2026 MPO Speaker Series: Planning in Action: Policy, People & Place

The Indianapolis Metropolitan Planning Organization’s 2026 Speaker Series brings together regional and national voices to explore how planning decisions shape housing, mobility, safety, and access across Central Indiana. This four-part series connects policy with lived experience by offering practical insight into the real-world challenges and opportunities facing our communities. Whether you’re a planner, engineer, elected official, advocate, or resident, these conversations are designed to inform and spark action.

Increasing Housing Diversity: Breaking Down Barriers

Exploring how local ordinances can better support diverse housing types such as ADUs, family compounds, and small-scale multifamily housing. RSVP Here

Tim Corcoran, the Director of Planning for the City of South Bend Indiana, will be discussing policy changes that enabled South Bend to support diverse housing types. He has over 20 years of experience in the fields of urban design and town planning. Before starting his role with the city, he was an urban design consultant in Sydney Australia where he worked on a wide range of developments from large scale city extensions to neighborhood infill projects. In 2016 he returned to his hometown of South Bend, Indiana where he helped to lead changes in planning policy and foster a proactive approach to development. Tim’s overhaul of the City’s zoning ordinance garnered national recognition and earned the Driehaus Award for Form-Based Codes. He developed plans to spur downtown and neighborhood revitalization and created pre-approved house plans to provide design guidance to a growing small scale developer community. His work to shape the city through a focus on collaboration, design and, incremental improvements continues to raise expectations that contribute to the growth and resurgence of South Bend.

This event is combined with an open house for the IMPO Maximizing the Value of Land Study. Open House presentation will take place at 4:45pm right before the main speaker. You can view the open house materials from 4:30-4:45pm and 6-6:40pm.