Plan Commission - Regular Meeting

very commission. All right, we'll go ahead and call the meeting to order. Welcome to the February 24th 24th meeting of the Hancock County Area Plan Commission. We ask that you please turn off all of your cell phones and electronic devices. Our first order of business this evening will be the approval of our November meeting minutes. actually and uh the five people here that were there uh myself, Dean Fout, Wendel Hester, Byron Holden, and Lacy Willard. So, I need a a motion to approve those minutes as submitted electronically. I have a second.

Second. Okay. Moved and seconded to approve the November meeting minutes as submitted electronically. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. All opposed. Five approved. I abstain, right? Yeah. Yeah. It was just the five of us that were there. Uh then our second order of business would be the approval of our January meeting

on the Mr. President on the January 27, 2026 uh minutes. Uh one correction, Janine's uh first name is misspelled on the front page. Uh so I'd want that corrected. Uh other than that, uh for the present part, it was spelled right elsewhere. Uh other than that, you're um with that correction, I make a motion to approve the uh January 27, 2026 minutes. Second. Okay. Question first. Should Byron's name be on both sides, present and absent? Yeah. No, he shouldn't be. Was he present? He was here by spirit. But I know, but he he was here. No, by spirit.

Oh, by spirit. So, he was So, scratch him from the present. Okay. Okay. So, it's been um you want to update your I update motion that Byron's name be uh strike from the present side. Okay. It's been moved and seconded to approve the January meeting minutes submitted electronically with the noted corrections of the misspelling of Miss Gray's name and removing Byron from the present column. All those in favor signify by saying I

oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. All right. I'd like you uh to advise everybody that all testimony this evening is being recorded. It'll be taken under oath. We request that anyone that wishing wishes to speak will do so only when called upon. We ask that you face our attorney to my left and be sworn in before speaking. All persons speaking will be asked to give their full name for the record and please spell your last name so that we have accurate meeting minutes. Please speak directly into the microphone. And likewise for me, if you're not hearing me, just raise your hand and I'll speak more directly into my microphone. Kayla will give a staff report. Uh that staff report is then followed by the petitioner who is given 10 minutes for their presentation. That presentation is followed by 10 collective minutes for any remmonstrators and then we offer five minutes for any government officials to speak on the petition. We then offer five minutes to the petitioner for rebuttal. Our attorney will offer a twominut and one minute warning as your time is expiring. We ask that all persons uh this evening conduct themselves in a civil manner. And if you can't do that, we reserve the right to ask you to leave. This meeting is being recorded and streamed this evening for public viewing. By participating, you acknowledge that your image, voice, and comments may be captured and made publicly available. This meeting has been properly noticed in accordance with Indiana Code 514 1.5. With that, we will move on to our hearing items. We have two hearing items this evening and then we'll have six uh other business items after that. So, we'll begin this evening with item number one, the board of commissioners uh residential reszone in Sugar Creek Township that was continued from January.

This petition for a reszone from R1.0 0 residential to institutional is located at 3212 West 100 South. It is in Sugar Creek Township. It is located south of US 40 along Sugar Creek adjacent to the town of Spring Lake at the very end of South 300 West which is a deadend street south of 40. Um, however, a parking pad is being installed at present along uh West 100 South, which should deter traffic from entering on 300 West. It's 41.98 acres, and the reason is to allow for expanded parks and recreation uses. On February 19th, there was a community input session held by the Parks and Recreation Board, which is newly formed. So, parkland like this is a very new uh development um in Hancock County. The uh QR code on this uh survey is still active. There is a survey attached to it. So, if anybody watching or in attendance wants to still take that survey, um, please do so. The link is on our parks and recreation department page on the county website as well as on the doors to this meeting room tonight. Going to read the institutional district intent. District intent. The institutional zoning district is intended to provide locations for large-scale public facilities, educational facilities, religious centers, and other institutions. This district provides

development standards that are responsive to the unique scale and other considerations common to these types of uses. This district is further intended to reduce land use conflicts and to ensure that institutions are appropriately integrated into the community and well served by transportation routes and other necessary infrastructure and utilities. You can see the park uses here in the uh table to the right. P is for permitted and S is for special exception. If the square is blank, it means that it is not permitted at all in that zoning district. So for instance, at present, nature preserve center is permitted in all zoning districts in Hancock County, whereas park and recreation facility is a special exception in the less intensive zoning districts in Hancock County. it it becomes a permitted use only once it hits CR commercial regional on up through industrial. So it requires a trip to the BZA. Additionally, for temporary uses that may be held at the park once it is formed. Um we have this section in our in our code to refer to temporary use and structure standards. Temporary uses and structures are permitted in any zoning district provided that the use is permitted use in that zoning district. So say for instance uh there was something an event of some sort that wanted to be held in this park. Let's say a music festival temporary event, it would need to be permitted in the zoning district in order to be held at all. And that is one of the reasons we're looking at zoning this to institutional is for interest in holding such types of activities at the park. Nothing directly

in the works right now, but that was one of the thoughts as we looked at reszoning this from R1 to institutional. I have compared the zoning districts between R1 and institutional in particular. Um I only included uses where the use was permitted either in special exception or permitted form in one zoning district R1 or institutional one or the other. And I've included that again at the end of this u presentation. You can see the area zoning. This is zoned R 1.0 currently. Uh the town of Spring Lake is zoned R2.5. Uh light pinks uh and dark pinks are commercial zones along US40. And the brown to the north is uh residential mobile home park Philly Estates. Green is agricultural. We did receive a survey of the site. Um it shows the section that was carved off the north end approximately an 11 acre site that Ninstar is retaining ownership of for a future water treatment facility. It is not part of this reszone. Uh the other cutout here, I'll try to kind of hover over it. So this Oh, maybe not. There we go. This area right here, that yellow square is retained by Ninstar for water treatment facility. This section right here is the Skilman residence at the end of 300 West. For anybody who is knowledgeable of the area and then at the end here along Sugar Creek, this is the park property that we

are looking at for reszone this evening. It has included easements across it and small wellhouse sites that will be developed I believe in the future. The gray area shown on the survey of the right of the same property shows floodway. Uh this is floodway along Sugar Creek that is protected by DNR. Um no permanent structures of certain types can be constructed in that area. The surveyor reviews all of it. So, some of this is just forformational purposes. I want all of you to be aware of what this is and where it's at. Okay. I should also point out that due to state code, uh, reszone is not required for public utility uses. It is considered exempt. So, rezone is not required for Ninstar to put in a water treatment facility. It's also not the purpose of this rezone. Here's that site again. As it's shown in our uh future land use map in our comprehensive plan, it's shown largely as an area for conservation open space. Um this is very much for park type properties. As far as implementation of the this area and the comprehensive plan as it relates, uh it states that conservation open space should be uh basically remain in very large continu contiguous tracks and include appropriate buffer areas. Um and appropriate zoning districts may include the creation of a new conservation overlay district. We don't have that currently. The floodway kind of does the job of protecting it. Um and then also let's see the uses it describes above um such as large-scale outdoor recreation uses, regional parks, uh yeah, community parks, neighborhood and recreation. These are all things

that are very much permitted in the institutional zoning district and are a good use of the conservation open space area type in our comprehensive plan. So criteria to consider as part of the reszone. Is this in keeping with the comprehensive plan? Yes. Is this in keeping with the current conditions and character of the current structures uses in the area? Yes. It's open. It's a floodway. Is this the most desirable use for which the land is adapted park property within close proximity to residential and an existing trail? To my knowledge, yes. What impact on property values across the county will this have? Positive parks generally contribute to property values around them and are generally well thought of. Is this responsible growth and development as a park property? Yes, we did receive two um comment uh letters. one from the residents of um Philly Estates uh with some suggested restrictions and I've included those in your packets and um representatives from Philly Estates are here to discuss that. We also heard from um Spring Lake. I believe they have residents here tonight. Um and there was a resident who had some concerns about the floodway um that I believe we've we've addressed some of but there was another another person who did discuss that. So, I would invite um anybody um who has concerns to they can come up and speak um when I'm done. Um but that's what we heard about. Um

so, do we have somebody that's speaking on behalf of the commissioners or the parks board or is your presentation the the petition? My presentation will act as the petition. All right. Um well, so I guess then we get to drill you on questions, I guess, as a petition. Yeah. And real quick before you move on, my staff recommendation is favorable with the following conditions. That the following uses shall not be permitted. Airport and commercial bus terminal. Those are just two big open type land uses. We wanted to make sure that those were not because they're not suitable in an area like this. So, all right. Um, questions for me.

All right. So, where Wellhouse three and four are it looks like a dark square. Are those part of parcel one or is that part of I guess parcel two the one they want to institutionalize? So they are located in parcel two but Ninstar retains ownership of them. So they retain ownership of parcel one. Yes. And the areas where the wellhouses will go. Yes. Okay. So are we reszoning where the wellhouse wellhouses will go? I believe so because it is in that area, but they have protections around them because they're in a well field.

Yeah. Okay. So, is there currently four wells or is there three wells at this time? I am not aware of Ninstar's schedule for the wellhouses.

There even any wellhouses at this point? Yeah, I think currently there's three cuz they run a test u year or so ago which put a lot of people's pumps out of I remember that. Yeah. Service well. So, I mean that was just a 24-hour test. So, when they actually build a tower and turn all this on, not sure what's going to happen there. Okay. Can you clarify if that's before us this evening? Excuse me. Is that issue before us this evening?

Property from R1 to institutional is on the table tonight. We have no we have no say on wellhouses or what they're a public utility. They can do what they want essentially by law. So the only question we have is should this be reszoned from R1 to institutional for a park? Otherwise, they'd have to go through the BCA for a park, right? If it was R1. Okay. Or park and recreation facility. Basically, anything more intensive than in use than a nature preserve. Yes. What was the outcome of the public information session? Was that Monday night?

There were a lot of um it was February 19th and it was at 10:00 a.m. Um there were a lot of people present. Uh the survey is still open so I haven't had a chance to look at the results yet. that Lace McCartney gave a fantastic presentation. Um, and Miriam Rollles was here as well along with members of the park board. Is there any type of use they're looking at that should be a concern?

No. Um, I think that it's going to be pretty well restricted due to the flood plane concerns and then the easements shown on this plat. Um, as you can see, a very limited amount is going to be outside of the flood plane. Um, so I think for the most part what I've heard is more nature type preserve, uh, stargazing pads, um, other raised, uh, walkways along the wet areas, potentially a water access point at Sugar Creek if at all possible, um, trails around the site connecting to the Pensy, uh, which is now, uh, constructed across the north end of this property. Um, that's what I've heard. Uh but like I said the survey is still open. Uh the most intensive use that I have heard any talk of is potentially like a temporary amphitheater type use but that has not been closely reviewed against the actual layout and how feasible that is. So I would put that out.

And then I think there was probably an email from you before but uh lighting concerns and um oh I forget the other one. Oh you need lighting concerns.

Yeah. Um I can definitely assure you that lighting will be looked at very very closely as it relates to the park use. We have a dark sky friendly ordinance as it as it stands. Um stargazing is something that the parks board has been interested in looking at as a park use. So making sure those lights are night are dark sky friendly. Um once again we we have been trying to work with Ninstar and any utility company in any way we can on making sure that utility areas are sensitively lit at night. Um and I definitely in this area residential um neighbors are not going to be lit up by um by exterior lighting. We're definitely sensitive to that from the park standpoint. Any other two I think I remember reading about from people is hours and noise.

Uh currently we don't have anything regulating that. I think there was some concern especially if the stargazing use was um something that was looked at or like camps things like that um that we didn't want to restrict the use with ours because of that. So that was the that was uh the takeaway we had. you have um and you can reserve this answer for rebuttal time, but do do you want to have any comments now on the remrants and the seven items or do you want to reserve comment on these for rebuttal?

I can definitely um I I've tried to kind of answer those a little bit as I've gone, which I think some of it is the nature preserve use, for example, at that rate, it should just stay zoned R1. That would be my answer on that one. Um, as far as hours and uh hours, I can't make any commitment. I don't think there is a recommendation to limit the hours from our perspective um at the park board's perspective. Um, and an assurance that lighting will definitely be sensitively looked at and in compliance with the county's lighting ordinance. What about the development plan and buffer yards? The what? Development plan and buffer yards. Do you want to

buffer yards? Um, for the most part, buffer yards will definitely be handled by for the neighboring ninstar property, uh, which is going to be against one part of the residential area. Um, and then the flood plane, we can't really do much there at all. So, considering it is a park use, we're happy to um, put in tree preserv I could see something like a tree preservation area or a designated conservation zone or I mean, yeah, that's something that this is a nature area. The county parks department is not interested in keeping like a Riley Park level town or city park. This is much more wild nature area. So, we're not looking at altering the area any more than absolutely necessary.

That's more like Beck and Hold. Yes. Can you just one more time navigate me why we is the land use matrix that we have associated 15634 and there's another series. could you just orient me one more time of which one we'll be deciding on which series this evening? Which page are you on? Um it starts on section two. So I do see we've got the land use matrix here. Okay. So we're talking campgrounds, driving ranges, golf courses. Um and then it it continues. So you just maybe and the only thing that you're recommending is to exclude maybe the airport and commercial. So maybe just navigate between those two for me.

Yeah. Okay. All right. So, we've got two pages um of the land uses that either were permitted or a special exception in R1 and are now permitted or special exception in institutional. So, starting at agricultural uses, typically in the county, we've been very friendly toward agricultural uses. I also only focused on the permitted land uses because once again, if it's a special exception, it'll have to go to the BCA anyway. So that puts us at animal stables, crop production, farmers market, grazing and pasture land, livestock raising and breeding, nursery, and uh seed storage, distribution, and sales. None of those seemed overly uh out of keeping, like something like a farmers market might be very appropriate. Um so I didn't want to overly limit this use. While this is under park and county ownership, any use that happens there will have to have the blessing of both the parks board and the board of commissioners. Um, under the institutional um public uses, we had airport, uh, cemetery, church, community center, commercial, bus, train, terminal, fairgrounds, funeral home, government facility, nonoffice. The only two of those that seemed wildly out of line with that area um were airport and uh bus train terminal. Um and that's that's the section that those two limitations came out of that would be permitted otherwise in the institutional zoning district. In commercial uses, child care center, greenhouse, restaurant were some of the uses there. um you know something like restaurant. I don't know if that's what we would classify if you had a shelter house with like a little uh I don't know uh a snack center or something. I don't know like I said I don't know exactly what the

future holds for this site. So I left um those permitted uses in it. Um so in communications utility uses um there's communication service exchange uh public wellfield water facility once again our code um is a little outdated and as it relates to state code some of these uses have been um permitted by right in state code for utilities uh public wellfield um solar uh let's see one of the large scale would require an overlay district in addition utility substation. Once again, we have no say over that. So, those that's where uh let's see. Okay. Uh park uses an let's see nature preserve center is permitted in both R1 and institutional like we talked about park and recreation facility which would be more something like an open air amphitheater that would be permitted in institutional special exception in R1. So in order to have that as a temporary use, that's where we're reszoning this to institutional so it matches up with our temporary use standards. And then um more institutional public uses. Um we go down the list of uh government offices, um hospital or medical center, um institution for the developmentally disabled, mentally ill, um library, medical clinic, museum or gallery, police, fire or rescue station, post office, residential treatment center, uh school, trader or business school, university or college. commercial uses. Um, let's see. Nursing assisted living facility, residential facility for the developmentally disabled, type one or

two or and residential facility for the mentally ill, retirement facility. That's it. Follow through. So, we reszone this for institutional and we follow recommendation to exclude airport and commercial. Can this be a permanent or temporary um campground? No, it would have to go to the board of zoning appeals for a special exception. Special exception. Thank you. Yes.

Any other questions?

Yeah. So, you're you're showing all of the all of the permitted and special exception uses here. um the type of park that this was meant to be. I'm just catching up, but I was thinking it was really just focused on the agricultural uses and park uses and not so much any of the institutional, commercial, and communications. So, I was wondering if there were greater plans in the future or if we should really be is the county more focused on the agriculture uses, the farmers market, nursery, campground, driving range that the the typical park things and less about bed and breakfast, child care centers, things like that. this board is certainly um able to add restrictions as they see fit. So if there's a use here that was like ah that's that's a bit much. Feel free to add it to the recommendation.

Okay. Any more questions for Kayla? No. All good. So So at this time you don't plan on putting any any time restrictions at all on the use of this park

like it shall be developed within a certain amount of time. I I understand they're talking about, you know, because of the the night star looking at that and then if you got the Boy Scouts, they talked about camping there. Um but my concern would be that keeping undesirabs out of there at certain point. uh seemed like we want to make sure that the authorities had a opportunity to not just let everybody that just spins off that trail in the middle of the night to have a place to hang out.

I would recommend any uh comments about that to the sheriff's department um or the parks board at this time without knowing specific plans about the park's um development. There's not much I can say at this point. I really don't think that there's a tremendous amount of additional park other than nature preserve farmers market or something that as I understand it. So, and as far as undesirabs, I mean that happens everywhere. One's happened quite a bit along the trail

already. Is it because I've not seen much of that. Okay. Any more questions for Kayla? Would the com the would the commissioners be the one that would uh set the hours then of the park? Okay. Along with the park board or we probably would go board would come to you and give you a recommendation and you would set it. So really, we can't really put any at this level other than saying, "Hey, that's the commissioner's job." And they they'll listen to the public and do what you know what they feel best for the public. The only thing that we can do tonight is the zoning,

but we're just getting a glimpse of what they want to do. I mean, that's what that meeting was the other the other day was to get ideas from the public on what this park could be used for. and we're just getting a glimpse tonight in the pre presentation of what might be there. Uh there's a lot of decisions haven't been made on this yet. So, what's the um status of the surveys? You said there's quite a few surveys that are supposed to be coming in, right? about are those things are those surveys information that would be helpful to this board as they're trying to make decisions?

Not so much to this board as the park board. They will help decide how this site is then actually developed as a park. I think some of the limitations though that they're going to set here, assuming that you're wanting them to act on this tonight, could affect the scope of what the park board can do is if they say um for instance we we're not going to allow one of these permitted uses and that I'm just thinking that that survey information may be something that would be helpful to this board as well. That's a good observation.

Yeah. And I that was sort of the basis of my question is what is the county wanting the park to be and do we want all of these uses available and maybe just maybe just the egg uses. I don't know. I don't know what Yeah, we may have our cart before our horse here because I wasn't able to attend the the meeting public meeting but I did go down to Mary's office. She walked me through and where the public had placed their stickers on use that they think would be good, not so good. But that's

it was kind of ran by the Purdue extension. It was more like a a they divided into like four groups and said give us suggestions of what you like or would dislike. It was just stuff to look at. there was no decisions made or um I think the public probably would have it was in the morning so there was a lot of people that maybe didn't get to attend it because of the time or even knew what it was going to be. I was I was there and I wasn't sure what was going on. So anyway, all right. Any more questions for Kayla?

Just one question. of all this land, how much can actually be a physical building? You know, like the list of all these buildings is great to have that list, but really what will the land allow because it is in a flood plane. I mean, permissionwise to be able to even build anything there. So, I mean, we we might just be discussing something that's not even feasible at all. That's a good point.

For my measurement, about 8 acres is not in the flood plane. Okay. Maybe it would make sense if we just focused on that eight acres of what we might like to see there versus like this whole plot way. That's where broader uses that don't require a structure attached with them. Um those are permitted more in that floodway area. So something for example and I'm just speaking you know as an example um camping that's a great example actually um that is a great way uh use of our flood plane areas because it's a temporary use we're not uh we're setting up but in the with the understanding that hey if it starts raining you don't want to be here you need to book it. um or things that we see for example in our agricultural zone a lot um is u you know animal grazing or crop production things that don't require buildings are still great uses um in the flood plane um that's what the majority of this site is like you noted um which is what makes it such a great park use is that that potential but yeah that 8 acres approximately um that's not that's in white up here in that um corner um that's really the only buildable spot.

All right. That part has a buffer, right? Am I mean that right? It does have an easement. The easement. Okay. All right. We all good. All right. So we have some time here for remmonstrators. There people that would like to speak in opposition to the proposal. Be a collect of 10 minutes. How many people do we have that would like to speak this evening? One, two, three, four. Can you raise your hands again? One, two, three, four, five. So we got six. So

I just want to mention that Mr. Swain is elected official. So he may Oh, okay. We can save him for that that section in if you'd like. Yep. So, hey, there was seven, by the way. There were seven. There was six plus one athletic official. You were right. There's six and then there's one elected.

Six. All right. Well, we would typically do um 10 minutes. Are you guys good with giving each of the six two minutes and even two minutes? Okay. All right. Well, I'll start on my left. Who had their hand up on the left? Come on up. One one of the you which one's the elected official that wants We're going to keep you to the laughs. So you're the elected official. Okay. We'll keep you for that that section. So the guy behind you will come up first. So you'll you'll speak into the microphone, swear in with our attorney, and spell your last name.

Hi, name's Tom Riddle. Um I own the property right hand. Do you swear or affirm under the penalty of perjury that the testimony you're about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Yes. Okay. I think we did catch your name. You have two minutes. R I DL E. Okay. Go right ahead. I own the property to the west of this park.

There's a little five or six acres down in the corner of that I don't own. Last I heard, the Boy Scouts of America bought it. Then I heard that they sold it to some deer hunters. There's giving me problems and then I don't know who owns it now. I don't mind the park. The only complaint that I've got is when Terry Skiilman owned the property, he never maintained the ditch. There's a natural drainage ditch that runs from my pond to the little corner about where the property line is for the 8 acres that Ninstar still wants to keep. Is somebody going to be responsible for maintaining that ditch and getting it cleared out and cleaned out so that my front yard doesn't flood anymore?

Is that Is that an open ditch? Yeah, it's an open ditch. Drainage board. Yeah, that's something that we'd have to take up with the surveyor and the drainage board. Previous farmer knocked a bunch of trees down and whatnot and kind of made a bridge so he could get from that eight acres in the front field to the back field. And at the present time, I mean, we get these three and four inches of rain. Um, my front yard floods get a little swampy over there.

Oh, it gets more swampy. But that's my main concern. The next concern, I mean, if you guys are going to open that park up to camping, I don't want a bunch of undesirabs back there um that are possibly in the middle of the night going to climb the fence and come over to my property. I mean, I've got a horse riding facility and I really don't want to find somebody sleeping in my barn. Um, but could you tell me again exactly? Are you north of northwest of the property?

No, I'm I'm due west. Due west. So due west as to where they want to put in the septic field or I don't want to put a septic field in. They're not going to do a septic. It's just the says it says wart deed riddle on the on your paper. It's located right on there. Oh, right. I'm right. Here we go. Right here. This is Thomas. Okay.

So, it is right right next to where I was saying. Yes. I own 35 acres there. Okay. Less what I donated to the Pensy Trail. Mhm.

And I didn't think the Pensy Trail was going to be a problem. I've had a bunch of people ride their bicycles, walk back, had two Chinese women. I'm sorry. I'm not trying to be offensive or anything, but two Chinese ladies come back here and they're trying to coax my horses up and I'm like, "Can't you read the signs? I've got no trespassing. Keep off the property." I mean, I even put some nasty signs out there. And obviously, they can't read. Um, your time's up. Okay. If you'd like to extend,

right? We have anybody have any questions for Mr. Reynolds? No. All right. Thank you for your time. We'll check on that um open ditch question that you had, too. That's my main concern. If they can get it cleared out so my front yard doesn't flood. All right. Who else did we have over here that wanted to speak? Sir, come on up. Y So, my name is James. Wait until you get up in the microphone here. Come up to the microphone. Sorry. All right. Raise your right hand. Yeah. Do you swear or affirm under the penalty of perjury that the testimony you're about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Yes.

Please state your name. Spell your last name. James Fiser. F I S A G E R. Okay, go right ahead. You have two minutes.

Okay. I when I got into this, I was, you know, I saw the I went ahead and looked at the area that is being reszone and I realized that is 3/4 uh floodway. So that means that not only do you have to build, assuming that it's going to be flooding, you got to be about a foot over the u the level to put any building in. But any fill, any roads, any pads, um any construction at all has to has prior written approval from the DNR. Um in the case of the wellhouses that takes it to a higher level again there's about 15 pages I was able to get of just summary of the regulations required uh is get able to get off the internet before they shut down the website because of this u economic things going on with the with um HUD I mean homeland security. Um anyway, so so basically a utility which is the what these uh wellouses would be have to be two foot above and have to be built so they can withstand being in this floodway. The floodway is like a river and you can't block it. So in addition to holding up to the water, you have to do a um get a certificate of compliance that you are not going to raise the water level upstream by putting this structure, this road in the floodway. And again that has to be done

you know about a year to to get one of those uh certificates of uh get the exact name but it's a certificate that they have to get from a hydraulic uh professional engineering hydraulic study done. So I just want to make sure people are aware that the severe restrictions that are any sort of building. My question now is is the road that's being put down, has that has that gotten prior approval from the DNR? So, your time's up. So, I'm sorry, what was the question?

The road that's going in that's built in there now, I think that's covered under being uh construction in a floodway, which would require um prior approval from the DNR. Okay. Yeah. I don't know the answer. All right. Thank you. Who's our next person? Yep. Going up, sir. Do you swear or affirm under the penalty of perjury that the testimony you're about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Okay. Please state your name. Spell your last name.

First name is Joe. Last name spelled R O Q U E. I'm a retired police officer with the Indianapolis Police Department. Uh, in my years of uh, patrolling, parks usually close at dusk. Nobody was allowed in there. If you found somebody, you would confine them, arrest them or sight sight them. Are we going to have the same since I heard that there's no hours for this park? Anybody can go in there at midnight and and and do some partying out there. That's my question is are we going to enforce those do we have somebody from the parks department that's going to let us know if they're going to enforce the curfew laws in there?

Yeah, that was that would be a park a parks board or a commissioner's question. We're just dealing with just the zoning this evening. So, we wouldn't be dealing with any of the regulations on the hours and operation of the park necessarily. Yeah, that's it. All right, thank you. All right, that's three. We had a fourth person. Yep. Going up.

Okay. Do you swear affirm under the penalty of perjury that the testimony you're about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

I do. Uh my name is Brian House. I'm a partner with the law firm of Pritskin Davis and I represent Leiddonna Skilman and her husband Jerry. Lot to cover in two minutes. First of all, I would not necessarily classify us as remmonstrators, but persons who offer certain concerns. Let me hit the highlights quickly. Uh the diagrams that you have show an easement that is across the Skilman property and that is right at the norththeast corner of this park. Uh, I'm investigating this easement. It was granted basically to provide access to the park area when it was owned by Jerry Skilman's brother. Jerry Skilman sold it and then it was immediately resold to Ninstar. There's a real question as to the legitimacy of the easement. Um, and that's simply because of the age of the easement. I have the diagram here. It was created in 1985 and it basically is an easement across the um Skilman's front yard. And you can see this, but what's interesting about the easement, it doesn't have anything that normally talks about a dominant tenant and a subservient tenant, a grantee or a grtor. Now, back in the 80s, people did that. Then along came the Indiana Court of Appeals in the 1990s, late 1990s, and said you can't create your own easement. It's precluded by what's called the merger doctrine. If you own all the property, you don't need an easement across your own property. So, why I raised that? We don't oppose the park. We think it's an interesting idea. I attended theformational section session

too, but we really don't want to see access to this park across the Skilman property and truly one 300 East does dead end at the north border of their property. access from 100 South makes more sense, but it's again hard to tell from the diagram, and I'm looking at this diagram in the staff report exactly what they propose, whether this is a parking area or something else. The other comment I would echo, similar to this, gentlemen, time is expired. Pardon me. Time is expired. If you'd like to uh Mr. Chairman, I would move.

Yeah, you guys okay with giving him another minute? This was kind of interesting. All right. Yeah, another minute. See, I'll really trying to be quick. Pensy trail nice, but it does create some problems. People come along, they wander off. What we would like to know more about the water treatment, which we haven't heard anything on that because this was a part of the reason initially apparently now it's been pulled and we just think that there should be restrictions if this is reszoned. Thank you. Yeah. Type of restrictions,

hours of operation, uh, no exterior lighting, access in particular. You'll note that there's a trail that joins the Penzy Trail, which is great. That's on the western border of my client's property, but it would be favorable if that could be moved even further to the west to provide some separation between that access trail and my client's property. Interesting. And then um are you guys still are you still in is your firm still are you still in investigating this easement?

Right. I've got the diagram. It was prepared by Nolan Gibson back in 1985 but I haven't been even though we have an instrument number but for some reason somebody was that I had looking on this wasn't able to locate it. Uh but we want to look at that. But again, we just think it would be completely inappropriate if this easement were used as an access point to this park, particularly when you have good access on a county road. All right. Okay. Interesting. All right. Any more questions for Mr. House? Right. Thank you. Yeah, we had a fifth person,

Mr. Oh, up. Okay. Do you swear affirm under the penalty of perjury that the testimony you're about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? I do. Darla Smoke, S M O A K.

The reason I'm here is I'm representing Philly Estates's mobile home park. We have a hundred residents within that park and already we see problems with the trail. Um, people want to come and use our Kovasaks to park. If you bring the park there, we'd like to see restrictions put on time. Uh we don't want there to be unlimited open time. I understand that's the commissioners. Um we also would like to see restrictions put on amplified music. We are very close proximity. We already hear music coming from the other facilities and so we'd like that that to be restricted. All I have. Thank you.

Thanks, Darla. Right. And we had a sixth person. Okay. You swear affirm under the penalty of perjury that the testimony you're about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Diana Johnson, J O H N S O N.

The reason I'm here tonight, I think prematurely um just sitting and listening to everyone is that you're they're asking for a decision to be made this evening or potentially soon hereafter for this to be reszoned. I don't think you have the substantial answers that you need to actually make that decision because we don't even know what kind of park they're talking about. And with that being said, we own adjacently to that property. There is already traffic through our trail cams that happens routinely. We are always running them off. Always. It is a problem. It will continue to be a problem and if there's not hours restrictions placed upon the times of coming and going stargazing, I'm sorry, pick someplace else to go, but not in this area. It is not safe. You have water. The um the creek is the is a highway for animals. We do not want to disrupt that. But there is a lot of vagrant that happened in that area. And luckily, one of our dogs helped Hancock County Police apprehend an escape person. So, it happens. It will continue to happen. And we finally have it under control and would prefer not to have more come in, especially from Meyer.

I have one follow-up question if if that's okay. We heard testimony earlier on Ronster that maybe something around there is being used for deer hunting. Uh we heard testimony maybe something around that area adjacent is being used for deer hunting. Always a concern if there's you know active hunting next to a park we're looking to put in. So maybe you can do Okay. So if you want me to specifically address my personal property Okay. So hunting. Do you permit um the handicap veterans of certain age to come in and hunt and trap our property? Got it.

That will continue because it is a disabled sanctuary per se for us. Okay. Where do you live, ma'am? 2972. Okay. You know, can you do you need me to show you? Nope. I got it. Okay. I I think maybe you've been out before, possibly. All right. That was everybody that wanted to speak and that we had the one elected official. So, okay, come on up.

Do you swear affirm under the penalty of perjury that the testimony you're about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Yes, I do. Okay. Please state your names.

My name is Andy Swain, SW AIN, and uh I'm the town council president for Spring Lake. Um, I'd like to talk about a couple of things tonight. Um, first of all, I see at this point in time, I don't see a reason to reszone it from R1 to I in. I don't know what it gains at this point when we don't know what the park is going to be. And I think by reszoning it, the we lose a little bit of control over what that property might be used for. Um, I I was a little surprised that the reasonzoning I got the paperwork, very bizarre. I got the paperwork yesterday in my mailbox, but I knew about it because I was going to attend in January before it was uh continued. But, you know, I would thought that the parcel one would have been up for reasonzoning to in. It's still RP 1.0 0 and it has a public well field on it and they have intention to put a water treatment facility on it which is permitted use for in and not allowed for R1.0. So I'm a little surprised that that there hasn't been a reasonzoning uh hearing for parcel one at this point. The other thing is, you know, uh I in also gives the ability for a utility substation that is unpermitted for R1.0. Um the I know that they would have to come to the BCA for a special exception if it was R1.0 and they wanted to put a a park on there, but I think that gives the BCA at least an opportunity to review what that park's going to be. And we several people kind of talked about that. Um, so the the other the other item I wish to speak about a little bit, Mr. Fiser uh spoke a little bit about the drainage and I heard a reference to Becken Holt. I don't think this is at

all kind of like Becken Holt because Becken Hold is a wetland. It's it's like a marsh. It is not next to a non-navigable waterway like Spring Lake. So this area is always flooded. It's it's really bad. I think any kind of structures you put, regardless if you elevate them a foot or two, I heard talk about an amphitheater. I'm a little bit concerned about what that's going to do to the drainage that takes place because we certainly don't want to back that up and prevent that natural drainage there. So, you know, I I I I love the the the natural preservation of that area there. the best thing to do is to leave it alone and just let it be a a marsh, a wetland, an overflow, a floodway. So, um, you know, I guess my my request is that I I would I would like to ask that the that there be, uh, more consideration be given before the agreement to reszone it to I in more definition be defined to what the park really wants to be and what what they what they ask. So, that's it.

All right. Thank you. Thank you. Any more questions? All right. Um, I guess we would have a rebuttal period. I don't know if Kayla, if you've got anything else you want to add with what you've you guys hit with one more. Sure. Come on up. Two minutes. Swear affirm under the penalty of perjury that the testimony you're about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. I do.

Thank you. Please state your name. Spell your name's Donald Bowden, spelled B O Den. My question, is there a need for another park in this area? um did some research, got a whole list of parks that the county already pays for. Uh these are all places that are maintained with taxpayer dollars. And this is an area that really has no need for development into another park. And so my comments is I think it should just stay just as it is. Thank you. So I have a question.

Yes. Um the county I don't think the county has any parkland so you can tell me you can read them. I'm pretty sure they're all city parks but you can read them. Okay. Well then the city pays for them. Yeah it's Greenfield. Yeah the city owns I think township creek owns one. But owns it has one. Uh what is it? Uh over by Shirley they have one that uh and then they have several in Greenfield and I know that Fortville has one too but the county has zero parks right now. Well, number one, I don't think that there's a need to create another environment. I don't know how many here have ever had teenage kids. I had teenage kids which we had to track down, but we don't need to find another hiding place for them to hide in. So, thank you.

May Oh, may I ask you some questions if you don't mind? Sure. So, um I understand about uh kids. We have four of them ourselves. But um are you are you aware that there was a whole process about county park system and about the quality of life pieces and um our our community county growing the comprehensive plan. The reason I'm asking that because in all of those they were resounding that we do not have a park system for quality of life like other counties that are that are of our size. I know. So, so that's why I just wondered if like if you had if you had been aware or had an opportunity to participate in any of that where you had heard that um because

I take advantage of all of these parks. Okay. We walk our dogs there. Um and we enjoy the parks, don't get me wrong, but this is really close and I see this as a bribery from Ninstar to put more of their wells in. I'm one of the homeowners who lost their well when they tested their three wells uh over there at the new site and they got more on their plan now than the original three and what that's going to do to our water levels. It concerns me. Okay. So, there's an issue with the will part about using the land, not just the park.

Well, again, I don't think that there's a need over there. It's way back in a little dark little corner next to a residential area and you don't need to create a place for teenagers to hide out next to a residential area. Well, teenagers are pretty clever. They can find all kinds of places to hide out, but my experience as a parent, but but everybody's different, so yeah. Okay. Yeah, I I understand your um caution. Thank you. Thank you. You have anything else, Kayla? Yeah, I uh I don't I'm not sure everybody's really familiar with this area. This is truly a wet land. Okay. I'm I'm I don't I only live a mile and a half away.

And I mean, I have concerns. They haven't decided yet. Um you know, like the canoeing that's going to go up Sher Creek. I guess it's okay according to the commissioner that spoke to me that you can use Sher Creek as to canoe. You just can't get out of your canoe and go on anybody's property. Correct. So, and my first concern is is I'm not sure, you know, when you just go to the south where they're going to plan on putting the canoes in, there's an old gravel pit there full of fish and turtles and everything, but I I do wonder who owns that gravel pit opposed to the creek itself. So, I mean, you're talking about an area that been really quiet for last 100 years. Um, and the sound, the sound is an issue because even the campgrounds that's on 100 north, the sound rolls down the creek. I don't know why it does that, but the sound travels for several miles down the creek, you know. So, sound is an issue from the creek standpoint. But yeah, I would like to know right now they're just guessing at what they want to do and we're making it and how are we supposed to put restrictions on something that we have no idea what they're planning on doing. But it is. Um, now just on one south there too, there's always cars off in the water.

Couple times.

Yeah. Couple times this year at least. You know, they're just out in the middle of a swamp. You know, they they run off of 100 and it just ends up in that something. It'd be nice that they do something to that. But and then the the gentleman from Spring Lake that uh part of they're talking about is those two people they're talking about here they own almost all the land I do believe that is adjacent to this park. Okay. So when they change that flood plane totally they build it up. They're building roads in there. They're raising up they're raising the height. Okay. To push that back into the creek. Well, they're actually going to push that onto all those property owners in Spring Lake. We're talking about a lot of water. So, I mean, there's a lot of things to consider that no one's talking about or even considering. We're just say we understand nine Star's going to give us a whole bunch of acres to do whatever with, but and we're going to leave it up to the park board to do whatever they want to do. So, I don't know. Just my opinion. I have a question.

I think we're a little little in a hurry here. I have a question for you. So, all those things that you just identified, don't they have steps in place already in our county that you couldn't do go to the next um level without taking care of those items that you addressed? Like um they were going to build something. Obviously, there's a whole process about that. The water, the surveying, all of those kinds of things for putting a road in. I mean, don't we have as a county already have processes that if those were issues as we were going through them, they'd be stop gaps that you would be able to continue? I mean, they're already doing them.

Who's they they're building a road in there now? They're building the property up in the flood plane right now. It isn't. It's kind of like the gentleman was talking about, you know, you know, were the standards done. I assume nine stars very reputable. I think they would check everything out, but I was going to say when you have to have a I couldn't just go build a road on any piece of property without a process. I guess that's what I'm just saying. Like if they're building a road there, there must have been things that were in place that evaluated the ability to do that. or can anybody just go in in our county and build a road anywhere? Just to say that it takes a year.

Sorry, you can't speak from your seat. So anyway, I'm just being aware they're building a road right now. They're they're really building it up in there. It is a flood plane. Um there are restrictions on flood plane, what you can do. Um I don't know all the rules. I know that if they were building and putting a house in and all that, yeah, the county would have already kicked in and said, "No, you can't do that."

Can I ask a procedural question, Rhonda? Um, when we make a recommendation, um, would it be possible for us to attach to that a requirement to have a consented waiver of certain um, special exceptions? We would we would say for example um on the condition that um you know all but these 13 items we will not apply for special exception. Is that is that procedurally available to us?

Are you saying that for certain uses you would like it to go before the BCA? We would say are uh with the favorable recommendation only if the applicant waves any right to apply for a special exception under the um to the BCA. Yeah. So for example, we would say you normally would have the right to apply for an aggra business, but we don't think that that's the type of use. So we would request with we would only give our favorable recommendation if the aggra business um is um not allowed. Oh yeah, you could you could do that. You could also make it subject to a special exception too, so that it would have to go to the BZA. I

I'm just thinking as a BZA a little bit here. Um because this feels very BZA like as an application that it's uh not we don't know exactly what's going on. And so either it's a continuence and something comes back that's a little little more clear or um like this is the list of restrictions that we'd have to put in place that we've heard tonight and this doesn't even include everything. I mean, we're talking a required development plan with enforcement plans, addressing any DNR applications, outdoor lighting, precluding musical performances, buffer yards, required hours, the adjacent hunting is a concern, maintaining of the ditch. There's just so much that maybe we don't know that if we do put something in place for approval or recommendation, it's going to be a pretty narrow use. I think honestly we should continue continue this until the parks board presents to

Yeah, I'm for me I'm very concerned with what Mr. Riddle spoke about today. It bothered me a lot and uh but yeah, I mean I've known since about 3 minutes into the presentation by our petitioner which is our planning department that this needs to be continued so we can figure it out. So uh motion to continue. Second. All you All right. So we have a a motion and a second to continue this petition. And are you wanting to continue it until March or you want a couple months uh to give the parks boards more time to look at their surveys and draft some uses and requirements and regulations and things like that to present along with it?

Do we have a date when their survey is going to be over? Kayla,

I know Miriam said something about it, but I'm not sure when it was now. Um, I would say let's give it two months and then make sure that Miriam is here to present. That sounds good. Mr. President, my motion is for two months. Okay. Whatever you can say what the April date is. Yeah. I don't have the calendar with me. So that we'll just call it the April Oh, here it is. April 23rd April 20 April 21st meeting. So moved and seconded to continue to the April 21st, 2026 meeting. All those in favor signify by saying I. Oppose. Same sign. Unanimous.

I might suggest that you tell the audience that they won't be not again. That's a great point. There won't there will not be additional notice. So just uh mark your calendar for April 21st. We'll hear it again. You might watch like the parks board's been pretty active on the social media stuff, too. So, they've been pretty or some of that stuff I've been seeing it around. So, and their parks board meetings are also Yeah, they're listed. Yeah.

Okay. Thank you everybody that spoke and came out for that this evening. Uh we'll move on to item number two. Mr. Bowling, residential reszone from R1 to CC. Mr. President. Yes. I have a conflict of interest with this one. Okay. So, Wendle will recuse himself from discussion and voting on item number two.

All right. This reszone request. Are we ready? Yep.

Okay. It's located at 113 West Junction Street in Maxwell. It has a reszone of 1.53 acres on uh just north of the Maxwell grain elevator um and just south of Maxwell Intermediate School um outdoor area. There is a gas line running north south along the west side of the property. Um there was a residence on the property that was in disrepair that um Mr. Bowling has removed and also took out a lot of the trees and shrubs that were really overgrown um and has really improved the the overall maintenance of the property. Um it has also zoned in the um village overlay, I should point out. Um so a reszone from R1.0 in the village overlay to commercial community CC would allow for expanded business and commercial uses. Mr. Bowling has no no uh desire to rebuild a home on this site. um and um also argues that um the gas line takes up a fair amount of it which limits the location for a house and a septic system. Currently there is no sanitary sewer um at this area and it also and also the grain elevator behind it doesn't really make this a very desirable area to build a house. So, he is more interested in reszoning this so that he could pursue a special exception for a contractor's warehouse or storage yard for a lawn care business. Um, the property is and will remain in the village overlay district despite whatever that underlying zoning district

is. This takes into consideration some of the context of the um architecture and the mass of the building, things like that, which given that Maxwell, especially along Junction Street, has been um fairly agricultural related, uh is pretty pretty lenient, but it at least gives us some say in how um how this area develops and how it looks going down the road. There are residential neighbors. Um there's also an electric substation. Um, like we discussed, there's school property across the road to the north and that green elevator to the south. Uh, nine, State Road 9 is, uh, North Main Street on this map to give you some some idea of where we're located. Okay, here is the uh, zoning map for this area. It's re it is currently where it shows it's currently zoned R.1, R1.0, zero. But you can see the property to the south, the grain elevator is zone CC. It is a non-conforming use in the CC, but it is zone CC, and a uses like this are given a great amount of leniency. Um, actually, um, I believe we've been around this one with a little bit. Um, and it relates to some state law even relating to egg uses like this being allowed to continue. So

across the street to the north is zone institutional due to the school use. Question real quick on that. You have um that picture the last picture you had. You had a number 36 on that piece of property. The rest of them are 39s. What does 39 stand for?

So that refers to the initial reszone. If there is a reszone ordinance tied to a property that connects us um through a book system we have to exactly where that reszone occurred last time around. Um so sometimes you'll see the bubble number and then a little C next to it. That is our uh that signifies that there is a commitment attached to the reszone ordinance. Um so anytime we see that number it kind of clues us into an ordinance to refer to. If there's a little C in that bubble, it big time tells us, hey, go look that up because it probably says, "Hey, this can't be a whatever use or whatever use." Um, so that that's what those bubbles refer you to. Um, we typically don't refer to them unless there's a C because of that commitment um that might be attached to me. I just didn't know what that what that numbers were.

I had to ask that too. It's okay. Uh the comprehensive plan shows this property near the intersection of two uh land use type areas actually three um on our future land use map. So the hatched area in this case represents planned neighborhood. The yellow represents town commercial type use and the blue um I believe just still represents institutional type uses. So our future land use map, these are kind of fuzzy edges where they touch like this. We can kind of use some discretion of our knowledge of the area and the direction we foresee growth pursu going to kind of say what area are we really referring to in an area like this. So expanding say that yellow town commercial um area in the future land use map to include Mr. Bowling's property um would not be unheard of. And what we might actually see because this followed parcel lines so closely is that perhaps the residential should have kind of kept along that north side of um of 500 north a little bit further maybe touching State Road 9 or something. Um so anyway, and the town commercial district in addition um includes once again a broad variety of uses and potential zoning districts. So also maybe that uh town commercial area should have expanded out a little further to to contain more of the village of Maxwell itself. Um so once again with the comprehensive plan it's a little fuzzy on the edges. Um, in this particular area, it did feel like that town commercial was appropriate to um, expand upward a little bit um, and apply to this property more so than planned neighborhood, which is really more like um, someday when it's ready, new subdivisions in an area like this. someday when it's ready. New town commercial seemed a little bit more applicable, especially

given what I have heard about the um state road 9 corridor plan which is more aggregated that was recently um presented at a recent HDC board meeting. Um we'll have to get more information on that. We're excited about it. Okay, so you can see here where those two land use areas are compared. planned neighborhood areas are intended to include large compact master plan tracks with a right wide variety of integrated and compatible uses, housing, basic services supporting public facilities. Um traditional neighborhood design and town commercial is areas mapped in the town of Shirley and some of the unincorporated villages and smaller parcels interspersed throughout the county. These consist of a variety of commercial uses in various configurations with specific intensities determined by zoning. Use of this category outside of the towns or villages should be limited. We're still in that town of Maxwell or village of Maxwell overlay area which once again is why that town commercial future land use bubble felt appropriate for this property. So town commercial uses um as referred to by the comp plan include multif family residential mixed use commercial with residential uh comm community and neighborhood parks and wreck uses institutional uses general commercial and office uses uh intensive commercial uses such as service stations, auto repair, auto sales, contractor shops, repair shops, fabrication storage, etc. Outdoor storage is discouraged and should be screened at a minimum. So that's the guidance given by our comprehensive plan. Okay, here's a little image of this site as it stands well most recently uh within the last year or two. This is after uh Mr. Bowling demolished the

house that was um on the east side of the property. uh it shows a a pole barn that was already on the site. And the reason Mr. Bowling reached out to me initially was because he wanted to build another barn or add on to his barn. And I had to tell him, "We only allow accessory structures in the R1.0oning if there is a primary structure." He had torn down his primary structure, the house, and had no no desire to rebuild a house on this site. So, he's he's kind of navigating the reszone process because he wants to enlarge or build another barn on this site without a house. Um, so that's and you can see the little gas uh substation cut out on the the right side here. Um, he submitted the picture at the bottom as kind of a um a proposed image of what he foresees u building on the site. Um, I could definitely see this like as a kind of either behind or or rotated. So, we wouldn't foresee like all that driveway out onto Junction Street. The highway department would definitely review any drive cuts, things like that. Um, and as part of our permitting process later on, so don't get hung up on that part. And we would review the outside um, as it relates to the village overlay district. So, is something like this appropriate with the grain elevator behind it? Maybe with a few bells and whistles. quite possibly. Um, Mr. Bowling has done a good job of landscaping the site. You can see the landscaping and fence that he has put on the site um without anybody asking. Um, and I can see that this, you know, looks very pleasing as you go down 500 North already. All right, on to the fun part. Here's all the uses that are permitted in R1.0 and NCC. So you can see that side byside cons comparison. I went through this and I took out anything that was adultoriented or

alcohol use because we're right across from a school. I also um and I put a red a red and a a line across them. Strike those out. Um then when we got to autooriented uses, I highlighted those because I'm also a little concerned about those on this particular road at this location and on a small lot. We have had issues with uh auto sales, auto repair, convenience stores, things like that in these village areas. They don't work well, especially near a major intersection in a congested area. Um so that's why I highlighted those. You can uh review this list if if you'd like or I'm happy to read any of them off. Um a wide variety of um commercial uses are permitted in the CC zoning district. Once again, this is all in the village overlay. So any use that would happen would have to comply with that village overlay district.

Okay. Uh let's see. So So can I ask real quick on that? I I know you have your recommendations later and but why did you not include something like convenience store that sells alcohol and tobacco or you know there's some other ones that seem like they would also have a lot of traffic. Uh if it was convenience store without gas station. Yeah, that'd be it. I didn't deal with it. I felt like a neighborhood convenience store like Mama and Pops might be appropriate. So, even if they sold alcohol and tobacco, that's okay. I

I assume that somebody else is also going to get into the alcohol review like the alcohol board that deals here. Um, but definitely if that's a use you don't see as appropriate there, we can, you know, once again uh strike it. And I I don't foresee that as something that Mr. Bowling's looking at doing, but I also if we're looking at big picture zoning, I'm trying not to be overly restrictive because we don't know what the future holds. Um, so we're trying to think big picture when we when we think about zoning. Um, property just to the west of that, is that commercial or is that residential? Also

to the west 383. Um, it is not uh it is zoned R 1.0. Um, I have I'm not aware of a business occurring there. I'm doesn't look like a residential house. That's the reason why I was asking. I don't disagree with you. I have not received a complaint about it. Nor am I complaining. I'm just asking because you you have now received a complaint. No, because I mean if he's put in a business that looks like a business and I don't know why what I mean it just looks like it probably would go with the that area at that point. Mhm.

Um now the houses to the east all look like houses, but those two do not. So I'm I don't know. Just asking. So,

I wish I had a better answer for you because I've asked that a little myself. Um, and maybe it was a similar situation where there had been a house and now there's not. Or like I said, I'm not totally sure, but I I uh I'm not aware of that. And maybe somebody lives in the barn. Um, that's unfortunately we've, you know, had mixed results sometimes in in applying our our village overlay standards, but that it's possible. Um, but yeah, that's that's the best I can do on information on that one. But I can tell you that's also why Mr. Bowling probably thought this was a safe property to buy.

So the CC that's there where the elevator old elevators at and stuff, it has a lot of restrictions in that area, does does it not? The elevator use itself. Yeah. Or it seems like when things had to be replaced there, it was a big issue about, you know, the footprint and how it fit exact and what could be replaced, what could not be replaced. I mean, there's a a long I think there's a long history with this strip. So, I was just curious

with that particular use. Yes, there was with the last plan commission director, I believe Mike Dale um had to come back to the BZA or the plan commission. several folders on it and ultimately it was decided that those um grain bins could be built again. Um they were falling apart or had suffered fire. So, yep. Grandfathered in. Yeah, I do remember that. Yep. That's kind of what I'm saying though. It's kind of a grandfathered CC in there. We're talking about expanding that CC. So,

well, it's kind of interesting because the CC zoning is placed on the grain elevator, but the use of grain elevator is not permitted in the CC. So, it's even grandfathered in CC zoning. Oh, okay. That's I guess that's what I'm trying to But yeah, should that let's say it um the grain elevator is just no longer relevant. It gets abandoned and we're going to say left for a number of years and the site's vacant. It is a CC zoned property and would be held to the same standards as any other CC zone property. We would look at those CC uses in the village overlay. Thank you. That helps. I I knew there was something I was missing there. I have a question. Did Dr. Olen reach out at all with any kind of concerns that he might have?

No. With that because of all the reorganization of Greenfield schools?

Oh, no, he did not. While we're on um if you're taking questions, while we're on this uh land use matrix, um we've we've had different points of view when considering this. Sometimes we say, "Oh, we know how we're going to use it. We're going to turn a blind eye to everything else and say contractor storage yard, this is it, and if you want to do something else, you need to come back for it." Um, I think that's a different point of view than what we're seeing tonight, which is a more sustainable, less administratively burdensome um where we say you could do all these things even though we're going to use it as a storage contract yard and then that could be inherited down the line with this resoning. Um, two two different ways. So, um, is this kind of the way of the future? We're thinking something more sustainable, less administratively burdensome, or it's we have this in hand, go for it, but want to do something else, come back here. I just want to get a what's our point of view?

Yeah. Um, so typically with zoning in particular and amendments to our zoning map, we like to say yes to zoning if we could foresee it happily being a number of these different types of uh of uses at this location if it would be appropriate. Um in in the case of the uh contractor's storage yard warehouse um quite you know it's going back for a special exception as well. So we know that part is going to get further reviewed. Um really in these cases we're trying to be a little bit more open-minded than we are say at the BZA. Also, I think you're probably remembering the outback storage reason which was very particular for a very particular reason because of all of the uses that absolutely were not partic that were not appropriate except for this one which we were okaying. So in this case there's a wide variety at least in my mind that in the village of Maxwell across from a school adjacent to housing quite possibly could be appropriate. So I've picked the ones and in the last um in the last presentation as well that are absolutely no way know how I can't foresee this in the next 50 to 100 years being appropriate at this location. So things like in this case things that are requiring a lot of vehicle in and out um or that are uh adult oriented alcohol oriented.

My only other follow-up question is there is there any reason that would allow for this pole barn to be constructed as designed? Is this the closest to it? This is the closest, least intensive way to do it. Got it. Thank you.

So, that's why this was looked at. If you go up once again to industrial zoning, sure, it's permitted, but we don't want to zone this industrial because that's not appropriate in the village of Maxwell. All right. So, I've given my um staff recommendation here. Um let's see. Yeah, I think I show it more on the next page. Um, once again, a lot of my answers are this is appropriate. This meets the criteria so long as development is in accordance with those village overlay requirements. All right, that's that's all I've got. Any more questions for Kayla? Nope. Nope. All right.

The view is if this was just still residential property zone that and he had a house on there, he'd be able to build that build another building. Correct. as an accessory structure to his home and as long as he did not cover the lot coverage too much. Um, so there's other restrictions there would be other just in that alone. So, I mean, if he wanted to do something like that, he'd have to come back to you anyhow, or the other, he would definitely need a permit. And if he was doing it by the book incorrectly, he would need to get a home occupation with variances,

which once again, he had no intention, even if a house was on this site, to live in that house. He's still living um in a in a in a home not here. So, right. All good. Ready for the petitioner? All right. It's Mr. bowling here. Yeah. Come on up.

Do you swear or affirm under the penalty of perjury that the testimony you're about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? State your name and spell your last name. Austin Bowling. B O W L I N G. Okay. 10 minutes.

Um Caleb nailed it, I think. Um, when I first bought the place, the the house was crumbling down. All the foundation, the wood around it was rotting. And I intentionally bought it to clean it up, make it look good, and use the barn for storage, personal storage. And right now, I do keep a truck and trailer there that I use every day. I am a contractor for a lawn care company, my my company, but I sub out everything I do. So, no employees will be coming to if this is approved and I can build a new barn, no employees will come to this address, so there won't be a bunch of cars in and out. Um, back to the house. I'm sorry. the the house got I tore it down because it was it'd take way more much way more money to fix it than it would be worth, you know, replacing it or something, you know. So, and it was very ugly and took out a bunch of trees that were overgrown over the top of the barn that was existing there. So, I took all that out, cleaned it up, and that's where we're at. Um, I know some of the concerns were traffic, which like I said, it's just me myself being there. Um, the school provides that all enough problems as it is for that. Not that this matters or anything to you guys, but I mean, I couldn't tell you how many times my mailbox has been knocked down, people driving too close and hitting it between 7:30 and then 2:30 in the afternoon. It gets wild. So, um, yeah, the the barn next door to the right hand side, I could have swore that was commercial and Kayla told me it was

residential and I I mean, that's not my business, so I'm not going to say much on it. So, but you know what I mean. So, Okay. Um, were you okay with the um staff recommendations of striking the alcohol uses and making special exceptions for all auto uses and all that?

The alcohol. Yeah, I don't that doesn't need to be around here nowhere near my property. Um, the autos kind of, you know, I'm not going to start an auto sales lot there or repair lot or anything like that, but you know, depending on what you're trying to talk about, like my trucks going in and out of there with, you know, me. I don't know what you what you mean by the auto part. Yeah, I think she was just getting at uses that have a lot of cars coming. So, an auto repair, auto sale, gas station, car wash, oil change. None of that would be even thought of. So,

and the the barn that was shown preferably would be on the back side or to the right hand side, back corner. Okay.

So, it wouldn't be nowhere near the road. And I don't know how the the gas line plays a part in any of this. I know I got an easement or I sold an easement or I'm letting Central Point Energy this year, I think it is. They're they bought an easement from me to do some repairs on it. And basically is from I think my property line over where the the road the the the fence where their fence ends that they got it fenced in that over to the property line back. So I still have a good amount of property from my barn to that easement area that could a barn be put on.

Okay. Or in the back. This could be a Mhm. I'd love to see Junction Street get wide wider because there like across the street from me there's a pretty good dip and if you get too far off the road and like I said people's been hitting my mailboxes when I first bought the place the mailbox was on the ground. Yeah. I had to have that replaced. So Okay. And like you've seen in the pictures I've cleaned it up a lot. So, I think going forward I think it would look good. So, okay. Any more questions for the petitioner? No.

All right. Thanks. All right. Thank you. Do we have anybody that wants to speak in opposition to this resoning? All right. None. You technically have a rebuttal period, but you don't have anything to rebut. So, are you all all good? So, okay. Any discussion? All right. I guess the only question is is there anything else besides what was recommended if you wanted to prohibit or required to go through BZA?

The only thing might be the residential uses but um directly adjacent residential. So um again it's the point of view are we we know what's going to be we either or it's these are all the things it can be and have at it and don't don't come back to us and clog the agenda. Yeah. Kayla, what is the the title we're trying to give to this besides CC in the in the zoning contractor's warehouse or institutional or what? What are we the land use? Yes.

Yes. The land use he's looking at would be classified either as a contractor's warehouse or a contractor's storage yard. So he he'd have to come back to the BZA. Correct. I want to go back to Lacy's question again. Normally when we've done these before, we've narrowed it to the use that the petitioner has asked for. Correct. Not particularly. Not always.

Very much. I mean, sometimes we've said oh roughly I mean really we've we've had a little while since we've done one like this to be honest. Um, can we think of like what's a recent one we've done? Um, the reversion back to egg from IBP. Um, sometimes we do it to RR.

My mind is going, you know, so like medical clinic is listed as a permitted use. It's across from a school. It could be a drug rehab medical clinic. I mean, these are the kind of things that would fit into that category. It's across from a school. So, got to think really broadly on these terms about these uses because they would be a permitted use. Just wanted to point that out. When we when we take when we do a resoning and we exclude all uses except for the specific use that we're talking about that we're reszoning it for. That's always seemed a little a little odd to me that we are basically just making our own little special exception for a parcel. So I' I've kind of preferred this where we just strike a handful. But I mean, you know, to Rhonda's point, maybe there are a few more in here that should be

So the process if we strike them all and say this use Mhm. reszone, the process would be to come back to this board in order to expand it for an additional use and then we would have to qualify whatever applicant it would be for that group home or medical clinic or whatever it is given the adjacency. So So it's just a it just routes it back here for for that approval. Mhm. It'd be just an amendment. That's significant expense in time to an average Hancock County residence.

I would prefer the other way we look at it, which is if there are uses additionally that we need to strike off the list, let's do that or additional permitted uses that rather should be a special exception like the autoor oriented. Once again, uh if we look back at our comprehensive plan for guidance, appropriate uses in the town commercial land use area include multifamily, mixed use such as residential, com commercial and office on the same lot. Uh institutional uses such as schools, churches, and local government facilities. general commercial and office uses in addition to intensive commercial uses um with screened outdoor storage. So, this is an area that's supposed to be vibrant and varied and my hope is fingers crossed that we do get sanitary sewer lines through the village of Maxwell within the next couple of years. That along with growth we're seeing along that state red line corridor could really expand the possibilities in this area. But a lot of uses are actually very appropriate according to our comp plan in this area. So strike out the ones that are absolutely no way or make them go to the BZA for a special exception. Let's I would prefer that we go at it from that angle. Um I'd like to say yes to more people when they come into my office.

We're just talking about 1.5 acres, correct? I don't know how many of these things would actually go on 1.5. Yeah. I don't know how you put a supermarket or convenience store or and plus that'd be a lot. That'd be even more traffic than the auto places. That'd be a small cemetery, let me tell you. And I I am noticing that some of these that I might consider striking are already special exception. So, I'd give the BCA a look at it as well. Okay. All right. Um, any any additional discussion?

Oops. I mean, I think this is instructive for future handling of these as well. So, so we're saying we're agreeing that to reduce administrative burden, we would open it up as much as wide as possible even though some of these could not be effectuated. Yeah, that that used to be years ago. That was kind of our our way. You know, there were just this was a little reminiscent of, you know, 10 year 10 plus years ago where we would do a reszone and we would it seemed like alcohol uses got struck almost regularly, you know, and uh some of the kind of the sin type businesses, I guess, and if they were anywhere close to a neighborhood or a school or anything like that. So this is kind of reminiscent of that to you know like like Kayla was saying just longterm in the hopes that this is now properly zoned for what we think that this area should become and it's ready for that with the exception of a few of these things that don't belong there today. Now, if a gas station were to go in there, then the highway department may require a widened junction street, maybe. So, maybe that would be good. So, all right. So, if there's any discussion on striking any additional uses, we could have a motion. We've got um our standard things. It would be a favorable or unfavorable recommendation to the commissioners or a no recommendation to the commissioners or we could always table and continue if we need more time. I'd like to make a motion for a favorable recommendation with the staff recommendations one and two for the prohibition on adult uses and

requirement of the BCA approval to attach. Second. Okay. Uh Derek. So, all right. Moved and seconded for a favorable recommendation with the staff recommendations as stated by Lacy. Um we'll call the role on this. Sorry. Just get that all in the record. Mr. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. No. Mr. F.

Yes. All right. So, you'll be off to the commissioner then. Well, that'll be um will he be this week or the 31st? I don't I think it might be on the 31st, but I will get in touch with Sarah and Okay. She'll contact you on that. Yeah. All right. That concludes our hearing items for this evening. move on to other business. First item is our fee schedule.

That was from last time. There are not any updates uh for this board on the fee schedule update at this time. Scott Waldridge and I did discuss some ideas about fee increases specifically to BCA fees associated with industrial uh commercial uses um because of their higher likelihood to result in higher legal fees. Um however, there's also some state legislation occurring right now um and Rhonda spoke to me briefly before the meeting that we might want to have a better grasp on that before we move forward with updating our fee schedule. Okay. I should have an update for you next month.

Okay. All right. Item number two is our UDO update and our RFP proposals. Yesterday at 4 p.m. was the deadline for submitting a UDO proposal for the UDO light reformatting adoption support. We did receive one response from HWC Engineering. it is included in your packets. Um, I have already reserved a spot on the commissioner's agenda on March 31st. That's as early as I could get to update our commissioners. My hope is that we'll have a little some some understanding of other parts of that process before that meeting. Um, so I'll I'll speak to Gary McDaniel a little bit more about um if I can say move forward with securing funding or understanding that portion of it. Um, things like that uh in advance. Um, but yeah, this is our only proposal. Um, there is actually a representative from HWC uh here tonight if you guys want to ask him any questions. Um, but yeah, this is this is what we've got.

Kayla, can I ask you a question specifically? Is it unusual for us to only get one proposal? I mean I mean it's it's a pretty uh a lot of people do this. I guess I'm just saying. So So is it unusual for us just to get one proposal?

It's a specialized kind of process. Um there's really a couple from what I can tell. There's not a whole lot of people that do this type of work and there's a lot of subcontracting going on with different pieces of different firms. Um, I'm sure Brian has more um out more to say on that, but I will also tell you that HWC is one of the original u one of the two that applied to do the UDO originally. Even the last time we advertised this, there were two that responded um that we interviewed. So, it's a limited pool. Any questions on the contents? I I didn't have any questions. It was exactly what I was anticipating and what I know that um they had also spoken to Bill Spalding about um thinking about some scope even prior to this RFP going out and it matched up in line with that. Um the thing that was probably added from those initial discussions was the line item that is called targeted changes and the line item stakeholder coordination which were a couple of things that what we could do this evening is we could we could agree to make a recommendation to the commissioners that we like this proposal. So we could recommend uh to the commissioners to go ahead and e execute this uh and I think we could do that also in stages. Um the basic scope of services the 26,805 is the thing that we really need to get get going on. That's the get that's the piece that's getting our subdivision control ordinance and our current zoning ordinance into a UDO format. the targeted changes just as they they note here is where they would would make some

recommendations of some zoning changes for us and I don't know that we necessarily need to do that right now. Um so that could be we could offer that as an option. The commissioners could add that in now if they want or wait and see how the thing looks and go from there. Stakeholder coordination though is one that I'm I was internally debating myself on that is um they're proposing holding a couple of stakeholder meetings. I think that would put some requirements on us to create that stakeholder group and get some uh additional public input. And so I I haven't completely thought through that all the way myself, but um as I was coming to this meeting this evening, I my my initial feeling was that unfortunately we only got one, but it is a good proposal and it's what we were expecting. And I think that basic scope of services 1 through 17 is something that in order to try and get something in place by the end of the year, it it would be great if we could get this moving with the commissioners on the 31st is is just my thought. Is

this coming out of your budget or commissioner's budget? I'd have to track down funding. That's another reason I kind of want to get a move on it because it'll take a little while to I'll have to go to council to ask for funds. Okay. So, it's not just the commissioners that have to approve it. That's correct. And I think I'm trying to remember what we talked about. The commissioners were going to work on maybe finding some funding as well. Correct. For that. So there was going to be a they have in their budget that they could do it themselves. It was going to be very easily have that in our budget. They could do it themselves. And I think I think we do need the stakeholder coordination for when we had our first public meeting here. When was that? Last year sometime. Last April. Did not go well.

Yeah. Yeah, and that's what I was thinking. I almost wonder and maybe Brian can come up and talk about that, but um I'm almost wondering if we need that that formatting done before we start to show it. I agree. So that's why I'm thinking the stages we could go ahead and execute phase one and then step into the next couple of phases or something. Maybe you can kind of talk to that a little bit if you We're having a hard time understanding the side by side, right? Good evening,

Brian Stump with HWBC Engineering. Uh, so yes, the scope that we are have in front of you is really sort of two major phases. One is combining the current zoning and subdivision control into a unified development ordinance and then the adoption of those. the way we envision the other parts, the targeted changes would happen as part of the creation of the UDO because as we go through this process, I guess so that way it would be incorporated into the first draft of the UDO if there's any of those tweaks or adjustments that that would like to be made and then the once we have we'll review that with staff, come back with the second draft, that's what will be out to the public. Again, we're using your current language just it's really more of a formatting and and preparing the document for future changes. The way that we do our ordinances, everything's in Word so you can change it in the future. Uh our goal is to is to set you up with a strong foundational document taking your current regulations so that it can move forward. Um, regarding the stakeholder elements, these would these would be virtual meetings would happen after we have the draft just to talk to these groups, show them the document, get them com, you know, comfortable with it and just familiar with it. Uh, as before it goes through the approval process. Now, one of the other things that we'll be doing, things aren't going to totally line up or or you know, there are certain duplication that happens just by nature between when you've got a separate subway control ordinance and zoning ordinance. So, as we go through this process, we'll be identifying those areas of of conflict, be working with uh Ka on how to address those as we create the draft. We'll also be uh creating a game plan based off of concerns we've heard. So, this is really about just putting your current language in two separate documents into one, but we'll be making a game plan as part of our scope to identify the changes that should be made and sort of when so you can roll those out over time.

And at this point, there is no actual dollar that you're going to bring to this board, right? That'll have to be negotiated. There's a number. There's a number there. I didn't see it. I looked through there a couple times. I must have missed it. It's um it's on it's under it's kind of it's on page six that piece. So, I'm sorry. Thank you. Are there any exclusions to that number that you want to call out now that aren't called out in here that you typically would because you've engaged a lot, but any exclusions that are typical?

Yeah, I'd say the the one exclusion would be just graphics. So, we're going to use your existing graphics. Obviously, tables and things like that, those will be formatted so that you got a document that's we always go for, you know, just clear and concise and be easy to use. But graphics are one that can consume quite a bit of hours. And again, if there's going to be few changes in the future, we'll just use your existing graphics and integrate those into the document. Okay, for some other questions. Um, I see you've done some you you maybe called out Putnham, Morristown, and Crawford'sville and Morristown. What would you say is the most successful outcome of their um the work that you did for them? Signage.

Yeah. The most successful outcome. So, they had met for over two years. Their plan commission met for over two years, twice a month, if not more, and trying to get that um ordinance done. We were brought in and we're able to get them uh through a slightly different process, different or style, but we were able to create a UDO for them and from our kickoff meeting to adoption was right around four months. Okay. But what's the most successful content that came out of that?

Uh what has helped them the most is probably some of their enforcement language that we that we added into our ordinance. I I don't know necessarily know if that's in your base language, but it's one of the things that while UDO tends to be future oriented on many things, uh I always like to have language that looks at the nuisance aspects of what um what citizens look for. Um interesting and some protections from zoning. Okay. What uh what would you say knowing us and knowing RFP are the major risks for deployment that we have to monitor for this? I'm sorry. Say again, please. what what risks do we have in working through this to an end product knowing what you know about us now concerns?

So, uh your signage ordinance. So, things that are already in my mind about changes that you need to make. One of those there's two main buckets. One are things that you need to address due to changes in state law. Again, this is one that you've got. Again, we're this is more of a formatting exercise than the actual any changing the text of the ordinance. So, as we look forward to the future and um identifying language changes, I would ident case law and things that have happened with signage, making sure that that fits. Uh second would be looking at your different residential district districts as a whole and are there districts that need to be added to the ordinance or adjusted in the ordinance to better align with your comprehensive plan and looking at the development standards within those districts to make sure that they're aligning with the vision that's in your comprehensive plan.

Right. And is the give me just a high level sketch of that end product. You're talking about existing content. You're talking about new content. And are you also mapping in why we have this new content or what content has been dropped for us as well in this process if you could just kind of sketch with that draft day of the UDO off the top of your head.

Yeah. So from a the creation of it we're going to use your existing language between between the two elements. There will be there might be some areas just where there are potential conflicts in language. We'll work with the planning department on how to best address those should we have conflicts that way. I think that this is one that again because we're not changing the language, it's just more of a formatting. Uh it's going to be more of a making sure that it's easy for people to see where it is today and how it got and where it is in the new UDO. Good.

And then I just have two more questions. I'll go quickly. Um who is your client? Who do you see as your client in this? Because you got a a capital C client and bunch of us bunch of Who's the client you're working with? Ideally, ideally it's the county. And I guess I I would say that it's the I view my client as the plan commission and the county commissioners. It has to be something that they're willing to adopt. So So what version of the client um is best able who who how would you work like I'm just like who is it a group? Is there a like how does it Kayla? It's the

uh that can vary with this type of a process given that this is more um frankly administrative and we're not doing big policy change will be likely be with a probably a task group with the planning staff. Last question for me. Um would you be open to a postcript number 18 that says here's what we planned, here's what didn't get through. Here's what you should do. You should before you do this. It's here's here's what didn't get through because there might be some things or some some sequencing that that just needs a you have the final but then there's a an adoption. We're in a change management program right now for for a comprehensive plan. We should anticipate we need to say for something like this.

Okay. So as far as we we'll do the final document um after it is adopted that's when we create the so from a production standpoint getting the weeds here but from a production standpoint we do things in word because we want it accessible and easy for the the county to change in the future and then we also the other deliberate is a PDF of the UDO which is word searchable and has hyperlinks things of that nature. So

yeah I I'm thinking more the things that did not get through it's just that we have a registry of that as well. Yeah. Um, again, working with your existing language. Yes. Well, we'll keep we'll keep tabs on that of those items. Go. The other part would be those things would be the elements we captured in the game plan. Are you just identifying future changes? I I don't know that there's alignment on the content. The extent that maybe I I think that's going to be a question. What do you mean on the content? the content is the new any new any any new content we're all agree that the content is settled just a formatting

well and that's what we're I wanted to kind of cl that was my question I guess just to clarify so targeted changes I think I might have missed what you said there so I don't want to speak completely for the commissioners but what we're looking for is like a pretty very transparent process So, we're doing this kind of radical thing where we're taking our two documents and making it's not I know it's not radical. You do it all the time, but we're taking our two documents making a unified development ordinance. And that's scaring people a little bit because they feel like here's this new document. What did you change?

So, I think what we want to present to the commissioners is a document, maybe there are some changes in there, like you said, that have to be made because of state laws and things like that that have changed over time. our stuff's old, but will there be a pretty e a pretty clear executive summary that says we did this thing, here's a list of the things that are changing because of it, and then here are a list of things that we think that you should consider changing next. Is that Yeah. Do I have that kind of

I'm really not envisioning this with changing the language of your ordinance. The the targeted changes were in the RFP. things that the things that were mentioned were uh accessory dwelling units and home occupations and just kind of clarifying some of those things. So that's really I mean this scope is focused on very little okay uh very few changes to the language. This is more of establishing a a new UDO for you that is structured such that you can make those revisions in the future. And with that is the our our proposal or recommendations on future changes. Okay.

So the the $9,500 is the ones we asked for which was the the couple that we struggle with. Okay. So you're going to rewrite those. It's a very narrow because understanding the situation about the concern of the language and just the it's going to seem different, right? Just the fact that they're together and the formatting is going to be different. So, the deliverable will be current language in a new format with a couple of changes, accessory dwelling units and home occupation. Yes. And we'll be very clear about what those changes are.

Yeah. and then maybe a list of things that might have had to change because of changes in state law and things. And then um and then we would move to this stakeholder coordination where you would help us to roll it out with some focus groups and things. Okay. Exactly. Just to introduce them to the the order. Imagine that if if you stumble upon something or something jumps off the page as you're going through this, you would go to Kayla, Kayla come to Mike, Mike would come to the commissioner, know kind of keeping everyone in the loop of Exactly. any changes to off the page, but as far as like there are no we're not dealing with substantive content changes here. This is more of a it's it's how the current regulations are packaged,

right? Which is exactly what we're in the market for. Yeah. Okay. Okay. All right. Any more questions for Brian? Thanks for coming out and explaining that to us. So, what we could do this evening is we could we could continue this another month if you want to take it, read it, think about it more, or we could forward it on with a with a recommendation to have Kayla present it to the um commissioners. I think she's on the agenda for the 31st of March, which actually gives you some more time if you had any more questions. And then um is it is there a contract that will be available to review or how will that be prepared?

That's a good point. That was one of the quick things to talk about real quick. Um officially in the RFP, we request for an interview process. Given that there is one applicant, I mean that's up to you guys, but surely if you would like to, we can schedule an interview of the team to

have more of a understanding of the project. Um, I would want to need I would need to know and I think I would need your help on this, Rhonda, to make sure we're all good, who is going to be interviewing that uh at who's going to be at that meeting so we don't have any quorum issues. Um, and I would love to see a draft of a contract so that hopefully if we were to get, say, a recommendation, I could arrive at the 331 BOC meeting with a contract that Scott Bank and Rhonda have both had an option to already review. Exactly. Okay. That's the best course of action. Okay.

So, with that, we really don't need to take an action necessarily this evening. Can I get like a blessing or a thumbs up to proceed? Oh, well, yeah. Go ahead. We will be able to have this back on the agenda before it goes to commissioners next month. Is that what you're saying? At the March 24th meeting. March 24th. Yeah. Okay. And then that meeting would be a recommendation to the commissioners. Yeah. To enter into the contract. Yeah. Okay. And in the meantime, we are interviewing HWC and getting a draft contract prepared. Sounds

Yeah. So, I would say I assume we're all okay with Caleb proceeding with setting up an interview. You can round up a group of us to participate in that like you guys to self-identify who's gonna be on that committee. Yeah. All right. Who are the volunteers to participate in meet in the meet the team? Janine Gray. You Scott

and Scott. How many do you think we should have? Three. Yeah. As much as four should be on. Mike will do it. Maybe one other officer, Mr. Tol or Renee. Either one of you available. It um I can be available. It just depends on the day. On the day. Okay. It varies. Probably goes for me and Janine, too. Okay. I mean, it does for every for everybody. So, yeah. Okay. I don't mind doing it. I mean, I'm familiar with this process. Yep. So, let's uh plan on Janine, Derek, Scott, and Mike for that committee. And you can select a couple dates and get with us

legal to have Rhonda there. Oh, that's a good idea. Yeah. Smart. Thank you. Okay, thank you for that. Um, item number three, Shirley enter a local agreement draft revisions update. I don't have anything for Shirley. Oh, did we look at you, man? Okay. She didn't say a thing to me since the last meeting. Surely, there's something to talk about.

I was referring to this subject. All right. Well, moving on if we could. Um, did uh Shirley appoint um the gentleman that was at the last BZA meeting as your alternate member to the BZA? I can't answer that. Okay. I've heard something, but I don't know if they've actually done it. Okay. All right. But you found somebody. So, I'm under the impression that yes, they have found someone. We'll figure this out. And I think they've got a meeting this week scheduled. So, it may be official this week. Okay. So, moving into that, is that okay, Mike, if I Yeah.

Um, the BZA alternate member appointment from the plan commission also needs to be made. Now, this is kind of tricky because a lot of you are already serving or appointed from other boards and bodies, which the BCA member really can't be. It really, as far as I could tell, limits it to Dean or Derek. Once again, this is an alternate member for Mike to appear. If Mike ever can't show up at the BCA, he's always there. He's always there. Yeah, Mike's good to make it. I show up. He's got a vacation though planned. So, that's what they're doing. 12 months. Okay, I can do it. Sounds like volunteering. So, if if uh

yeah told So, we have a nomination. I think Derek uh just nominated Dean. Do we have a second? Second. All right. moved and seconded to appoint Dean Fout as our alternate member appointment of the BCA from the planning commission. All those in favor signify by saying IO. Same same sign. Motion carries. Congratulations. Backyard chickens. Backyard chickens. Very good. This is what they talk about. Yeah. All right. Um item five 25 annual report is out.

Yep. So, this is ready to It's also on that 3:31 BOC agenda to just present to the board of commissioners. Hopefully, Scott's back from his knee surgery by then um to help me with that building side of that. Um have you all had a chance to kind of look through this? Okay. Anything you want to talk about? I I know I had this presented to me already by her at another meeting and we talked about how expensive the Green Township homes are. Yeah, that was stuck out at me, too. Yeah, we we that came up during our discussion. But there's a couple homes up there that I can see that would would bring that. So,

it's very skewed. Oh, very much so. I did review that. They're all in one little area. Yeah. About the same family, I think. Yes, they are. Oh, okay. And then the the anesthesiologist down there. Mhm. Yeah, you can pretty much pick out who that is. Yeah. Um, do you need a motion to approve that? That'd be great. I'll move to approve your the annual report 2025 annual report as submitted by staff. And I will second that. All right. Moved and seconded to approve the annual report as submitted by staff. All those in favor signify by saying I. Oppos. Same sign. Motion carries. It's good information. Does this get sent around to I assume the commissioners get everybody gets this, right?

I did send it to the commissioners as well. Um but yeah, I can I'm happy to I was actually thinking I could post this on our website. Yeah, it's it's good information. Okay. Yeah. Yep. I'm happy to do that. All right. Um we I'm going to drag item six out for 20 minutes to get to 9:00. No. Southern Hancock seat vacancy on the plat committee. We had any movement on that?

Um, not since we last spoke. Um, so Joe Donninger has uh retired from the plat committee which leaves a vacancy for somebody from the Southern Hancock or New Palestine School Corporation. Um, Joe was kind enough to give me a name of a neighbor he thought would be a good candidate. I really haven't reached out past that to double check interest or anything. And then I've been kind of floating that information that hey there's an opening for somebody interested in this board um as I've seen people. But if you know of anybody who lives in the southern or new Palestine uh school district and wants to be on the plat committee so has some understanding of how minor subdivisions work, utility easements, things like that, um they would they potentially would be a really good candidate for plat committee. They meet one time a month. Um 8 move to 8 a.m. on the um third typically like the third Thursday of the month. Uh and meet for like half an hour to go over minor subs.

Who are all excluded? Like is Mike Long excluded? I would have to double check, but I think yes. I think I am. Yeah. Oh, yes. Because Byron is is the appointment from the plan commission on the plat committee. And does it have to be It just has to be in the school district. It could be in the town of New Pal. It could be in town Creek Township or or Brandy White Township. Okay. If Mike wanted to really be on there, I could switch to Sugar Creek and he could be planning it town man board member. I

Yeah, I was going to ask elected official. Could elected official be on it? Rhonda, do you see any reason that would be I don't think we have really solid rules for how the plat committee gets appointed by the plan commission. Could they be a town like a town manager of new pal or something? I I don't know that right off hand. I'd have to look at Me too. We can double check that if you have a candidate. I could couple that that are elected that would probably do a very good Did you happen to check with Gary P? He knows that engineering community. He might know somebody that in the area that has the knowledge.

That's a good idea. So, I nominate Gary B. He lives lives in our area, too. Yeah.

Okay, I think that is it. Anybody have anything else? Words of wisdom? Motion to adjurnn. Second. Okay. Moved and seconded to adjurnn. All those in favor say I.