The exact page text, read by your browser's voice.
1947 ENABLING ACT · ORDINANCE 2988, 1986 · "MISHAWAKA 2000" · THE 2045 COUNTY FRAME
The zoning end of the line, dated from the city's own code: Mishawaka's zoning chapter — Chapter 137 of the Code of Ordinances — carries the source line "(Code 1985, § 159.001; Ord. No. 2988, 12-15-1986)" at its head sections, and its preamble recites that the ordinance is enacted under the authority "conferred by Acts 1947, Chapter 174 of the State of Indiana" — the 1947 Indiana planning and zoning enabling act — and "in accordance with a comprehensive plan," which the chapter defines as a composite of the written and mapped proposals and recommendations for the city's development. The zoning ordinance in its present enacted form therefore dates to Ordinance No. 2988, adopted December 15, 1986, standing on the state's 1947 act.
The first ordinance itself — a named gap: whether Mishawaka zoned before the 1947 act made zoning general in Indiana — a first zoning ordinance of the 1920s or 1930s, of the kind many Indiana cities passed under earlier authority — the records read do not say. The settling source is named and located: the Mishawaka City Council Records, 1845–1977, held by the Hesburgh Libraries of the University of Notre Dame (ArchivesSpace identifier ISH; twenty reels of microfilm carrying ordinance texts, council minutes, and the minutes of the Board of Public Safety and Board of Works). The line is printed from 1947/1986 forward because that is where the code's own source line starts it; the earlier link is open, not filled.
The comprehensive-plan end of the line — a conflict, printed whole: the city's own financial reports for fiscal 2004 and 2005 both state that "the comprehensive plan adopted in 1992 entitled 'Mishawaka 2000'" carries the city's transportation plan as a facet, and that in 2004 the city started updating its comprehensive plan. A St. Joseph County Housing Consortium consolidated-plan document states instead that "the current Mishawaka 2000 Comprehensive Plan was established in 1986 and has since been updated twice" — once for the redevelopment of the former Uniroyal facility, the "Rivercenter," and once for the development of Capital Avenue in a joint effort with St. Joseph County — with the update process begun in 2004, a housing-condition survey of more than 3,500 homes in 2005, and a draft transportation component added in 2006. Both datings are the record's own; 1986 is also the year of the zoning ordinance's present form, and 1992 may mark a re-adoption, but the record read here does not say so, and the two dates stand side by side unresolved. One amendment in the line is documented whole in the maps section of this build: the Capital Avenue Land Use Plan of December 2003, prepared by DLZ Indiana LLC and jointly adopted by the City of Mishawaka and St. Joseph County as an amendment to the previous comprehensive plan, still operative and cited under oath in Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission Cause No. 46221 in 2025.
The current frame: whether the update begun in 2004 ever issued in a newly adopted, newly titled comprehensive plan for the city itself, the records read do not establish; no successor title or adoption ordinance was found in the city's postings searched in November 2026. What has succeeded at the frame level is the county's plan: the 2045 St. Joseph County Comprehensive Plan, adopted November 12, 2024, stands in the maps section as the successor frame for county ground, horizon 2045. The city's own line therefore runs, on the record as it stands: comprehensive planning under "Mishawaka 2000" (1986 on the county document's telling, 1992 on the city's own), twice amended, an update opened in 2004 and not shown closed, and the county's 2045 plan above it. The settling source for the open link is the Mishawaka Plan Commission's record of adoptions.
Sources:
- City of Mishawaka Code of Ordinances, Chapter 137, §§ 137-1, 137-2 (source line: Code 1985, § 159.001–.002; Ord. No. 2988, 12-15-1986; authority recital, Acts 1947, ch. 174).
- City of Mishawaka, Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports, fiscal years 2004 and 2005 ("comprehensive plan adopted in 1992 entitled 'Mishawaka 2000'"; update begun 2004).
- St. Joseph County Housing Consortium consolidated-plan document (Mishawaka 2000 "established in 1986," two updates; 2004 update process; 2005 housing survey; 2006 draft transportation component).
- Historic Maps, this build (Capital Avenue Land Use Plan, December 2003, DLZ Indiana LLC; 2045 St. Joseph County Comprehensive Plan, adopted November 12, 2024; IURC Cause No. 46221, 2025).
- Hesburgh Libraries, University of Notre Dame, ArchivesSpace: Mishawaka City Council Records, 1845–1977 (identifier ISH) — named as settler for the first-ordinance question.