If you want to be a development detective but find yourself turned around by the terminology in various city releases and news reports, never fear.

Here are the definitions of common terms paired with ongoing projects and examples you might recognize around the Circle City.

Mixed-Use

Projects that provide more than one purpose in the community, like a building with apartments on top and retail shops on the bottom. Expect to see combinations of housing, retail, parking, commercial, and industrial components.

Think: The upcoming Traction Yards (formerly Circle Centre Mall) development should have plenty of mixed-use spaces.

Rezoning

Changing an area of land from the city’s designated use. Examples of rezoning requests might include developers looking to build a high-rise in a neighborhood with a certain building height restriction, or trying to open a business in an area marked as residential.

Think: Last fall, Google attempted to rezone 460+ acres of farmland in Franklin Township to build a data center — the proposal was eventually withdrawn.

Single family home

A freestanding building that shares no walls with other homes or structures. Single family is a type of zoning district in the city.

Example: The entirety of the Woodruff Place neighborhood is within one D-5 residential zoning district — reserved for "mainly single-family and originally constructed two-family uses."

Multifamily home

One building that contains multiple housing units. Multifamily is a type of zoning district in the city.

Example: The AYR Apartments complex at 6160 N. Rural St. is a multifamily building — check out its zoning.

Principal use

The primary activity or function of a site. A site’s principal use must be aligned with the zoning ordinances of the land it’s on.

Example: Living in a home within a residential zone is an allowable principal use.

Accessory use

An activity or function of a site labeled subordinate or incidental.

Example: The garage or shed on your home property might be labeled an accessory use.