Aesthetic Standards

Building codes ensure that construction meets a recognized standard in order to protect the health, safety and welfare of families. Mandating design elements leads to more costly housing, limits consumer options, and are a barrier to achievable housing.

Restrictive Design Elements:

• Specifying the use of specific exterior materials
• Prescribing the minimum square footage of a home
• Requiring aesthetic details and/or planes on roofs, as well as a specific pitch
• Requiring porches and sunrooms
• Mandating single or two-car garages that load from the rear or side
• Requiring specific expanses of exterior windows and doors
• Requiring changes in color and materials on all sides of the home

Most architectural standards add cost, not value, they are purely aesthetic.

NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) Mentality

Local opposition to achievable housing: Unfounded fears that achievable housing brings issues such as increased crime, increased traffic, lower property values, overcrowded schools, and a loss of community “character” are often used in opposition to new housing proposals. 

However, thriving communities have a housing market with a spectrum of new homes available at price points that support and encourage a diverse and constantly evolving economy.

Property Tax Caps

With tax caps requiring municipalities to think differently about revenues, large-lot development is one of the least effective ways for a community to see a return on investment. Allowing greater density also provides communities with the type of lifestyle that many home buyers seek.

Local regulations & ordinances

Added regulation around land use, open space/density, aesthetics, anti-monotony, and permit/inspection requirements add tens of thousands of dollars to a new home community.

Local regulations add cost to new communities without the buyer receiving a tangible benefit. For every $1,000 price increase, 4,768 households are priced out of the market in Indiana.

All of us should have the opportunity to choose where we want to live for our career, our family, education, faith, recreational activities.