Jonesboro apartment zoning is mostly a case-by-case affair: new multifamily projects usually need a rezoning to one of the city’s RM districts or a planned development, approved through a public hearing at the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission and three readings before City Council. Census building permit data show that process producing roughly 70 to 120 new units a year in buildings of five or more units since 2019, a modest pipeline for a city adding residents as quickly as Jonesboro.
For owners of existing apartment buildings, that combination of steady growth and a measured new-supply pipeline is the key context. This guide explains how the zoning system works, which recent rezonings point to where new apartments may go, and what the coming comprehensive plan and road projects could change.
A growing city with a stated 100,000-resident goal
Jonesboro counted 78,576 residents at the 2020 Census, and the Census Bureau estimates the city reached 83,296 by July 1, 2025, about 6.1% growth from the April 2020 estimates base, according to Jonesboro’s latest Census population estimate. The same Census profile reports a median gross rent of $956, an owner-occupancy rate of 54.3% and 2.41 persons per household for 2020–2024. With nearly half of households renting, apartments are a large part of the city’s housing base.
City leaders are planning for more. Mayor Harold Copenhaver has said Jonesboro is tracking to become a city of 100,000 residents, and the “Destination 100K” initiative announced in 2025 frames growth planning around that target. Talk Business & Politics, citing Census data, reported that the city’s housing units grew 8.2% over five years, from 46,939 to 50,801.
Jonesboro is one of two county seats of Craighead County, along with Lake City; the county had 111,231 residents in 2020. For apartment owners, the relevant jurisdiction for zoning and permitting is the City of Jonesboro.
How multifamily zoning is organized
Jonesboro’s zoning ordinance sits in Chapter 117, Article III, of the city code. City ordinances confirm three multifamily residential districts, RM-8, RM-12 and RM-16, along with planned development districts used for multifamily (PD-RM) and mixed projects (PD-M). Recent council actions, such as a 2022 rezoning to RM-16 and a 2022 rezoning to PD-RM, show each of these designations in active use.
Two thresholds in the city’s Development Guide matter most to apartment developers and, by extension, to owners watching competition:
- A site plan is required for any multifamily project of five or more units.
- Projects of more than 48 units require approval from the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission (MAPC).
The practical effect is that small infill apartment buildings and large complexes face different levels of review, and large projects are visible to the public well before construction.
The rezoning process, step by step
When land is not already zoned for apartments, a rezoning request is often the first public sign of a new project. The city’s rezoning process page and rezoning application lay out the steps:
- Application. The applicant submits a rezoning application with a $500 fee.
- Public notice. Notice is published at least 15 days before the hearing, and signs are posted on the property at least 10 days before. Owners within 200 feet of the property receive notice by certified mail.
- Planning commission hearing. The MAPC holds a public hearing and makes a recommendation.
- City Council. Council considers the request as an ordinance over three readings before final action.
- Waiting period. If Council denies a request, a substantially similar request generally cannot be refiled for six months.
For an existing owner, that 200-foot certified notice is the most direct alert that a competing project may be proposed next door. Owners whose buildings sit beyond that radius can track MAPC agendas and council ordinances, which are published through the city’s Legistar system.
Recent rezonings that show where apartments are headed
City council records show a steady trickle of land moving into multifamily districts since 2022:
- Thompson Drive and Southwest Drive: C-3 to RM-16 (September 20, 2022) and R-1 to RM-12 (November 1, 2022).
- 1601 Granger: R-1 to RM-8 (December 6, 2022).
- 804 Belt: R-1 to RM-12 (March 7, 2023).
- 5601 Pacific Road: R-2 to RM-12 (November 21, 2023).
- 1006 North Warren Street: R-1 to RM-12 (February 24, 2025).
- 2038 North Church Street: C-3 to RM-12 with a Limited Use Overlay, recommended by the MAPC on June 23, 2026, and approved by Council on August 18, 2026.
- 300 East Pine Street: R-1 to RM-12, at third reading as of October 2026.
The North Church Street case shows how these proposals are shaped in public. KAIT reported the original plan as about 22 apartments on 1.4 acres; the approved ordinance, the 2026 North Church Street RM-12 rezoning, added a Limited Use Overlay, and a public summary of the case described the overlay as capping the site at 12 units. The case shows how neighbors, the MAPC and Council can narrow a project before it is approved.
Land moving out of multifamily, too
The record runs both ways. Some land approved for apartments has since been rezoned to other uses:
- 1601 Granger was rezoned from RM-8 back to RS-5 single-family on June 2, 2026.
- Southern Hills changed land at 3412 Southwest Drive from PD-M multifamily to PD-M commercial on September 16, 2025, and land at 1411 Southern Ridge Boulevard the same way on September 15, 2026.
For existing owners, these reversals are a reminder that a rezoning is permission, not a commitment to build. Counting approved multifamily acreage overstates the future supply; counting permits is a better guide.
Building permits: a measured pipeline
The Census Bureau’s Building Permits Survey data show units authorized in buildings of five or more units in the City of Jonesboro:
- 2019: 81 units in 13 buildings
- 2020: 76 units in 13 buildings
- 2021: 96 units in 16 buildings
- 2022: 117 units in 20 buildings
- 2023: 97 units in 15 buildings
- 2024: 69 units in 11 buildings
- 2025: 110 units in 17 buildings
By comparison, single-family permits ran between 436 and 463 a year from 2022 through 2025. Two features of the data stand out. First, the average building is small, about six units, which suggests much of Jonesboro’s multifamily construction is small-scale rather than large complexes. Second, the Census files indicate the city reported few months directly for most of these years, so the annual figures are largely Census estimates. They are best read as a general measure of scale rather than an exact count.
Even so, the order of magnitude is clear. A pipeline of roughly 70 to 120 units a year is modest next to the city’s growth, and well below the volume of single-family homes being permitted.
Setting supply against population growth
A rough comparison helps put the permit numbers in context. Between 2020 and 2025, the Census estimates show Jonesboro adding roughly 4,700 residents. At the city’s average of 2.41 persons per household, that is on the order of 1,950 additional households. Over the same six years, the permit data show about 565 units authorized in buildings of five or more units, and single-family permits alone totaled 1,807 from 2022 through 2025.
This is not a precise supply-and-demand model. Households form at different sizes, some new residents are students in campus housing, duplexes and small multiplexes fall outside the five-plus category, and not every permitted unit is built on schedule. But it does suggest that apartment construction in larger buildings has accounted for a modest share of new housing, with single-family homes carrying most of the growth. For owners of existing apartment buildings, that tilt has limited direct competition from new multifamily product.
No recent tax-credit apartments
Affordable housing built with Low-Income Housing Tax Credits can compete directly with older market-rate buildings. The Arkansas Development Finance Authority’s 2024 9% credit recipients and its 2025 award list include no developments in Jonesboro or Craighead County. The 2026 round’s 12 developments include one in Trumann, in neighboring Poinsett County, but none in Jonesboro.
Arkansas State University and the employment base
Arkansas State University is a major driver of rental demand, and Talk Business & Politics has described it as the city’s largest individual employer. A-State reported record fall 2026 enrollment of 18,775, up 4.7% from the previous record of 17,926 in fall 2025, according to A-State’s record fall 2026 enrollment announcement. Its residence halls were at 99.8% capacity, with a record 1,576 freshmen living on campus.
When campus housing is essentially full and enrollment is rising, upperclassmen, graduate students and staff turn to the private market. That supports demand for apartments near campus and along the corridors connecting it to the rest of the city.
Beyond the university, the city’s major employers include the hospital systems St. Bernards and NEA Baptist. Talk Business & Politics, citing Bureau of Labor Statistics figures, reported metro employment of 65,608 in April 2025, up 1.8% from a year earlier, with 3.1% unemployment.
Plan Jonesboro: the next comprehensive plan
The city’s current land-use guide is the Future Land Use Plan adopted on April 17, 2018, by Ordinance ORD-18:015. A replacement is underway. Plan Jonesboro is a 30-year comprehensive plan led by consultants DPZ CoDesign and Crafton Tull. It kicked off on February 12, 2026, and a public design workshop ran from March 30 into early April 2026, according to the city and Plan Jonesboro’s project updates. Residents at the kickoff raised housing costs and homelessness as concerns.
No draft or adoption date has been published, and the plan has not yet stated a position on housing density. Owners should watch for three things when a draft appears:
- Where the plan directs higher-density housing, since future rezonings are usually measured against the comprehensive plan.
- Whether it recommends code changes that would allow multifamily by right in more places, reducing the need for case-by-case rezonings.
- How it treats corridors and older neighborhoods, where many existing small apartment buildings sit.
Roads that could shift where people want to live
Infrastructure can move demand within a city. Two projects stand out:
- I-555. In November 2021, 4.8 miles of Highway 63 through Jonesboro, from Southwest Drive (U.S. 49) to Dan Avenue (Highway 91), became part of Interstate 555.
- The Eastern Bypass. The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive extension is a roughly $61 million, 4.6-mile route from I-555 to U.S. 49, which broke ground on February 24, 2023, as described in ARDOT’s Jonesboro Eastern Bypass announcement. Its expected completion has slipped: KAIT reported a December 2026 target in April 2025 and a 2028 target in June 2026.
Harrisburg Road is also being widened, a $5.8 million project expected in 2027. New road capacity tends to open land for development at its edges, so owners near the bypass corridor may see rezoning requests follow construction.
The state rules underneath local zoning
Two pieces of Arkansas law shape the economics of any apartment building in Jonesboro. A.C.A. 14-54-1409 bars cities and counties from adopting local rent control, and Act 459 of 2025 extended that preemption to rental application fees and deposits. On the other side, Act 1052 of 2021 set minimum habitability standards for leases signed or renewed after November 1, 2021: hot and cold running water, electricity, safe drinking water, working sewer and plumbing, a functioning roof and building envelope, and working heat and air conditioning if the unit had them when the lease began. Tenants may end a lease if problems are not fixed within 30 days.
What Jonesboro apartment zoning means for existing owners
Pulling these pieces together:
- New supply is real but measured. Census permit data show roughly 70 to 120 units a year in 5-plus unit buildings, mostly in small buildings.
- Rezonings are early warnings. Watch MAPC agendas and the 200-foot certified notices; projects over 48 units need MAPC approval and are visible early.
- Approved land does not always get built. Recent reversals from multifamily to single-family and commercial uses show why permits matter more than zoning maps.
- Demand drivers are strong. Population growth, a record A-State enrollment and full residence halls support occupancy.
- Plan Jonesboro could change the rules. If the new plan opens more land to multifamily by right, the pace of new construction could rise.
Owners weighing how these factors affect a building’s worth can start with an apartment building value calculator and then refine with actual income and expenses. For more local context, see our Jonesboro market page and the Arkansas market overview.
