Regional Activity Centers

Regional Activity Centers are major destinations where clusters of employment, residents, and/or visitors are located. Identifying these Centers of high activity and trip generation helps engineers, planners and elected officials plan for the long-term needs of the area and guide growth across the region in an efficient and predictable manner. Other benefits of Activity Centers are:

  • Ensuring efficient use of infrastructure and public investments.
  • Identifying an economic center for communities and neighborhoods without one.
  • Supporting appropriate transportation infrastructure for each center type, including distribution/logistics activities.
  • Enabling residents to work closer to their homes.
  • Encouraging people to use active modes of transportation by reinforcing and developing walkable, mixed-use centers.
  • Providing opportunity for unique, memorable, active places where people can live, work and play.
  • Providing more destinations within the region for visitors and locals alike.

In 2023, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Planning Organization (IMPO) led an update of the map and technical report for the Regional Activity Centers. This update includes an expansion of the study area and the incorporation of the most recent data available.

2020 (Archive)

These existing and emerging regional activities centers for Central Indiana were identified in 2020 though data-driven methodology and verification by a committee of regional representatives. Each grid cell in these maps is 160 acres in area, or 0.25 square miles.