Indianapolis Permit-Ready Housing Plans for Infill Investors

Indianapolis is building a free catalog of permit-ready house plans. IBJ reported on September 8, 2026 that city officials have engaged a firm to create it, and the city's own description of the program says the plans will cover single-family homes, duplexes and accessory dwelling units (ADUs) that can be built on appropriately zoned lots, including city-owned land bank lots. If you build or invest on infill lots in neighborhoods like Fountain Square, Bates-Hendricks or the near eastside, this is worth understanding now, well before the first plan set is available.

What the city is actually building

The program is called the Pre-Reviewed Housing (PRH) pilot, and it is run by the Department of Metropolitan Development (DMD). Here is what is confirmed from the city's February 9, 2026 announcement and the procurement that followed:

• What: "a small catalog of permit-ready residential construction plans, including single-family homes, duplexes, and accessory dwelling units (ADUs)."
• How many: The request for qualifications asked one architect-led team for seven construction drawing sets, with multiple facade options and site layouts.
• Who owns them: The city will own the drawings for public use, modification and distribution without restriction.
• Where they can be used: "appropriately zoned parcels, including City-owned Vacant to Vibrant properties." That means private lots too, not only land bank lots.
• Why: DMD says the goal is "shortening approval timelines and lowering upfront costs."

Marlee Cawthorn, DMD's City Architect, put it this way when the city opened the search: "By streamlining the path from design to construction, this pilot aims to make it faster, easier, and more affordable to build small-scale, high-quality housing that fits within existing neighborhoods."

What is not public yet: the name of the firm, the contract amount, and a date when builders can actually pull the plans. The city also has not published any estimate of what the catalog will save. One of the pilot's stated goals is to "evaluate how much time and cost can be saved," so those numbers should come out of the pilot itself.

What pre-approved plans save a small builder

The honest answer for Indianapolis is that nobody knows yet. The best local comparison is South Bend, which launched its own pre-approved plan program in 2022 and is the city Indianapolis looked at when it first explored the idea.

• Design cost. South Bend officials told IBJ in 2024 that having an architect design a house can cost $5,000 to $10,000, and that the free plans take that cost off the table.
• Time. Pre-approved plans in South Bend come with contingent building and site approval, so the design review that normally eats weeks is already done.
• Results. A May 2026 Pew Charitable Trusts report, citing city data, says South Bend permitted 223 new housing units through the program over three years, about 7% of all new units the city permitted.

Some context on that design cost. Indianapolis's own residential permit fees are small by comparison (the city's fee schedule lists a $217 structural permit for a new building up to 1,000 square feet, plus plan review). The bigger costs on a one-off infill house are usually the design itself, the time spent in review, and any rezoning or variance work. A plan that has already been through review attacks the second and third problems as much as the first.

The time savings could matter as much as the fee. When the city drafted a federal grant application for a similar idea in 2024, IBJ reported that the draft put the city's review process for new housing on those federally funded projects at an average of 200 days, with a goal of cutting it to 100. On a small project carried with borrowed money, months of review are real holding costs.

Where this fits for investors and small builders

The catalog is aimed at exactly the kind of project that is hardest to make pencil in Indianapolis right now: one to two units on a vacant or underused lot inside the city.

• Vacant lots in older neighborhoods. The city's reworked land bank, Vacant to Vibrant, took over from Renew Indianapolis in 2025 and offers lots through standard, homestead, affordable and side-lot applications. A free plan set that already fits the zoning makes one of those lots much easier to underwrite. Our list of signs an Indianapolis neighborhood is about to pop is a good filter for which lots are worth chasing.
• Duplexes. DMD planners have said the city worked to let neighborhoods that historically had duplexes and triplexes build them again. A pre-reviewed duplex plan is the most interesting piece for a small investor who wants two rent rolls on one lot. Our duplex and triplex buyer's guide covers the numbers side.
• ADUs. Indianapolis has allowed accessory dwelling units since the Indy Rezone ordinance in 2015. The rules on size and occupancy are specific, though. City staff described a 720-square-foot limit on secondary dwelling units at an April 2026 zoning hearing, and online summaries of the rules disagree with each other, so confirm with DMD before you design around one.

If you are looking at infill in Fountain Square, Bates-Hendricks or the near eastside, the lot is still the hard part. Buying a vacant lot now and waiting for the catalog is a bet on timing the city has not committed to. Build that into your plan.

What it will not fix

Free plans cut design cost and review time. They do not change construction costs, and they do not change what a finished house on a given street will appraise or rent for. In Kalamazoo, which also offers pre-approved plans, MLive reported that one nonprofit-built house took about nine months and $280,000 to build and sold for $176,900. The plans got the house built. They did not close the gap between cost and value. For where investor inventory actually sits right now, see our 2026 Indianapolis investing outlook.

So run the same math you would on any new construction. Our BRRRR vs new construction breakdown walks through where new builds make sense in Indianapolis right now, and our post on the March permit surge covers what is already being built.

This is the second time Indy has tried this

In October 2024, IBJ reported that the city planned to ask HUD for $7 million under its PRO Housing grant program, including $1 million to create 20 to 40 pre-approved designs for missing-middle housing on city-owned lots. That version would have limited the designs to developers who went through a competitive application process. We could not find a record that Indianapolis received that grant.

The 2026 pilot is smaller (seven plan sets) and more open (city-owned drawings for public use on any appropriately zoned lot). Fort Wayne is running a similar play: its city council gave preliminary approval to a $120,000 contract for a catalog that starts with four designs. Closer to home, Carmel is chasing the same missing-middle goal through zoning, which we covered in what Carmel's missing middle push means for buyers and investors.

What to watch next

• The firm and the contract. The Metropolitan Development Commission's agendas are where the contract details should show up.
• The launch date. The city has not published one.
• Which designs make the cut. Seven plans is a short list. Whether the duplex designs fit narrow urban lots will decide how useful this is on the near eastside and south side.

We will update this post when the catalog is available. If you are weighing an infill lot now and want a second set of eyes on the comps for that street, reach out and we will pull them.

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Sources: IBJ, City moves forward with free, permit-ready housing designs for infill opportunities, Sept 8, 2026; City of Indianapolis DMD, Pre-Reviewed Housing pilot RFQ announcement, Feb 9, 2026; Pre-Reviewed Housing Program RFQ summary; IBJ, Indianapolis takes cue from South Bend on infill housing, Oct 11, 2024; City of South Bend pre-approved building plans; Pew Charitable Trusts, May 2026; WFYI, Feb 1, 2026; indy.gov license and permit fees; Journal Gazette on Fort Wayne's housing design catalog; MLive on Kalamazoo's pre-approved plans, April 2025.