Plan Commission - Regular Meeting

like five seconds ago. Okay, she's turning on Jeff. Oh [ __ ] I did it again. Good evening. I'd like to call to order the City of Franklin Planning Commission meeting, October 21st, 2025 at 6 PM. May we have roll call, please? Oh, that's okay. Here here. We have a determination quorum. Can we get our reading now? We do have a quorum. Yes. Okay. Would you join me in the pledge of allegiance, please? I pledge algiance 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. It's okay. Next for consideration approval for a minutes of minutes for July 15, 2025. Do we have any amendments, deletions, corrections, or a motion for approval? I make a motion to approve the minutes. Second. Is that Nally Carson? We have a motion and second. And all those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Those opposed. Same sign. Passes. Swearing in. Lend. Do you want to do that for any petition? Yes, Mr. President. Anyone who is going to address the board tonight, we take sworn testimony. So if you are uh on behalf of the petitioner andor remmonstrators andor interested persons would you please stand raise your right hand you solemnly swear or affirm any testimony given tonight be the truth the whole truth but the truth thank you gentlemen reports of officers and committees technical review report July 24th and September 25th Joanna will Please give it those please. Yes. Um, since our last meeting, we have had two technical review committee meetings. The first one being on July 24th. There was one item on the agenda which was for uh site development plan for 695 Industrial Drive. Um, that's located on the south side of Industrial Drive at the far east end of where it terminates. There currently is a property that has a um industrial

building and they are proposing to expand the hard surface on the south side of the building which would include some detention area. The other meeting was held on September 25th. There were three items on the agenda. The first one being the Indian-American Water Company bulk fill station. This was um proposed at the northeast corner of Ninevea Road in Dun Street. Since that time, Indian-American Water has decided to uh not proceed with that location and have actually submitted for a uh the bulk fill station to be at their Sloan Drive pump house location, which will be on Thursday's technical review committee meeting. The second item was for uh Malarkey Roofing, which is located at 3540 Essex Drive. Uh this was for a site development plan review. uh they were modifying their existing approved site plan to include additional storage area for their um products on the north side of that lot. That is currently been resubmitted and is pending approval for construction. Then the third item on the agenda was for the PUB concept plan that will be heard this evening. Thank you. Old business. Don't see any new business. PC2527 PUB concept plan invas innovation park at Franklin College 2025. Joanna, will you give a staff report on that please? Um, sure. So, to give a little bit of background, uh, this project had been before plan commission uh, last year in 2024 for a concept plan. According to our zoning ordinance, any approval of a concept plan is valid for one year um in order for them to submit for a detailed plan. That detailed plan had

not been submitted within that year time. Therefore, the original approval has expired. They have resubmitted for a planned unit development on the 250 acres located on the north side of Park Avenue, west of Umbberger Lane. Um and immediately across from near the not immediately across but near the armory there is a number of steps for a planned unit development. The first one is the concept plan. that concept plan. The reason that we do bring it before plan commission is to start the conversation um prior to too much work getting into the nuts and bolts making sure that the development is within line of the conference of plan where the city sees the development going. Um the next stage because this evening the board can take action either approve or deny. The next step would be they would file for a detailed plan. That detailed plan gets into the nuts and bolts where it talks about lot size setbacks, coverage, landscaping, parking requirements, signage, and whatnot. Um, that comes before the plan commission. The plan commission then makes a recommendation either favorable, unfavorable, or no recommendation forwarded to city council. City Council then has the ultimate authority of approving or denying the ordinance for the resoning. So they will have two meetings. One will be an introduction and the second will be a public meeting. So if anybody had any questions about process questions from anyone

it's ready for the petitioner. Would the petitioner come forth and identify themselves? It is typically our process to have uh 15 minutes and then the uh petitioner reserves five for rebuttal. Then the uh demonstrators public have 20 minutes combined. Um you obviously can extend that if you feel that there is additional information you need just the only requirement would be that it would be equivalent time for both the petitioners and the administrators. So we'll start with the aotted time and then if we need to go further we'll go further from that. And you're not saluting. It's the sun coming right in there isn't it? Yeah. So, uh, good evening. For the record, my name is Tim Moes. I'm an attorney at Ice Miller, offices at One American Square, Sweet 2900, Indianapolis, Indiana, 46282. Here this evening on behalf of the petitioner Franklin College. Um, as Joanna indicated, um, just a little over a year ago, about, um, I don't know, 16 months ago, there was an approval for a concept plan that never moved forward. Um Franklin College went forward with that plan uh with the hope that and which was communicated at the hearing that shortly thereafter it would be a recipient of one of the uh $25 million grants that were being uh given out by the Eli Lilly Foundation. Um un they did everything that they were told to do. talked to people that have been through the process before uh were encouraged to be perfectly honest and were very disappointed when they did not receive the grant. When

they did not receive the grant, it was okay, what do we do now? And that is why there was not a subsequent detailed development uh detailed PUD that was put forth for the plan commission's consideration. And that old approval now that's more than a year is just gone which is fine. Um uh once the loss of the money from Lily was kind of digested um uh the college said okay what do we do now? And that's what we've been doing in the interim. and we think the plan uh from before was was a good one with some tweaks. Um uh we said let's let's go back through the process from scratch. It's been long enough. Uh we need to tweak it and we now have a new development partner uh patch development who is going to uh assist uh in the development of this project. um we have to just simply take a different approach and this is going to be entirely private. We don't anticipate any dollars coming in from someone like Eli Lily anymore. So this is a true PUD in the sense that it is a mixeduse project. It's 250 acres and contains everything from single family homes to attached homes to multif family to office um and even some college type uses. Um, for those of you that uh were on the plan commission when this came through the first time, everything on the north side of the main north uh east west

road, the one that starts at Umbar and then extends through a couple roundabouts until it eventually tees into Park Avenue or or Greensburg. Uh everything on that north side is the same with the exception of the office innovation area on the far west side which is in orange. Um that was originally just dedicated for Franklin College expansion. Um, and we actually reduced a little bit the size of the the mixed use, the purple area on the north side of the road over towards the east side of the project and expanded the office innovation area just a little bit, not much. Uh critical uh to note, however, that the gold area, which is the detached residential, is exactly the same shape and size and location as it was before, as is the attached residential area uh to the north. This is a big project. This is really an extension of what is the city of Franklin proper. And um the reason we thought this was a good plan on the first goound and we still think it is a good plan is it takes what exists the residential area to the north. It tries to match um those development standards as we go south. And that allows us to transition from residential to the office innovation area to the multif family area to the mixed use and potentially the Franklin College area. Um uh which we think is just common sense and frankly good good land use planning.

Um so the other thing we did on this goound is we sat down and took a little bit more time with staff. Thank you Joanna and staff for u meeting with us and and the time and attention they put to this. Um when we went through this the first time um what started out as a concept plan kind of became a detailed plan. uh the concept plan suddenly was 35 pages long. Uh and that was never really the intent of this process. this process was let's what which is what Joanna just outlined is let's take a look at the concept here make sure the concept is good and if that's good then it's up to us to come back within a year um to get detailed PUB approval which means more public hearings in front of the plan commission and a recommendation and then another hearing in front of the the council uh so the any decision tonight or a continuence an ultimate decision even if it's an approval is just the first step. Um so with that in mind uh a couple of other additional details on the individual sections. Um first of all on the on the detached residential that is up against the subdivision to the north. Um the one thing we did do despite what I just said um is we kept in a lot of the development standards for that area. And the reason we did that is because on the first goound that was the area of most interest. That was the area that the surrounding neighbors especially to the north were most concerned about. And that's where a lot of design changes had

occurred to get to a point where this plan commission was willing to approve that preliminary plan. And so I just want to point out a couple of things there. Um, first of all, the any lot located within 100 ft of that northern boundary has a specific set of standards. So, that's going to be everything that backs up to it there. Um, you have a minimum lot size of 12,500 square ft, which is really right between an RS1 and an RS2 under the zoning ordinance. minimum lot width of the lesser of 85 feet or the width of the lot that it backs up to. We want to make these very very similar. Um maximum lot coverage in in in other developments here we would anticipate would be very similar to the RS1 RS2 uh classifications. Most of those that weren't part of the original approval of course will be part of the detailed PUD should it move forward. um we kept in the same buffer yards. So um there is a TW as a kind of a starting point if you will. There's automatically a 25- ft buffer around the entire perimeter of the PUB period. Now that that buffer then gets adjusted and along the gold area here it gets adjusted because these are all backyards. The setback will be um 50 ft. Um, so you know, you you're most your lots that are 85 ft wide, 50 ft, you're going to have a backyard that's um between 4,000 and 4500 square ft in size. Uh 25 ft of that will have to be landscaped with a a type two buffer. Um uh we kept in the minimum

living area for a dwelling unit, which is 1,600 square f feet for a ranch and 1,800 ft² for two-story dwellings. the 1,800 square feet matches the RS1 standards in the zoning ordinance. So, um uh we we really felt like we needed to keep those in. That was uh what was fair for all involved. Um with respect to the other areas, um uh those uh are oriented pretty much the same. Um multif family is is self-explanatory. We look for apartments there. Um, and we we would think that most of the development standards would would comply with when we get to the detailed level would comply with uh what is applicable for multif family um that would otherwise be permitted in other uh districts in the ordinance. Um the reason for relocating the the Franklin College area was just the uncertainty of the need and to provide flexibility now that we're going at this basically on our own on our being the the college and its development partner patch is we we're not 100% sure which area is going to go first. it it needs to be driven a bit more this time because we don't have those dollars by market demand. And so if someone wants to be in the innovation area on the far, you know, west, we'll do that. If they want to be in the south along park, we'll do that. If they want to do it up on on Barger Lane, we'll do that. Um, if we connect with a partner, obviously we don't build single family homes. Uh, and we do not have anyone

identified. Uh, just I'm sure that will be a question, but we don't. Uh, we haven't even really, uh, had much in the way of conversations because we're just not far enough along for those. But at some point in time, we will. Um and if those are the ones that suggest from a market perspective that those should go first then those will go first. Um we have to kind of let the market dictate um how this is going to be developed and that will dictate how you know which portion we go from where we start in terms of the internal roads. But at the end of the day, if this is all approved, it would have to be in accordance with what actually um was approved. Um a couple other notes. Um uh the area at the far south uh um east corner right along Umbar, which is wooded. Um the intent is that that still would remain wooded, which is why it's shown in in green. And again, the open uh the park open space and detention area that's um located off of uh of a park or uh down on the south side um is is pretty much uh the same as well. So, um we think this is a good plan. We think it makes sense. um we'd like to be given the thumbs up from the plan commission which will allow us to come back to you with a detailed plan where there'll be lots more discussion. So with that um I thank you for your attention and certainly would be happy to answer any questions that the commission might have. Thank you Mr. Oaks and you have two minutes on that and another five if you need to sir. Would

anyone like to speak for or against this project reference? Please come forward and state your name and be identified. I think your two of you wanted to come together on this, right? Good evening, planning commission members. My name is Glenn Carl Strand, a Franklin resident, and I speak today as a representative of many of our Franklin homeowners. I think we've got quite a representation and interest in u this project. We do support Franklin College. We do support Franklin College and their effort to make Franklin a better community and we want to be part of this PUD development plan. We are here to respond to the plan to develop the 249 acres, 250 acres of farmland. We are very interested in this plan. We would like to voice our concerns and hear your answers. Hopefully together we can solve these issues and improve on the plan and in the best interests of the future of Franklin. We want commitments that this project is not going to greatly adversely impact our neighborhood. We have a concern regarding the type and the quality of the homes to be built in the PUD. Who will be the developer and which builders have you talked to? It is zoned RS1 for custom detached dwellings for residential and maybe the RT1 is you you've said in the plan it's stated that the homes in the PUD on the northern perimeter

will match the existing homes in Dorsy Lane, Dorsy Court and Williamsburg Lane with the plan stating that the minimum lot size of 12,000 square ft and 1,800 00 square foot for the dwelling minimum living area. This is not a match. Our existing lot sizes are 15,000 to 20,000 square foot with um as much as 2600 to 3,000 square foot in living area. Ours are much bigger. Also, the second section 3A says lot size of 10 square ft. 10,000 square feet with dwelling minimum living area of 1,200 square feet. Is the college bringing the best homes to be built in Franklin? Again, who are the builders? Who are the developers and builders you're talking to? There are plenty of entrylevel homes in this area. We need housing that will match the existing neighborhood homes. This is RS1 zone and the Franklin College land is the last area of zone RS1 for this kind of home. These are the people who move to Franklin to make Franklin their home. They raise a family and they stay. They are the ones who are the leaders, contribute, donate, and volunteer their time in the community. They will still be here in one, two, or three decades. With our homes, with other homes, we are seeing more of a turnover of people in and out. We want to establish a strong

community for the future. Are you going to build the tech center first? Is it going to be built next to the college? If the tech center is built first, then there will be new employees. students, researchers as candidates for the new housing development to start up later. Is this is this the plan? And can we know what the order of implementing building development will be or it was said we don't know. Are these buildings going to be restricted to owner occupied only or are you planning to let corporations buy lots and build houses to rent out? What kind of businesses are you planning to put in the PUD? It was said you are talking to various companies. Who are they? What other developments according to the standards is the college proposing for the tech park? Would the college agree to limit the businesses to only high-tech computer programming and/or scientific medical research businesses? If not, why not? Isn't this the vision the college is trying to sell to the city? We have a fire department right off 44 on Burger Lane near Milford. Is a second fire department within a mile really necessary? What is going into the innovation center and are there going to be restrictions on the multifamily dwellings? The community wants guarantees that someone is monitoring the construction and adherence to the required building standards. hopefully

at a higher standard. The people in the community want guarantees and promises that Franklin College is bringing the best they can bring to our community. Franklin is a hot commodity. It's a very popular destination. Why can't we be selective and choose what businesses and housing developers we want? We want to be sure that is a highquality builder and that the minimum standards will be raised and that we will not just settle for good enough. What are the standards for the businesses? We want to know. Okay. I'm Andy Kinsey. I live at uh 1651 Dorsy Court. I am also speaking on behalf of the homeowners in our neighborhood. I'm going to echo some of what Glenn has shared, but my presentation can be boiled down in three words. Trust but verify. That's the essence of my comments. Because we are concerned about the proposed buffer zone between the existing homes and the new development buildings. We heard 50 ft. We would propose 75 ft to allow for more privacy. We are concerned second concern about the apartments, the duplexes, the homes, whatever these codes are. We would like to see what actually these are going to look like in our neighborhood and does the pug plan, do they plan to use Davis homes, Arbor Homes? Who's going to decide this and how will

it be decided? Our third concern has to do with safety and with traffic through our neighborhood. We already see people running stop signs at Milford and Jefferson on a weekly basis. We know it's crazy getting out on Adams during peak times. We also know there are lots of children and people walking and riding in a seemingly quiet neighborhood. What we want to know is what study has been done on the traffic if there's going to be a study. And it's our understanding that there was a study presented to the commission on September 25th. If so, where can we see the plan and what does it look like and who has them? The short of it is that many people here, if not most of the residents, do not want Milford Drive to be opened at the cornfield and used as the main thoroughfare, especially during the construction phase. Lastly, let me also address the issue of drainage. This development will impact drainage. How can we be assured and verified that the requirements and standards are followed? And what plans are there to address the drainage? We already have runoff from Jefferson Estates, Windows, Morning Point, First National Bank, the Reagan Circle duplexes, and other small businesses. and they all um drain into the small retention pond. The corn field to our understanding is elevated higher than our neighborhood. What guarantees do we have that these are going to be addressed?

Let me close by saying that these are some of the concerns that have arisen from our meetings as citizens in this community. I think we want to support the project, but we also want to see high standards. We want to see quality and we hope that the planning commission will listen to our concerns and make decisions for the best of the community and not one or two parties. So, we look forward to receiving more information in the days ahead. Thank you. Thank you. I think Dave Shel's up. Okay, you said it all. Oh, I said it all. Yeah. And Andy, you and your uh you have another nine minutes. You don't have to take it, but I'll put it on. I said all I need to say, and I don't think I need to say anymore unless there's someone else who wants to share. Well, we do have flooding. I can show you my backyard if you want pictures. Yeah. Go. Go. Go ahead. I think more voices certainly use your time. Now you're in you're pretty far a field on things that aren't detail plan issues, but you're here. Okay. Use your time as you as you desire. I'll just be a minute. But I'm Dave Shelly. I live at 135 Dorsy Lane. And when we uh have a lot of rain, there's a lot of I live on the the side that the retention ponds on. And when we have a lot of rain, it it floods on the uh south end on Milford Drive and Decory Lane. And it's I've seen it as high as going to Carl Strand uh Mr. Carl Strand's house. And that's pretty that's that's a lot of water. And when I look back on the field that's behind me, it's higher right raised. And if they build back there,

where's that water that they're going to that's not going to be going in the ground? Where's that runoff going? Is it going into our pond or is it going into another retention pond? And that's that's what we need to see is where's that water coming? Where's that water going to go? Because we already have a flooding problem back there. So, thank you for Thank you. Good evening. My name's Renee Olivo. Um, I just want to touch I think it's already been touched on uh Milford and the traffic the thorough affair that's they're being talked about being Milford and whatever going south there. But what I want to say is that when we as homeowners try to get out to the north and we try to turn left or right, it's it's very very hard to get out. And um a while back I was run into there on King and uh Milford. So that was a that was I think uh my neighbor Carl Strand uh heard the big noise and thankfully I wasn't hurt. So there is a concern on my part of having a crash in there at the at the intersection. So, I'm I'm not sure what's going to go there, whether it's going to be roundabouts or what what's going to be talked about, but I would uh ask that the uh that everybody would consider not making that the thoroughare and uh also the water problems and also what I have found out that the u drainage ponds supposedly belong to the uh homeowners, but when we uh uh checked over at the uh government building. It was last deed to

uh Irwin Union Bank and that's where the deed stands right now. So, I'd like to know who owns the ponds. I know what I've been told, but I'd like to know who owns the ponds. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Anyone else want to speak? Sure. I'll do it on your way to the podium so you save your time. Okay. Do you solemnly swear or firm any testimony that you give tonight would be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Help you God. I do. Thank you. We had all gentlemen. So, thank you, ma'am. Yes. Thank you. I guess I'll speak for the women, younger people in the community. I was waiting. Yeah. I'll give her back her minute. I talked. So, you get you and I'll just I'll speak speak really quickly. Um I guess my concern is we moved back into the neighborhood 1714 to Corsy back in April. Um obviously we're a little bit of a younger couple. It was our first home and we moved from Franklin because we, you know, we totally saw Caramel, Noblesville, where we were living was being overdeveloped. Philip grew up here. Um, we came down here because we knew it was safe. We, you know, get got to know all of our neighbors and we know that they're all very kind people. Not saying that the people that might moving in might not be kind. Um, but I think that we knew that everyone around us were, you know, going to be kind of, you know, I I don't I excuse me, I don't have anything prepared. I I think I think I've been with you, too. So, I think I think that our concern is if there's a lot of people that are coming in, you know, your comment um, sir, was that it was going to be at the same development standards. The development standards where I grew up 10 minutes from Gary, Indiana are definitely not the same development standards here. And I think that my concern is that if there's going to be a lot of different types of multifamily coming in, whether it be

public housing, section 8, you know, we moved into a nice neighborhood because that's what we wanted. That's where we wanted to raise our children. There's already people moving from downtown Indianapolis and causing problems, breaking into vehicles. That is our concern. you know, our safety. We feel okay, you know, leaving our doors unlocked during the day and we don't want that safety to be feeling like it's taken away from us and there are plenty of children and, you know, young women that probably stay home and I think that's that's our biggest concern. Thank you. Yeah. And I'll I'll jump in too and just say that um you know, we we came from Chicagoland area. Um I'm a direct director of commercial lending at a bank and I grew up in Franklin, Indiana, Philip Norris. Um my dad's an attorney in town. and my mom's a physical therapist and is very involved in the community. Um, you know, we're in support of the project. I love Franklin College. Grew up going to games. Have plenty of friends that graduated from Franklin College. I think that quality control is our biggest concern. Um, especially for the neighborhood highlighted in orange behind us. I think making sure that the standards are met for the homes that are built behind us and that safety and that the quality matches the home that we purchased on Dorsy Lane um is really important to us. So having neighborhood involvement on the project and that the neighborhood has a say in what goes there, the businesses that go in, how the lighting is done. Um you know, I would say holistically is important to us. Um, the last thing I would want to see is this project to kind of come together in a way that doesn't benefit the community. And Jade and I both have opportunity. We can live anywhere we choose to live in Franklin. And the last thing I'd want is for the project not to be done well um with the neighborhood's involvement and then, you know, we end up deciding to move somewhere else in the future. So, we love our community. I love Franklin. and I want to grow up grow old here and

want to live in our home and raise our kids there. And I think that we support the project. We just want to make sure it's done for not only the college but well for the community members that are already in homes in that neighborhood. Thank you, sir. Thank you for ignoring my stuttering. We done now. Everybody have a chance? Thank you, Andy. Just one thing. Sure. I didn't swear. You saw my swear affirming testimony tonight. Be the truth. Whole truth about the truth. Help you God. Thank you. I haven't sworn at that many people today. My name is Thank you for being here. is Mia Merrick. And um I have a vested interest in 1664 Dorsy Court. Um, and one thing that I note about those houses, and I think another thing that's not mentioned, but we're all thinking, is that the whoever the builder is that puts the homes in right against the neighborhood that we're talking about, um, none of those homes are the cookie cutter type homes. These are all individuallymade custom type homes. None of them are the same. And that's another concern I think that we would have is that they be more like what the people that are there live in currently. Thank you. Going going gone. Mr. Oaks, you have your remaining time. Um a couple of things. Um, one, um, one of the things that we thought about when we sat down and met with staff heading into this was we're not going to do this again. We're not going to make the concept plan a detailed plan. Um, it's it there the zoning ordinance sets out the process, concept plan. If the

concept plan's approved, then you go to a detailed plan. And um we really do appreciate the comments we've heard tonight. Some of them are great comments and suggestions, but the truth is those are comments that are really addressed at the detail plan level. And then we're not passing the buck here because we have to provide that. and there will be another public hearing and they will actually be able to look at those detailed standards and make specific comments on them. So, I'm not passing the buck. It's just not the process. So, it's difficult for me to stand up here and provide answers when that's the next step. Um, so I would just simply ask the plan commission to to keep that in mind. Number two, um, it's a great community. Franklin is I'm everybody can see that people care about it. There's a lot of passion for it. Um Franklin College has been here since 1834. Okay. Um which I think is a little bit longer than most of the residents. Um I I I joke but um you know Franklin College is a college. It its primary objective is to teach young people to allow them to go out into society and be productive members of society. That that's their goal. That's their objective. And if you stop and think about it, developing real estate isn't necessarily part of that. And you might say, well, why are you saying that? because it it would be an easy thing for Franklin College to say, "You know what? I'm just going to flip this whole thing, all 250 acres. I'm going to sell it to a

developer because that's not what we do. I'm done. I'm out. I'll let the de developer handle it. I'll take my money and run." But they're not. They're staying in it for a reason. They're going to be a neighbor, too. They're vested in this community as well. They want to see this project be successful because they plan on being here another 200 years, okay? And they're going to have to live with what's there, too. And so, we share a lot of the same goals and the same objectives and we look forward to that dialogue at the detailed development plan level. Um so with that all I can say is from a concept plan we think this works. It is sensitive in terms of the uses that moves from the north to the south. Uh so it's sensitive to the existing uses. It allows for a mix of uses which creates in our opinion a vibrant community. Part of the really neat thing about Franklin is how integrated the residential area is around the central downtown core. You don't get that vibrancy. The the folks up north like Carmel and Noblesville and Fish, that's they're chasing that. You already have it and we want to keep it. You know, we we want this to be a vibrant to be a good area. Um, and we think this plan is sets the table for that to occur. Um, and so we'd be happy to answer any questions, but we do think as a concept plan, this really does work. Um, and we would look forward, if you should approve it, to coming back to you with um, what's going to be a much more

detailed uh, plan uh, where we can really wait into the weeds and dig into specific details regarding certain aspects of the project. So with that, President, you want to say anything? Sure. You I think you probably need to be sworn in one more time. You saw me swear affirming testimony. Good night to me. The truth, whole truth, and the truth. Yeah, I do. Thank you. I apologize for being late. Um, it was on my calendar for 7 o'clock, so I would say somebody will be fired tomorrow, but then I would be helpless, so I think I put it on my calendar myself. Uh, I'm Carrie Prather. I'm the president of Franklin College. And just a couple things to add to what, uh, Tim has said. I've been a Franklin resident for 43 years, which makes me a newcomer by Franklin standards. Um, very much have enjoyed this. I scanned the crowd real quickly to make sure my son wasn't here because he's a resident of Dorsy Lane. Um so happy to see that he at least didn't uh come with any concerns of his own, but he's here for the same reason that um I think um these young folks mentioned he's an attorney in downtown Indianapolis, could have lived any place uh and chose to come back to Franklin for all of the reasons that all the neighbors have said. And I think what Tim said and what I would like to emphasize here is we've been uh as an institution really strategic about what to do with this land because we recognize what it means to the future of Franklin uh well beyond the future of Franklin College. Um the industries that are being pursued are ones that lend themselves to collaboration with what we're doing academically. Those would be exclusively high-tech industries where our chemistry majors and biology majors and math majors and computer science majors are able to work at the elbows of those industry partners, providing us with an experience that those students really

couldn't get at any other small college in Indiana. Um, so I think that speaks to the nature of what we're hoping to attract and the attract to this innovation park and the initial commitments that we have are exclusively life sciences and other high-tech businesses aside from biology and chemistry. Um, and then finally, I think to the neighbors, we want exactly the same thing as you want. So we want this to be quality. I can tell you myself, I'm not in the development business. This has been an education that I would like to get off my hands. Honestly, I' I've learned just enough to be dangerous. But in the process, we've talked to every major developer in the greater Indianapolis area, and we've um decided that we want to partner with Patch because we think they share the same vision for what all of us want for the city of Franklin. And I can say since I became president in 2020, Mayor Barnett and I have talked about this need to attract high-tech businesses for the jobs that it will create and the amenities that all of that will bring to the city in addition to the obviously the the tax revenue. So all of this has been a slow, thoughtful, strategic process. this will be the same. And as Tim said, all of this, I think, can be ironed out at the at the detailed uh stage of the process when we can answer some of those individual questions. But um my message to you is uh we really are all seeking the same thing for the city of Franklin. And Tim worded it well. Hopefully, God willing, the college is going to be here for another couple hundred years when we want to make sure that we're in the city that you all want it to be and we want it to be as well. Thank you, sir. Andy, in keeping my promise, do you need two and a half more minutes?

Thank you, sir. Let's close the public hearing. Mr. Chairman, you'd close the public. Motion to close the public hearing. Motion to close public hearing. Second. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Those opposed same time. Joanna, would you like to uh summarize some things for us relative to this project before we get into discussion? Um yeah. So, I would like to just note that part of the discussion this evening um with the concerns and questions that the public has brought forward is exactly why we have this process this process this set up the way we do. It's why we have the concept plan because all of this gets open in the you know out in the air. The developer hears it. the owner of the property hears it, the homeowners hear it. So, it's a dialogue that's back and forth. So, not every community goes through the PUD process the way that the the city of Franklin does. And this is exactly why we do it this way because then we know that everyone's concerns and voices heard. And now the developer and the owner can go back in the office, take what they've heard this evening, take what they know of the city of Franklin, and they can address those, incorporate those as it sees fit with the detailed plan. So that way some of these questions will be answered at the next stage. So I do want to say thank you for everyone that has come out because it is helpful to the process. Um, with that being said, was curious if the board had any questions. If if I might add too, because if if people all the questions that were asked are questions you would ask, right, if you were sitting in their shoes. Um,

and none of the answers can they give because you until you get to the that's why they call it the detailed plan, you you can't answer those questions. Um, and frankly sometimes you can never answer the questions. If it's zoned R1 and some builder comes along, we don't have any control to tell what builder to do it. So, but I would tell you that if it goes to the next step, just because it goes to the next step doesn't mean you're locked into approving that step. Um, and so the idea behind creating our ordinance the way it was is to have this kind of a hearing and then say, "Okay, you've heard it. now bring us a detailed plan and see what things are answered or not answered. But I want to make it very clear to both the petitioner and to the remmonstrators that approval at one step does not mean approval at the second step. Oh, and by the way, there's another board that are the elected officials of which you, Irene, are one. Um, who can override all of it. Um, but they don't get involved until it's more there's more for them to to look at. So I I just think it's important to know that just because you continue the step doesn't mean it gets approved. It's just one it's just go go find some more information for us. So I have a question or maybe a statement. Is there any relevant changes from the concept plan as far as industrial from what we passed previously last year to now in size as far as size and acreage? We haven't gotten into that part because that is the detailed plan. Uh the major differences between um the last plan and this plan is that where the office innovation I don't know if you can see

um in the west area that previously was identified as the Franklin College and this portion then was um the tech and industrial. So this is the previous plan. So these two areas were flip-flopped. All the discussions that were had regarding the detached residential area adjacent to the existing in this plan is the same as it was in the previous concept plan. Well, that's what I thought I understood. I thought I heard from Tim there was a change, but I wasn't clear on what it was. Yeah, there that's the major change. um which isn't really major because Franklin College and the office innovation are very similar but they just flip-flop the location. Anyone have any questions of the petitioner or staff? Joanna, internally if if if the plan commission takes action and says, "Okay, go forward. Take this concept and go forward." What would be the time frame that you would expect to have it back again so that people could get some ideas that you would expect? That's a little difficult to gauge. Um, that's why I ask it. Yeah, Tim would be a better person to answer that question. not knowing where they are internally in their designs. Um well I'll answer that two ways. First way is it has to be within a year. That's the time period we have. Um if if it is approved then um we will turn our design team loose uh in terms

of all the details. Now there there are quite a few details. Um there will be for example architectural standards that we have to draft for the different portions including the single family that everyone's going to want to pay a lot of attention to. There will be those can include for example anti see they're called usually anti- monotony provisions to make sure that homes are not the same all the way down the street which which is kind of like yucky. Um, and so is that is that a legal term, Tim? That is a legal term. That is a legal term. I'm familiar with that one. My my my wife's told me that for years. Um, so um it's going to take a little time. Um I think uh two months is too quick. Uh five months is too long. So probably somewhere in there. Um, and then once you start getting into, you know, Thanksgiving and Christmas time, that slows things down. If, if I had to guess, I'd tell you, you know, first quarter of 26. And when we say it has to be within a year, they have to come back with a detailed plan. It doesn't have to be approved within that year. Yeah. And typically between the concept plan and the detailed plan, uh the developer will draft what their first go at it and then they do provide it to staff. staff reviews it and a lot of times we have multiple meetings back and forth knowing what um not only the city of Franklin regulations, our comprehensive plan, but also having heard concerns and ideas from the public that we then have that dialogue back and forth to make sure that what they are providing with a detailed plan is consistent with where the city of Franklin um should develop and how we should grow. So it's not they submit something and it's just a first

go before plan commission. There's a lot of work in between this stage and coming back before plan commission. Obviously my opinion doesn't matter but I wanted to get that info out there for those of you who might be asking that question for my clients. I have a question for Tim and I heard you talk about and I totally understand respect it is a lot of how you perceive of this project is going to be bearing on the market. You do have a developer potential developer involved in the industrial aspect innovation park and the timeline question just came up. Would it be relevant to say that you'd be pursuing interest of the residential parallel? So, you're going to have to market that home development to a developer. Are you going to try to get some of those on board now when you present this proposal or you know what what ends up happening and I I I work with a lot of the the developers and builders in the single family environment. What ends up happening is if if we try to identify somebody that they they're going to want to come in and control the development standards for that north area. Okay. And um quite frankly, a lot of property owners that sell large tracks of land for single family development, they they they understand that and they intentionally put the property under contract. They don't close and then they let the builder or the developer take the lead so that they can make the standards fit what they want to do. I don't think that's what we want to do here. I think we want to get the standards set that everybody wants and

then you go to the builders and say here are the standards you have to live by. So I I wouldn't anticipate that but it's for that reason. So you develop the standards, not develop the developer. Yes. Okay. That answers my question. Anyone else have any questions for staff or petition? I just want to address two two comments made uh in regards to the traffic concerns and also drainage. Uh obviously it will be more during the detailed plan as well, but a traffic study is going to be required for this entire development before anything's decided on with the roadways or or anything. Uh I don't think one one hasn't been submitted with the the concept plan previously. Uh so that will be expected of them throughout the detailed stage after the detailed and primary. Yeah. Before after the detailed stage and before the primary plat. Yeah. And and then terms of drainage uh each site will be reviewed uh singular like I'll review all the drainage plans are our rules are more stringent nowadays than they were back in the 70s 80s when Jefferson Meadows I think that's when 90s 90s so drainage is more stringent so any release rates uh from the new sites will have to be less than what they're uh so basically postdevelop has to better than pre-develop. And that'll be for every single development on this uh PUB. Uh and also with the legal drain that splits the entire property, you're going to have the county involved uh with and they have even more stringent rel release rates than the city does. So all that will be addressed uh during the detail and site plan reviews.

So to just give an overall of the entire process from be beginning to end, you have the concept plan that comes to plan commission with official action. You have the detailed plan that comes to plan commission with a recommendation. It goes to city council for introduction. It then goes to city council for public hearing. That is the reszoning of the property and that's it. They then have to come back and submit for primary plat review. That's where the actual lot layout um utility alignment, road construction, sidewalks get reviewed follow that goes to plan commission. there's official action from plan commission. Following that, there is either one of two things. If it's residential, it's a secondary plat and construction plans that get even further into the details of the development, the slope of the pipes, the outlet, the road construction, the standards for the roads, the standards for the sidewalks, the location of the trees. If it's a site development plan, which would be for one of the industries, that goes through the site development plans process, which can run concurrent with the secondary plat. And on that site development plan review, that goes to technical review committee. It only gets forwarded to plan commission if there's a waiver of subdivision requirements. And that is only regarding drainage, street trees, or sidewalks. Typically, there are no waiverss from street trees and sidewalks. So therefore, the only reason a site

development plan generally makes it to plan commission is because there's a waiver from drainage, which we haven't seen for very many years. That review of the site development plan gets into where the parking is, the landscaping within the lot, the ADA accessibility, location of the structure, the amount of landscaping. So, there is a very long process to get from where we are today to actually getting a shovel in the ground. Okay. Thank you for the Any other thoughts, questions, concerns, any dialogue reference to this project? I wanted to ask one more question. I think you summarized this last meeting, but I want to clarify. The ownership of the innovation park, will it be maintained and owned by the college? Will that be private outside of the college? Um, I think it probably could be either. um which really means that has yet to be determined. Um and in part that sometimes depends upon the end user. Um and can get rather complicated, but let's say there's a great fantastic high-tech company that wants to come into town and set up shop that everybody loves. Um, and because of their financing structure, they say, "Look, we we can't rent this. We we need to own it." I suspect we would sell it to them. That same company might come in and say, "We're a startup, but the we're our trajectory is up. It looks fantastic. We we can't really afford to buy the ground

right now. what we want to do is have you build it, lease it to us, maybe they get an option to buy in the lease and we go that route. Um, but either way, you end up with a really good company that becomes a good corporate citizen of Franklin. So, it could be either. Um, it just will depend on the circumstances that that apply at that time. Thank you. Do we have a motion to approve or deny based on what you've heard or is there any more discussion before we get to that point? As to concept planned only. The motion is to as to concept plan only. I'll make a motion to approve the case PC25-27 for the PUD concept plan. I'll second it. We have a motion by Nelly, second by Kim, I think. Let's do a roll call vote, please. Can we do Elroy? Excuse me. She's going to do the roll call vote so that we have it on the record. Elroy. Hi, Michelle Stringer. I Norm Gabart. Hi, Mike Spongberg. Hi, Irene Nally. I John Kempky. Hi, Bill Carson. Hi, So sometime after the in all likelihood after the first of the year, these folks should expect to get notice of detailed plans. Correct. And Joanna, if these folks get notice of a detailed plan meeting like like they did now are the way that our plan commission things work, are the documents online once it gets filed so they could see it ahead of time? Yes.

Okay. Um on the agenda itself, I will just go back. The agenda is on our website like this. If you select any of the documents, if it's a PDF, which is the one that's getting ready to come up eventually, when it gets done thinking, you'll be able to read it, download it. Um, for the plans themselves, it will provide you a link to our online portal, which is always available. If you know the case number of any project, you can go to the online portal. You can hit the search button up here and go to the record number. Put it in. Okay. on this page when you go to um the first one is details outlines all of the uh submittal information and then under files is where all of the attachments the PUB concept plan the um narrative there's even the affidavit of consent there's a number of things so you can look at all of those public records and so essentially the city's file is online for access to the public thank you and on this agenda there is um a link to the previously approved plan if anybody wanted to look at the comparison between both the 24 plan and the 25. Okay, thank you. Thank you uh commission uh for your time and attention and we look forward to next time. Okay, other business. Other business, we do have the proposed 2026 calendar of meeting dates. Uh this is similar to

every year to date. There are some that have asterisks on them and the only reason that they have asterisks is because the date has been moved to accommodate a holiday. In December, uh we do move everything up so that way we are done with official business prior to uh Christmas. And then we also make sure that our technical review committee is not scheduled for Thanksgiving Day so it's ready for the board's consideration and action. If you approve these meeting dates then uh Joanna or staff we then give them to the daily journal so they publish them. So that's part of our open door requirement for public meetings. So that's why we ask you to approve the dates so we can get them. I make a motion to approve the 2026 PC calendar meeting dates. Second. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Those opposed, same sign. Passes. Thank you. We have a motion for adjournment. I make a motion. Motion second. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Thank you for everyone's courtesy tonight. It was nice. Thank you. It's kind of unusual how that many people I like it when they organize. My friend, you know. Hey.