Buying Land in Marion County, Indiana

UniGov: why Marion County is not a typical Indiana county

In 1970, the Indiana General Assembly consolidated most of Indianapolis's and Marion County's government functions into a single structure widely known as UniGov -- one of the more complete city-county mergers anywhere in the country. Planning and zoning had actually been unified even earlier, in 1955, when the state created the Metropolitan Planning Commission of Marion County; UniGov replaced that body with the Metropolitan Development Commission (MDC), a nine-member board -- five members appointed by the mayor, four by the City-County Council -- that today serves simultaneously as the county's planning and zoning commission and as its redevelopment commission, with authority to adopt the comprehensive land use plan, hear rezoning and variance petitions, and approve redevelopment property sales.

The practical result for a land buyer: there is no separate "Marion County Plan Commission" distinct from Indianapolis's own zoning apparatus, because they are the same body operating under a single unified zoning code, administered day to day by the city's Department of Metropolitan Development. That is a genuinely different structure from the typical Indiana county Area Plan Commission this site describes elsewhere, and it is the single most important fact to understand before treating a Marion County parcel like unincorporated land in a rural county.

The four excluded cities: where MDC zoning does not apply

UniGov was never a total merger. Four incorporated municipalities inside Marion County's borders -- Beech Grove, Lawrence, Southport, and Speedway -- negotiated to remain "excluded cities," keeping their own separate mayors, city councils, and, relevant here, their own independent planning and zoning authority rather than folding into the Metropolitan Development Commission's jurisdiction. A parcel inside one of these four cities is governed by that city's own zoning ordinance and building department, not by the MDC or the county-wide Department of Business and Neighborhood Services described below.

If you are evaluating land anywhere near Beech Grove, Lawrence, Southport, or Speedway, confirm which jurisdiction actually controls the specific parcel before assuming Indianapolis's zoning code applies -- the boundary between MDC territory and an excluded city is a real administrative line, not just a neighborhood name.

Building permits: the Department of Business and Neighborhood Services

For the consolidated area outside the four excluded cities, the Department of Business and Neighborhood Services (BNS) -- 200 E. Washington St., Suite 1160, Indianapolis, (317) 327-8700 -- issues building permits and handles code enforcement, managed through an online Accela portal for applications and inspection scheduling. Each excluded city runs its own separate permit office instead.

The city's Vacant to Vibrant land bank: the closest thing to a land market here

Because Marion County is overwhelmingly built out and incorporated, the closest analogue to a rural county's raw-land listings is the city's own inventory of vacant, formerly tax-delinquent lots and structures. That inventory moves through Vacant to Vibrant, a Department of Metropolitan Development program that absorbed what had previously been a separate nonprofit land bank, Renew Indianapolis. By DMD's own account, the city acquired roughly 140 tax-sale-eligible properties and resold about 115 of them back into private ownership over a recent two-year span, with priority given to buyers who commit to an affordable resale price or to living in a rehabbed home for at least two years. See our dedicated buying-land topic page for Marion County for how the program actually works, including its monthly application cycle and side-lot option for adjacent property owners.

Septic, wells, and other departments to know

Most of Indianapolis proper runs on municipal sanitary sewer, but Marion County still has unsewered pockets, and the Marion County Public Health Department -- part of the Health & Hospital Corporation of Marion County, 3901 Meadows Dr., (317) 221-2266 -- administers an Onsite Sewage (Septic) Systems Program and a separate Private Well Program for those areas under Indiana's statewide 410 IAC 6-8.3 rule and Chapter 14 of the HHC's own code. Any land buyer relying on a septic system rather than sewer connection here should confirm sewer availability first, since it is the exception rather than the rule this deep inside a major metro area.

The Marion County Assessor's, Auditor's, and Recorder's offices are each separately elected consolidated-government offices (accessible through indy.gov agency pages) handling property valuation, tax records, and recorded deeds and easements respectively, and MapIndy is the county's official consolidated GIS mapping application for parcel boundaries, political boundaries, and infrastructure layers.