Saxony Lake District
Lake-centered residential and mixed-use area at the heart of the master plan.
Saxony · Fishers, IN
New Urbanist master plan where a PUD ordinance, not the UDO, sets your setbacks
Saxony is the 2001 master-planned district near I-69 and 131st Street that Fishers built before it built its downtown — a walkable mix of townhomes, single-family villages, retail, and office across several hundred acres. It is also the clearest example of why Fishers zoning questions cannot be answered from the R1–R5 table: Saxony runs on its own PUD ordinance, with a PUD Committee reviewing architecture.
History & architecture
How Saxony was built
Ohio-based Republic Development launched Saxony in 2001 on 370-plus acres near I-69 Exit 10, framed as a New Urbanist alternative to conventional subdivision development.
The plan mixed residential villages with retail, civic, and office space at a time when Fishers had no walkable center of its own.
Phased build-out through the 2000s and 2010s added Saxony Village, the Saxony Lake District, and the MarketPlace at Saxony commercial campus.
The district grew well past its original footprint, and later phases carry their own approvals and commitments layered onto the original PUD.
Architecture in and around Saxony continues to be reviewed by a PUD Committee, which has denied designs it found inconsistent with the district's standards.
- Predominant era
- 2001 through the late 2010s, built in phases
- Typical home
- Townhomes, condos, and single-family homes on narrow New Urbanist lots
- Zoning
- PUD, with standards set by the adopted district ordinance
- Association
- Multiple HOAs across sub-villages
Landmarks & shared spaces
Places that anchor Saxony
MarketPlace at Saxony
The district's retail and corporate campus near I-69 and 131st Street.
Saxony Village
The original New Urbanist residential village with narrow lots and front-facing porches.
Businesses & districts
Where Saxony gathers
MarketPlace at Saxony retailers
Anchor retail, restaurants, and offices serving the northeast side of Fishers.
Saxony Village storefronts
Neighborhood-scale commercial integrated into the residential fabric.
Zoning & overlays
Common zoning codes in Saxony
These are the base districts and overlays we see most often on Saxony lots. Always confirm your parcel's district and overlays on the Metro zoning map before design decisions get expensive.
PUDPlanned Unit Development district
Most master-planned Fishers subdivisions are zoned PUD, which means a Council-adopted PUD ordinance — not the R1–R5 table — sets lot size, setbacks, height, and coverage. Pull the recorded PUD ordinance and commitments for the parcel before designing.
R4Residential District (R4)
10,000 sq ft minimum lot, 80 ft width. Front 25 ft local / 40 ft other, side 10 ft, rear 25 ft. Height 35 ft. The common district for 1980s–1990s Fishers subdivisions platted before the PUD era took over.
R5Residential District (R5)
7,500 sq ft minimum lot, 70 ft width, front 25 ft local / 40 ft other, side 10 ft, rear 25 ft, 50% maximum impervious area. The tightest single-family district in the UDO.
Overlays that apply here
GW-OL
Greenway Overlay District
Applies near mapped greenways and parks. Base dimensional standards still apply, with added ground-cover and erosion control for land disturbance and trail connectivity requirements on new subdivisions.
NPT-OL
Nickel Plate Trail Overlay
Layered over base zoning along the Nickel Plate Trail corridor, including single-family lots that back or face the trail. Overlay architecture and landscape standards supersede conflicting base district rules.
Permitting path
- 1Start with the recorded Saxony PUD ordinance and any phase-specific commitments — these replace the UDO district standards for lot size, setbacks, height, and coverage.
- 2Architecture in the district may go to the PUD Committee, whose review is about design consistency rather than dimensional compliance.
- 3A compliant addition, remodel, or accessory structure is an Improvement Location Permit — an administrative Department of Community Development review with no public hearing.
- 4Where the parcel sits in a recorded subdivision plat, the platted setback controls over the UDO table. Read the plat before trusting the district minimums.
- 5Relief from a setback, height, or impervious standard in a base district is a development standards variance at the Fishers Board of Zoning Appeals.
- 6In a PUD subdivision, the governing standard is the adopted PUD ordinance. Deviating from it can mean a PUD amendment through the PUD Committee, Plan Commission, and City Council rather than a simple BZA variance.
- 7City approval and HOA approval are separate. Fishers publishes a Homeowners Association Guide making clear that a permit does not satisfy private covenants, and an architectural committee approval does not satisfy the UDO.
Why it matters
Saxony's place in Fishers
Saxony was Fishers' first attempt at a live-work-play district and set the template the city later applied downtown.
It is the largest concentration of PUD-governed residential property in Fishers, which changes how every zoning question here is answered.
Its New Urbanist lot pattern — narrow, shallow, porch-forward — produces very different addition constraints than a conventional Fishers subdivision.
Events & festivals
What happens in Saxony
MarketPlace at Saxony community events
Seasonal
Retail-driven programming and seasonal gatherings in the commercial core.
Designing here
What this means for your Saxony project
- Never quote an R-district setback in Saxony. Pull the PUD ordinance for the specific village or phase; several have zero or near-zero side yards.
- Narrow lots with alley-loaded or rear garages mean the buildable expansion is usually vertical or over the garage rather than out the back.
- Front elevations in a New Urbanist plan carry design commitments — porch depth, window proportion, materials — that a PUD Committee can and does enforce.
- Impervious coverage is set by the PUD, not the UDO table, and on a small Saxony lot it is often already close to the cap as built.
- Confirm which HOA governs the specific village. Saxony has several, with different architectural standards.
FAQ
Questions about Saxony
Keep exploring
Other Fishers neighborhoods
Sources
- City of Fishers Unified Development Ordinance (Encode Plus)
- Fishers Department of Community Development — Planning & Zoning
- Fishers Board of Zoning Appeals
- City of Fishers Homeowners Association Guide (PDF)
- Fishers PUD boundaries (city GIS open data)
- Republic Development — Saxony Village
- Saxony Indiana — district news
- Larry in Fishers — PUD Committee architecture review in the Saxony area
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