Joliet Street corridor
The town's historic main street, following the old Joliet Trail alignment through the original settlement.
Downtown Schererville · Schererville, IN
The Joliet Street core, where the town's oldest houses meet a corridor in transition
Downtown Schererville is the original crossroads settlement strung along Joliet Street, and it is the part of town changing fastest. The houses here are the oldest in Schererville, the lots are the least uniform, and a Title XVI corridor overlay sits on the frontage — which makes it the one part of town where you should confirm the district and the overlay before sketching anything.
History & architecture
How Downtown Schererville was built
Schererville grew from the junction of two historic Indian trails — the Sauk Trail and the Joliet Trail — which is why Joliet Street still reads as the town's spine rather than a modern arterial.
Nicholas Scherer platted the settlement in the 1860s, and the blocks nearest Joliet Street carry the oldest surviving housing stock in the town.
Growth for the next century followed the rail and road corridors, leaving downtown with an irregular pattern of small lots and deep parcels that predates the modern subdivision grid found west and south of here.
Postwar suburbanization pushed Schererville's population outward to platted subdivisions, and the downtown corridor drifted toward auto-oriented commercial use.
The Town's comprehensive planning work identifies a Downtown / Joliet Street subarea, and in 2023 the Town began pursuing a mixed-use downtown plan with retail and condominium components — this is a planned redevelopment area, not a finished one.
The Joliet Street Overlay under Title XVI of the current zoning ordinance is the regulatory expression of that intent, sitting on top of the base districts along the corridor.
- Predominant era
- Late 1800s through mid-1900s, the oldest stock in Schererville
- Lot pattern
- Irregular — pre-subdivision parcels of varying width and depth
- Typical districts
- R-1, R-2, and R-3 in close proximity
- Design layer
- Joliet Street Overlay on corridor frontage; no historic-preservation overlay
Landmarks & shared spaces
Places that anchor Downtown Schererville
Redar Park
Central town park hosting community events and gatherings near the downtown core.
Schererville Town Hall
Home of the Planning & Building Department, Plan Commission, and Board of Zoning Appeals.
Sauk Trail alignment
The second historic trail whose junction with the Joliet Trail created the settlement.
Businesses & districts
Where Downtown Schererville gathers
Joliet Street small business strip
A mix of long-standing local retail, service businesses, and restaurants along the corridor.
Downtown mixed-use redevelopment
Town-led plan for retail with condominiums above, still in the planning and approval stage as of the most recent reporting.
Zoning & overlays
Common zoning codes in Downtown Schererville
These are the base districts and overlays we see most often on Downtown Schererville lots. Always confirm your parcel's district and overlays on the Metro zoning map before design decisions get expensive.
R-1Single-family residential (detached)
10,000 sq ft minimum lot, 80 ft of width at the building line (100 ft on corners), 125 ft depth. Front yard 30 ft (not more than 50 ft), rear 30 ft, side yards totaling 20% of lot width with neither below 8 ft. Height 35 ft / 2.5 stories, building coverage 30%. Zoning Ordinance No. 2004, adopted April 10, 2024, Title IV.
R-2Single-family and two-family residential
8,750 sq ft and 70 ft of width for a single-family lot, 12,500 sq ft and 100 ft for a duplex. Front 30 ft, rear 25 ft, side yards totaling 20% of lot width with neither below 7 ft. Height 35 ft / 2.5 stories, building coverage 30%. Title V.
R-3Multi-family residential (up to four units)
Same lot minimums as R-2 with a 40 ft height limit, 30% building coverage, and a 75% cap on total impervious surface — the number that usually governs when drives and patios grow. Title VI.
Overlays that apply here
Joliet Street Overlay
Joliet Street corridor overlay
One of three Title XVI corridor overlays (with US 30 and US 41). It shapes development along Schererville's historic main street and matters to homes only where a parcel fronts or abuts the corridor.
Flood Hazard Area Overlay
Flood Hazard Area Overlay District
Applies over FEMA-mapped Special Flood Hazard Areas, including the Turkey Creek corridor. The lowest floor must sit at or above the flood protection grade, and Chapter 9 river corridor, bluff, and floodplain standards apply on top of the base district.
Permitting path
- 1Confirm the parcel is actually inside the Town of Schererville. Mailing addresses here bleed across Dyer, St. John, Highland, and unincorporated Lake County — Homestead Acres is St. John, Pheasant Hills and Autumn Chase are Dyer, and Briar Ridge is split between Dyer and Schererville.
- 2Identify the base district on the Town zoning map. Schererville has exactly three residential districts — R-1, R-2, and R-3 — plus PUD parcels that carry their own standards.
- 3Work from Zoning Ordinance No. 2004, adopted April 10, 2024. It replaced the prior code, and the codified version carries later supplements, so check for amendments before relying on a number.
- 4Residential building and zoning permits, inspections, and contractor licensing run through the Planning & Building Department at Town Hall.
- 5Anything that misses a dimensional standard goes to the Board of Zoning Appeals as a development standards variance. The BZA meets monthly and must make statutory findings — practical difficulty and a condition peculiar to the property — and prior variances nearby do not carry weight.
- 6Plats, PUD development plans, and zoning map amendments go to the Plan Commission, which meets the first Monday of the month with a study session on the third Monday, and then on to the Town Council.
Why it matters
Downtown Schererville's place in Schererville
Downtown is the origin point of Schererville — the trail junction that created the town — and it holds its oldest buildings.
It is the Town's designated redevelopment focus, which means the regulatory picture here is more likely to change than anywhere else in Schererville.
The corridor mixes R-1, R-2, and R-3 parcels with commercial frontage in a way the newer subdivisions do not, so neighboring properties can be under different standards.
Town Hall, the Plan Commission, and the BZA all sit here, which makes downtown the practical center of the permitting process for the whole town.
Events & festivals
What happens in Downtown Schererville
Schererville community events at Redar Park
Seasonal
Town-sponsored gatherings and seasonal programming in the downtown park.
Designing here
What this means for your Downtown Schererville project
- Verify the base district first. Downtown is the only part of Schererville where R-1, R-2, and R-3 parcels sit within a block of each other, and the setback and coverage numbers differ meaningfully between them.
- On an R-3 parcel, the 75% impervious cap will usually bind before the 30% building coverage limit does — count the driveway, patio, and any accessory structure.
- Older downtown lots are frequently narrower than the current minimums, which makes them legally nonconforming. That does not stop an addition, but it does mean the side-yard math (20% of lot width, split between two yards) gets tight quickly.
- The 30 ft front yard with a 50 ft maximum is worth checking against the existing house. Some older downtown homes sit closer to the street than today's minimum, and a front porch or entry addition may need a variance.
- Schererville has no residential historic-preservation overlay, so there is no Certificate of Appropriateness step here — the constraint is dimensional, not stylistic.
- If the parcel fronts Joliet Street, read the overlay standards before selecting materials or planning frontage changes.
FAQ
Questions about Downtown Schererville
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