Plan Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening. It's time to call the order.

The plan commission, city of Franklin, Indiana. It's June 16th, 2026, 6 p.m. Let's start with a roll call and a determination of the quorum. Here. Here.

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Thank you. Also with us tonight we have Rachel Thompson, Recording Secretary, Joanna Tennell, Planning Director, and Lynn Gray, City Attorney. Please join us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you. Do we have the minutes from May 19th, 2026? Any errors, omissions, or changes that we need to make?

Good work.

Seeing none, I would take a motion to approve.

Make a motion to approve.

I second.

Motion made and seconded. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. Next, in order to have a public hearing tonight, we're going to take sworn testimony. So anybody who would like to speak either for or against the item tonight, we will go ahead and swear you in all at once.

Would you all please stand?

We'll save time with this.

So it's always for me testimony to give tonight with truth though. This is way too much fun But the truth of you got Thank You mayor Never thought otherwise You it's time for the report of officers and committees Joanne Yes, since the last plan commission meeting we have had one technical review committee and

meeting that was on May 21st. There was one item on the agenda which was for the Johnson County Court Services project. They have made another revision to the site. The first one was minor on changing the parking lot and this one was a little more entailed so it did go to check review but it was another modification to the parking lot and traffic patterns to that.

Okay, thank you. Any old business tonight?

No old business.

Okay, new business then. I see PC 26-9, the 2026 Comprehensive Plan. Are you ready to introduce us to that? Okay.

Yes, the item that we have on the agenda tonight is PC 26-9, which is the Comprehensive Plan. We have Rachel and Alec and Craig here from HWC, which is our consultant that's helped us go through this process, and they are going to go ahead and proceed with the presentation. Since the staff report had went out, the public notice did run, and I do have the affidavit of publication, so it is ready for the board's consideration and action.

Thank you, Joanna. Before I get started, Lynn, I am from Pendleton, and I know your mother. Okay. Was she your English teacher as well? She was not. I did not grow up in Pendleton, but my kids did, and I just had one that graduated, and she is the one that reads all the students' names as they're going across the stage.

She is 84 and still teaching, and she's done that since 1969.

She is a Pendleton treasure.

Thank you for mentioning that.

Yes, you're welcome. I worked for the town for several years, and so I got to know her through that.

I had her three times. I want the public to know the lawyer did pass English class. for different classes, so thanks.

That was really nice to meet you.

Thank you, thank you.

My name is Rachel Christensen, and I, of course, work for HWC Engineering, and you guys all know that I live in Pendleton now. But we are really excited to be here tonight. We have been working on your comprehensive plan for the last year or so. and have really enjoyed working with your community on this. You have some very, and I'm not just saying this because your staff is in the room, but they are excellent staff and you are so blessed to have such good staff on your team to help represent your community and help move it in the direction that you are setting for them. So we just really have had the best time working with them, so thank you. Tonight we're gonna go ahead and go through the steps that we've been taking, the different phases that we went through to develop the comprehensive plan, tell you a little bit about it. then kind of wrap up with some next steps on you know what the what the next steps are for adopting it. I'm here tonight with Alec Poorman and then Craig Ludeman is also in the back of the room. I kind of already went over an agenda so we'll just keep rolling through this. So project overview just I feel like I am preaching to the choir, because you are the plan commission. So I am really hoping that you guys know what a comprehensive plan is. But for those of you who are not on the plan commission tonight in the audience, we're just going to do a little quick refresher. This is a long range planning. guide for development for the future of Franklin. It's how we look at reinvestment in areas. It's how we develop new areas. Again, I just want to emphasize it's a guidance document. Per Indiana law, there's three things that we must include within a comprehensive plan. So it's looking at objectives for future development, It's setting policy for land use development and also policy for the development of public ways, public lands, and public utilities. And this document really sets that foundation for your zoning ordinance. This is not just used by the plan commission, but a lot of your elected and appointed officials. Your staff uses it nearly every day to kind of check in and reference and make sure that they are following the guide. And it helps make decisions. I like to say sometimes that this is like a welcome like a welcome mat for your community because even people who are outside of Franklin that are looking to come to Franklin often look at a comprehensive plan to see what the vision is for the community to make sure it's a right fit for them and that they in fact want to either grow their business in Franklin or put their housing development in Franklin or build a new home in Franklin. So really important for all those reasons. The comprehensive planning process in general, there's several purposes for doing this and things that we do along with this plan. We do an analysis, so we look at your existing demographics. We look at how those have changed over the years and what kind of impacts that means it could have on your future. We bring in public engagement, so going out to the public and hearing what they want to see for Franklin, what things are they happy with, what things could be improved. And that helps us kind of set that vision for the future. And I want to emphasize too that Alec and I are the authors of your plan. This isn't HWC coming in telling Franklin who to be. I think you guys know exactly who you are and who you still want to be when you grow up. And it's our job to kind of listen to that and hear about it and make sure that we can articulate that well in a document. And then we put together an action plan. So looking at that vision, the goals that you're setting for your future, and how do we put implementable steps in this comp plan to make sure that we can get to where we want to go. So why now? Why are we doing this comprehensive plan update? The current comp plan was adopted in 2013. And if we can think back to 2013, I feel like we've had some big shifts in the world and in Franklin. And it's really just time to look at how things have changed and then kind of polish up how we want to continue growing into the future. Uh, you know, we've had the COVID-19 pandemic and that's really changed the way that housing looks like in Indiana and in Franklin. Um, you know, and I think too, just the, the different types of housing that are available. Um, you know, we just need to be mindful of all those different things that are changing. Let's see the city identified new challenges regarding development since the last comp plan was adopted. You know, there is some annexation challenges that are related, so how does Franklin want to look at that in the future? We want to make sure that we continue the strong practice of updating the plan to keep the community's vision current. So, you know, it's good to check in on those things to make sure that we are still headed in the direction and that vision is still relevant. And then we wanna be able to communicate the community's expectations for future development to ensure long-term fiscal health. There's been a ton of changes at the state level with legislation on property taxes, and that is having impacts on communities. And I'm sure there's some impacts that are happening in Franklin right now, because of those changes. And then it's also a way to engage the next group of community leaders. We had some public engagement opportunities and we had some younger people at the table, which is really great. So, you know, after maybe you're done serving on this board, who are those leaders that are going to kind of step up and understand what that history of Franklin is and what those goals have been and what direction everyone feels comfortable with heading in the future. So that's a good way. to involve people in that comprehensive planning process to kind of pass the torch to the next generation. So we had a process that we went through to put this comprehensive plan together. One of the big key things of this is that we met monthly with your staff. So it was planning staff, your engineer, and community development. Did I get that right? I know everyone's names. I just wasn't sure if I was going to get all the departments right. So we did meet with them and talked about different topics along the way. We did initial project data collection, so just getting kind of all your background information. and demographics and kind of looking at what that means and what the changes have been. We then entered into phase two where we did a lot of public engagement that we'll talk about here in just a bit. Um, after we had kind of all that baseline information, we started talking about vision goals and objectives and really worked with staff to develop those out from there. We, we had some focus areas that we talked about in the staff meetings. We looked at land use, we looked at housing and neighborhoods, and then also transportation and mobility. And the last one that we rounded things out with, we looked at environmental, environmental sustainability and resilience. Uh, you guys do have a little bit of water ways that go through your community that have impacted you along your history. So I think looking at that was really important for staff to on, you know, how do we continue managing that and handling it in the future? From there, we did do an implementation plan. So you have goals, you have vision. How do we start making that implementable? So that's a piece of that. And then now we are in the final phase, which is plan adoption and getting that final document wrapped up. So community engagement. So we kind of had a, not kind of had, we had a community engagement phase of this. So I'm gonna kick this over to Alec, and Alec is gonna tell you a little bit more about the process that we went through with that.

Thank you, Rachel. Yes, so throughout this process, especially in the early phases, we really tried to hit on the idea that, as Rachel mentioned, this is not our document, right? This is the community-led, it's based on the ideas and the input and feedback from residents, business owners, certainly elected officials and staff and things like that. But kind of early on, we really wanted to hit it hard with some of those in-person engagement opportunities. A few that we've listed up here, you know, a public workshop, certainly focus group meetings that some people up here were part of. Good to see you again. Online engagement, both with an interactive map that was, people were able to, you know, kind of put where they thought different land uses were working. trouble intersections might be, safety enhancements, things of that nature, as well as an online survey as well. We had public mobile display boards, Franklin Library, Active Adult Center, City Hall. We don't think those were there, but we also had some flyers and things taken to Biz Bash, just trying to get as many opportunities as possible. And then maybe Rachel mentioned a pop-up event at the Franklin's Farmers Market. You know, just not only to kind of get feedback from people, but also just let them know kind of what a comprehensive plan is. You know, why is the city doing this right now? Kind of the educational pieces to go along with the feedback and input that we wanted to receive. As she also mentioned, you know, we had those monthly staff meetings that we held here, and then also last month in April, kind of that public open house and public presentation to get people to come out, kind of see those draft goals, see that draft map, get their feedback and kind of their first thoughts on what they thought about that. Now, from community engagement, certain emerging themes kind of came forward. You know, certainly I'm sure These are not a surprise to some of you. You know, growth management, housing affordability, parks and rec, arts and culture, which certainly was one of the leading ones that we heard throughout this process, as well as historic preservation, transportation, and then education and daycare. Now all of these, as I'll kind of mention in a few moments, but these were kind of those key themes that led to the subject chapters that are present within the plan. Now, one of the more, I'll say more important and widely used parts of this plan, especially for. Uh, the group sitting before me, uh, the future land use map, and then accompanying future land use classifications. Uh, you know, this is, you know, for everyone at home or everyone listening later, you know, this is one of those, uh, key maps and key parts of the plan that, uh, plan commission, you know, council, uh, business owners, residents, everyone should be using when we're, you know, thinking about. how growth and development and preservation should occur in Franklin. I'll say just to kind of hit on the map a little bit for some key points. A lot of this was based on your existing future land use plan that was in the previous comprehensive plan as well as what zoning is today. There were a few tweaks where I think staff noted that maybe a certain industrial land use really wasn't being used and maybe things should be merged or should we tweak how a residential land use should be portrayed or is that really what we want on the outside? Is it really... traditional residential. She would kind of tweak that language within this new plan. It's an update to the past. But for the most part, very similar in a layout to what you had in the previous documents. Most of the land uses around your downtown core, 31 corridor, kind of those existing neighborhoods are all the exact same as it was in the previous plan. Exact same, I'm sure it's been 10, 15, 30 years even. Where we're seeing those changes is where the previous plan looked at this kind of outer fringe where things have started creeping out east, creeping out west, creeping along the 65 corridor, those where some of those future land uses have been extended, either because that's where we see development interest in the future, that's kind of where we plan for that infrastructure, utilities to be that next step. And I think that something we want to really mention is, and I think the mayor will hit on this as well is, you know, why we are showing these more intensive land uses outside of kind of the town court outside of the existing city limits. This is not an attempt to, you know, force annexation. This is not an attempt to get someone to develop a, you know, historic or heritage farm that's out there. Uh, We want to make sure that we're proactive. We want to make sure that this is a future-looking document and really give you all and city leadership kind of the tools and adequate guidance for once utilities are there, once that land is sold and kind of changes hands, what do we think that should be? So just want to make sure that's clear for people listening in that this isn't zoning just because you're property may sit in a light purple or a yellow or something now that Means nothing until you want to develop it yourself until you want to sell anything like that it is just a way and a tool for Planning Commission and Council to kind of judge and base the petitions coming before them in the future So, like I said, in addition to the map, there's also tables that have these land use descriptions within them. These are very similar to what was in the current comprehensive plan, as well as a little bit of zoning was brought in for maybe have we wanted to identify the primary uses and secondary uses in this. But for the most part, each one is going to have that description. You know, we're going to talk about how it relates to land uses surrounding it, what type of infrastructure is a necessity. You know, certainly if it's kind of a more rural residential or, you know, large residential, it doesn't, maybe need the sewer and you know water utilities as a industrial or a commercial Long 31 would right around the interchange. We talked about the little design features and then you know while this is not zoning certainly there are maybe some uses that we would like to see within these certain types and those are listed as well. So like I said, from the key themes that we had on the slide earlier from public engagement, kind of five main topic subjects were brought up for the document. It would be land use, transportation and infrastructure, housing and neighborhoods, economic development, and then environmental sustainability and resilience. And while, in the interest of time, I don't want to kind of read verbatim everything that's up here, these are both in the document and then on the four-pager I think has been circulated as well, just as kind of a little cheat sheet for anyone who might want to kind of have a quick rundown of what these might be. But in general, kind of the main goals or main themes that are within each chapter, say for that future land use, it's really identifying growth that strengthens Franklin's existing character. But we have something very unique here, and certainly development is that kind of scary word that when it comes out, people fear. But it's finding the right type of growth and the right type of development that can continue building the very unique and historic downtown feel and small town atmosphere that people want to come here and live for. And for transportation and infrastructure, you know, making sure that we're being fiscally sustainable but also proactive with our, you know, road, sidewalk utilities and other kind of infrastructure, making sure we're getting ahead of it. I know that safety and usability kind of continues as development occurs. Housing and neighborhoods, I think Rachel kind of touched on this a little earlier, but we want to make sure that we're continuing to be that regional location for new residents, diverse housing types. but also strengthening the existing neighborhoods that we have. We don't wanna just focus only on the new and not the downtown neighborhoods and the older core neighborhoods that make Franklin what it is. Economic development this really focuses on the unique kind of business in employment districts that are throughout the the city You know, maybe not properly named in everyday things, but you know 31 corridor Commerce Parkway King Street Gateway at downtown Franklin and then you know kind of the area around the i-65 Interchanges where some of those main districts I'll say that uh were were talked about and mentioned and kind of given a little more specific guidance as well as you know the workforce development and then strengthening the presence of arts and culture in franklin and how that can be a tool for economic development right it's not just you know making the city beautiful and you know increasing livability but it's a real tool to attract businesses and new residents here And then finally, on environmental sustainability, a lot of floodplain around Franklin. Didn't know if anyone knew that. both managing that and then managing, you know, the infrastructure and the parks and how we can kind of make those coincide together. And then also the, you know, historic assets, you know, it's not only the structures and buildings in downtown historic, but you know, floodplains and parks that can be historic as well. So how can we really preserve those not only for today, but also for future generations? Went through that any quick, any questions? All right. As you know, thank you. Turn it back to Rachel.

So just some next steps. And you may need to simmer on that for a minute. So we're happy to answer any questions as they come up. But tonight is the official public hearing for the Comprehensive Plan. Alec did note that we did have a public open house. We did a presentation. We asked for feedback from the community and then took that feedback and made tweaks to the Comprehensive Plan document. We would then after you guys entertain an adoption tonight that Recommendation would if you do make a recommendation this evening would be going to the City Council Potentially on the July 6th meeting date so that they consider they can consider the plan for adoption as well Thank you Thank You Rachel do we have anyone else who would like to speak on this item I

Mayor, do you, I want to reiterate something for you from a legal standpoint and more importantly, you already know this, but more importantly, anybody who may be watching it, the comprehensive plan is not the zoning ordinance. And I know that there has been feedback from some residents concerned about preservation of the existing land as it is. The reality of it is this doesn't change that at all. And Alec touched upon it, Rachel touched upon it, because we know as planning it doesn't. And we take all the public input. That's the point. You want to take the public input, and you've done that. in consideration. But if someone wishes their property remain farmland, it will remain farmland in perpetuity. Nothing about this document changes it. It is only when the farmer chooses to sell their farmland that this becomes a relevant inquiry. And it is entirely possible for legacy farms to continue forever. If you want to see an example of that, drive north on 65 and look to the west of the Whiteland exit, you'll see what they have in Whiteland. You also see soybeans and bean fields on the east that have been there for the last 40 years that have been going up that exit. So the comp plan is just a guidance in the event that something is going to be developed into the future. Because as you all know, having sat here, when someone, if a farmer does choose to sell their land, which is their right to do, And they come in here, oftentimes our citizens are saying, why didn't we plan for this? Well, this is that document. So this is what is necessary to be done so that we are planning for that in the event that some development does occur. So that's the interplay of all of these documents. And I think some people originally were concerned that this rezones anything. It doesn't change any current zoning that we have now. The only thing that changes that is if somebody decides they want to sell their property. That's what changes the zoning. I just want to get that on the record to reiterate what Alex and Rachel said more eloquently.

Thank you, Lynn.

Thank you.

I want to thank Lynn as well, but I wasn't going to talk about that as depth as you did, so thank you. I want to thank, first I want to thank the Planning Commission Board here for what you do. It means a lot to have this board come in, listen to sometimes we have the remonstrators, and that's tough. Okay, I get it. But you do a great job, and I think looking, I've read this plan twice, and I really think, I'm pretty proud of where we've been. what we've done and we followed that plan and what i see in this plan we're going to continue it looks like we're continuing on as i just said to kind of go the same route that we've been going and i do know you know we we got the letter about you know that that heritage farms and and and that and i completely understand we are a farming community we will always be a farming community and we want to stay that way and what happens is uh... you'll have developers they high those pieces of property that's outside our city limits sometimes we don't even know about it and then once they work out something with the farmer do their due diligence then they come to us we got this great thing we want to do here and i will tell you that we haven't brought you every single thing has come our way through our planning department here we have We listen to the folks that bring us the projects. If we don't think it doesn't fit in, we don't even bring it to you to look at. Is that bad on us? Maybe it is. Maybe sometimes we should bring them all and let you decide, but I don't think you need to waste some of the time if we don't feel like it's something that we want. One thing that I do want to let you know, I, the mayor, is not targeting a certain area to say we want to build industrial there. and that I'm targeting that wants to build a interchange. Quite frankly, what I'm looking at is the developers that are buying these legacy farms such as what happened at white one and created you know all the truck traffic for the whitewood interchange what happened at franklin was sunbeam that hasn't really created all that traffic yet but it's going to it's it's gonna happen in the in we said all along with some being development bought that property it's going to be a ten fifteen year process and they're proven that to be sticking to their word and doing that. And then you have another farmer that sold their property to the roofing, Malarkey Roofing, okay? I will tell you that we had three other big corporations that wanted to go in that property. but they didn't meet what we wanted to do and part of that what we wanted to do was five million dollars for road improvements you folks gotta pay for the road improvements we're not paying for those road improvements they left the other the other two decided well we're not going to do that we're going to go somewhere else okay malarkey comes along we told them the same thing we stuck to our guns And Malarkey comes back to us and said, you know, we looked around the state. We want to be in Indiana. We're going to pay more money for your property, but we want to be in Franklin, Indiana, because of what all you guys are doing. And I think that says a lot for our community. A company like that is here... two hundred million dollar investment give the city five million dollars in and going to employ two hundred people that's a good development that that really is but what comes with that so to get back to my point on the interchange i don't really want to interchange myself but what i'm looking at this mayor and have to be responsible for the twenty six thousand people that do live here and you look at what's in white one now it is in a it is in a mess Franklin could get that way in the next five to ten years. It can get that way. And then what happens? So we've got to be looking ahead and not sitting on our hands and thinking about do we need an interchange, do we not need an interchange? And I know what I've heard from the plan, there's been I've had two or three people say talk to me about the interchange. They didn't know if we really needed to do that. But I will tell you I've had lots of people say I'm glad we're taking a chance at that or looking at that. So I just wanted to put that out there that honestly, I'm not a mayor that's out there trying to develop land. We don't go buy land. We don't go sending developers to buy land. They come to us. And then we have to decide, do we bring it on to the plan commission? Is it worth it? And that's your folks' job to either say yes it is or not. And you do a great job of it. I am proud of the city of Franklin on where we've been. And one more thing that I always tell people, that when I'm out, Franklin is unique, and you just explained it. Out by the interchange, our interchange here, we got all the development that's set up for the east side. You take King Street on in to where the roundabout is, you go right, you're in our industrial area, That industrial area takes you all up with the truck route where we've done a real good job of putting all the roundabouts in that made the truckers want to go that way and get out of the downtown. And then if you go straight, as we do to get downtown because it's very inviting, this is our hometown feel. This will always stay here. we're not i don't think there can be enough development downtown franklin to take that hometown feel away and we're gonna protect that we all want to protect that and then you go out on u s thirty one and you have the commerce area so we have another uh... economic development area then you go west of thirty one we have a hot most of our medical stuff is west So we're pretty well divided up here on how we are. So I'm thinking the people before you, the people before me, they did a pretty good job with their comp plans of trying to lay this out and make us a special city. So I'm probably talking more than you ever heard me speak at a plan commission meeting, but I am pretty excited about the direction we're headed and reading the comp plan. I actually started smiling, and I hate to read all of this stuff. Usually I have Lynn read this and tell me what I need to know. I was pretty excited in seeing where we've been, where we're headed, and we want to cautiously keep our foot on the gas, and that's what a racer does, and everybody knows I'm a racer. You don't go hammer down. You cautiously keep your foot on the gas. And that's what we're doing. And we want to continue to bring you good... Good developments. We don't want to bring something that you just think is not right. And I know it's tough whenever you have remonstrators because I know it's at the city council. And, you know, once you see those remonstrators, the city council sees it as well. So thank you for what you do. I just want to tell HWC they've done a great job with the plan. And we're going to keep Franklin moving forward for the future. next many years. Thank you. Thank you, sir.

One other follow-up I wanted to say that I've been asked questions and it's an answer for you to have in your quiver. The city has never, to my knowledge since I've been involved 39 years, never undertaken a process of adverse annexation. where they go out and get property and bring it in. Unlike some of the cities to the north that used to do that and caused, and I'm saying out of our county, but maybe north of 40, that went out and got property and developed it with an intent. We have not done that. We have not undertaken that. to do that we just need to have a plan in place if someone comes to us and that's what the comp plan is and that's a vital distinction as I said before the farmer wants to farm the land they can keep it there forever and we will not go get that land and change it but if they want to sell it we need to have a plan okay I'll ask once last time if there's anybody else in the audience who would like to speak on this item

Seeing none, we're going to go ahead and close this to the public and open it up to questions and comments from the plan commission. I will begin. As I'm reading through this comprehensive plan, a couple of things are clear. One is that a lot of work went into this. So thank you, Rachel and Alec, for the work that you put into it. And also thank you to the staff. for all the work that you guys put into this plan. It's clear that a lot of work went into it and a lot of community engagement. Secondly, on the community engagement, as I'm reading through this comprehensive plan, what I'm reading is exactly the things that our citizens were bringing up and mentioning through the community engagement events. And that's exactly what I wanted to see. And that's the reason why I'm in support of this plan. So, uh, good job on that. And, uh, it's open for any comments or questions. I have a question.

Uh, in, in reviewing this, I, and I, I did a lot of reading too. Um, I would like to touch on the transportation. Uh, what is, I mean, we have access. Is there going to be, are you looking at more than that? as the next step, or can you address that?

Yeah, so for the thoroughfare plan, one thing that came up through this process is you have an existing thoroughfare plan right now. And I know Matt can certainly speak on that a little bit, but kind of what was decided was look like we know There's gonna be some change in the future and an update to that's gonna be needed, but right now they're still working through finishing up some of those projects, kind of the last ones on that final plan or that current plan that you have. And then with the intention that once we, get through those, then taking this current comp plan, and then, you know, when it is needed here in the coming years, do a full update for that thoroughfare plan as well that would be tucked into this comprehensive plan.

Got it.

So, yes, it was talked about, but because it is, you have an active, working thoroughfare plan and document right now, kind of folding that into this plan with the intention that it will be updated when it is needed here.

So not making any major changes at this time?

No, and I don't think we had any functional class changes on there. No, we didn't.

And we're pretty much following through with our 2017 thoroughfare plan that we came up with. We've made a lot of improvements, as you can see. I know the mayor spoke to the bypass with all the roundabouts. That was a big thing in the thoroughfare plan that we had. Uh, so we're kind of addressing all the intermittent, uh, local improvements that we can do as far as that plan entailed. So we're getting close to the end. We've done a lot. And I know the interchange is going to be one of those big steps that we had in that plan. I think it was even discussed as a far out, uh, wish for the city.

So we kind of 2017 plan, right? Wasn't it?

Yes, it was there. Yeah.

So the two, um, plans that we have that are much more detailed is the thoroughfare plan from 2017, but also the bicycle and pedestrian way master plan. Um, so those two really focused specifically on vehicular and then, you know, the other one being bicycles and pedestrians, those two documents, um, are relatively fresh. Um, and we're still like Matt had said, working through those, there are much more detailed documents, what we've learned. um, since the 2001 plan that it actually works better for the city of Franklin to have them as separate documents because they have so much impact to the city. They really deserve that one-on-one attention versus, um, putting all of that in the comprehensive plan. Those are actually amendments to the plan. So they are part of the plan and they remain a part of the plan.

Yes, and I'll just say the trails map that you see in there has actually been updated since the April open house just because projects have been completed. You know, they're not future anymore. They're existing. So that's actually been updated as this plan goes on because of, yeah, the document that you mentioned.

And when it comes along through 31, there will be another upgrade or update on the trail?

Yes, based on what's in that plan. current plan right now, although that's also in dots hands a little bit on that better for better for worse.

Thank you.

Yeah. Okay. Any other questions for the board?

I don't have a question or statement to make parallel to the conversations, but, um, maybe this is a legal perspective. We're talking about the transportation and the trailway and the different elements of this plan. which I applaud, but if you don't have those things in writing and you don't have a plan, it's a little difficult for the administration or the planning department to do as the mayor has done in the past, to ask for commitments of developers to pursue fulfillment of your plan. You can't just state a fact that you project to someone without some facts to back it up. I applaud the city for putting it on paper and looking to the future and trying to make those things happen by commitments of developers that the mayor has been successful and others in the past. Speaking not directly, I know this interchange is not part of the master plan, excuse me, a comp plan, but from a little history perspective as Lynn shared, I know for a fact the time element is commitment to get into interchanges because I have experience in another city. That took approximately 20 years to be successful on the county line road interchange. It took about another 20 years to accomplish the Worthville road interchange. As the mayor stated, some issues in Whiteland have dictated some of the interest of doing something on transportation beyond that. Well, in Greenwood, Worthfield Road wasn't dictated because of incumbent citizens at that point. It was because of the traffic patterns that existed in Greenwood from White River Township. So we don't live in an island, and we have to take into consideration the inundation that comes to us from other places. And I think the City of Franklin has done a tremendous job of that, and I applaud this plan for those efforts now.

Norm, you bring up a great point in a different realm. These documents aren't just simply stuck on a shelf. And as Joanna indicated and Matt, we have a very robust thoroughfare plan. We have a pedestrian trails plan in addition to these. And those are critical when we try to go out and get grants, whether it be the MPO whether it be any kind of matching grants that are out there, you have to have those kinds of plans in place. And I think that the city has been very fortunate in getting lots of money back here because of those robust plans that are in existence. And you've got to keep having those available because that's when those grants come and mayor sits on the MPO on the board. They want to know, does this fit with what you're planning on doing to get, and we've got millions of dollars just this year, right? as a result of having those plans. It's critical.

I mean, Rachel will certainly back me up on this, but I think Franklin's one of the best communities we've been in where, I mean, 10 years on the dot, these plans are getting updated, right? Right on time, right with enlightenment for when we start looking at that vision and things like that. And we joked today that some communities we're in, I mean, comp plans older than I am. So I guess it is, it is really nice to see what the mayor said and you know, what Lynn mentioned that just the attention to detail and updating these is you need to really, like I said, helps not only with those grants, but with the vision and really what you've built. Um, and hopefully yes, that this document continues, continues that path.

Well, I think you guys have done a great job as well.

well as the mayor and I'd like to see it continue on so appreciate it anything else from the Commission okay staff anything else from you the only thing that I would like to say is that we really appreciate all the involvement that we've had I've done a couple of these, not only in Franklin, but other jurisdictions. And the amount, it's gonna make me cry. You got it.

Definitely monumental.

But what I'd like to say is the number of people that filled this room on that open house is the best participation I've seen in any community.

Yep.

And it brings me to tears.

Yeah.

That's good. Yeah. It's good. It's good.

Okay, I think we're ready for some action on this tonight. Lynn, if you would describe what our options are.

Yes, the request of you tonight is to forward this on to the City Council with either a favorable recommendation or an unfavorable recommendation or no recommendation whatsoever. Okay.

Do I have a motion? I make a motion. to make a favorable recommendation for the 2026 Comprehensive Plan Draft. Updated, this is 6-1-26. Okay, motion.

And a second by Gigi. Let's do a roll call vote on that one, please. Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Michelle Stringer?

Yes.

Matt McElroy?

Yes.

All right, thank you.

And to be technically correct, sir, we will certify this with this recommendation from the Planning Commission. That's technically the word that is used when it gets to, yeah, we are certifying this as the comp plan to go forward for councils. review, approval, rejection, resolution. They can do whatever they want to, but we have now certified that we've had the public hearings we're required to do, and we're making a recommendation that they adopt it.

Resolution has been passed down for signatures.

Okay, staff, is there any other business tonight?

No other business.

Okay, we're ready for an adjournment. Gigi, if you'd like to take us out.

I make a motion to be adjourned.

All right.

He's our designated juror. Is that a word? I'll second.

Okay. All in favor? Aye. All opposed, stay.

All right.