Plan Commission - Regular Meeting

Uh, welcome to uh January Decal County uh commission meeting. My plan commission meeting. Yeah, I I got to get that. Yeah. Well, we have two commissioners here, so you know what the heck. Welcome. I think everyone's the same as our board members except for Alen Duly. Okay, Kayla Kellen, you know, I'm right with it today. Anyway, we welcome to it. Yeah, you look good to be the president as we move on, but you know. Okay. Okay, we'll have roll call. Okay. Helen Douly here. Bill Van Y here. Sandy Harrison here. Jerry Odor here. Frank Palver here. Suzanne Davis

here. Angie Holt here. Tyra Lanning. Alicia Rogers here. Mike Mccerowitch, Andrew Cruz here, Chris Gmer here, and I miss Jason Carneahan, and Meredith Wright here. Okay, let's uh stand and say our pledge to allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Uh Jerry, would you lead us in prayer? Sure. Let's bow our heads. Father God, we uh we invite you, Lord, into this uh plank mission meeting. Um Lord, this is a new year and we're excited to see um what you do with uh our beautiful county and our uh beautiful country. Lord, we can't wait to see what you have in store for us. Uh Lord, give us wisdom when the decisions we have to make and uh lead and guide us and in Jesus name. Amen.

Okay. Uh, since this is our first meeting of 2026, I am going to turn it over to our attorney so he can run the elections of the officers. All right. So, we have three officers uh that we're going to have elections for today. Uh we have the president, we have vice president, and then we have uh the secretary. Of course, it's already kind of agreed upon uh most likely that Meredith Reich would be the secretary. That's just the way that it goes. But we have to have an official vote anyway. U but let's start with president. Do we have any nominations for the position of president?

I'll nominate Jason Carneahan. All right. Second. Okay. Any other nominations? Uh hearing none. Uh, can you do a roll call for that? Or I guess I could just do an all in favor. All in favor say I. I. I. All oppose, same sign. Jason is uh our president. Continues to be in that position. What about for vice president? Are there any nominations? I nominate Bill Van. I'll second.

All right. Uh, Bill, are you willing to accept? I I I will take this job since so many people are volunteering to take it. Are there any other nominations? Uh, hearing none. Uh, all those in favor of Bill Van for vice president say I. I. All oppose, same sign. Motion carries. Bill is now our vice president. And then we have uh uh any nominations for secretary Meredith. All right. Any second? Second. All those in favor of Meredith as secretary say I

oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. Back to you. Bill as vice president. Okay. Now it's time. I don't know exactly what we want to I guess I'll turn this over to Chris for that. City and town representatives.

Yeah, we just have the city and town representatives um on your agenda for those that have them. Um has the date and the time, well the day and time of those meetings. Um, currently Auburn is Suzanne, Ashley is Bill Van, Butler is Sandy, Garrett is Frank, um, Hamilton, Sandy, Waterlue was Angie, and then we've added, um, St. Joe and, um, if somebody wants to go to Corona, that would be nice, but it's not necessary. Um,

St. is ever is the first and third Tuesday. So that's the only one that has two that's St. Joe town council and until they get a plan commission I would request you go to town council. I I was asking about Corona. Oh what is Coronis? I'm not sure. I just added that to the list today thinking we probably I could I could probably take Corona. Uh just tell tell them when their meetings is and let me know. All they have is town council because we take on their plan commission. So, the St. Joe one is a little bit more of a crit critical issue because of their comprehensive plan and then zoning

ETJ. Yeah, Jerry asked if he could be on that. So, if um everyone's okay with what I read and adding Jerry as St. Joe, somebody could make a motion to that if we could make a motion to that. So, moved. First second here. And does anyone not want to I guess before we second it and not does anyone not want to be on their respective uh representatives? I'll second as proposed. We have a motion and a second. You want me to just call for a yay or nay vote? That' be fine. All in favor say yay. Okay.

All or yes, I guess. you know, all against it say no. Thank you. I'll try to find that out for you, Bill. Yeah, I can go there. That ain't that far from

Yeah. And I'll send out emails to all the cities and towns and let them know who their representative is and your email addresses. Just if anyone uh nothing's changed here, but nonetheless, um on the back of your agenda on page two, um the board of zoning me appeals member appointment by the plan commission. Currently, that is Jason Carneahan. Um we meet on the second Monday of the month at 6 PM. Um we do request an alternate as well. um that alternate is different than another alternate. It's basically has to be used in the case of a conflict of interest. Um so currently that's Angie Hull. Um but we can anyone else would like that? If not, you want to keep your representative? I just ask for a motion and a second and a vote, please. Well, do I have a motion?

I'll make I'll second it. We have a motion in a second. All in favor say yes. Same size. No. It passes. Okay. Now, plat committee. down the plat committee members. Uh currently, um that uh committee consists of Alicia, uh Suzanne, Sandy, Jerry, and Jason. Um Yeah. I was going to add I'll move that we keep them.

Are they Are you guys all happy to stay on that? Yeah. Do I have a motion to approve the five names we said or moved? I move. Okay, I'll second. Motion a second. All in favor say yes. All oppose. Same sign. It passes. Uh now we have the approval of the minutes uh of the December 17, 2025 meeting. Do we have any corrections? I'll take a motion to approve it. Make a motion to approve the December 17th minutes. I have a motion. Do I have a second?

Second. Have a motion and a second approving the minutes of December 17, 2005. All in favor say yes. Yes. Yes. All oppose. Same sign. Mayor put me as absent. uh consider of the claims December of 2025. I hope you have time to look at it. Uh any comments? If not, I'll take a motion.

Make a motion to approve the claims for December 25. I will second. We have a motion and a second. All in favor say yes. Yes. Yes. All oppose. Same sign. Old business. None. New business. Help 2040 comprehensively plan draft.

All right. Oh, good idea. Let's skip down the reports comments from public and does anybody have any reports uh to come cities and towns? I mean

Auburn didn't have a meeting in January. Hamilton had a meeting and they went o they handed out zoning packets and they're having trouble with lot 198 that they approved but they the HA has not recorded the um plat. So, they're going to send a letter out threatening to remove the uh approval. And then um at Forest Park Park Beach 3 edition, they've approved eight home sites, but they found out that those home sites are incompatible with the gas lines because those were for cottages. And the home sites gas lines are 2 in and they need to be 4 in. So they have a little problem there. So they're going to rectify that problem. I was at St. Joe's last night and they are uh in the process of coming up with their board members. Uh two outside of the city limits and I think they're doing three inside. I think there's five right now that they have that they're considering all together, but they're only bringing two in from the ETJ area. Will you remind them that that has to get those not those have to get approved by county commissioners? That way they can get on the agenda whenever

they before they start a plan commission, they'll have to be approved by the county commissioner. You're still pl they're still planning on hiring um our county inspector, right? To to do building inspection. Building inspection. Yep. That's already been in contract for right a number of years. Yeah. Okay. I just want them to make sure they get that done so they don't have any legal issues without having those approved by commissioners. Great. Anybody else? Anything else you want to do before we adjourn? I don't have anything. I have one thing that I'd like to talk about since we got a few minutes.

Sure. is the um the building permit fees for agricultural buildings um what are they at right now? Are they at commercial prices? So building permit fees are controlled by the county commissioners. Um but currently the building permit fee for agricultural buildings such as if Helen would build an agricultural bar, just a pull barn for whatever. Yeah.

And that would be at uh 10 cents per square foot. And then um but if it's a commercial a building, like if you're doing um like chicken barns or or calf barns or hog barns, those type of things for commercial purposes. Then it's at do you remember 15 cents a square foot. Um, there's a minimum fee there. I just don't know what that is off the top of my head, but those are building permit fees that are controlled by the commissioners. 15 cents for uh bank production.

Yeah. Allen counties for egg buildings are just two cents for their egg buildings for just their egg buildings. Yeah. Access or accessory buildings. Mhm. Just Yeah. There there ought to be some type of break there for for egg. I mean, we still have to go out and do our inspections. That's what that's what's hard is figuring out how much it costs to go out and send an inspector out to do those inspections. Yeah. But it's not near the amount of time it takes for a home or a commercial property, commercial business or something. You don't have near the

Yeah, the fees are different based off of a commercial use versus a a single family use. Um, we just our fees are you commissioner yet? No, it changed in uh 2025 20 sorry 2024. They went up. I know they went up, right? Because they hadn't they hadn't they've been at 5 cents per square foot for years. Yeah. I just want to consider maybe a reduced price for a buildings rather than pricing them out as you know. Yeah. Helen, I if you want to try to bring that up to commissioners, that's fine. Um I can get the cost of what it is our surrounding counties. Yeah.

And see what what theirs are. Um, I my philosophy on on that is that at least the building department side should not be um, for lack of a better term taxed on taxpayer dollars. That it's a it's a user feebased department that we're not really a department for quote unquote the entire county, right? like the building inspector is only going out doing building inspections on people that are getting permits. So those permit fees should reflect that. Um and granted over the since 2024 the cost of gas has come down substantially um which was surprising. I think we all anticipated it going up, but um you know the for the inspector to go out and do the inspection and then cover the cost of mileage, gas, wear and tear on the vehicle, that sort of thing. We our last vehicle we it lasted us only four years, three years, three or four years. So, you know, if we have to buy a new truck every three or four years, that's part that's I'm just trying to get my reasoning on why why why I suggested the fees get doubled.

Some of these Yeah. And then then some of these larger agricultural guys, you know, they're paying that higher price for their building permits are are filing for a tax abatement. Yeah. To get their money back out of it.

They're not doing it to get their money back, are they? I mean, I've not received any comp I mean, we get like a little shock and awe, I guess, of of some some large fees, but I don't hear the complaints. People don't I mean, I've heard one of recently, but really people aren't complaining on our fees. Um, I feel like they're getting a better service than they're getting in Allen County or Fort Wayne. Um, they're getting better what? Better service. They're definitely complaining about Allen County service versus ours. We get that complaint. Oh, yeah. But, um, you know, but we can we can look into those fees and see what they are surrounding count.

I I'd appreciate if you would because I'm getting some You're not getting complaints. I am. I know some of them aren't happy because the fee schedule says commercial agriculture buildings and I believe that that needs changed the wording there that does regulate confined feeding operations. That's why they're under that type of commercial use and it is $100 minimum for the fee.

I can appreciate that. Are we ready to just recess? Are you done, Jerry? I don't want to cut you off. Ready to recess our meeting to else has anything to Anybody else has for discuss discuss while we're sitting here, but we'll recess for a later time when we get done with uh I'd say about let's do like five minutes. Five minutes. Get that.

We'll call this meeting back to order. We'll turn it over to Chris so he can handle it. Thank you. I don't know if I can do a good job. Um, so thanks for coming everyone in the audience for uh the presentation of the comprehensive plan um draft. We've been working on this for over a year now with our uh partners at HWC Engineering. Um Jennifer and Rachel are here to give a presentation to us. Um regarding the draft uh copies of the presentation are on your table because I know it's a little awkward sometimes. Look up there. There's everyone in the audience think got a copy too. If you didn't, there might be an extra on a chair um as well. So, uh, without further ado, I'll hand it over to Rachel first.

And make sure, Rachel, that blue light's on on your microphone. There we go. Blue light is on. When the lights go down, uh, we're ready for our show. We are.

All right. Well, thank you so much for having us tonight. Uh, like Chris said, I'm Rachel Christensen. I work with HWC Engineering. I'm the planning studio lead there and Jen and I are here tonight to talk to you about the Decal County 2040 comprehensive plan. This is officially the public presentation. So, um you know, we're going to kind of walk you through the whole process on what we've been working on, uh what we've learned about the community, what the community wants to see, what we worked on with the steering committee, and if there's any questions that you may have, we'd be happy to answer them. Um after this presentation is over, we'll be going downstairs. We have boards set up in the rotunda area which I walked in and I'm like super geeked out because this is a beautiful building and I mean this it's you guys know what it is and I'm it's my first time so it's lovely and I'm totally geeked out and was taking a million pictures already. Um so excited to be in that space to um kind of show all the things that like I said we've been working on. Um so like I said my name's Rachel. Jen is here. She's been our project manager on this particular project and you may have seen Reese Whmer who is a planner and then Ally uh is downstairs I think right now on us. Nope. Um Ally is also here um as a client liaison. So she always comes in calls on Decal County um if there's anything that you guys need. She's a great resource. So what is the what is a comprehensive plan in general? Uh your current comprehensive plan maybe I should quiz you guys. Does anyone know when what year your current comp plan is? 2017. Chris knows. Good. Oh, also fun fact, if you don't know this, Chris and I went to Ball State together and we graduated in the same class. Um, yes,

not that would be really weird.

Um, so comprehensive planning is obviously very important. And I don't think I have to tell this group that, but maybe for the public. Um, this helps guide long-term community investment, you know, in your county. We do planning for cities, towns, counties, um, even regions at times. But comprehensive plans, um, are documents that are used by elected leaders, staff, community organizations, and property owners whenever making decisions about what uh, growth or development would look like in Decal County or maybe even not having growth and development in certain areas. uh without a comprehensive plan uh you cannot have zoning. That is part of the Indiana state law is that you know if you're going to have zoning in your county, city or town, you have to have that comprehensive plan that helps guide what that looks like. So for this particular planning process, we had four key phases that we worked through. Uh the first was casting a vision and we started this in December of 2024, kind of in the mid December, I believe. uh we scheduled our initial coordination visit with Chris. We kind of talked through you know how this project was going to look, how we were going to work through public participation and established the steering committee. Um from there from there we started doing some basic data collection uh did a demographic profile and then we got into phase two which is reaching that consensus. That's really when we bring the public uh to the table. We learn what you know their hopes and dreams and wishes are for Decal County. Um after that we go kind of to this is the meat and potatoes uh I would say phase is forming the plan. That's when we you know after we've learned everything about decal county and where you want to go uh we start drafting that plan itself. Uh we have a big ideas openhouse where we bring um all the concepts back to the public to ensure that what we heard is in line with what they told us. Um and it allows

us to have some time for course corrections if needed. Um then we produce that first draft of the comprehensive plan. We are now in phase four which is practical action steps. So we've been working on developing an implementation plan. Um obviously we are here tonight for a public presentation and uh after tonight we will start moving into that adoption phase. Um, as I'm sure this this board knows or this commission knows, um, comprehensive plan adoption starts with the plan commission and after we get uh a recommendation from the plan commission, it will go to the county council, not county council, county commissioners for formal adoption. All right, so community engagement. I think this is one of the pieces of comprehensive planning that is probably the most fun for our team. you know, we actually get to talk to people, um, hear what they get excited about for Decal County. Um, what things that they, you know, envision for the future or hope for the future. So, any of those things that they're missing and maybe they travel to a different county for, how can we, you know, do those things here where they live and work and play. Um, so, like I said, we started out with getting a steering committee and we had 22 members on that steering committee. This committee really helped guide the process. We had several steering committee meetings where when we went to the public and got that information, we would bring it back to the steering committee, ask them what they thought. What does this mean? You know, how do we want to move forward with this information that we've collected? Um, and so they were really important as we worked through the process. Um, you can see that there was a variety of different roles that served on this committee. So, you know, commissioners, the council members, um, economic development partnership, county departments, school leaders, um, the Amish community, um, a business leaders, etc. So, it it was a really well-rounded steering committee. We also had several engagement opportunities. Uh, this project, there

is a project website that can still be visited. It's up and running still and we've had about 2100 unique visits um that you know where people are poking around and looking at what we've been up to. Uh we've had several focus group meetings. You can see the variety of topics that we've met uh with community members about. So aggra business, housing, the youth, um even a land use topic where we had a good discussion about land use and we had about 62 participants in those meetings. We had an online survey. Um the online survey, I think we did a fantastic job by getting almost 600 participants on that survey. Uh we had two public workshops that were open to the public where we had 75 people show up and participate in the workshops. Um and even an online one. Uh we like to offer, you know, lots of online opportunities because sometimes, you know, people it's way easier for them to sit on their couch and give us feedback than actually show up to a meeting. Uh so we appreciate uh that feedback as well. Uh we had two do-it-yourself workshops. Um this is where we had a a toolkit almost a box a meeting in a box so that uh your staff could go to other meetings that were happening within the county and kind of present what was going on with the comprehensive planning process. And we had about 41 participants with those do-it-yourself workshops. Uh like I said, we had a big ideas openhouse. This is kind of after all that initial feedback that we get from the community and we start drafting, you know, your priorities and your goals and your strategies. We bring that back to the public and we kind of say, "Hey, does this sound all right?" You know, is this what we did we hear correctly as we were going through that engagement process and we had about 46 people show up for that one and give us feedback at the time. So, that was really a very good turnout. Um, and we had an online piece of that too, which we had 34 participants on that one. Does someone

have a train in here? That was really cute. Um, community priorities. So, going through all of that public engagement, we saw some main themes that started kind of popping up through that community engagement. So, you know, some of these themes, we've listed them up here. Um, you know, a strong sense of community rooted in neighborly values. We heard a lot about, you know, small town feel, small community feel. Uh, preservation of heritage, including a roots, car culture, historic places, and local events. Um, there was a lot of talk about the protection of just the natural assets here. Uh, so, you know, your farmland, water, waterways, and open spaces. Um, there was a call for support for thoughtful growth that balances tradition with innovation and opportunity. So, you know, we love what we have, but we want to make sure we're protecting it, but still, you know, being forward thinking. Uh, there was also a desire for collaboration among local governments, nonprofits, and community partners. Um, you know, sometimes we all get stuck in our silos and we understand that if we want to move forward and, uh, you know, make some movement, we all have to work together. Uh, and then the last one, the last theme that was kind of popping up was this focus on quality of life, economic resilience, and long-term prosperity. So once we started learning about those themes and the things that, you know, were really on people's minds, we were able to work with the steering committee to put together a vision for the future of Decal County. So this vision statement is one where, you know, we listen to the community's priorities. Um, this is kind of our our rally cry or our kind of our guide for the rest of the document. Um, and of course we're not going to go through and read every slide, but I think this one is especially important just to touch on. Um so the vision statement for this comprehensive plan is that Dalb County is intentionally shaping a future where strategic growth strength strengthens

the local community to create lasting opportunity while celebrating Dalb Countyy's heritage of farming classic car culture and the people that make decal county unique. The county is striving to be um first of all a place of opportunity where education, workforce development and local businesses create pathways to success at every stage of life. Secondly, a steward of land and water, balancing thoughtful development with long-term care for farmland and natural systems. And lastly, a home where families and employers flourish, offering quality housing, amenities, and a strong sense of place. So, rooted in tradition and growing with purpose, Dal County is building a strong, welcoming future that supports today's residents and generations to come. So, like I said, as we continued working through this process and developing those goals and objectives and strategies, we wanted to make sure that we were in alignment with this vision statement. Um, and with that, I'm going to turn it over to Jen and she is going to kind of walk you through the structure of the plan and then some of those specific goals and objectives that uh we've developed with the steering committee. So, thank you Rachel and thank you all for having us. Um, yeah. So, the plan is really organized into three different sections. The first part is an executive summary which really highlights the recommendations of the plan in a short uh summary. Then an introduction which goes through the planning process, what we did uh and current conditions. And then the public presentation chapter which summarizes the engagement activities, who was involved and then chapters 4 through 10 uh addresses the seven subject matters which are vital to a comprehensive plan. Uh and those detail existing conditions, a goal, strategies, and then objectives

to achieve that goal. Chapter 11 is dedicated to the town of Corona and their specific efforts and needs there. And chapter 12 is the implementation strategies and that's really meant to kickstart your implementation of this plan over the next few years and really starts building that momentum. So getting into chapters four through 10 uh which is your subject matter that's really centered to be actionoriented um taking vision to implementation turning intent into real impact. So the goals uh are what you want to achieve strategies are the broado approach to those goals and the objectives are very specific actions to achieve those strategies. So that ensures that the plan isn't just a vision that's going to sit on a shelf but starts turning um your vision into actionable items. So for land use um we heard uh you know there's a strong support for really protecting farmland. We had 68% of online survey respondents saying um they're in favor of um not having large lot housing to support uh to keep agriculture land. 65% said they were in favor of a little more denser housing to preserve that farmland. Um, so really the land use chapter is about directing growth to appropriate areas, partnering with your municipalities, your towns, uh, to build in and around them. Um, and part of the land use chapter, um, which you guys, I'm sure, are very familiar with, is your land use map. So this is what we're calling the old, but it's your current, uh, future land use map. And you really see a lot of different land use categories there. And then this is your new future land use map being proposed.

You'll see we streamlined the agriculture districts a bit, but overall the strategies you'll see yellow is residential. It's still to concentrate growth around where you have existing infrastructure around your towns and municipalities. Um with that growth overall, the next one uh is transportation. Uh Decal County has about maintains about 700 miles of county road. Um which is about 72% of all the roadways in the county. Um but only 34% of online survey respondents said those roads were in good condition. So that strong desire to improve roadways uh you'll see within the chapter as well. uh they want to make transportation investments uh but still be able to maintain those and then keep um your more rural roads rural less congest less congested and safe housing. Uh we heard from stakeholders that they wanted to expand attainable housing options uh rehab vacant and or and underutilized properties and preserve that farmland to limit sprawling development. So again, that concentration around towns and cities or where existing infrastructure already is. Um so that continued partnership between the county and your municipalities. Um encouraging them to have a variety of housing types uh that they're able to implement as well. Community facilities and infrastructure. Um, so we heard from residents that they choose to live in the county because there's a good quality of life at a lower cost of living. So you want to make sure uh that's that continues in the future. We heard a lot about child care. Um 58% of online survey respondents were either dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with quality child

care in the community. Now, we know that's not a countyrun uh service, but it's important that the county stay involved because it does affect your residents quality of life. Uh so, encouraging that partnership and then continuing to invest in infrastructure that the county does uh provide trails, open space, and natural areas. Um we had uh near unanimous um support across all platforms about the Poke Boss Trail, continuing to support that as well as adding options um along Cedar Creek. Um in a online the online public workshop, the top uh answer was parks and outdoor recreation. We asked what's missing in Decal County. Uh so continuing uh the county leaders have already um supported other philanthropic like your community foundation with pursuing pursuing trails and specifically the Poke Bash Trail. Uh so continuing to support that leveraging grants and private dollars to make that happen. EV economic development. Uh so we heard from in our focus groups our economic development experts that we need workers, we need skilled workers specifically in manufacturing and trades. Uh so strengthening training program, connecting students to local employers um with expanding um apprenticeship programs, entrepreneur programs within the schools and then keeping your young residents or future residents in the community. Um they also talked about providing a wider variety of businesses including like agrch, logistics and other manufacturing, arts, culture and placemaking. Uh so this one really showed um people's love for the community's events. Um but most of those are not county run. They're run by other municipalities, other organizations. So still that desire to

support from the county standpoint support those events. Um but we started to see that people were calling for the county to have a very to start de developing their own identity within that. Um so that's something to pursue in the future is um you know what how does um dau county present itself to the bigger region start attracting um younger people here workforce here uh in the future. The town of Corona is chapter 11. Uh we did hold a public workshop with them. Uh as you guys know the plan commission oversees this plan commission oversees their planning and zoning from an ordinance found in 1965 um ordinance number 23. So in that chapter we just go over existing conditions the public engagement and then give them some specific recommendations and strategies. the implementation chapter. Uh, as we talked about there, chapters four through 10, those objectives you see there, we took some of those um into the implementation chapter and put together implementation strategies. So, group the ones that could be worked together um to really launch this plan. Um, some of those implementation strategies might take place over 10 years, some of them might just be a year, but you start working towards those to build the momentum after uh the plan is adopted and in place. So, as a reminder, the whole plan uh is available on the project website, decal20240.com. Uh we're asking for any public comments to be sent. That is my email up there, jbarlayhwcengineering.com uh through February 1st. Um the next time um you'll see me is February 18th back here for the public hearing and

then the subsequent adoption is tenatively scheduled uh for March 2nd with their commissioners. And with that I welcome any questions of myself or Rachel. Um and then after this is over we we do have boards downstairs in the rotunda. Um, thank you both of you for coming and being part of this with us for the last year. I know working with me is not easy. I know that. So, I know you two know that now. We're like, "Never again, Chris. We knew this getting into this." I know. I know. Um, we both know,

but no, I I I I do appreciate it. We do have copies of the plan for those on the plan commission or members in the audience that would like to to take a copy home. Um, obviously, they weren't going to go through 135 pages tonight. um hopefully don't do that either on February uh

18th meeting but um that would be really long presentation um but please read that um we've been through it with a fine tooth comb but obviously things can get missed or or topics or ideas can can can get lost so please take a look at that um tell us how good we did um but yeah thank you so much for for coming and if the plan commission has any questions on your first review or anything um please ask but we will wait and have the audience do questions down in the rotunda so we're not bombarding us up here so

thank you so much for giving us the opportunity to work on this with you guys have been a great community it's been fun you know working with Chris uh we've had lots of phone calls and chats that's just really I would say you know your your planning director really takes this job seriously a huge advocate for the community so Um, I'm not just playing because I know Chris, but really, you know, just the the phone calls and the conversations and always trying to do better for the county and that great. I appreciate it. You

Is there any questions from the the council here? Question. So this comprehensive plan is supposed to set the stage for 10, 15, 20 or more years into the the future. Correct. What I don't know what the target is. I would say that this target would probably be 2040. So 15ish years. Okay. Would be the probably the max lifespan of this with obviously things come up, right, that we don't know about in the future. could happen any year, could happen in 10. Um, this is still a living, breathing document that that we can update as we need.

Okay, that's a good segue sort of into my question. So, to what degree were there discussions as we're looking about looking at what's going on around the state of Indiana, particularly more recently, um, new technologies today that we're not familiar with, they're still developing, we don't know the impact. Were there any discussions um or any thoughts about as a member of the plan commission when there's when it's not ter it's not spelled out really clearly I look to the comprehensive plan to provide guidance and feedback on what the community is looking for and try to reflect that in the decisions that we make um and specifically around infrastructure u nuclear small modular reactors um the data center boom um and the conservation of resourc ources I know is is a priority with water particularly in use in closed loop versus a um an evaporative system on data centers. Was there any discussion around those types of sort of leading edge technologies that I think are going to be at our door sooner than later and and any guidance that that this gives us or that it doesn't give us in in making good decisions around those types of things new technology?

Yeah, in within the infrastructure chapter we do talk about addressing emerging technologies. Obviously, that changes as you're saying all the time. So, that's something uh to continually look at and review. Um you can if you get to a point where you feel like you need to do a mini update to your comprehensive plan, you can do that at any point. Um but as Chris was saying, the target date was like look out to 2040. Um we do talk about um maybe even having at some point some committees to look at that a bit more in depth uh to help guide you as things come up in the future which the plan commission can't do with

but there wasn't anything it wasn't didn't come up in any of the conversations or feedback or anything really

as far as people's feedback on yeah um we had especially at the Butler public workshop we had a lot of people come out saying they did not want solar's nothing in here that recommends like utility scale solar um anywhere in the community. It's really looking at that from a case by case basis when that comes before you and looking at the overall priorities. Does this line up with uh when you talk about the character of the community and those other pieces within the plan itself? Um how does that fit within your grid of infrastructure? Does it actually support um your overall growth strategy as well?

Did this look at any deal for an industrial park in the county? It did not take anything in consideration. An industrial park like a county owned industrial park. Yeah. Well, uh certain areas that you can develop on your own outside the city. We used to have one here 20 30 years ago that had an industrial park. Well, area that they were going to develop.

Oh, so well and and the thing of it is what I'm trying to get at is okay, we're still working at it. I've been approached by uh Ben Smoltz about moving ahead on some projects. What if we can get a a exit off of 69 at 68 or 60 where we can develop what we're looking at is develop in the airport area with some other areas around there? Yes. So I'd ever look at anything like that.

Yeah. So feel free to jump into when when we we really combed through that future land use map over I mean up until just I think a week before Christmas or something. Um, we really comb through that. Um, on the transportation side, we do have the thoroughfare plan on there and we reference I don't probably don't have it on your PowerPoint obviously, but it does reference a potential exit off of either of those. So, we're not um we wanted to make sure that that was addressed in the transportation aspect of it. Um but then when or if those would come is when we would address on a much larger scale what does the plan commission and the county commissioners want to see at that potential interchange. Is it residential or is it industrial? But we would change that future land use map at that time. So it's not it's hard to say we're going to unless we knew definitively that it was going to be at County Road 68 or County Road 60. It's hard to to to put that on a plan as to where um growth would happen and what type of growth you would want to see. Um

no, it's hard to it's hard to to do that with this. Um but we do take into account the interchange potentials at the those two locations.

Well, you know, Allen County might turn down the casino. It might come this way too. Put that in your backyard. We'll put that in your backyard. Entertainment. Put that in your backyard. Um, but you know, one thing I do want to touch on in this future land use map is is Jen, if you can flip to the old future land use and the new future land use, like we really scaled down what we thought would be the industrial uses, especially I mean, well, Auburn and Garrett's ETJs have grown a lot. We now have Butler and Hamilton and and St. Joe's ETJs that take up a lot more room. Um, but the industrial corridor, especially along where SDI was. Um,

industrial in this map is orange for

Thank you. Yes, the orange. Good good point. Um, the orange color there references that industrial. We we we really lessened that that potential from Butler down to SDI. Um, as you guys have known over the last nine almost 10 years that I've been here, we've reszoned a lot of those parcels back to agricultural because people are wanting to build on those parcels. So, it doesn't make sense to invite industrial along areas that are not going to be compatible with residential. Um so we've kind of move shifted that if you will towards along um State Road 8 um west um on the on the new map and that's in purple currently um on the on the on the new map. So

yeah, is this zone A1 or A2? So that's not zoning. So this isn't futurelaneous map, but it's so the the the light green surrounding all of the rest of the area is agricultural. So we did have two two agricultural classifications in our old we had an agricultural and a mixed agricultural rule residential. We just combined those into one. So we're only going to have one zoning for agriculture. Right. One land use designation. Correct. Correct.

In the plan addresses our 24 zoning districts and how we need to consolidate those, but that doesn't address that specifically in this plan. It just says thank you gives the recommendations

consolidate them. Yeah. Is this something that we need to do before we pass it on to the commissioners? No. I wonder a little bit about that. There was an industrial zone being shown on County Road 68 on one of the earlier plants. Somebody I know who lives towards Garrett on 68 asked about that.

Um I just wonder if there is going to be an exit there or on 60 and right now we're showing that's all residential. I've heard complaints from people about here's a particular zoning and then you go in and change it or put industrial next to where people have their houses and they didn't know to expect that. So I'm just wondering is there any way I guess we just have to wait and see if they're going to put an exit there, right?

Yeah. So part of the recommendations in the transportation section is fur furthering that along instead of just a conversation. Um, I think one of the things Representative Smalls talked about was having the airport do an impact study of what would this hap what would happen in this area. Uh, that would also include like where the potential interchange should be located. Uh so that dives into much more detail um to understand the potential benefits or drawbacks of the location and even if a new interchange is what's what's needed and what's in the community and then what type of uses would surround it would be part of that study that would come back to the decision makers of where that interchange is going to go and then we can but that interchange is probably

10 years

at least. I mean, they're they're they're in the early early stages. I think they're pushing for it and they want the airport to do that study, but it's also a matter of of time for them to get that done. It's not something the plan commission is going to do obviously, but so once that plan would be done, what I'm getting at long-winded um is we would take a look at doing a study as well of what type of uses does the plan commission and county commissioners want to see at that interchange and update the plan accordingly. Any more questions?

So, what's our next move, Chris? Uh, so we can we're going to adjourn our meeting and then um go downstairs. Rachel and Jen and Ally are down there. Um, I'll be down there to help answer any questions anyone has, but we're welcoming feedback from the audience. Um, again, if anyone wants copies of the of the plan, we have that. It is on um the website that she had up to cal22040.com. You can download that, send any questions or comments to uh Jen.

And we do have little um clipboards down there. There's comment cards. So, as you review the boards, if you have any thoughts or feedback that you would want to give us, make sure you write it down on those comment cards and then leave them before you leave. If you feel uncomfortable, you know, writing stuff down or maybe you leave and you review the plan online, that's what Chris is saying. Just make sure you let us know because we're happy to take into consideration any other comments that are on this plan.

Do you want those by February 1st? Is that right, Jen? So, by February 1st, if you have comments, get those to Jen. Um, anything that we get, we'll review and look at putting into the comp plan. But then February 18th is the next meeting date. Um, we're probably going to try to limit downstairs to an hour just to give courthouse security, who's been here all day, time for them to go home. But, um, you know, 7 7:15 if we can get people wrapped up, that would be great. Thanks so much for coming everybody. We appreciate it. I have a motion for adjournment. So moved. Second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor say I. I. Have a good evening.