City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay, good evening everyone. It is 6 pm February 18th, 2026 and it's time to call the Franklin City Council meeting to order. Miss Jones, roll call, please. Mr. Austin, Mr. Sh here. Miss McInness here. Miss here. Miss Price here. Mr. Prime here. Mr. Taylor here. Mayor, you have a form. Thank you, ma'am. Mr. Brian Reese, please.

All right. I invite you to join me in prayer. Our heavenly father, we come before you this evening and we thank you so much for the privilege of being here in city hall and for the items on the agenda tonight. I pray for wisdom and discernment for our council as they consider these matters and pray they make decisions that are great for our city now and for its future. And Lord, tonight uh with hearts grieving, we lift up the family of officer Brian Elliott uh in with our neighbors in the city of Beach Grove. I just pray Lord that you would comfort and help his family in their time of grief and just be with that city as it mourns. And I pray Lord that you would continue to give courage and bravery to the officers that are out there every time they're out there putting their life on the line to serve and protect us there in Beach Grove here in Franklin. and everywhere. And I think of John 15:13, that greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends. And so, thank you for that display of love. And uh may it remind us of your great love. Uh continue to just grant your favor, your help, and your comfort um to our neighbors there, especially the family. In your name we pray. Amen.

Amen. Thank you. Let's stand together for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. May be seated. Thank you, Brian. Is there any announcements or public comments that does not pertain to the agenda? Hearing none, we will move on to the consent agenda. Move to approve the minutes meeting minutes from February 2nd, 2026. Second. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor by saying I. I.

Okay, that gets us to old business. Move to read old business by title only. Second. We have a motion and a second to read by title only. All those in favor by saying I. I. Okay. Thank you. Item number one, uh this both of these items tonight will be a public hearing. Uh item number one, approval of budgetary ordinance 26-01 authorized an additional appropriation for the non- taxup supported funds. Clerk treasurer Jan Jones. Uh it was introduced at our last meeting. It was Yes.

Um is there any questions? Um first from the the council here for Miss Jones. Okay. No questions here at this time. So we will open it up for a public hearing. Is there any questions from the public? Hearing none, we will close the public hearing and we are ready for action. Move to approve budgetary ordinance 26-01. Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor by saying I. I. Any opposed by saying I. I was just jumping the gun. All good. So, let the record show that Shawn voted in favor. Yes.

Sorry, Jan.

Thank you. Thank you, sir. Okay. Item number two, uh, also a public hearing, approval of budgetary ordinance 26-02, authorizing an appropriation into the board of works, employee insurance, capital and services, rainy day services, and cemetery capital line items. Uh again, it was introduced the last uh meeting. Uh we had just a minor discussion amongst the board. I don't think we even had a discussion. I actually explained what it was going for. So we have uh already done that. Is there any questions from the council that I need to answer? I'd be glad to. Hearing none, we will open it up for a public hearing. Is there any questions from the public? Hearing none, we will close the public hearing and we are ready for action.

Moved to approve budgetary ordinance 26-2. Second. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor by saying I. I. Any opposed by saying I. Hearing none. The motion carries. We will go on to new business. Move to read new business by title only. Second. We have a motion to read new and a second to read new business by title only. All those in favor? I I Okay. And this item here, we can take action on this tonight. Uh request approval of resol resolution 26-03 approving acquisition of specific land necessary for Graham Road project. City attorney Len Gray.

Well, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um this is a resolution and as mayor said, you can take action on it tonight. Um, and typically you aren't asked to take action on our uh imminent domain uh situations. Um, because what usually happens is the engineer meets with or our consultant meets with the property owner and we negotiate a agreement and it's usually a small strip of property along the way and uh you you don't even see these because the board of works just approves that it's part of the project funds. There is a statute, however, that says when the city acquires property that is in excess of $25,000 that the council must pass a resolution after receipt of two appraisals. And essentially what that typically means is if the city were going to go out and buy property, we can't just pay whatever we want to for it. we have to have two appraisers and we cannot pay any more than the average of two appraised amounts because it is taxpayer funding that we are using to purchase that property. Um we certainly have had imminent domain cases that we have resolved for more than $25,000 that you haven't seen, but the reason you don't see those is they're typically involved with the damages that we're paying. So when we take a strip of property, it's usually very narrow, not very much, but we may be removing a fence, we may be removing a tree, we may be moving an entrance or whatever. So the vast majority of these that come to the council, but this one, because it was a very large amount of a strip of a property, the average of the two appraisals did exceed the $25,000. We always get the appraisals, but it's just done administratively. And so when one comes, that does amount to more than $25,000. By statute, we are to bring it here and ask for your approval to pay it. So, this has a property amount that's more than that. And so, I need your okay to do it. And that's why I killed a lot of trees giving you those appraisals. That's why

you have them. But, but the statute is very clear as well. It says and the and the council is to be provided copies of the two appraisals that uh justified the amount that we are paying. So, you have them. We would like to do Graham Roads. Would you please pass this resolution? And it, like I said earlier, it can be acted upon tonight. Uh, any questions for Miss Gray or myself. Move to approve resolution 26-03. Second. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor by saying I. I. Any opposed? Same sign.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We'll go on to item number two, which is introduction uh introduction of budgetary ordinance 26-03, additional appropriation to donations parks parks senior center services for money received from Johnson County Community Foundation, uh director of parks and recreation, Chip Horner. Good evening. This is our uh first distribution from the uh Johnson County Community Foundation from the Paul Joselyn Fund. If you recall, the million dollars that was donated, this is the first uh check we've received. So, just asking you to appropriate that um to be used at the senior center. So,

So, do you anticipate, Chip, of of using the same fund every year? Yeah, it won't be this large every year. Um I I think it'll be more in the $30,000 range, but this is the excess money that we had for the buses that we also bought. So, just to keep you informed, we did buy the buses and uh Brett Jones, our fleet manager, did coordinate all that. We already have them. Uh they're getting ready to be really cool wrapped uh for the active adult center. So, given his generous donation, how long can we fund operations at that with that just that donation? Do you anticipate? Uh none of us will be here. So, yeah. 25, 30, 40, 50 years.

Oh, only the good young I'll be here right here. I hope to I'm here for at least part of that. But but what what a generous donation. Yes. I mean if if we just leave it there and just take the interest. I mean it could be like I said 25 $30,000 a year is more than they typically spend for programming. So really were there any stipulations in the the uh gift to for appropriations or just for just to be used at the active adult center? Okay. He was very generous in that regard, but obviously we will honor his wishes because check out just want to make sure that there was Yeah, the buses actually I don't have it with me, but the wrap actually has a a little thing on the back of every one of them that says donated by and it says Paul Joselyn Fund.

That was my next question. I was worried that it was going to be a picture of you. No, we're trying to get people on the bus, not off the bus. We We'll not do that. So, as part of the 83 going to the buses? No. No. They've already been paid for. Okay. What's What are we What are you looking for with the 83? What do you What's kind of the plans over there? Uh, well, there's no way in the world we'll spend all that. So, it's obviously what will happen over the years is this thing will grow in internally in the city's fund. There's no way in the world we're spending $83,000 on programming over there years. So, part of this will be to wrap the buses and then we'll do all kinds of new programming. It may be staff that we add, you know, more staff so we can add more programming and that kind of stuff. So

our typical budget every year for this will be in the 25 $30,000 range. So So the obviously it'll go into this fund every year like you said probably 30,000 at the beginning of every year. Yeah. Just interest from that account and then that's what they'll use throughout the year for active adult. They obviously have a budget for active adult that if they go over 30,000 or whatever, but this that's just a supplement. Absolutely. Obviously, it can roll back in, be reappropriated, whatever.

Yeah. The nice thing is it's in a dedicated fund in the city, so it cannot be used for anything else. But we all of our funds are donation accounts are that way that they're very specific about what they can be used for. So, which is why we set it up this way cuz I didn't want anybody in the future to say, "Oo, $83,000 looks good. Let's spend it on something else." So, it's got to be very specifically. I was trying to be generic about it, but So, you put safeguards in place. There he goes. If you can't spend it, you for sure don't want anybody else. You got it. You got it. All right. Is there any other questions? Because it is introduced and we could ask more questions at the public hearing at the next meeting. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, J.

Okay. Item number three, introduction of ordinance 20263 annexation to be known as Umbar Lane annexation 2026 130 acres. Planning Director Joanna Tennel.

Trying to balance everything. Just a moment there. Okay. Before you this evening is um the annexation request for the Umbar property. It's located at the northeast corner of Umbberger and County Road uh 75 South. This was presented to the plan commission on January 20th. It was forwarded to city council for a favorable recommendation for annexation. The entire area is approximately 130 acres. Um, which does include the woods to the north of what you're seeing here. Um, see if I can get it smaller. Um, but what you're seeing on the screen is the concept plan for the proposed residential section. Um, we do have the reszoning request to follow this one. Um, if I could ask when we do those, can we do those together?

Sure. We can introduce them all since it's not a public hearing. We can just If we can just introduce them all, that'd be great. It makes Yeah. And then next time we'll have the public hearing. That's me. Yeah. So, I did want to just go over some brief information since this area has been before council previously. Um in your packet you do have a copy of the resolutions from plan commission. Um they did forward a favorable recommendation for the annexation, the reasonzoning of the woods to agriculture and the reszoning of this portion of the ground to um residential RS

three. Let's see. That's right. uh with commitments. So in the packet you also include a resolution for the fiscal plan. Um in this packet the fiscal plan has been prepared by Peters and Franklin. Um it has a lot more information due to the changes in legislature regarding SE1. So it does look a lot different than what we have seen in the past. And I would anticipate in the future that all of our fiscal plans will be similar to this just due to the nature of the changes that are imposed upon us. So that is provided in here. I did want to go through a quick exercise because I know at the last meeting there were some questions regarding the point system. Um, since we have not done that here in Franklin, I did want to just kind of give you an example of how that would be administered. That way you have some time to review the documents um, specific to the architectural standards. If you have any questions, uh, feel free to reach out and I can include additional information in the next meeting at the public hearing. And I do plan on going a little further in detail regarding the application of the proposed um commitments. So in regard to a single family structure, the one that is marked in green would meet the requirements of the point system. So the one on the left would not qualify and would not be able to be built within this development should it be approved. Um, so based on

the one on the left, the brick Waynecott would be one point and the horizontal sighting would be an additional point. So the requirement is that every structure have a minimum of four points. So that facade um would not be able to be built because it only has two points. If you look to the one to the right, um it does meet qualifications for four points. There is a difference between the onetory and one and a half story in regard to gables and dormers. Um you do get an extra point when it is a one-story house. However, that is not proposed to apply to twotory homes, only to one. So the one on the right, you would get two points for full brick on the first floor, one point for the horizontal siding in the eve, and then additional point for the brick gable above the garage and above the uh left side of the house. So that would be four points. So this kind of gives you a reference of how those would apply and in application how different the structures would appear. Um, for a twostory home, the two elevations on the left would meet the requirements as outlined in the proposal. The one on the right would not. So, if we look at the one on the right, it only has three points. You will get one point for the brick Wayne Scott, one point for the horizontal sighting and one point for the board and batten. So that's only three points. If you look at the top left, that one does meet the requirements of four points because you

get two points for brick on the entire first floor, a point for the horizontal siding, and a point for the board and batten, which is what equals four. Um, same thing on the one below. So, that kind of gives you a quick reference of how that point system would apply and how significantly different the structures would look. And like I said, we'll go through further detail um at the public hearing. So the concept plan that was presented with this application um has a different layout than you had previously seen and also does not include the intermingling of the two styles of homes. Um it also includes as that was one of the things that was brought as a concern. And it also does include a more open active area in the center as the amenity for the area. And that's all I have. Mayor, we probably should just for the record, you've really done the resonings as well. So just make sure we've introduced them today. So if you want to read those into the record.

Sure. Yeah. So I'll I'll read into the the minutes here. Items number four and five. Um that's introduction approval of ordinance 2026-04 reszoning to be known as Umbar Lane Woods resoning 2026 53 acres. Um item number uh five is approval of ordinance 2026-05 reasonzoning to be known as Umbarger Lane tillable acreage reszoning 2026-77 acres. Um, we've read those in uh as introduction tonight. Joanna, do you want to address those two any further?

I don't have any additional information. I did want to also mention that uh representatives of the petitioner are here. Eric Prime is their legal counsel and Tony Bato from um Arbor Homes, Silverthorn Homes is also here if you did have anything that you wanted to ask them this evening. And and I might note because I know there's some neighbors that appeared at the plan commission. We'll have hearing on this on at on our May 2nd meeting, but the file March 2nd, not May, thank you. At our March 2nd meeting, but the file is available for a public to take a look at everything that you've already seen here if they wish to reach out to the planning department. It's also online so they can get a copy of it so that they can be prepared to ask any questions they wish at the time of public hearing. Right.

Okay. Thank you, Joanna. Thank you. Okay, that gets us to other business. Our annual financial report clerk treasurer Jan Jones.

I sent this to council just so they had it to look at, but this just every year gets sent to the DLG. And I always I don't have to, but I like to present it to you guys and then have you sign that you've at least seen it and kind of know what's going on. Um, but I will submit tomorrow and it will also be posted in the daily journal as well, not the entire packet, just the statement sheet. So, if you have questions, I'm more than happy to answer any questions, but again, it's not for a vote. It's just for your information.

Thank you, Jan. Any questions for Jan? Okay. Thank you. We'll go into the council member comments. Jennifer, can we start with you, please? I have nothing. Thank you. Nothing. Okay, Irene. Uh, I wish for today's weather to keep going. Um, stay with us, but no, I have nothing. Thank you. It's good to live in genuine Franklin. Sean, nothing tonight, sir. Ann, no. Nothing. Thank you. Josh, nothing tonight. Chan, Ben, no, sir. And I have nothing. Thank you all for attending and looking forward to March 2nd. Did you have all those in favor to adjurnn?

Motion to adjurnn. I didn't take you all. All those in favor I