Zoning Near Grissom Air Reserve Base in Miami County, Indiana

Two counties, two separate overlay districts -- this page covers Miami County's

Grissom Air Reserve Base, roughly 10 miles south of Peru, sits across the boundary between Cass and Miami Counties. Because Indiana zoning authority is exercised county by county, each side of the base is governed by its own separately adopted zoning tool rather than one shared ordinance. Cass County's approach -- covered in a separate zoning page on this site -- runs through a joint Logansport/Cass County Planning Department and includes its own Grissom Air Force Overlay District plus context from a 2018 base-wide Joint Land Use Study and Indiana Senate Bill 332's 2023 statewide military-impact-area disclosure framework.

Miami County's approach is genuinely different in its specifics, even though it addresses the same base: the Miami County Plan Commission's own zoning ordinance includes a Grissom Air Reserve Base Overlay District, established through a Sitting Ordinance dated September 24, 2018, backed by two dedicated mapping documents -- a Miami County Grissom ARB Height District Map and a Miami County Grissom ARB Accident Potential and Noise Zones Map. If your parcel sits on the Miami County side of the base, the facts on this page (not Cass County's page) are the ones that apply to it.

The Height District and Accident Potential/Noise Zones maps

Miami County's overlay ordinance works through two separate mapping layers. The Height District Map establishes maximum structure heights across zones radiating out from the base's runways and approach paths -- a typical airport-overlay tool meant to keep towers, grain bins, wind turbines, or tall buildings from creating an obstruction hazard for aircraft using the base. The Accident Potential and Noise Zones Map separately identifies areas where aircraft accident risk and noise exposure are elevated because of their position relative to runway approach and departure paths, typically carrying tighter restrictions on residential density and sometimes requiring a specific noise-exposure disclosure for a property sale within the mapped area.

Because both maps are tied to the base's specific runway geometry rather than a simple radius around the installation, a parcel's actual position relative to the runway centerline -- not just its straight-line distance from the base's fence line -- determines which restrictions, if any, apply. Confirm a specific parcel's status on both maps directly with the Miami County Plan Commission rather than estimating from a general sense of proximity to the base.

Named sub-zones: Clear Zones, VORTAC standoff areas, and more

Grissom's own Operational Areas Action Plan identifies several specific sub-zones where compatible land use matters most: the North Clear Zone and South Clear Zone (the highest-risk areas directly off each runway end, where the strictest use and density limits typically apply), VORTAC standoff areas (a buffer around the base's navigational radio aid, protecting it from interference and physical obstruction), taxiways, and the runway primary surface itself. Each of these carries its own compatibility expectations under the county's overlay ordinance, and they don't necessarily line up with a simple concentric-circle mental model of "how close is too close" to the base.

• Ask the Miami County Plan Commission directly which named sub-zone(s), if any, a specific parcel falls within, rather than relying on straight-line distance to the base
• Check the parcel's status on both the Height District Map and the Accident Potential and Noise Zones Map separately, since they address different risks and can produce different restrictions for the same parcel
• If building any tall structure (a grain bin, communications tower, or similar) near the base, confirm height limits under the overlay before finalizing plans, since an otherwise-permitted structure elsewhere in the county may not be allowed here
• Don't assume information from this site's Cass County Grissom page applies to a Miami County parcel -- the two counties maintain separate ordinances with separate maps