Common Council - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call the December 15, 2025 city common council meeting to order. We will begin with the pledge of allegiance. Councilwoman Ficus 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.

Roll call. Clerk Treasurer Parthon. Councilman Frankie here. Councilwoman Huffman here. Councilwoman Ficus present. Councilman Galloway here. Councilwoman Kesnney present. Counciloman Buchanan here. Councilwoman West here. All present. Approval of December 1st, 2025 meeting minutes. Do I have a motion? I'd like to make a motion to approve the minutes. Second. Motion and a second. Discussion. All in favor? I

opposed. Motion passes. Petitions and comments of citizens both online and in person. Appreciate everyone here. Merry Christmas. Uh and it's great to have everybody here at the holiday. uh charity, I would like to take a moment and say thank you for the downtown uh cookie walk. We appreciated it. Uh Mark Hill had some extra cookies that he did take that he was willing to give back uh that hopefully you'll be bringing those back. So, thank you. It was a great success. Uh just to remind everybody, uh this is uh public comment three minute uh limit. Uh there are no personal attacks. It is not question and answer and um any other things I need to ask.

Only opportunity to speak tonight. Yes, it is the only as again as uh we said earlier it is your only opportunity to speak on any any type of public items. So uh with that we will begin. Charity come forward.

I just want to thank everybody for coming out and supporting the cookie walk. I was a little bit concerned because of the weather, but um we still had a great turnout. Um we did order a few extra 10, so we still have some. If anybody wants to collect them, uh come on into the hotspot. And I have a a few left if you're interested in those. So yeah, we were only down about 10 15% from previous years. So I was very excited. Um I think everybody enjoyed the uh the snow and the the weather were just kind of I think added benefit to me. I was like, "Yay, it's Christmas, right?" So, um, so yeah, thank everybody who who supported us and look forward to next year doing the same thing. If anybody is interested in carolling or something like that, let me know. We're we want to add to this event and make it something really spectacular. So, thanks everybody.

David Hinhold and Tucker King had mentioned carolling just uh 10 minutes ago. So, thank you. Like Tucker. Perfect.

All right. We'll call your name and address. Uh, please come forward. Paul Skiat regarding Brier Leaf. Welcome. Welcome to you as well. Good evening, council members. Um I've been to several meetings uh planning, zoning, uh city council meeting with regard to item number eight on the agenda. um here to speak more about the underlying uh concern or let's just say interest that I have be hearing from uh some individuals about the housing development which will involve 300 homes uh round numbers. I would suggest to you that uh that community that's out there probably should be talking about more like 400 or 450 homes that are going to be added to Councilwoman West's uh ward next year. I want to start hearing about what the city is going to start talking about as far as improvements for that area. Uh I will be sitting in that chair for every council meeting that I can possibly attend. Uh, I know that we are kind of out there in no man's land. We're up on 39. We're not in city proper, but we need to be considered part of the city if that's where the growth is going to be. So, I just want to let you know that I expect to hear things about Ward number one, what's going to be happening in there. And I would prefer not to hear about the effects of Senate Bill number one. Uh, I would prefer to hear about how we're going to work with Senate Bill number one and make improvements in W number one.

Thank you. And again, you have not and will not hear about Senate Bill One. We're all about property tax reform. Just don't stop the city of Leaport that's taking on our approach to growth. Uh, which is our number one thing that you heard from, uh, the city coming in. Um, we think property tax reform is great, but uh, keep the state the feds out and allow us to do what we need to do to supply the best services uh, together for our residents. Jacob Hill, please come forward. State your name and address for the record. Thank you for being here today.

Thank you. Do you want me to hand those out? Thank you. Welcome.

Hello, I'm Jake Hill. I live on 3584 North 100 West. I'm on the board of Ducks Unlimited, the Cana Key chapter. I would like to talk about the near nearby wetlands affected by this housing development. One of the wetlands being right behind my house is Autumn Bog located on the northeast corner of the development. Autumn bog is a red maple/poison sumac forest bog community which is rare in Indiana. It has plentiful interesting plants and wildlife that inhabit it. To the honorable members of the the Port City Council, I am submitting this written comment for the public record regarding the proposed residential development currently under discussion. I respectfully request clarification and documentation on whether the developer has applied for or received all required state and federal environmental permits, including any IDM regulated wetland permits pursuant to Indiana code 13-18-22 and any US Army Corps of Engineers permits under section 404 of the Clean Water Act if applicable applicable. I also request confirmation as to whether formal wetland delineation and jurisdictional determinations have been completed. Additionally, I request that the city require the developer to clearly explain how drainage, storm water runoff, and construction activities will be managed to prevent degregation of adjacent wetlands and neighboring properties both during construction and after project completion. This should include long-term maintenance responsibilities and enforcement mechanisms. Given the permanent nature of this development and its potential impact on surrounding land owners, I respectfully ask that the city ensure wetland boundaries, buffers, and jurisdictional determinations are clearly identified and protected, storm water and drainage plans are reviewed for downstream and adjacent impacts. I I appreciate the city council's attention to these matters and respectfully requests that these concerns to be entered into the public

record and addressed prior to any votes or approvals related to this development. Thank you. I have questions for Mr. Hill for the I'm going to give a copy to Mr. Nelson representing LAR and also to Jerry Jackson from wastewater just so you have

Thank you. Ethan Coun, welcome. State your name and address for the record.

My name is Ethan Coun. Address is 3292 North 100 West, Leaport, Indiana. So to the honorable members of the Leaport City Council, I am formally submitting this petition for the public record regarding the proposed or potential residential development of the Brier Leaf Golf Course property. The petition contains over 500 signatures from residents and community members requesting that the city oppose residential development of the Brier Leaf Golf Course and instead preserve the property as a green space for the benefit of the city of Leaport. The petition reflects significant public interest and concern regarding land use, environmental impacts, neighborhood character, drainage, and long-term value maintaining green space within the city. In addition, the community members have voluntarily contributed nearly $500 to support this petition effort, reflecting broad and genuine public concern regarding this proposed development. I respectfully request that this petition be accepted by the city council, entered into the official public record, and considered in any present or future discussions, votes, or approvals related to this property. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you. Questions and to make sure this is official in the record, Mr. Otis. Yeah. So, it'll be reflected in the minutes that these were accepted by the reviewed by the council. And then anybody that has or would like a copy or anything council each council member has a copy or from the public I I have it in my office so I can provide that. Yeah. Okay. Is that fair? Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Karine Goodson, please come forward and welcome.

Thank you. Um my name is Karen Goodson. I live at 3054 North Shamar Hills Drive and I'm here also about the Brier Leaf development. Um my husband and I attended the planning meeting, the zoning meeting. Uh we went and toured some of the other LAR subdivisions to get a feel for what was going in. Um this is off of our backyard and I will show you. I don't have anything specifically for the record, but I do have photos to pass around. Um, we bought our house when we got married 28 years ago and our decision was literally made on the view from our back deck. Um, to say that our housing value is not going to change is is probably not these. Is that accurate? Um, it's kind of awkward because I'm addressing some of the things that Lonar said in the former meeting and I assume that they're going to say in their presentation to you. Um, one of them is they compare Irongate in Valparezo to the place they're building here in Leaport. Um, we toured it. The houses are bigger. Most of them have threecar garages. The lot sizes are bigger. So, it's not apples and apples. It's apples and oranges. Um, they also compared the home values to the homes that surround the subdivision in Valpo and those homes were not on a golf course. So again, it's not a fair comparison. They didn't have a golf course there to begin with. It was farmland and so you're, you know, again, it's it's not a true comparison. Um Bert Cook when he spoke at the planning meeting said that the very worst thing that could happen is leaving land vacant. And and why is that so bad? I don't understand why that's so bad. Um prairies and woodlands are beautiful.

Native prairies and woodlands draw people outdoors. And then there was a threat of something worse like a data center or or catho or slaughterhouse if we don't accept the housing development. I think that's kind of insulting. I mean, I don't think that you people would let that happen, but um also I would like to point out that traffic is a big concern. I don't think that 300 North can handle the traffic. From our meetings earlier, um we were told that the exit on 100 West was something they were hoping for and not a done deal. So that the only true entrances and exits right now are on 300 north and 39 north or 300 west and 39 north and 39 north right now with semis from the industry on the other side and the tow road is not equipped to handle all that extra traffic. I mean they're they projected in the meeting that it was 1500 cars a day or something. It was pretty crazy. Um, so in closing, I would say we're not against the the the building of a subdivision. Um, at the very least, they should build it with larger lot sizes, and fewer homes with more concern for preserving the beauty of the rolling hills, trees, and ponds. Um, green spaces are features of successful cities as well.

One question, just so I understand, this picture here is from your backyard and Brier Leaf, the golf course, is up here. Yep. Okay. comments, questions around. Thank you.

I believe that's everybody for public comment. Anybody online? There was a comment that somebody must have deleted that cannot be repeated uh because of the language used. The name I I don't remember the name. I apologize. Angela Darnell has one comment. Vote no. Okay. Thank you for that. Standing committee reports. President Frankie Redevelopment Commission meets this Wednesday 5:15 here in council chambers. That's all I have.

Councilwoman Huffman.

The Sustainability Commission met on Tuesday, December. I'm sorry, not December. Yeah, but I have my date wrong for some reason. My apologies. We met last week. Um, firstly, I would like to welcome Mr. Dodd Dodson to the sustainability commission. Don will be a valuable asset to the commission as he is very focused on the preservation of our native landscapes and parks. He has already partnered with some local partnerships to establish a native pollinator garden. He also has an extensive background in horiculture. The commission currently has two matters they are focusing on. EV charging stations and tree planting. Tesla has been contacted regarding EV charging stations and the tree planting will occur as soon as the ground thaws in the spring. The next sustainability commission meeting will be Tuesday, January 13, 2025 in council chambers at 4 pm.

Question on the charging stations. Were those specific to Teslas? Uh, so no, they were not specific to Tesla. That was just the first company that was the most accessible by um our chair for the commission reaching out just to get an idea because the EV charging stations that we currently have were done under a grant um before I came became a council member. So um we're just looking for other alternatives trying to get price points, ideas to of where to put them and how much it's going to cost. I thought we've heard a lot for a lack of Tesla charging stations that the public has asked for. So that's why I had asked. So I think some of them have different connector different options.

Yeah, it's like lightning charging, regular charging. I think Thank you. Councilwoman Ficus, um park board meets this Wednesday, 400 p.m. at the park office and then traffic commission will have their next meeting on Tuesday, January 6th, 5:00 pm at the police station. Councilman Galloway, mayor's veterans Sorry. Police, please merit commission met on the 9th and um the approval of the minutes and they had a one day all day long hiring at 17 people and 10 passed the first phase of testing. Excellent. Councilwoman West, nothing to report tonight. Councilman Buchanan,

Historic Preservation Commission meets tomorrow, uh December 16th, 5:30 here in council chambers. Councilwoman Kesnney.

Uh the airport authority will meet Wednesday, January 14th at 5:15 at the airport. And just as a reminder uh for those that were at the concert at the Civic um this past weekend, Ed and Karen Bowers, what an unbelievable gift that they donated, uh a large uh sum of money in exchange for having the um the stage at the civic uh named after uh them and uh they've been committed to the park system. They love the park system and so for future uh development, future uh repairs, everything uh Ed and Karen uh Bowers have donated those funds that'll be great for the many years to come for the future of the civic auditorium. So, thank you to them. So, we've seen many housing study presentations uh both by Health Foundation of Leaport and Unity Foundation. Beth Shrader is here. Um I would like to recognize Maggie Sparts if she would stand. Uh thank you for your service as she has left Unity and enjoy retirement. Thank you for all you've done. And we now have an update to the housing study. So Beth, welcome.

Thank you. Glad to be here. Uh council members this evening. It's nice to see some faces that I remember and some new ones, too. So my name is Beth Shrader. I'm a planner with SE and we did an update to Unity Foundation's 2021 housing analysis and action plan. So they did that as part of their vibrant Leaport County program and they pulled a whole lot of data and it gave a snapshot of 2021 uh the data that was available at the time, what was going on and what the recommendations were to uh have the most healthy and vibrant uh housing uh situation in Lefort County. And so Unity Foundation as part of their grant obligations to the uh Lily Foundation is updating that here in 25 with uh more recent data. So I'm going to share that with you. So in 2021 um and I think there's a presentation that is

okay. So in 2021, some of the uh outcomes of that study still hold true. So just to give an overview of those things, uh there was a recognition of a housing supply shortage at that time there was uh council members if you want to come around or help yourself to

Yeah. So, in uh 2021, they made a p uh an estimate of 5,700 new units by 2030. And that was based on goals that were set by local leaders, not necessarily on any sort of metrics or population statistics. Uh we saw a mismatch between housing types and household needs. Um there were affordability affordability challenges and hidden cost burdens. Uh we saw socioeconomic and racial inequities, um aging and underutilized housing inventory, uh inefficient land use and infrastructure costs, a challenge for uh for development and the need for a strategic housing policy and implementation. So all those things are still true. So some of the things that are driving changes since 2021 are uh a change in the household types. So between 1960 and 2020 uh one and two person households have grown significantly. So you see there the one and two person are the yellow and blue lines and those have increased while all the other household types have decreased. uh there's been uh a large increase and in 2020 in Leaport County one person households made up 30% of all households. So this is uh a mismatch with a lot of the housing that we have currently in Leaport County. Go to the next one. All right. And looking at broad uh trends on populations that affect the county. Some of those are um aging population so people dying. Um we have uh lower fertility rates than uh earlier

generations and we are seeing out migration in Leaport County where more people are moving out to live in other places. So with those trends even though uh the population in Leaport has been about the same hovering at about 22,000 since the 1960s um reached a peak in 23 and what's projected to happen is a decrease in population over time. Um and with that you have uh household projections. So a number of housing units will follow a similar trend. So we have a a peak here uh looking at current population projections where we're at the highest uh number of households that we will have assuming the status quo. So we're looking at decline is what the the statistics are telling us. Um so is that what we want? Do we want this status quo or do we want to grow? So the that was a lot of the thinking with the talking with unity foundation and the county um who collaborated on this study. What what do we want the future to look like and how can we make that happen? So the things that we are recommending um stimulate population growth so targeted economic development um really promote Leaport County's quality of life advantages because there are a lot uh increase household formation. Now, you do this by encouraging smaller households uh with diverse housing types. So, making sure that you can build a wide range of housing types, which includes the smaller homes, town homes, ADUs, senior friendly units that are attractive to the smaller households. With that, you're modernizing your housing policy. Make sure that your zoning is allowing some of those mixeduse and higher density developments. um and that you are ready to permit uh

zoning wise and supply the infrastructure expansion to unlock housing ready land um investment in infrastructure. So sewer, water, broadband access to underutilized areas um especially places that have good links to a lot of the or the job growth that's happening in nearby St. Joe County. um and then ret retain and attract millennials because that's where most of the household formation is happening right now. All right. So, what would that look like if we are approaching um approaching housing policy and decision making with a growth mindset? Uh what you see here the blue line is following the status quo uh similar to the graphs that were were before and then instead of just looking at the goals of the leaders in the communities and projecting what the housing demands are from that we took a little more nuanced approach where we're looking at similar communities uh nearby counties and cities and towns that have characteristics in common with Leaport and looking at their growth rates, seeing what's achievable for Leaport as a county and applying that um to the statistics to see where where do we think is achievable to get and so with that we have two new lines that represent a maintain population scenario which is the yellow or orange-ish line and then the green which is the aspirational growth scenario and those don't That's not explosive growth. Neither of them are. So what those represent is a uh so the the orange line is a point. 02 to 0.1%

growth yearly. Um so that in comparison with uh for example Valpreso which sees about 75 growth yearly between that and 1%. um the aspirational growth scenario is a little bit more uh and that's 0.02 to 0.2% would get you to these numbers. So that seems to us like a more healthy goal to uh to work towards. All right. So, one of those things that uh one of the metrics that we use to track whether we're keeping uh up with the the growth that we want to see are housing permits. And this is something that is of interest to to Unity to Lily and other funders um to to show that uh there's progress being made at this. And so what we see is uh that Leaport here in orange has lower building permits. And that's something it'd like to see uh increased to help reach the goals to maintain or grow population instead of lose it. So just a look back since 2011 some really cool um you can go to the next slide some new development that's happened. So most of the land and city limits is already built out. Um and so most of the residential growth will be achieved through m smallcale infill redevelopment and uh that's on properties that were frequently another use. Um sometimes industrial um but all types of other uses. Uh so projects like the banks and tidma bakery site were both on former industrial sites. Um, and this infill development is really terrific because it supports walkability. It's happening where we

already have infrastructure, which is wonderful. Um, and what you also need are projects like, uh, what's happening at Hunter Woods, which through annexation at the edge of the city, uh, collaboration with utilities uh, to make all that happen. Uh but this larger scale residential development at the fringes uh that's also important in order to get the kind of scale that you really need to meet your growth goals. So between Leaport and Michigan City, most of the growth goals for the county as a whole will be met. That's where the utilities are. That's where the population is. That's where the most potential is for growth. So between the two there's been a lot of movement, a lot of um really a lot of excitement. So Michigan City is looking at uh numerous different mixed use and multifamily residential projects. Um a lot of density. They're seeing their first residential subdivision in like maybe 50 years. So that's huge for them. Leaport too, we just looked at some of the new development that's happening. There's other things underway. Uh but the goals are 900 uh plus forale units and 750 plus rentals um over the next several years. So um last I heard the goal for Leaport is to still reach 30,000 population by 2030. Yes. So that's still what we're working towards. So in order to reach all of these goals, we vis revisited the action items from the 2021 study. Um and most of them are still applicable. They still make sense. There's one that was emphasized uh changed. So we have number one which is adopt and implement a growth mindset. So

that that is about um thinking about growth in all the decisions that you're making and making sure that you keep in mind what happens if you're not thinking about growth and maintaining that mindset. Uh there were five others. Build a spectrum of housing to unlock growth. Establish a housing trust fund. Support commercial centers with dense walkable housing. Manage growth at the edge. And continue the conversation. And that's what we're doing here today. continuing the conversation, revisiting these statistics from 2021, seeing what still is important. And I hope that this is a conversation that's ongoing because it will continue to be an important issue for uh for Leaport County and quality of life here in the city and and the entire county. So, with that, I'll take any questions from the council.

Questions for Beth. It's always good to have you back here. Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here and I'll just mention that the full study is on the Unity Foundation website so you can read the whole thing. Uh there's a lot there to dive into and if you have any questions you can always email me. So and we'll also add that to the report website. We'd like that. Thank you. It's always good to have you back here. Beth, I do have a question and I'm sorry if I missed it. You talked about the action items. I'll remain the same with the exception of one. Yes. I I think I missed the one. The one is adopt and implement a growth mindset.

So that that's uh the slide that's up here. Thank you. Thank you, Beth. All right. Thank you, everyone.

Thanks. I'm just going to add that for 30 years, Leaport has chosen, minimum 30 years, Leaport has chosen to not grow. This is a community I grew up in. This is a group a community that many of you grew up in. This is a community I can look at Mark Hill who I spent at his house and we may differ on some of the things today but I know he cares about Leaport because he grew up here. Tucker King, Eric Nelson, Mike Riley, Mike Liberator, Bill Nelson, people that care about Leaport and we hear every single day, we need housing, we need rentals, we need affordable, we need high-end. Yet we ignored for 20ome years the rentals that were going on and it was okay because it didn't affect us uh that just went across right here from the YMCA and those apartments were people we had US marshals we had different people for 20 years and Nick Otus you grew up here I apologize um that people we were allowed or we allowed people to live in the type the circumstances that were across the street or throughout our downtown. And it's kind of unique that the list of um opposing housing on this list are the same people that came to Lincoln School and said, "Don't close Lincoln School. We don't want new housing, but don't close Lincoln School." You can't have it both ways. We've been dropping. We've been uh lowering. And it's enough is enough. the standards have been set. We have builders coming in now from around uh northwest Indiana that are testing the market and the first thing they say is and you've heard them, I've heard them. Well, Leaport always says no. So, we don't want to build too many h houses. We want to test. And if it wasn't for

Mitch Fus building homes and how many homes has he built in 10 years? 142.

142. But when we were going to bring habit and we brought Habitat to humanity to take over a industrial site to build five homes, you saw the push back when we talk about and hear everybody talk about affordable housing. Affordable housing to allow people to live. And we're getting all types of push back on the area there next to Sacred Heart Church, the old Washington school that is falling apart to build affordable housing. Uh that's the difficulty. And I just want to say thank you to the council because everywhere you turn to try to provide new housing or alternative housing, you're getting push back publicly. do what you're gonna say about me publicly and social media. That's okay.

We We do.

Thank you. That's good. But you are all trying to do the right thing to provide options so that people don't have to live with what they've lived in for the past 20 years. Uh and again, Jeff Bachelor, code enforcement has gone through cleaned up a lot of houses. But anybody that doesn't want new housing, we housing, we welcome you to come to those rentals and see the things that we fight on a daily basis. It's time. It's needed of all types. And I'm appreciative of uh the housing builders that are coming and checking out Leaport and saying we want to give Leaport a try because we believe in it. We believe there's an opportunity here to bring our kids back home to or keep our kids here to provide them houses because you've heard it all. Where do I go? You want me to stay here? Where do I live? We do have a couple of comments, public comments, uh, I want to add to make sure for the record. Um, Michael Spout said the entire administration uh, sucks. Uh, Michael Spot. Again, I've offered this individual to use his real name and meet with me in public. He's not chosen that option, which is of no surprise. Um, and then Caitlyn Daniels says, "Hi, Andy." Uh, you want to

Mr. Alexander says, "Keep up the good work, Mayor." And then, and that's it. All the other ones, those are it. So, that is for the record. I one quick comment just echo your your your initial comments to thank Unity Foundation and the Health Foundation for these studies because the being on the plan commission and city council having actual data to back things up and to to make decisions by is hugely helpful because you know we can speculate and and listen to opinions and stuff but I try to make decisions based on actual data and and projections and stuff. So, it's remarkably helpful. So, thank you.

And I'll add to that with um you know, I I understand the concerns from the residents. I do. Uh change is hard. You've had this beautiful golf course in your backyard or front yard uh for many years. But it's important also to understand that this is a a private business decision. The city does not own the land. We can't just make it a green space. It's not our property. Um it's, you know, our job is is to make sure if it is sold to a developer, that's done responsibly. And we want to strengthen our tax base. We want to strengthen our schools. Want to maintain city services. Um it's hard, but we need it. We need growth.

And go ahead. Sorry. I know everyone's talking about growth. We need that, but it's like what about like balanced growth, too? I mean, I look at the people that are here tonight and the the ones that came in front of plan commission and listened to everybody talk. I spoke to um a few residents uh this weekend out there and I don't know I it's it's important to preserve that green space and not have overdevelopment but I also know as a council woman that the conversations we have we need housing. Um so I understand a lot of the people that are upset about this. Um, so that that that balanced growth is what's important too, just not growth at the expense of people who have beautiful homes out there and mature trees and everything. So I I understand where they're coming from as well. So it's not like a decision that is made lightly. And just to Miss West's point, that's why Bert Cook, myself, others have met with the homeowners ahead of time, but also balanced growth is not I think they said 0.1% growth 0.1% of growth. We've been more than balanced in in our community and people are begging for housing. Begging for housing and uh 300 homes is just a small portion of a thousand that they're saying. I doubt we'll get there. Uh the apartments were never good. The banks was never going to rent to it was always going to be Chicago people and not Leaport people. I think we're at 90% Leaport residents right now. Uh people are in need of housing. We believe Leaport is a great place. We believe

this is a great community to raise your child. Um Microsoft believes in Leaport. ESPN believes in Leaport. They've come here. Um, somebody's got to stand up for our community and uh, it's a special place to keep our kids here or again to bring them back and we're going to provide the best services, the best water people, uh, Tim Warner in the state, Jerry Jackson, our wastewater, former state champion wrestler from our community, came back. I promise you he could make three times the amount of money in the private sector but chose to live here because he believes in Leaport. So I just don't want you all to feel bad because you're trying to do what's right for your community. Introduction of an ordinance before I guess we'll read the ordinance first. Uh Council President Frankie.

Yeah. And I I move to read an ordinance in its entirety for the first time. Second. Motion and a second. Discussion. All in favor?

Opposed? Council President Frank. An ordinance to amend the zoning ordinance of the city of Leaport, Indiana, as enacted August 21st, 2017, which is part of chapter 82 of the municipal code of the city of Leaport by amending the official zone map that are a part of the zoning ordinance in order to reszone two parcels of real estate in the city of Leaport. Whereas the parcels of real estate described below are now zoned under the zone maps as contained in the zoning ordinance of the city of Leaport Indiana which is part of chapter 82 of the municipal code of the city of Leaport Indiana as being in use district R1B single family residential district. Whereas the city plan commission of the city of Leaport has held a properly advertised public hearing to determine whether or not it will recommend to the common council of the city of Leaport Indiana that the parcel as described below be placed in a different use districts. And whereas the city plan commission at this public hearing considered this matter required to be considered by Indiana code 36-7-4-603. And whereas it was the recommendation of the city plan commission and that the official zone map of the city leaport should be amended so that the parcel as described above be reszoned by being placed in the zoning districts as described below. And whereas this ordinance would be an amendment to the zoning ordinance of the city of Leaport as enacted August 21st, 2017 and which is part of chapter 82 of the municipal code of the city of Leaport, Indiana and specifically an amendment to the official zone map of the city as included in article 32 of the zoning ordinance of the city of Leaport. Now therefore be it and it is hereby ordained by the common council of the city of Leaport Indiana that the following described parcels of real estate situated in the city of Leaport

County Leaport and state of Indiana to it. I will skip the legal description which are now located in the R1B single family residential district are hereby reszoned by being placed in the R1D single family residential district and which would be an amendment of the official zone map as contained within the 2017 city of Leaport revised joint zoning ordinance as enacted on August 21st, 2017 which is part of chapter 82 the municipal code of the city of Leaport which ordinance was prepared and now approved by the city the Leaport city plan commission be enacted by the common council which is now located in the R1B single family residential district is hereby reszone being placed in the R1D single family residential district. This ordinance shall be in full force in effect from and after its passage, approval by mayor and publication as required by law and the ordinance. So before uh Mr. Cook moves forward on this ordinance, uh our attorney Nick Otis will explain the process for this Brier Leaf ordinance. Uh Mr. or Otis,

thank you. Uh there's a lot of people here tonight that have been not not only to this meeting but other meetings regarding this project and I just wanted to kind of explain procedurally the process in the city of Leaport and kind of generally in in the state of Indiana. So um many of you uh that spoke tonight were also at the plan commission and the BCA meetings uh last Tuesday and I think may have been at some of the other uh meetings uh regarding this project. Uh so la last Tuesday night there was there was two meetings. the plan commission was first and then the and then the BZA the PL so in Indiana like municipal plan commissions their kind of purpose is to make recommendations they they don't make any formal decisions they make a recommendation to this council who will then vote on uh this ordinance that that was presented uh the the plan commission what they were uh reviewing was the zoning change and they made a a favorable recommendation to the city council here uh tonight. The BCA later that last week also heard uh variance requests. Those are not before the the city council. The BCA makes the final decision on variance requests. So before the uh council tonight is is the zone change uh and the uh there's two readings of an ordinance before it can be passed by the city council. So this is the first reading tonight. There is no vote tonight. the the actual vote will be in January uh at the first uh regular council meeting um in in January. Uh the clerk treasurer did submit uh transmitted to the to the city council on Friday, December 12th the entire plan commission record that included all the comments and and things that many of you had provided uh as a part of that record. So the plan the city council did have all of those documents as of December 12th, 2025. And additionally, the documents provided by the commenters

tonight will be adopted as a as a part of that record as well. Uh and so um I'll turn that turn that back over if any of the council members have questions regarding Mr. Otis' comments. Mr. Cook, please come forward. State your name for the record.

Good evening. Uh, Council Bert Cook, executive director of the Leaport Economic Advancement Partnership. We've got a long meeting tonight. I will be brief. In fact, many of you covered uh comments that that I touched on at the Plan Commission meeting and and um and I'll echo echo some of those here uh tonight as well. I know you're familiar uh with the project. Uh you've already heard uh two of you have already heard the full presentation that that occurred at plan commission last week. Uh just a couple points from my perspective that I think are important as we consider this. So two major housing studies have been conducted in the last couple years. The HFL housing study and the Leaport County housing and action uh agenda that that Best Trader reviewed with us this evening. Both highlight the desperate need for new housing. The LAR project at Brier Leaf Golf Course fits this need perfectly. I've submitted both those studies uh to Miss Barthun and asked her to make those part of the record as well. There's uh point number two, there's absolutely no incentive on this project whatsoever. Lenar understands the supply challenges we face and they're eager to invest in our market. They're paying their own way in its entirety. Point three, Dr. Sandra Wood and the Leaport Community School Corporation submitted a support letter referencing the need for new student enrollment and housing growth. The Leaport Community School Corporation is well positioned to accept new students gained through this development. I'd like to submit this letter as well for the record and ask council members to read it it in its entirety at their convenience. My final point is, you know, everyone, we talk about this often, but everyone is a fan of property rights until it's your neighbor's property. I appreciate all of the conversations that have occurred with neighbors in Tiffany Woods, Brierly Villas, and

Charmar Hills. Although we do not always agree upon everything, their feedback has resulted in a better design than would have occurred otherwise. I also appreciate the team at LAR and their willingness to adjust their site plan based on that feedback. I strongly urge you to act on the plan commission's recommendation for this zoning change. I appreciate the council's time and effort in reviewing this project and fully understanding its impact. If I can provide additional information, please don't hesitate to ask. But now, I'll turn things over to Bill Nelson. Mr. Mr. Nelson, come forward. State your name for the address or for the record.

Good evening, mayor, members of the council. My name is Bill Nelson. I am uh born and raised in Leaport. Currently live just north of Leaport off of Schultz Road. I am a member of the law firm of Bray Nelson and James in Michigan City where I've been practicing for almost 34 years. and I am here uh as legal counsel to the applicant uh Lenar Homes of Indiana LLC. The property owner, the seller in this situation is Recreational Properties US LLC. Sounds formal. It's three guys locally that own that that have run that golf course and are the owners of that selling LLC and they've been here amongst us for decades. um we all many of us probably know them personally. I'm happy to say that um even though I know that there was not a Q&A during public comment, I think myself and the LAR team will be able to address some of those uh public comments as well. Um I I I think that uh Mr. Frankie has probably already addressed a little bit Mr. uh Kun's uh comments um that were respectfully uh presented tonight um and and and very eloquently presented uh with regards to people's desire to keep this a green space. Uh I will I will address that as well um a little bit in that this is what's important to know. The city, as Mr. Frankie said, does not own this property. My client Lar does not own this property. My client Lar is what's called a contingent contract buyer. That means they are currently under contract to potentially buy it. And that closing to close the the transaction is contingent upon various issues, some of which are these developmental approvals that they are seeking because they are important for the buyer to move forward. In the event the city council were to reject the

request for resoning, my client may very well choose to to not move forward, at which time Recreational Properties US LLC will still own this property and they have made abundantly clear it is not opening again as a golf course under any circumstances. I can guarantee you that from my conversations uh with at least one of those gentlemen uh they are not planning to keep this property. They will not be able to keep it as green space. Uh if someone wants to down the road if if uh this is rejected and someone wanted to uh purchase it for green space that would be up to that up to that buyer. So I just wanted to address that from the listen lots we all love green space. We all love green space. It's fantastic to have. I'm glad to see LAR is including green space parks in this development. I think the uh numbers were about 40% is green space of the development. Um but the thing is we can't make recreational properties USLLC. We can't force them and tell them what to do with their property. That said, I'm going to shorten this meeting as well. And those of you who were here last week can rest assured that Nelson is not going to talk for another for an hour. Um, all of the documents uh that I'm going to reference tonight, including only three tonight that'll be displayed, I've already submitted in advance to Mr. Otis and would ask that they be made of record. I've got the LAR team with me tonight. Todd Cleven, VP of land is here. He is with uh Andre Hodi and Luke Fricky who are part of the LAR team. Also uh here tonight, Matteline Lurman. She is the project engineer with uh Mackie Consultants LLC, independent of LAR, but who who Lenar works with frequently. I can promise you that Mr. Hill's comments

and his legitimate concerns about making sure IDM permits are sought, making sure US Army Corps of Engineering is signs off on anything that they may have to sign off about. That's why I don't know that stuff, but we have an engineer who does. uh making sure that protection of wetlands adjacent to Brierleaf uh with the habitat that was described and the the vegetation that was described uh making sure that that is protected. I I can I'm pretty confident that between uh Mr. Cleven when he speaks and and uh uh Miss Lman, they will be able to address Mr. Hill's concerns. Uh I cannot address Mr. Skiott's concerns. it sounds like he's planning on being here to make sure that the city council does some great things up in the new northern part of the city. So, I can't address his, but I can also address the concerns representative of the folks who live in uh out in Brier Leaf and have the beautiful backyard. Uh with regards to some of these other issues, um the I know the city leadership team is here. So with regards to whether the council has questions tonight about water, whether it be water supply, water retention, water drainage, how those things will be managed, uh the teams, the the department heads are here. Miss Lurman can can share with you as can they that that engineers for LAR and our department heads have already started these processes. This has not happened in a vacuum. This is not a well, let's see what happens. Long before we all even heard about this project, the the conversations were happening to determine if it was even possible. All of those things have started and I I think Miss Larman can even talk about all of her efforts already with INDOT for traffic control, with IDM for water and environmental issues. All of that has started and there is a long ways to go before anything could ever be built. I want to give a very brief history of the property. We all know it. We call it

Brier Leaf. Uh we many of us have played golf there. Uh it's been a about 116 acres. It's been a golf course my best research told me since 1973. Uh it's been a a mainstay of the one of the three golf courses in our community here and we've all enjoyed it. Unfortunately, golf took off at some point a few decades ago. um many more people entered the game and as a result uh developers started realizing an opportunity to capitalize and more and more golf courses got built. Unfortunately over time they realized that they were there was too much competition and many of them could not sustain as a result of that there has been a a decline in golf and unfortunately that has impacted Brier Leaf. I made this statement last week and I'll make it again. For more than a decade, Brier Leaf has suffered unsustainable financial loss. And the only reason it stayed open as long as it had is because it had owners who were willing to invest their own personal funds to subsidize those losses. As time changes, as health issues arise, as priorities arise in families and in ownership, things change to where you cannot continue and sustain a business model that has a failed revenue loss on a yearly basis. As a result of that, the decision was made by the owners earlier this year, and I am authorized to say this by them, that Brier Leaf is closed permanently and will never open again as a golf course. It's almost hard for me to say that because I'm going to miss it as well. But things change. Things change. I'm going to show you a screen to show you that Brier Leaf is not unique to uh golf course demise. I showed this uh last week as well. U my office did a little research on golf

courses in northwest Indiana. I I'll keep talking while you find that. We analyzed 10 counties in the northwest Indiana region to find out how many golf courses there were. There were about 59 5 69 of them um in in these this 10 county region that I call Northwest Indiana. Since 2018, nine of them have closed. Seven of them have closed since 2020. So of the nine, seven have closed in the last five years. 13% of golf courses in northwest Indiana have closed in the last seven years, 10% in the last five years. This is not something unique to Brier Leaf, nor is it uh indicative of failure to manage well. It is a decline in the golf course industry as a whole, and it is affecting uh Leaport as well. If you see this list up here, it shows you the county they're in. Shows you the city that they have for their mailing address. It shows you the year they closed. And if you see the far light far right line that shows the status now, all all of them are vacant. Every single one of them is abandoned, unkempt, non-maintained, and overgrown. Now, someone might call that green space, and they might say that that's that's that we would prefer that. I would venture to say that if you're looking out your back window and what used to be a beautiful golf course becomes an overgrown non-kept uh view, that actually might have a have a more negative impact on you than what you realize. And I think that we're going to hear more about that tonight from someone who knows way more about real estate than I do. The concern would be if you look at this that if we don't act that Brier Leaf could become number 10 on that list. I I don't say that out of anything other than the data suggests that that would be its future.

So without that alternative plan, do we become number 10? I'm happy to say that as I stand here tonight on behalf of LAR that LAR offers a plan to reinvent that property into a vibrant, viable residential community of single family homes that will keep the property off that list while at the same time helping fill the already identified gaps in Leaport's housing needs which we were reminded of tonight by Beth. I want to highlight just a few key points from the housing study Beth presented with the update tonight as well as the uh health foundation's uh study. These are just a few key points that they identified and some of their uh as the problems in Leaport housing 79% of the houses in Leaport were constructed prior to 1980. 79%. Leaport housing costs have become inflated in recent years, largely due to underproduction of new housing and the factors that lead to that. Few largescale development sites readily available within the city limits. We have 116 acres now. Few single family home builders are constructing on a speculative basis. Understandable. You got to front that money. Miss Fus probably knows that better than anybody with a family that's in the industry. Other highlights from those two housing studies, more affluent households are occupying housing that would be affordable to lower income levels, which applies downward pressure on the housing market and older homeowners are staying in their homes longer because there are few options for downsizing, further applying downward pressure on the housing market. I think that's referred to in the housing world as a housing ladder. Similar to a corporate ladder, you start at that entry level and you work hard to fight your way up. The difference in the housing market is no matter how hard you

might work, you may not be able to fight your way up because if somebody is occupying all the homes in the next price range you can afford, you're going to be stuck on that entrylevel rung. And I think what our housing studies have identified is while we need affordable housing, quite frankly, there is a lot of affordable housing. It's being occupied by people who haven't been able to climb up to the next rung on the ladder yet. I think the LAR project targets very well that price point range of that mid-level house that will allow people who have been looking for that type of home the opportunity to move, freeing up that downward pressure on those more affordable homes. Finally, the last point I want to point out from the housing studies that there is a constrained supply of single family homes for those moderate incomes and people having to compete for those because there's a limited supply. This is what our housing studies have told us. This is what we have asked experts in the housing industry to tell us about. I'm a lawyer. I don't know anything about that. I would like to think that when it comes to legal stuff, you might listen to me. But when it comes to the what's needed in the housing, listen to the experts who provided you that guidance already in your studies. So, our request tonight before I introduce Todd uh Cleven from from LAR, our request tonight is that uh the city council uh adopt the resoning ordinance as recommended in a unanimous decision six to zero by the plan commission from R1B to R1D. That will that's our request that we're making tonight which we understand will be acted upon uh in in January. At this point I would like to have Todd Cleven come and talk more about the project itself with and so that you can ask any questions about the details.

Todd, welcome. State your name for the record, please.

Good evening, mayor and fellow council members. Uh for the record, my name is Todd Cleven. Kle V is in Victor En. I am the vice president of land for the NAR homes. Our offices reside at 1700 East Golf Road, sweet 11 Shamberg, Illinois. I'm a born and raised uh resident of Crown Point, Indiana. And behalf of Lenar, with me tonight is Andre, our land acquisition manager. He's the one that secured this deal with the current property owners. And our entitlements manager, uh, Luke Frickie, also born and raised in, uh, Lake County, Indiana. I only share that information with you um to first and foremost express the importance that we see to keep the work and everything local. So we do plan on using local uh contractors as much as we possibly can on this this uh project. Uh we'll give everybody opportunity to bid the work that uh will come to fruition on Brier Leaf. Little background about LAR. We are a nationwide home builder, publicly traded builder. Uh last year we did just over 84,000 homes nationwide. We're run out of 40 divisions. Again, we are out of the Shamberg, Illinois division. Uh however, my team that's with us this evening focuses mainly on Northwest Indiana. I myself am on my 31st year of developing land and building homes. Uh joining LAR a little over five years ago. I like outer markets such as Leaport. Um I am no stranger to them. I was one of the first developers to go to Cedar Lake and also one of the first ones to go to LOL, Indiana. Um, with that being said, this community itself, when we were in front of you, everybody in the audience or other people online were asking why we can't come in and build $600,000 homes. The homes that we are proposing will start at 350,000. There's 296 of these homes and they'll top out around

450,000. There's two products that we're planning on building. What we call our core product and our horizon product. In order to afford those homes, that household income must surpass $125,000 a year in today's interest rates. That kind of gives you an idea. Is this affordable? We call it obtainable and affordable, but look at what it requires in order to achieve this price point. If we were to come in and build $600,000 homes, this could easily be a 25year project. and you see some of those projects throughout the tri county area. So, we are excited to provide you the housing that Leaport has been asking for. We've been watching your studies. We've been watching your council meetings and we're willing to come here and invest our time and money into your city and work together. We're very proud of that. Um, I like to just keep this short and sweet. I know you have a long agenda ahead of you. So, if there's any questions that you may have, I'm here to answer them. The one topic that I know keeps surfacing is the wetlands and the IDM permits associated with the project. The property consists of four wetlands, two major ones, one at the southwest corner and one at the northeast corner. Those are the ones that are in conversation over and over again behind the podium. We have no plans to impact those wetlands whatsoever other than a road crossing at the very southern tip of that wetland. We do have Maline, our engineer, here that can speak to it in more detail, but again, it's a large wetland to the northeast corner that projects out of our property and goes behind some of the subject homes of the individuals that were here this evening. We have no plans on impacting them. The concept plan that has been presented to the city does not impact those two wetlands. There's two other small isolated wetlands. Basically, what an isolated wetland means is that it's not tributary. It's not tributary to some other type of a water source. So, it's it's basically just a depressional area in the property itself. If you were to go out and put a shovel in the ground in your front yard and let it sit there for many years, it will eventually grow cattails. It'll eventually have

hydration uh that will classified as a class one wetland. We do have those and we do plan on impacting those two. Does that mean that we're going to come in and plow through them, destroy them, and forget about them? Absolutely not. We will follow the rules and regulations through the IDM and the Army Corps and make sure that we mitigate whether we mitigate them on site or we go to the land bank and we purchase them from an existing land bank of of wetlands that are there just for developers such as oursel to purchase from. But we do plan on impacting those two. And those two wetlands, Maline, how large in size? Less than an acre. I'm sorry. I'm going to bring Maline up from our engineering consulting forum that'll speak to the size of the wetlands that will be impacted.

Mattaline Lurman. Uh I'm with Mackie Consultants at 9575 West Higgins Road in Rosemont, Illinois. Uh the civil engineer as as mentioned. Yeah, the wetlands, the small degraded wetlands that will be impacted as a part of this project do not total more than an acre. I think it's less than an acre of impact total.

So without getting into too much Thank you, Maline. Without getting into too much detail, wetlands are typically classified from a class one up to a class 4. What does that basically mean? If you impact a class one, you have to mitigate it or create it elsewhere at a 1:1 ratio. If we were to go in and impact those heavily um I don't know what you call them, high high wetlands, there'd be like a 4 to1 ratio. So, if we impacted one acre, we're going to have to create four acres elsewhere. That's not the reason why we're not impacting them. We do like to preserve. I think if you uh were to study some of LAR, specifically Shamberg, LAR uh communities, we try to preserve as much as we can. And same with the trees out there. We went out and we performed a tree analysis and we're going to save as many of those trees as we can. I understand it's a sad movie to watch. Nobody wants to look out their back door and see 18 holes of golf go away. Again, I want to stress the fact we did not knock on the doors of these sellers or these property owners and encourage them to sell and close their golf course. When I when Andre brought it to me and told me that the golf course is not going to open regardless, I said, "Let's go ahead and make an offer on the property." We did not encourage them not to open. It was our understanding that they were not going to open regardless. Again, thank you for your time. Happy holidays to you, and I'm here to answer any questions that you may have.

Questions? I I think there was some questions maybe from the crowd and then online about uh traffic and and working with INDOT if you could just briefly explain.

Absolutely. So we have engaged our traffic engineer every project that we do. I think we have over 50 active communities right now. Every project that we do we engage um the same traffic consultant and he will produce a report that we will present to you during the engineering submitt. So right now we're here to speak about the rezone the rezone only but we will not neglect that. We will study that traffic. I will ask the council to keep in mind, I'm sure many in this room are more familiar with the operations of Brier Leaf Golf Course more than I am, but if you think about that golf course um possibly having an outing and they stack them eight on each hole, you know, you can do the math. I think I came up with 244 cars leaving that side at one time or possibly within the same 15-minute window. Will we produce more cars? Absolutely. We're going to have 296 homes, two cars per home, possibly three or the average of 2.5. there will be traffic increase, but I believe in my experience that the current situation will handle that traffic. But if for some reason that report comes back that it needs a DXL acceleration lane or might need wider radiuses at the current entrances, we will design to those requirements. We're not going to neglect that study and that study is for you to enforce upon us. Whether your ordinance requires a study or not, we will still produce that and share that with you. During this process, if residents have questions or concerns, how do they um reach out to you guys?

I will go ahead and leave some business cards here and I will go ahead and share for the record my contact information. Again, my name is Todd Cleven. I'm the vice president of land and my phone number is 219-257263. That's my mobile phone. 25 219-257-263. I would rather and prefer you to contact me via email and that is todd. T- o dd.kle v as in victor enlanar.com and lenar is spelled len a r. And if you'd like I'd go ahead and leave some business cards up here as well. Thanks. Would you like me to pass them out in the mail?

Give them to the clerk treasur. Yeah. Other comments for Todd, Mr. Nelson. Thank you, Todd. Thank you.

You heard Mr. Cleven uh identify two different types of homes, the Horizon Home Line and the Core Line, Core 30 line. There's multiple different uh designs, square footage, layouts, um styles of homes. Uh all of you, I know, have reviewed the the application packet. There are pictures showing multiple different styles of homes in your packet. I'm not going to take the time to show them tonight. Uh but they're available for you to look at there. Uh also in your packet is a site plan. I didn't show it again tonight even though we showed it last week. You can see the site plan that that is in your packet. I do want to say uh regarding the comment that um the homes that were shown in the video last week does not look like what they saw. What I did say last week was in the video, you're going to see some homes that will be in the LAR in the Brier Leaf development, but you'll also see some homes that are not. That we were using that as a as a demonstrative view of what a LAR project look like looks like. Some of the homes that were in that video though very clearly are part of this uh project as well. So, and I let's talk about this a little bit and and it's also addresses a public comment about um alternative uses. Um and when I said what those alternative uses were, I promise there was no intent to insult then, nor is there intent to salt tonight. Um, but it's important we recognize that the currently permitted uses, the comment tonight was you would never allow those. You would never like the slaughter house and the various thing. You would never allow those. Here's the point I made last week and here's the point I made again. They don't have to ask for your permission. Okay? So, that might have been misunderstood. They don't have to ask for your permission under the current

use to put in there a slaughter house or to put in there a confined animal feeding operation or to have livestock including cattle, pigs, goats, chickens, etc. Um, government buildings, transmission lines for gas, oil, electricity or manufactured housing. They don't have to ask for your permission. So, I was not intending to insult and I was not intending to make a to to convey a message that for those uses that those those uh developers would have to ask for permission because they don't they can do that right now. I was simply offering those not as a threat or an insult but to identify that there are currently permitted uses that might radically alter the residential nature of that community. I would suggest that none of us would agree that anything would be more consistent with the residential nature of that community as would a housing project like this. Um so that that's an important thing to to remember and again u ma'am please I apologize if I misspoke or conveyed anything that was insulting to you that was that was not my intent. I also want to talk about this when every there is always concern about impact. I appreciate that we all live in places where if something came in, we would have concerns there. They're those are legitimate concerns. We have to always analyze the impact. One of the things we did and I showed this last week and I I do think it's important to show you tonight. Uh we analyzed um a LAR project and it's the Irongate project that you heard about tonight that was visited and I'm glad someone went to visit it. Um we analyzed that to try to get an idea. Is there a way to determine how a lenar project that is similar not the same? Clearly not the same similar to what is being proposed here. Is there a way to analyze what

impact it might have had on property and more specifically property values? If you could show the um the Irongate uh image there, please let me tell you about Irongate. Irongate was variances were approved over in in Porter uh of Valpo area in August of 21. The plan commission approved their final plat in January of 22. The first homes were built in 2023 with a substantial number then constructed in 24. The Bata Hills subdivision is contiguous to just like here uh you got some homes in Charmar, you got some homes in Tiffany contiguous to they share a common property line. Bata is contiguous to the east side of the Irongate subdivision and we anal an analyzed their property assessment data out of Porter County government offices of the homes surrounding LAR's Irongate subdivision. If you look at the 21 is when the variances were approved. 22 the plat was finally approved and you can see the property values of the contiguous properties to Irongate. Those that don't have a value, they weren't there yet. You can see that from 21 to 22 prior to the uh development assessed property values increased from 735ish up to 739. a smalish increase from 22 to 23. Prior to any LAR homes being built, the average assessed value increased from 739 to 806 and change. And then in 23, LAR homes started going in. Okay. In 23 to 24, the property values on average increased from 86,000 to 883,000. And in 2024, when a lot of homes got

built in the Irongate LAR subdivision, the average home price jumped dramatically from 883,000 to 1,68,000. If you pull up the next slide for me, please. Rasco, if you could pull up the next slide for me. Here's the percentages from 22 to 23. Before the project started, there was a 6.24% increase in assessed property value. In 23, when the first LAR homes got built, the assessed property values increased by 11.13%. LAR homes start getting built in 2023. In 2024, the adjacent property owners saw an an additional 9.56% increase. And after a a significant buildout in 2024, those homes con contiguous jumped an incredible 21.04% from 24 to 25. The average annual increase of these neighboring home values was in the 6 to 11% range prior to the substantial buildout of LAR project and the average percentage increase from 24 to 25 the average was over 21%. These properties which directly neighbor the Irongate subdivision saw that increase over that time span even when the LAR project was being built out and in fact saw its greatest increase. This is not just theory. This is fact based upon actual data collected. And part of the packet I submitted tonight are the actual assessed value cards from the Porter County Government Office. I didn't just give you these numbers without the proof. The proof is in in the file in front of M Mr. Otis. These

are actual raw data. Admittedly, many factors can contribute to increased home prices. Listen, without a Lenor project being built by any of us, all of our homes have increased. You just watch the market. We've got a realer on the board. We've got a realer in the audience tonight that can verify everything's gone up. I'm not going to sit here and tell you that that massive increase happened because of LAR. I'm not going to say that. I can't say that. Many factors contribute to that. But here's what I can tell you with absolute 100% confidence. The development of that LAR project in Irongate did nothing to decrease values. That's proven data. This is proof, however, that high quality, professionally engineered residential development actually can have a positive impact rather than the feared negative impact. At this point, I said to you earlier, listen to me on the law stuff. Listen to the housing experts on the housing stuff. I'm no real estate expert. This point, I'm going to ask Mike Liberator to come up and speak to some of these issues. Mike has been has 34 years of experience as a real estate professional in the Leaport community, both in residential and commercial. And he's he's looked at this LAR project and he's compared it to his 34 years of experience and he's got some insights he'd like to share with you.

Mike, welcome. State your name for the record.

Right. Mike Liberator, Waverly Road, Leaport, Indiana, MTM Realy. Uh first of all, let me acknowledge uh one of my peers right here who I consider one of the best professional realtors locally also in the port, Miss Laura Kadeshny. Um I want to also so that I do not forget to do this again remember to uh thank the the Fus family, Mark Hill, Jim uh Prele um and some of the other builders who've spent a lot of time in this area trying to provide us a need that we have. um the FCA family may be the only one that comes even close and scaled in town to what somebody who we're looking at like this is uh going to be able to do for us. Um I would also be remiss in not mentioning that out of those 34 years in the last 12 years my wife Joanne in the last five years uh Haley Hills has been my partner because of the sheer volume in the area that we've covered uh in real estate. So a little bit uh about myself real quick. Um, as uh Mr. Nelson said, 34 years residential and commercial uh closed properties in Elcart, St. Joe, Porter Lake, Newton, Jasper, Stark, Palaski, Marshall, and of course, Leaport County with 90% of those closings in Leaport County. So, I am quite familiar uh and do research in all of the areas uh but highly concentrated on Leaport. I served as Leaport County Association of Realtors Presidents and um humbly have been recognized by the Wall Street Journal as one of the top 1% of Realtors in the United States on multiple occasions. Um so I bring to you some of these facts that we face right now. And so I'm going to start out by the Leort real estate market between 300 and 500,000. Um these are active statistics as of this afternoon. Currently, there's 37

market 37 properties on the market in that price range. Seven of those are new construction, town homes, and duplexes, but they are two or three unit combined, not single family uh dwellings. Three of those are also active condos. 13 of those properties are under contract currently. So that that leaves us 14 remaining single family detached properties between 300 and 500,000 available in Leaport. All but two of those are over 30 years old. The two that aren't are 29 and 28 years old respectively. That makes a single detached home in Leaport between the price of 300 and 500,000 a little over 50 years average in age. That's like having only me or Mr. Dharm as a choice. So there's got to be something better out there. So we want to look then at the down the ladder. Who's who's going to try to get a move up to there and how can they? So we're going to look at the 180 to 300,000 range as of this afternoon. There was 47 homes in that price range. 16 currently under contract. Of the 31 remaining, 14 are over 100 years old. Seven. Of the 17 that are left, 12 of those are between 50 and 100 years old. There's only one that's less than 30 years old available in the port right now. Between 180 and $300,000. Those people can't move until they have the next level to go to, which doesn't open that up for the firsttime home buyers. If we look at the upward range of this, so take 500 to a million dollars. There

are currently 15 available properties in Leaport. 14 are single family, one is a condo. Ironically, the the age is reverse in this as 11 of those are under the age of 27 years old. almost 80%. So, what does that tell us when you're going at uh those that wish that we would get these larger larger lots, high-end homes over a 500,000 um that's where your youngest ones are, but that's a luxury now. That's that's not what that's not what the affordable housing or uh all of the, you know, clickbait words that we're hearing right now for what we're trying to find. Um so if we look at um recent home developments in our area which means 30 years ago we would see that we had the crust view rustic hills the no glendale and to some extent the woods of Concord being built at and the Concord vineyard which affected Concord Valley and Concord hills for those of us been here around a long time. That's the last time we had development back when those were going on except for majorly what the FCAS family has done for us. Um, so what we saw out of all of those is that when the new subdivision was built, it helped to bring up the values of this near properties, uh, meaning Glendale, Rustic Hills, and Concord Valley, Concord Hills, and even the vineyard prices went up to an extent that they got above 500,000 in there when the woods of Concord was developed. So, in my own experience, because of of the ages of what I'm talking about with these properties and the lack of that choice, I've ended up taking purchasers to Ilola, Granger, South Bin, Valparezo, and Chesterton all within the last 5 years in order to purchase their house

because we just don't have anything that is new construction available in the sweet spot range of 300 to 500,000, which is what we're looking at an opportunity year. By no means can I guarantee and anybody uh Laura would attest to this. No realtor worth their salt would ever say to anybody, I can guarantee you the price of that house is going to go up, the value of that's going to go up, or if this happens, the value is going to go up. We would never promise that. Um something that we may say with some sort of certainty is that if this was to happen, it could have a negative effect on your value. And um so if we were to see the property go, some people call it go to seed, some people call it green space, uh some people call it overgrown, whatever you want to call it, um we have seen and we have a perfect example that's nearest Chesterton that in the last four years, the people that live near the brassy and their homes, which are all basically between 8 and 25 years old, are wishing that a development would have gone in there now that it's overgrown because they see some rodent problems. They're seeing some uh issues with uh pricing going down as well in their homes. Um which this is a very unusual time for to see prices going down in a newer home development. Uh let's see. Um I I have uh I could I know you have a long meeting. I could relay all kinds of statistics to you. Uh, as Laura knows, I am definitely a numbers person and keep the numbers very well uh, handy at all times when it comes to real estate, especially in the Leaport area. And so, I would like to say the two studies that have been done, studies are miraculous. They're awesome, especially when they validate what you've done for your career and you've been saying for all this time for your

life is we don't have enough new housing here. I've lived it. It's part of my career. I've had to take them to other towns and we are looking at an opportunity to present this city with something that we haven't had and so I would really like to uh submit all of those facts to you. Thank you. Thank you.

And now the boring part, the legal stuff, right, Nick? We're boring guys. Uh again, this is the request. The request is that ultimately uh at your next meeting that you uh approve a zoning change uh from R1B to R1D. To do so, there are five legal standards that we are required to meet. And I want to I submit to you that the information in the plan commission transcript that has been submitted to all of you along with everything that we have provided tonight uh even tonight independently supports all five of those. And here's the five legal standards. Number one, description of how the new I'm sorry, description of how the zone map change is consistent with the comprehensive plan. We believe that the requested zoning change is consistent with the comprehensive plan and is compatible with the Leaport County land development plan strategic goals and objectives. That plan encourages expansion of residential uses near major highways and near cities where residents have easy access to public and private services. Although previously designated as a golf course, residential growth is a recognized and planned use for this area. The large size and location of the property lends itself well to easy conversion from a recreational use to housing as the conversion requires no significant demolition of structures as few structures exist. The site is largely surrounded by existing residential development and additional housing will continue that land use pattern. Reszoning to R1D maintains a residential zoning status which is also consistent with a comprehensive plan. In other words, we're not asking to go from residential to some sort of an industrial or or uh light manufacturing type of use because it's consistent. Um it it honors that residential community that already exists. The second legal standard, assurances that the requested zoning change will not have a negative

impact on the current conditions and the character of the current structures in the area. The current conditions and the character of structures in the area is primarily residential except for that pesky M1 zoning on the west side that's got a place that almost looks like a Chernobyl with all the tanks and everything. You know what I'm talking about. I suspect, however, that despite what's on the west side of 39, all of us here who know this community, have lived here, who have who have been out in that area would agree that this is a primarily residential area. These LAR homes will be the newest homes in the area, introducing new code compliant homes that will be professionally designed, architecturally consistent, owner occupied, and professionally built by a nationally recognized homebuilder with a proven track record throughout the nation and also already here in Northwest Indiana. And we posit that this will likely result in a positive impact on current conditions and structures. Incidentally, if you're not aware, Lenar is the second largest home builder in the nation. Um, and in 24 alone, built over 80,000 houses across America. The third legal standard, a description of how the requested zoning change will result in the most desirable use for which the land in the district is adapted. We believe this property's extensive acreage and historic design as a sprawling golf course makes it uniquely suited for residential development, particularly when, as here, surrounding land uses are already residential. Given the economic failure of the golf course and the operations and recent decline in the golf course industry overall, coupled with the need for more housing as demonstrated in more than one Leaport housing study, the proposed resoning represents the most desirable, efficient, and productive use of the

land. What has been presented this evening makes clear that this requested zoning change will result in the most desirable use for which this land is already set up and that the planned residential development is consistent with that most desired use which we would all agree is residential. Fourth legal standard, assurance that the requested zoning change will not negatively affect the property values throughout the city of Leaport. That's the actual standard, but it's easy to look at it and say, "Yeah, but what about just the area there?" The standard though is the city of Leaport. But even looking in that residential area, you heard what the expert with 34 years of professional real estate experience offered you. Listen to him. I'm just kind of reminding you of what he said a few moments ago that historically that he has seen developments increase property value. I'm sorry. Um yeah, he did say that that it actually increase those homes near those subdivisions. No walk um woods of Concord. Granted, there may not be in our city, but development is development. He saw increases in property values around there. He can't guarantee there'll be increases here certainly, but he identified that he sure doesn't see a negative impact based upon again his 34 years of experience. As as the current owner has made clear, Brier Leaf Golf Course is permanently closed. As such, one of three things will likely occur with this property. one, it'll be developed as commercial use or some sort of agricultural use that's currently permitted under the current zoning and that doesn't need any permission from anyone in the city. Commercial use might depending upon what you consider commercial. If you consider libraries, transmission lines, oil lines, um government buildings commercial because it's not residential,

then that might fall there. I don't stand here and say though that someone can put in, you know, business commercial without seeking seeking authority. I'm not saying that. Please hear hear me clearly. But considering what's on the other side of 39 West, given an opportunity and someone had the money to file a petition in front of you, they could give it a try. The second thing that could happen there is residential use. The third thing, it lays abandoned, overgrown, and unsightly. I would posit that commercial or agricultural development, particularly livestock, would likely have a ne negative impact on the surrounding residential property values, especially those in the closest proximity, like a neighbor who presented tonight her backyard view. I would also posit that based upon Mr. Liberators experience and input that 116 acres of abandoned, non-maintained open expanse of what used to be a golf course would likely negative impact property values, particularly again those in the closest proximity. Seems logical and evident based on everything presented into the record this evening. This residential development of this property is the most consistent with the residential nature of the surrounding area and with new code compliant single family homes with yards that kids can play in homes constructed in a professionally developed community with sidewalks, green space parks, an HOA to help maintain high standards in the development long term that this proposed development will best maintain and quite likely improve property values as demonstrated the irongate development that actually proved to be true based upon data, not opinion, not speculation, not guesses. Can I guarantee or anybody guarantee that happens here? No. But it's certainly some data that suggests that it very likely could. Final legal standard and then I'm going to stop.

Fifth one is a description of how the requested zoning change promotes responsible development and growth throughout the city. We believe that the resoning promotes responsible growth and development by utilizing existing and previously planned for municipal infrastructure, preserving wetlands, adding significant new storm water management capacity, and providing diverse housing options that meet modern needs as already established by existing housing studies that have identified housing gaps in the city of Leaport. This is a far more sustainable development pattern and plan than to allow a large obsolete recreational facility to remain vacant or succumb to already permitted uses under current zoning that could radically alter the nature of the surrounding residential community. Finally, we believe the requested zoning change promotes consistency with the comprehensive plan. We believe this resoning will create and continue that compatible land use, maintain a residential feel in the neighborhood and the surrounding community. Having met all the standards for this resoning request on behalf of LAR Homes of LLC, LAR Homes of Indiana LLC and after your second rating, I would respectfully request the city council to adopt an ordinance to reszone to R1D. And I would be pleased to answer any questions.

Questions for Mr. Nelson? Mr. Nson, are you done? I am. I I am done. Mr. Galloway, if you've got uh some questions, I'll continue on. Otherwise, I'm going to go sit. Can I go sit down? Yes, sir. Thank you.

So, thank you all for being here uh regarding this. This is the first reading of this ordinance. The next one will be January 5th, but as um Lonar has put out their email uh email in the meantime, get all your questions answered, concerns, you are also available. I'm available. My cell is 2193637293. We do have some public comment. I won't go through all of it, but um just to address a few. Jeff Plant said there were 2500 homes for sale in Leaport County and I know it's he usually comes up with these numbers but Rhonda Vanvoris uh who is a quality individual a quality realer had cleared up that there's only how many roughly

between 250 and 400 from what I could tell. Does that does that sound right for the county? For the county entire county not 2500. No. Right. That's kind of funny though, 2500. Um, also with that, I just want to say property taxes, uh, which was brought up in the city, our tax rate since this administration has taken over. What is the tax tax rate? It's been between 1 point I think 53 and 1.56. So, our taxes have not gone up. No, save.

And just for another with debt, property tax related debt in the city of Leaport, we can't control the county. We can't control schools. How much debt have we taken on since 2020? Since this administration has taken over property tax debt, uh we refunded a GEO bond and saved about $250,000. Is the only debt that we've addressed. So we've not increased debt. We've only reduced it. Correct.

And otherwise tiff where tiffs are used to generate infrastructure improvements. uh that is where we focus so it doesn't affect all the taxpayers. We are responsible here and I just want to thank the council members again. We could sit and do nothing and that'd be popular. We see other without naming any other organizations, governmental entities doing nothing and saying no to everything would be a possibility. And you see what's happening in those areas. Uh we've we've chosen you have chosen to listen to your residents. We're available. Uh we'll be back here Thursday evening for affordable housing with Advantics, which was a state uh lowincome tax credit uh to provide housing from there as well because people say we need it. But thank you all. We'll be back here for January 5th regarding this housing. Any comments before we move on? I would tell all of our guests that are here and our uh individuals from LAR, you're welcome to leave. You will not offend anybody. Uh we have a lot more uh to attend to with the agenda. So, we'll take a minute, allow everybody that would like to leave to go ahead and do so.

Can I use the restroom? Yes. Oh, good. Yeah. Anybody need a restroom break? Use my office. Okay. Yeah.

I should have mentioned I've spent 47 years trying to block anything to be successful.

Is that right, Tom? lawyer. Sorry. I'll just put it over here.

Canon, can you turn on the air? I make a motion to read an ordinance for the second final time by title only. Second. Motion and a second. Discussion. All in favor? Opposed? Councilman Buchanan. An ordinance approving the 2026 budget for the city of Leaport Water Department. Uh budget total is $6,25,911. Clerk treasurer. Uh the same as what I stated at the last meeting. The water and wastewater department budgets are not approved by the DGF. They're not taxbased funds. Uh we're just doing this for transparency sake for the public. Um and also these are budgets. Budgets are estimates.

Discussion. Motion to approve because I love transparency. Motion and a second. All in favor? I opposed. Motion passes. Councilwoman Kesnney. Your honor, I'd like to uh read an ordinance for the second time by title only. Second. Motion and a second. Discussion. All in favor? I opposed. Councilwoman Kesnney. An ordinance approving 2026 budget for the city of Leaport wastewater storm water department. End of title. Uh the sewage operating budget for 2026 proposed is $6,882,180 and that of storm water proposed budget for 2026 is in the total of $873,152.

Clerk treasurer. Same comment as the last agenda item. Motion to approve. Second. All in favor? Opposed? Motion passes. Introduction of an ordinance. Councilwoman Ficus. Your honor, I move to introduce an ordinance read for the first time. Second. Motion and a second. Discussion. All in favor? I opposed. Councilwoman Ficus.

An ordinance amending ordinance number 16-2025 fixing salaries of appointed officers and employees of the city of Leaport, Indiana for the year 2026. Be it ordained by the common council of the city of Leaport, Indiana. Section one that from and after the first day of January 2026 the salary and pay schedule for appointed officers and employees of the city of Leaport Indiana be fixed as follows. Salary schedule as presented by common council finance committee October 20th 2025 to the common council of the city of Leaport Indiana. The common council finance committee of the city of Leaport, Indiana, hereby fixes the salaries and pay schedule for appointed officers and employees of the city of Leaport, Indiana, beginning January 1st, 2026. The various divisions of the city shall consist of the following creative positions except as otherwise authorized. Employees herein may receive compensation as set forth or within the respective ranges of amounts set herein. Wage and salary ranges do not specify starting wages or salary. The starting wage or salary is dependent on qualifications. Housing and building code enforcement, part-time building inspector, $20 an hour. Civic auditorium non-reverting civic and events director, $80,000 annually. Motor vehicle highway supervisor, $65,000 annually. Assistant superintendent, street sweeping split with storm water hourly, $27.85. 85 annually $57,928. Administrative assistant split with civic and transport annual salary of $15,80. Crack seal team special pay $250 an hour. Tree crew leader special pay $55 an hour. Department of Transportation

administrative assistant split with MVH and Civic annual salary of $15,80. Section six, employees may be assigned to work across departments. They will be paid from the budget of the department utili utilizing their services at their current pay rate and job title. For example, street department needs slow rem snow removal assistance. A park employee has availability for the hours worked during snow removal. The park employee will be paid their current park rate from the street department budget for hours worked on snow removal. Section eight, fitness reimbursement payment. To be eligible for the reimbursement, employees and dependents must be a member of the city of Leaport health insurance plan. Reimbursement is for gym fitness memberships only. The city employee and each dependent on the health insurance plan may be eligible for up to $500 per year for the fitness reimbursement benefit. C fitness reimbursement request form for eligibility guidelines. Section nine, police department captain's award pay. Eight awards for 80 $50 each. One award for $100 each paid out of the police department budget. Section 10. This ordinance shall be in full force and and effect from and after its passage and approval by the mayor. End of ordinance.

But you read that quick. So, this is an introduction of an ordinance treasure. We're just cleaning up some changes that have happened since budgets passed and uh the salary ordinance went through recently and I suspect that there will be a few more changes in the next year just um for efficiency sake. Would it be beneficial if we made a motion to suspend the rules and pass it tonight since it says January 1st? I don't think you can for uh for money for salaries. Oh, for salaries. I don't think you can.

I was thinking the same. But in the meantime, I would like to say it's uh nice to see number eight, the fitness reimbursement payment, especially if you used at the YMCA. Yeah, especially. But regardless, really a great

We do that anyway. It's just that we want to get it on our employees W2s instead of 1099ing them and paying for those services. Shall we carry on and come back to it? So hearing this, we'll move to January 5th unless we hear otherwise.

Unless we hear otherwise from Mr. Otis. Let's now move to introduction of a resolution with Councilwoman Huffman. Thank you. I would like to introduce a resolution read in its entirety for the first and only time. Second. Motion and a second. Discussion. All in favor? I. Councilwoman Huffman.

Thank you. Resolution to transfer funds within the 2025 budget. Whereas there are additional monies needed in certain line items in the 2025 budget in order to pay for essential services and obligations. Now therefore be it and it is hereby resolved by the common council of the city of Leaport, Indiana. The following transfers be made within the following budgets for the year 2025. General Clerk treasurer 1101-041 from 311 other services to 111 salaries $100. From 311 other services to 321 communication transportation $150 from 311 other services to 391 other services $472. Mayor 1101-044 from 211 office supplies to 361 repairs and maintenance $246 from 315 professional services to 361 repairs and maintenance $245. City Council 1101-069 from 121 INPRS to 391 other services $15,000 from 122 FICA Medicare to 391 other services $15,000 Board of Works 1101-077 from 351 utilities to 321 local match transport $30,000 from 351 utilities to 111 101-362-11 Fire salaries $6,000. City Hall 11101-164 from 315 professional services to 361 repairs and maintenance $1,485 from 351 utilities to 361 repairs and maintenance $385.

Code enforcement 11101-318 from 315 professional services to 361 repairs and maintenance $800. Fire 11101-362 from 211 office supplies to 221 operating supplies $3,800 from 315 professional services to 221 operating supplies $4,000 from 321 communication transportation to 221 operating supplies $4,200. From 361 repairs and maintenance to 231 repairs and maintenance, $496.97. From 315 professional services to 231 repairs and maintenance, $450 from 315 professional services to 241 other supplies. $450 from 315 professional services to 391 other services. $450 from 315 professional services to 351 utilities $212.15. Police 1101-370 from 391 other services to 315 professional services $2,200 from 351 utilities to 315 professional services $2,000 from 221 operating supplies to 315 professional services $1,000 from 361 repairs and maintenance to 315 professional services $3,100 from 111 salary Salaries to 241 other supplies $3,000 from 111 salaries to 221 operating supplies $14,000. Local roads and streets 220-524

from 290 repairs and maintenance to 231 general operating supplies $350. From 361 repairs and maintenance to 391 other services $4,500. Park 2204-83 from 221 operating supplies to 315 professional services $500 from 221 operating supplies to 331 printing and advertising $350 from 361 operating supplies to 241 other supplies $1,500. Seed it 2209-465 from 2209-465-375 Beachwood Lakes to 2209-077-361 Asset Management Pilot Program $15,000. Cedic Community Development and Planning 2209-103 from 211 office supplies to 361 repairs and maintenance $900 from 321 communication transportation to 361 repairs maintenance $1,000 from 321 communication and transportation to 391 other services $500. Park non-reverting 2211-803 from 391.001 001 sales tax to 351 utilities $500 public safety lit 2240-069 from 131 fire clothing allowance to 111 fire salaries 21,547.90 from 381 debt service fire truck/towwer to 111 fire salaries $10,500 Restricted fund 2300-074

from 993 historic preservation to 885 HPC coloring book sponsorships $100. Recreation non-reverting 5503-803 from 111 salaries to 391 other services $5,000. Civic non-reverting 5504-803 from 111 salaries to 391 other services $7,500 from 391.002 event costs to 391 other services $600 from 241 other supplies to 391 other services $500 from 391.003 liquor expenses to 391 other services 3 800 from 391.004 concessional expenses to 391 other services $2,200 from 331 printing and advertising to 391.001 deposit refunds $1,25 from 231 repairs and maintenance to 122 FICA and Medicare $850 from 391.002 002 event costs to 321 communication and transportation $1,370 from 315 event staff to 351 utilities $1,600 from 391.002 event costs to 391.005 005 Leaport Invitational $3,000. End of resolution.

Clerk treasurer parthonon normal part of the end of year. End of year. Sorry about that one. That's okay. Do I have a motion to approve? Motion to approve. Second. Second. Discussion. All in favor? I. Opposed? Motion passes. Councilman Galloway. Mayor, could we jump back? Oh, please.

Uh, so I pulled up uh our um through MUN code. You can go to the city of Leaport and look at our ordinances. Section 2-66 states, "All ordinances shall be read twice before being passed and no ordinance shall pass on the same day in which it is introduced unless the requirements of Indiana Code 36-4-6-13 are met." Go to that code section. Um, a twothirds vote of all elected members after unanimous consent of the members present to consider the ordinance is required to pass an ordinance of the legislative body on the same day or at the same meeting in which it is introduced. Subsection A does not apply to a zoning ordinance or amendment to a zoning ordinance. So, you can pass it tonight. That was a long long way of saying that. And actually, zoning is the only thing that you can't suspend the rules for. So, the other ordinance you had on the agenda tonight could not have been suspended. And I think that was actually a question somebody asked online tonight.

I'll make a motion to suspend the rules regarding the first reading of uh ordinance to uh amend second reading. Councilman Frankie. Okay. Sorry. Second reading of ordinance amending ordinance number 16-2025. Second motion and a second. Discussion that was to suspend. All in favor? I opposed. Motion to suspend the rules has passed. I'll make a motion to approve ordinance amending number 16-2025. Should I Should I read it by title for the second? Yes. Title only. Do I have a second?

All in favor? Second. Sorry. Opposed council woman or I I'll do it. I mean this time it's I know. Um, I move to read an ordinance for the second time by title only. Second. Motion in a second. All in favor? Opposed? Councilwoman Ficus, an ordinance amending ordinance number 16-2025 fixing salaries of appointed officers and employees of the city of Leaport, Indiana for the year 2026. Comments? Motion to approve. Second discussion. All in favor?

Opposed? Ordinance passes. Councilman Galloway, introduction of a resolution. Brener, I'd like to introduce a resolution and read it for its only time. Second. Motion and a second. Discussion. All in favor? I. Opposed? Councilman Galloway.

Resolution to encumber funds from the 2025 budget. Whereas the clerk treasurer has identified the following amounts of 2025 appropriations be encumbered in order to meet obligations for payment which have been incurred but will not have been paid at the close of business on December 31, 2025. Now therefore be it and it is hereby resolved by the common council of the city of Leaport, Indiana, that the following incumbrances be made within the following budgets for the year 2025. General Board of Works 1101-077-321 city of Leaport Transit Local Match $33,700. City Hall 11101-164-361 DA DOT install two new cabinet heaters $7,600 engineering 11101-306-312 Avenue okay incorporated on call professional service $24,800 fire department 11101 1-362-221 WS Darly and Company $10,581601-362-231 Zoro $8,623.96 Police Department 1101-370-221 Avon Exxon Exxon Enterprise Incorporated $15,998201-370-241

Star Uniform $4,020 1101-370-315 department wear incorporated $4,000 general total $19,323 $3.76 local road and streets. Local road and streets winter operation salt 2202-524-231.012 012 Cargill contract through state through state of salt $3,6729 local roads and streets total $3,6729 MVH restricted MVH restricted 2203-524-415 Craftco Incorporated Sherwin Industries Incorporated $71,800 22 03-524-451 INDOT LPA Park Street intersection 264,941 MBH restricted total $336,741 seated seated assist management pilot program 2209-077-361 MP Lawn Care LLC Shoreline Clearing Lily Lake $2,928 220-077-361

Short Elliot Hendrickson incororated SC Shoreline Design Lily Lake $9,800 Seated Planner 2209-1 03- -315 city Leaport feasibility comprehensive plan comprehensive plan $30,000 CDA consulting 2209-465-313 Baker Tilly internal controls contract from 2021 $15,000 seated total $57,728 $8 arp corona virus corona virus local F fr F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F FRF Bellargo Infrastructure 241-0000-421.0000 0000 Arco Properties per infrastructure reimbursement agreement 134,15062 ARP Corona Virus Local FRF total $134,15062 redevelopment tiff 1 4445-71-315 BS Engineering Horlocker Drive Historic Bridge Project $9,900 445-71-315 Hitchcock Design Incorporated Downtown Decorated Valleys $9,195 4445-71-315 Incorporated Clear Clear Lake Parking and Trail Projects 112,000 development Velment Tiff one total $131,95

redevelopment tiff 2 4446-71-315 United Consulting North South Corridor Design Services $50,000 4446-71-315 Rundle Ernsburgger Associates City of Leaport comprehensive and transportation plan $30,000 redevelopment tiff to total $80,000. Thank you, Mr. Galloway. This is a resolution can pass. Clerk treasurer

incumbrances just allow us to pay uh 2025. We don't have to mess with the 2026 budget is the easiest way to put it. So, if we get any of these invoices for any of these expenses in before the end of the year, we will be asking Board of Works tomorrow to get those paid in 2025. Then, we wouldn't have to encumber encumber them. If we don't get the invoices, then we'll be encumbering these with 2025 funds and we'll be able to pay in 2026 out of 2025 funds. Motion to approve. Discussion. Unless Mr. Callus would like to hear it again. Is that a second, sir? I said second. I second it. All in favor?

Opposed? Motion passes. And by the way, um I would also like to point out to Councilwoman Ficus at the next uh traffic commission meeting, Stephanie Rogers uh would like to know if we can get backto back national championship Pop Warner signs for the football team. Oh, okay. I'll bring that up. Backto back business improvement district council appointment. Two-year terms for five appointments. Is there a motion? Did we already? We can table it. Yes. Motion to table. Motion to table. Yes. To the fifth. Second. All in favor?

I. Motion tables. Fire Merit Commission. Do I have a motion to table? Motion to table. Second. Before we table that.

Okay. Motion to table. I'm sorry. Second. All in favor? I opposed. Motion tables. Can we table all of them together? I don't want I don't want to table all. Okay. Do I then we will move to fire station building corp. Motion to table. Second. Second. Motion and a second. Discussion. All in favor? I opposed. Motion to table. Leaport alcoholic beverage review commission. I would like to nominate President Prom Tim Frankie. Second. Second. Motion and a second. Discussion. All in favor? I.

Motion passes. Congratulations and thank you Mr. President Frankie. It's a lot of work redevelopment commission appointment. I'd like to recommend Chel and J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J JT McDermott second Brian Challick and JT McDermott. The motion and a second discussion. All in favor? Opposed? Motion passes. Urban enterprise zone board. Motion to table. Second discussion. All in favor? I opposed. Motion tables. Board of zoning. Yeah. If Brian Cer left, I thought we could ask him if he wanted to be still back on, but motion.

Well, if he leaves, that's the price he pays, right? We nominate him. Yeah. For traffic. He wasn't. Do I have a motion table? Second. Who tabled or who? Got it. Frankie Frankie discussion. All in favor? I opposed. Motion tables. Other business. I got something. Yep. Uh, President Frankie, can we get the stop sign on Kingsbury um and Crescent if you're going east towards Indiana removed? I It was behind a car today. Who didn't realize the other site didn't have a stop sign now that it's reopened? They were turning left. Almost got clipped. It I think it just needs to go.

Mr. Bachelor is taking care of that tomorrow. So, that will be addressed and the sign will be removed along with the two uh dividers that are out there as well. Um, but there were a lot of concerns about your speed, so please slow down. Usually too slow. Merry Christmas. Happy holidays to everybody. Thank you for your commitment and your patience uh as we try to make Leaport a better place for all. Motion to adjurnn. Motion to adjurnn. Second. All in favor? I opposed. We're adjourned. Merry Christmas.