business unit of the Indy Chamber.

Hello readers! Friendly neighborhood Ombudsman here.

To recap: I am Jim Rawlinson, the Regulatory and Permitting Ombudsman at the Indy Chamber. I’m on the Develop Indy team, contracted with the City of Indianapolis to help businesses and individuals interact with the City administration quickly and easily. I’m here to help connect you to resources you need at the city, advise on anything permitting, zoning, etc. related, and help un-stick your sticky situations. For this edition of Omblogsman, I thought we might want to sit down with Director Jason Larrison at the Department of Business and Neighborhood Services.

A quick bio rundown on Jason. He’s a graduate of Ball State University (chirp chirp), and an architect by trade. He has spent the majority of his professional career as a public servant, working both under the previous City administration in the Department of Code Enforcement and working at the State as an architect. While at the State he notably oversaw the reconstruction of Soldiers and Sailors Monument. He was listed this year as one of the IBJ’s “Top 40 Under 40”.
There have been some major changes behind the scenes under Director Larrison’s leadership. Most notably, what was the Department of Code Enforcement has been restructured into the Department of Business and Neighborhood Services (I’m contractually obligated to remind everyone who says “DCE” that it is “BNS”). The idea was to take the edge off of “enforcement” and focus on “service”. It is more than just semantics though, the department has been fundamentally restructured: Construction services encompasses inspections and permitting under one umbrella to offer increased service, Public safety has its own inspections focused on nuisance abatement and high weeds & grass to focus on blight elimination.
Another major change to the department under Director Larrison’s watch has been moving what was “Animal Control” under the BNS umbrella and renaming it “Animal Care Services”. Much like the changes at Code Enforcement, Jason’s hope is to change the focus from “enforcement” and “control” to “service”. Jason has found ways to maintain the service levels to citizens while finding new funding opportunities to add staff at the facility.
Although there has been considerable realignment and change at the department, Director Larrison isn’t finished. Looking to 2018, he is exploring the possibility of modifying the fee structure to offer increased service and responsiveness. Along with that would be increased opportunities for online permitting (while you can’t apply from it currently, Open Counter Indy is here to help business owners answer their zoning and permitting questions 24/7). The City of Indianapolis is currently rolling out Shift Indy, a complete redo of the City’s online presence, which will be an exciting update for the City as a whole.
A major focus going forward will be Mayor Hogsett’s “2,000 homes initiative”, a goal of changing the status of 2,000 abandoned or vacant homes in Marion County over the next year, helping neighborhoods eliminate blight and returning the properties to the tax rolls. We are also awaiting a new report from the Office of Audit & Performance on a new coordinated multi-agency effort to address high weeds & grass. Animal Care Services is completing a facility assessment at their current location, trying to increase and maximize space, and exploring possible locations for a new facility. They also are doing all they can to increase their live release rate to 90%, at which point they would be officially considered a “no kill shelter”!
These are some important ways that the City of Indianapolis has focused its attention on providing service to the community. As always, you can reach me at [email protected] if you have any questions.

The following is an article in Omblogsman, a blog series by Jim Rawlinson, Regulatory and Permitting Ombudsman at Develop Indy, a business unit of the Indy Chamber.

Friendly neighborhood Ombudsman here! Last session I went through some quick tips for general new business owners to be aware of. Today we will take a deeper dive into local regulations and permitting, which, as the Regulatory and Permitting Ombudsman, is kind of what I do.
ZONING
A lot of people think zoning is a scary process best left for city planners and lawyers. To some extent that’s not untrue, but it is also a vital part of how cities develop and how businesses interact with people on a daily basis. As a business and a property owner, it is very important for you to understand your zoning and what that means.
When a city planner looks at their city, they like to have rules in place that determine what can go where. There are a lot of reasons for this: to protect residents whose property backs up to a business; to protect businesses from each other; to drive certain kinds of development in an area; to protect historic areas.
Planners try to make it so that “low intensity zones” (homes, schools, etc.) are buffered from intensive use. So if you are looking to open up an office, you can often be right next to a residential area, but there are restrictions on what you can do in that property. Businesses are allowed more varied uses in a higher intensity zone, but there are stricter rules on where these can be. Cities utilize zoning to determine “this is where we want commercial or industrial development” or “this is where this use has already been established” and, most pertinent to all of us, “this is where people live, you can’t put anything else here”.
The City of Indianapolis recently went through a comprehensive re-do of our zoning process. The goal was to update our code with a focus on connectivity, the environment, and good governance. Recognizing that Indianapolis is a large geographic area with different styles of development, Re-Zone broke the City into two major districts, the metro and the compact. In the compact, the goal is to drive more urban development, stressing density and connectivity. In the Metro, the aim is more suburban development with larger lots and setbacks from the road. These updates took our zoning structure into the 21st Century and made us a leader in some areas but we are still working to refine and update the structure as we grow.
If you have any questions about zoning, what yours is, how you change it, etc., you can get more info by calling the Department of Metropolitan Development’s planner on call, or, of course, me.
You can also check your zoning 24/7 at a handy tool we created here: https://indianapolis.zoningcheck.com/
PERMITTING
The Department of Business and Neighborhood Services manages most permitting and licensing in the City of Indianapolis. This can be anything from a Structural Permit (we technically don’t have a “building permit”) to Right of Way Permit, a Sign Permit, or a Special Events Permit. These are, like zoning, designed to promote a safe, healthy city. To close a street for an event, you need a Right of Way Permit that alerts neighbors and businesses and ensures IMPD is able to make sure the closure is safe. You need a Structural Permit to show that you are building to minimum standards so people won’t have to worry about your building falling down. You need licensed contractors and engineers to pull those permits so that the City knows that those plans are being followed competently and safely.
That’s not to say the process can’t be overwhelming and frustrating if you don’t know how it works. The Department of Business and Neighborhood Services was formerly known as the Department of Code Enforcement. Under Director Jason Larrison, they have tried to change the focus from being an enforcement agency to a service agency, but it’s more than just semantics. Director Larrison employs a number of professionals to help you get your business started quickly but safely. You are welcome to go into their offices at 1200 South Madison Avenue during the week and meet with the permits team or a plan reviewer personally. They can usually advise you on what is the best way to get what you need. We also created Open Counter Indy (https://indianapolis.opencounter.com/en) as a service that is available 24/7 to answer questions on the costs and required documentation associated with pulling permits for your business!
ETC
I’m running out of space, reader, but there is so much more information. There are multiple other permitting and regulatory agencies that you need to be aware of. Rather than going into descriptions of each of them, I’ll just add their websites and you can explore on your own.
http://marionhealth.org/ (restaurant inspections, food service licensing and more!)
http://www.in.gov/dhs/3658.htm (State of IN Building Review, generally a requirement to pull a Structural Permit from the City)
As always, if you have more questions give me a call or email and I’ll try to get them answered as best I can! Until next time!
Jim Rawlinson can be reached by phone at 317.464.2262 or by email at [email protected].