IND15RPC – REVIEW OF EXISTING PLANS

The IND15RPC Economic Recovery and Resiliency Plan builds on the work of numerous plans prepared across the region. This includes regional plans, comprehensive plans, downtown revitalization plans, area plans, quality of place plans, and workforce development plans. Recommendations from each of these plans were considered in the context of the regional plan and analyzed for their regional impacts when further developed as a part of this plan.

The Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) plan for the IND15RPC was reviewed and revealed the following themes:

• Agribusiness, food processing, forest and wood products, and advanced materials industries are prominent in the region

• Emphasis on the importance of regional collaboration for counties within each region and neighboring regions

• Challenges of unfilled jobs in manufacturing and the need for training/ recruitment

• Lower wages than the rest of the state along with a lower education rate

• Slowed or declining population numbers

• Need for affordable housing and a wider variety of housing types

• Strong natural amenities and tourism industry

• Challenges with available childcare

• Vibrant downtowns with small-town character need to continue to receive support to grow and rehabilitate older buildings

• Plenty of room to grow but infrastructure such as utilities and broadband need to be extended throughout the region

• Connections between communities need to be improved for business, recreation, and tourism industries to grow

• Improved quality-of-life amenities such as trails, parks, and community programming are needed

Other plans that were reviewed and analyzed include:

• Dale Comprehensive Plan (2019)

• Dubois County Economic Resiliency Study (2019)

• Impact Jasper Comprehensive Plan (2019)

• Your Home, Your Huntingburg 2030Huntingburg Comprehensive Plan (2020)

• Comprehensive Plan for the Town of Milltown (2010)

• Town of Orleans Comprehensive Plan (2015)

• Town of Paoli Comprehensive Plan (2014)

• Perry County Comprehensive Plan (2015)

• 2040 Plan Petersburg – Comprehensive Plan (2019)

• The City of Tell City Comprehensive Plan (2012)

• Santa Claus Comprehensive Plan (2018)

• Pike County Interchange Area Master Plan (2018)

• 2020-2024 County INDOT Strategic Transportation Infrastructure Plan (STIP)

• Indiana Uplands Regional Housing Study (2019)

• Residential Market Study - Perry County (2019)

• Pike County Housing Study (2017)

• Residential Market Study – Spencer County (2019)

• Crawford County Broadband Readiness Plan (2020)

• Quality of Place and Workforce Attraction Plan - Crawford County (2019)

• French Lick Municipal Airport Strategic Plan (2019)

• Rural Economic Development Innovation (REDI) for Spencer County (2021)

• Crawford County Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan (2020)

• Orange County Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan (2017)

• Perry County Multi-Hazard Mitigation (2015)

• Spencer County Multi-Hazard Mitigation

Plan (2018)

• TIF District Economic Development plans

• Indiana Vision 2025 - A Plan for Hoosier Prosperity (2021)

• Indiana Vision 2025 - 21st Century Talent Region (2021)

These plans identified and addressed several issues discussed during these processes and focus group meetings. However, due to the pandemic, and the timing of this plan, not all the factors that create these issues have been addressed. Likewise, many of these factors may take many years to address. Therefore, it is likely that recommendations might need to be identified during this process to continue to address these issues. Several issues that were repeated between these plans include:

• Limited workforce

• Lack of childcare options and availability

• Limited access to broadband

• Loss of coal industry

• Housing

• Affordable housing

• Workforce housing options

• Executive housing options

• Diversity of available housing

• No public transportation options

• Changes in businesses

• Reduction of business hours

• Reduction in manufacturing due to material shortages

• Limited tourism season

• Population retention

• Encouraging recent high school and college graduates to move to the region

• Hurdles to overcome in training adults for new skills to enter the workforce

• Healthcare availability and mental health desert

Several focus group meetings were held throughout the first phase of this process.