The timeline · Working sequence · Page 7 of 8
From this month through the 2027 municipal election and past it. Every entry names the body that has to act. Dates fixed by statute are marked apart from my estimates, because the difference matters.
One legal opinion decides which of two paths the abatement takes. Everything before it is the same on both. So the spine runs straight until that answer, then forks.
September 2026
Councilor HartPartnersPublish this series. Sit down with the builders, brokers, designers and nonprofits listed on the front page, and ask them to break it before an opponent does. Proposed
Ask Cincinnati's development staff, by phone, why approvals fell by roughly three quarters after their 2023 redesign. Proposed
Fall 2026
City-County CouncilCorporation CounselDMDIntroduce a non-binding launch resolution: state the policy, request a written opinion from Corporation Counsel and the Department of Metropolitan Development on whether the consolidated-city language in IC 6-1.1-12.1-3(e) lets the MDC run a standardized, map-based residential abatement, and request that the MDC develop a residential zone schedule. It puts the proposal on the record and forces an answer. Proposed
Ask the administration for two numbers before the budget hearings: how many receiverships the city has sought under the Unsafe Building Law in five years, and how many parcels were on the last vacant-and-abandoned tax-sale list. The accountability page explains why those two numbers decide whether the stick exists. Proposed
Two things I said I would do in parallel are done as of September 6: the circuit-breaker model is on the abatement page and the prototype tract scoring is on the map page. What remains this fall is replacing the map's one remaining proxy with the Assessor's assessed-value history, adding the city's permit counts, and getting DLGF to check the model's arithmetic. Proposed
Before January 1, 2027
City-County CouncilDMDHold the public review of the unified development ordinance that HEA 1001 requires, against the state's nine listed barriers, and file the minutes, findings and any code changes with the Legislative Services Agency. Annual housing-status reports to IHCDA and LSA begin the same day. Statutory
After December 31, 2026, permit and zoning fees are capped at processing cost and may rise only once every five years. Whatever fee changes DMD needs should be adopted before then. Statutory
An earlier draft put a December 31, 2026 accessory-dwelling opt-out deadline here. The enrolled act contains no such provision; that language was in the House version only. What the act actually does.
November 2026
General AssemblyCouncilor HartOrganization Day opens the run-up to the 2027 session. Any state ask has to have a legislative author and drafted language by roughly now. The narrow ask that goes regardless of the legal opinion: a qualifying residential deduction in a consolidated city runs with the parcel without a subsequent owner re-applying, so long as the qualifying use continues. Administrative, technical, hard to argue against. Estimated
Late 2026, estimated
Corporation CounselDMDThe written opinion comes back. This is the fork. Estimated
Early 2027. The MDC adopts a preliminary resolution designating Residential Reinvestment zones with the published schedule, gives public notice, and holds the statutory hearing. Est.
Spring 2027. The MDC adopts the confirming resolution. This is the moment the program exists. Zones, percentages and terms are set here, not by the Council. Est.
2027. DMD attaches the abatement to Vacant to Vibrant parcels first. The Auditor establishes the first deductions. Est.
January to April 2027. Expand the state ask to a narrow amendment inside IC 6-1.1-12.1: let a consolidated city establish Residential Reinvestment Areas using objective housing-market and income criteria, cover new construction and substantial rehabilitation of one-to-four unit homes, authorize a predetermined schedule of up to 100 percent for ten years, and carry the deduction to subsequent owners. Est.
July 1, 2027. Typical effective date for new state law. Est.
Late 2027 to 2028. MDC designation proceeds under the new authority, likely after the election. Est.
January to April 2027
General AssemblyThe 2027 session. Whichever branch we are on, the transfer-without-reapplication fix goes. If a legislative partner is willing, so does property-tax relief for long-tenured, lower-income homeowners in appreciating neighborhoods, which is a state question in Indiana. Scheduled
2027
Mayor's administrationDMDMDCThe pieces of the system page that need no new law: formalize in writing that incentive review runs alongside entitlements, issue early conditional commitments, publish a decision clock, and adopt an independent-underwriting threshold by MDC policy for abatements. Council leverage is the budget and four of nine MDC appointments. Proposed
November 2, 2027
VotersMunicipal election. Housing will be near the center of it. Anything not started by now gets decided by whoever is elected. Scheduled
2028
Marion County AuditorHomebuyersFirst homes built under the program close. The buyer signs the transfer form at closing next to the homestead paperwork, and the deduction appears on their parcel record and on the following year's tax bill. The zone map is re-scored three years after adoption. Estimated
The broad-based housing fund and the restructured affordability obligation, which need an ordinance, a fund charter and possibly state authority for the fee structure, realistically land here. Estimated
The Council appears once on the abatement track, at the top, and its resolution is a request rather than an enactment. Worth saying out loud in the first briefing, because it is the most common point of confusion.
Appointments
Four of nine
The MDC has nine members, five appointed by the mayor and four by the Council. Not control, but on a policy resolution it is not nothing.
Budget
DMD staff
DMD staffs and recommends every abatement resolution the MDC votes on. The Council funds DMD.
Allocation areas
Statements of benefits
Council already approves statements of benefits for property inside TIF allocation areas as part of an ERA designation, as it did in Proposal No. 210, 2025.
The Statehouse
A resolution of support
A Council resolution backing a narrow amendment is the standard predicate a legislative author asks for.
Whether any part of the current abatement framework lives in the Revised Code as an ordinance, or whether it is entirely MDC policy resolution. That answer decides whether the Council has a legislative instrument here at all, or only a resolution and four appointments.
What this means for you
Pick who you are in the bar at the top and this section changes.
The entry that affects you soonest is the January 1, 2027 code review. The one that affects you most is the fork on the legal opinion. If it goes the local way, the first abated parcels could be under contract in 2027. Plan your land pipeline for both branches.
The transfer-without-reapplication fix goes to the 2027 session on either branch. If your association wants to support one narrow housing bill this year, that is the one that removes the only friction in the design.
Between now and January 1, 2027 is the window to put specific UDO provisions in front of the Council. After that the state has our answer on file.
Nothing here needs you before 2027, but the underwriting question, whether a transferable abatement counts toward debt-to-income, needs an answer before the first sale, not after.
The land-bank pilot lands in 2027 on the local branch. If your pipeline overlaps Vacant to Vibrant parcels, the sequencing conversation with DMD should start this fall.
Nothing on this timeline changes a tax bill before 2028 at the earliest, and never on a home that already exists. The date that affects you first is the January code hearing, which is public.
Two things are ours to schedule this fall: the launch resolution and the HEA 1001 hearing. Everything after that is either the MDC's, the Statehouse's, or the voters'. Getting both on the calendar before the session opens is the whole game.