City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay, good evening everyone. It is 6 pm April 20th, 2026 and it's time to call the city council meeting to order. Miss Jones, roll call, please. Mr. Austin here. Mr. Shuck here. Miss McGinness here. Miss Nally here. Miss Price. Mr. Prime here. Mr. Taylor here. Mayor, you have a quorum. Thank you, ma'am. Mr. Brian Reese

invite you to join me in prayer. Our father, we come before you this evening and we thank you for the privilege of being here together in city hall. God, I pray that you would be with this meeting tonight, all the items on the agenda. Pray that you give wisdom and discernment to our council as they consider the matters on the agenda tonight. Thank you for their willingness to just give their time and and be here tonight, consider these matters and uh make decisions that they believe are best for uh this city and its future. Uh tonight I lift up our first responders, especially our fire department, as they've just been um going above and beyond and showing just how uh privileged we are to have their services here in our city. I pray you be with them as they catch their breath and uh recover from the busyiness of the recent events and uh just uh pray that you'd strengthen them as they go and continue forward to continue to serve the city in the great way they do. Uh pray that you would just help us to uh honor you and glorify you in all we do. It's in your name we pray. Amen. invite you to stand together with me and recite the pledge.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. You may be seated.

Okay, I want to thank you all for attending tonight. Um it's uh good to look out in the crowd and see a lot of friends and uh a lot of citizens show up to these meetings uh when it's an important meeting. So it's time for the consent agenda or no, excuse me, it's time for announcements and public comment that does not contain to the agenda. So does anybody have anything to say that's not on the agenda? Seeing none, we will move on to the consent agenda. Move to approve the meeting minutes of the city council meeting on April 6th as presented. Second. Okay. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor by saying I. I. I. Okay. That gets us to old business. Move to read old business by title only. Second.

Okay. We have a motion to read by title only. Um all those in favor? I I opposed hearing none. We will go on to item number one, approval of ordinance 2026-08 reszoning to be known as Innovative Park at Franklin College PUD planning director Joanna Tennel. And this was introduced at April 6th meeting. Is that right?

Tonight is the um public hearing and official action of the Innovation Park at Franklin College uh PUD. This was before the plan commission at their March 17th meeting and it was forwarded to city council with a favorable recommendation by unani by a unanimous vote. Um that resolution is included in the packet. Also included in your packet is a copy of the staff report uh meeting minutes from the plan commission meetings in order to give you a background of what was discussed at those meetings. And in addition, there is a copy of any correspondence that we had received from um any of the residents in the area that we we have not received anything since the packets have went out. So, you do have everything that we currently have on record. Um the property is approximately 249 acres. It's located on the north side of Greensburg Road, Park Avenue, and then also on the west side of Umbar Lane. Um, County Road, whatever that county road is. Sorry, I blanked it on that. Um,

thank you. No, here. We'll get it.

450 East. Sorry about that. Property is currently zoned RS1 and RT1. Uh, those are both residential zoning districts. the RS1 uh minimum lot standards for areas 15,000 and 100 foot width of lots. The RT1 is 9,000 square foot with 75 ft lots. Um before you is a copy of the proposed PUD development in the conceptual stage. Um just wanted to make note with the PUD it is a generalization. Nothing is you know been designed in its entirety. There are multiple steps after uh the PUD would be approved. Um that ordinance would be recorded in that document then supersedes any of the requirements in our zoning ordinance unless there's specific reference in the PUD to our current standards or amendments thereof. So there are a number of references in this PUD that do uh correlate to our existing zoning ordinance. um that is pretty common. The things that are not um the same as what a straight zoning or the strict standards of our zoning ordinance. Those are the things that are outlined in the development itself. So you'll see the different uses, the office innovation, the Franklin College, um the residential, both attached, detached, and multifamily. Each of those are listed in the document. It goes through and lists the specific uses for those areas and then all the lot standards. Um there are some references to the buffer which is the exhibit after this. Um we had a quite a bit of participation from the public which is always good. Um a number of them are here this evening so do appreciate that

also. Um at this point I will turn it over to Ice Miller and Franklin College. they'll give you an official presentation

as they make their way to the podium. I would uh like like to remind council that our typical process is to allow 20 minutes per side um if the if there is a need to continue and have additional discussion. You certainly can add more time as long as we add equivalent time to both sides. So we usually usually the petitioner will do 15 minutes reserve five for rebuttal and then give 20 minutes to demonstrators. But uh you are free to change those parameters if you feel it is necessary in order to make your decisions. We just want to make sure we give equivalent time to both sides. So I'll keep I'll be the official Apple timekeeper until you tell me otherwise.

Thank you. I'm Carrie Prather. I'm the president of Franklin College. I wanted to offer the council first of all our appreciation for being here this evening and considering the application for reszoning this property as a planned unit development and talk you talk to you a little bit about how we arrived at this point. We bought this property in 2006 uh initially to be able to expand some outdoor athletic facilities that we needed um to do at the time which was accomplished uh and left us with the remaining 250 acres which we've since owned for the past 21 years 20 years um really waiting for a time. I I give the board of trustees a lot of credit uh having sat on this at nominal uh return on corn sitting there. um but waiting for the right time to do things in a thoughtful manner. We began to get uh interest from developers probably 5 years ago. Lots of different ideas which uh made us uh realize we needed a strategy, a thoughtful strategy for how to approach this in a way that would be hopefully most beneficial to the college, most beneficial to the city recognizing what an important piece of property it is. So that led us to this whole series of u conceptual decisions at this point. Um, the innovation park itself, which is the 40 acres that sit closest to the existing eastern perimeter of the campus, is envisioned to be uh the way I described it is a a miniature version of Purdue's Discovery Park, where we hope to attract um small and medium-siz high-tech businesses, uh life science businesses, other high-tech businesses who can provide um an opportunity for the south side of the greater Indianapolis region to benefit from the tech boom and the life science

boom going on right now. Those innovation parks that are already existing in the state of Indiana are typically tied to a college or university for obvious reasons of synergy and access to graduates. So um we tested this with some companies and and got very positive uh feedback in terms of their interest. We get the advantage of our students being able to study at the elbows of those professionals while they're in school. They get the advantage of having our graduates uh them being first in line as those students graduate. And the area gets the benefit of um high dollar, high salary jobs in those industries. So, we're really excited about that piece and what it can do for us as a college, but also what it can do economically for the city and the whole region. The contiguous 200 acres obviously um then need to be built out and developed in some combination of residential, commercial, and retail that best fits the needs of the city. Uh best meets the standards that we would like to have as neighbors, that our neighbors would like to have as neighbors. U so we're anxious for all of that to take place after about five or six years of of talking through this I think in a very thoughtful way. We've had really good discussions with the folks in the adjoining neighborhoods. Have gotten a lot of good ideas from them. And with that, I will uh I will let Mr. Oaks from Ice Miller lead the rest of this conversation. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening. Um my name is Tim Oaks. I'm an attorney Ice Miller representing the college. Very quickly with me here this evening in addition to obviously President Prather is Drew Bailey of Browning Day the um architects and landscape folks for the project and Bill Butts with Kimley Horn who is the civil uh we um finally the partner of the college in terms of developing this property uh patch development is here Andrew Greenwood um is present would be able to answer questions that the council might have as well. Um, and if I could be uh somewhat forward and ask you, Lynn, if you could let me know when we get to 15 minutes because I would like to reserve five.

Sure.

Thank you. Um, you know, uh, I've been doing this for for 30 years and some of the folks in the audience have heard this exact thing and this is an unusual situation. I've done lots and lots of development across the state. Rarely do I have a project where the immediate adjacent neighbor is the owner of the property um that has been in the city for a hundred years or more uh and wants to be there for a hundred years. And um wow the no one in this room has in my opinion a more vested interest than the college itself in terms of trying to make this project a good project because they have to live next to it. Um they have to live with their decisions. This isn't a scenario where a developer is coming into town, builds out whatever it is they're proposing for, and then they leave, and they don't have to live with the consequences. You have an owner here that has to live with the consequences, and it's important to them. Um, and and that truly is significant. Um next thing um and and I guess is a reflection of how important it is to them is we have this very building this very elaborate PUD all these rules and concepts and then on top of that we're we've actually put in place yet a second set of design guidelines that we expect anybody that's you know wants to come and locate themselves in in in this innovation district. Um that they have to abide by and they have to submit architectural plans to uh our own uh design review committee and get

approval and that's on top of everything that the city is going to do. And that that's kind of a reflection of the importance of doing this right uh from from the Franklin Collegeg's perspective. Um, I'll talk in general terms about this project. Um, I I really want to start doing that by thanking staff. Uh, we went through the concept stage in front of the plan commission twice. Um, and um, staff for the city has been Joanna has been great to work with and provided a lot of important feedback and really everybody's rolled up their sleeves and tried to do the best job that they can. Um, in terms of the overall development, look, this this is an extension of the city. It's important. You only get one chance to to do this. We understand it. So, when we looked at this, how do you do this? What is the best way to do it? Um, we came up with the plan that's up on the screen right now. And the intent is to uh for the most part try to mirror or very closely mirror the existing development that is to the north of innovation and then transition that into the more intense uh commercial type or very light industrial type uses. So as you see that you know the gold area or some people think maybe that's orange. I guess that depends on your color palette. Um, you know, it it's single family detached residential. Uh, as you're a little bit further to the east and what I think is the more salmon and then the orange kind of color, it's a little bit more dense residential. And then as you move further south, the brown area is the multif family area. The purple area is the mixed use. The green areas are the

open space. Um, those really orange areas are the innovation areas where we expect those, you know, smaller, hopefully high-tech and light manufacturing, assembly type users that you want that we see at Discovery Park, which President Prather gave a great example of what we're trying to emulate here. Um, so as part of that, we we we did a few, you know, a few things. one, you know, we uh we put the open space uh that green area around the one existing home on the site. Uh we thought that was a great buffer area. Um two, we tried to mirror the lot sizes for the uh subdivision to the north. you know, the the lots that are rectangular in that subdivision are 85 ft wide, and that's the minimum requirement that we're building into those lots that back up to them. Um, some of the lots up there, as they back up to us, are a little bit larger, and that's because they're on a culde-sac, and they're pies-shaped lots. Um, so we've tried to to meet those uh requirements, those densities as we move south. We intentionally put the multif family in the middle of the project uh to buffer it from all the other areas. We want different housing types because uh people have an exercise choice as to where they live and there's it used to be that you would live in an apartment because you couldn't afford a house and that's that's just no longer true. There are renters by choice. uh and sometimes by necessity. So I'm I'm going to be here for a year. I need I'm not going to buy a house. I'm going to move into an

apartment. Um so um uh we also uh put in buffers around the project and for example we have a required and there's a buffer exhibit in the PUD and in the staff report. We have a required buffer along the northern perimeter of the site um between buffering between single family residential and single family residential. All right, I'll finish. And then under your ordinance, we wouldn't even have to put in a buffer area, but we are um you have five minutes on your 15 that I saved another five after. Okay, thank you. That's good. I was like, wow, that went fast.

That went you still have five on your 15. Um, so a lot of a lot of thought went into this. Um, we we do have contact with staff. We monitor the file. We see the the public comments. There seems to be um a chain email, for a lack of a better word, that hits three concerns that a lot of folks in the community seem seem to have. So, I'll address those uh real quickly up front. first is that a request there be no freestanding apartments. I I kind of already went through that. Um it's in the center of the project and um it it's a it's a needed use. Uh this is truly mixed use and we need to accommodate folks that want to live there. Now that brings me to the second point that a lot of people raised which is subsidized housing. Um, I understand all too well um that the city is probably not in a position to prohibit that for various reasons I won't go into, but that does not prevent the college from voluntarily saying we're not going to do that. And so, uh, the co the college agrees there will be no subsidized housing. We will enter into a written commitment. It's permitted by Indiana code 36-74-1015 that will be placed of record and will bind the the current owner and all future owners if it's sold. And so we suggest the language would be with the exception of students enrolled at Franklin College. It's hard to I'm not sure what subsidized means or they get a scholarship from the government. Is that subsidized? We don't want that to count. So if they're a student, it's there's an exception. So with the exception of students enrolled at Franklin College are otherwise prohibited by applicable

law. Residential dwellings located on the real estate. The real estate is all 250 acres or 249 acres. Um uh the u the real estate shall not utilize tenant-based vouchers such as the housing choice voucher program, also known as section 8, or state or federal projectbased subsidies such as low-income housing tax credits, also known as section 42 housing, that will be in writing, signed by the owner, and placed of record, and bind the property and and will not be capable of being modified without the approval. appal of the council pursuant to a public hearing. Um, you know, you often times hear people say in these contexts, put your money where your mouth is. And we like to think that that's what we just did with subsidized housing. Um, it isn't going to be allowed and we're putting it in writing and it's binding on all future honors. Um, finally, um, there have been a number of concerns expressed about traffic and and safety. You know, I think it's probably safe to say that the folks that do the most walking, the heaviest pedestrian traffic perhaps in the city outside of the right adjacent perhaps to the the big center of town is our college students. Um, they're always walking. Pedestrian safety is first and foremost in the minds of the college and we get that. We want it to be safe. We want it to that is as big a concern for the college as it is is is for any of the residents. Uh in that regard this is one step in what is if approved are several more steps going forward. Um and that includes um platting and other plans that occur in

the future that ultimately lead to building permits for individual sections of this project. As part of the platting process, there will be a traffic study. Um the scope of that traffic study will be identified by um the city engineer uh and include intersections that are required to be studied and there'll be a list of recommendations and we'll go through those uh and uh safety measures will be implemented uh at that time. We're not quite at that level of detail with this PUD, but the process is in place to make sure that from a traffic safety perspective, from a pedestrian safety perspective, safety will be dealt with, uh, when we reach that point. Um, so with that, um, as I indicated before, we we've got a team here that's capable of answering any questions that the council might have. Uh, and we do very much appreciate your attention to this request. So, thank you.

Thank you. You'll have five minutes on rebuttal. I gave an extra 30 seconds or so because I could tell Tim was wrapping up. We we'll give equivalent time. Um, sir, before uh we start with interested persons or remmonstrators. I I want to elaborate on on something that council said because I also saw the emails that many of you got. As a municipality and a government organization, we cannot uh because we are a recipient of federal and state funds under title six, we cannot place restrictions on subsidized housing. Uh we we cannot do that. We can however uh and we cannot make anything like that subject to our zoning ordinance. However, nothing prohibits us from accepting a voluntary commitment from a developer and or a petitioner of a land owner who has property. So, Mr. Oaks has indicated to me that that is something they are voluntarily going to put into their plan. It is not something that our planning department or the city required of them. It is something they have voluntarily decided to do. So I want to make that very clear because we do take federal funds and we don't want to lose those.

No. Okay. Okay. With with that said, we we get 20 minutes 20 minutes to the interested persons. Yes. Or we're either way. Either way, anybody? Anybody? 20. There's 20 minutes dedicated to people in favor or folks opposed. So, let's start with opposed. If there's anyone opposed, you have 20 minutes to come up and give your opinion at this time. It's a public hearing. as a school teacher.

It's fine. You got to be on one side or the other to get to 20 minutes. Thank Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Thank you. Okay, just for purposes of our transcriber, could you please state your name for the record? I was about to. Okay.

Okay. Good evening, uh, city council members, mayor Joanna, and other guests. Um, not really opposed to this, but I I we our planning was to get up and and speak. So, I am Glenn Carlstrren, Jefferson Neighborhood resident representing the neighborhood tonight. First of all, I want to thank all of the stakeholders that we have met with. We've met with uh Carrie Brather, the president of Franklin College, Andrew Greenwood, uh Patch Development, David Clintenning, who's not here, the superintendent of Franklin Community Schools, uh Mayor Steve Barnett, and Joanna uh Tanel with the planning department. I also have a architect friend in Indianapolis and my wife's uh uncle who is a developer and builder who have both provided expert advice along the way. I can say from all of these visits that our team presented all of our concerns and issues and questions to the people above. We have had pleasant, thoughtful, and spirited discussions regarding this new development. Coming away from these meetings, we have decided that we support this development and feel that most of our concerns and issues and questions have been answered satisfactorily or at least explained. uh in my meeting with uh the mayor and with Joanna, Judy and I were there for about an hour and a half. We had a great discussion. Joanna asked me at the meeting said, "Trust me. Trust me and our department to do the right thing and to make sure this development and the project follow all of the detailed planning and city requirements going forward." I said we

will and I shared that with the community and but what I'm hearing from the community is that they will trust the city department. However, many are still guarded and want to make sure that the detailed plan is followed. Remember Pastor Andy Kinsey said, "Trust and verify." At our last community meeting, I shared all this information and was wellreceived. The neighborhood members still have several concerns and issues that we will present tonight to the council and other members will speak of those and you mentioned some of those. And uh we we had said one of our top priorities was we do not want to have apartments period. Mixed apartments with retail on the first floor are acceptable. Those are pretty cool. We saw up in Caramel West Clay. They they really look sharp. And my wife Judy, she you know travels to Europe a lot and she says it's really cool. So but no corporate purchasing of property and using those as rentals. We want them to be owner occupied.

Yeah.

The other thing on here was no government subsidized housing apartments or section 8. And counselor, I'm happy that you brought that up, but I think you know, uh, you're listening to the neighbors. As I said, we had some spirited and excellent meetings and give and take and and we listened to you and we learned and you listen to us. And so the fact that there's a commitment, a voluntary commitment with uh M Gray, what you're talking about uh legally and all that, but that it won't be uh allowed or but then one of the questions I just had a minute ago was how's this going to be enforced? So that's you know that's that's an interesting thing there. Um, we are wanting as much single family detached housing as possible with prices equal to or greater than the contiguous neighborhoods. In our meetings, patch pledged to us that they would bring in housing that meets or comes close to our concerns. There's still a huge concern for this traffic and safety issues. I know you talk about there'll be a traffic study after everything's passed and everything, but we have a traffic and safety issue now. And then we we're going to talk about that. It is still dangerous outside and on Milford that there needs to be a stop sign, a four-way stop sign at Milford and Jefferson. That's a dangerous interception intersection and 44. And we'll have people that'll talk about that. And one of the things lastly is that no construction entrance at Milford and the cornfield as promised by the city. Thank you very much for listening and putting up with I I talked about um you were supposed to be opposed but I there's some opposition here and there's there's support of basically the

project. We like it but with some modifications we would be even more like it more. So, I now pass on to my neighbor. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.

Hello there everyone. Um I'm Tristan Puit. I'm the executive director at Morningoint Assisted Living. It's located on Milford. Um, I got involved with this project when I heard about the development, which, um, being a new citizen of Franklin, we purchased a home on King Street over downtown about 6 months ago, and we love it. Um, we can walk everywhere and everything. But um working at Morning Point and knowing that this development is coming, I do as a younger citizen that plans to live here hopefully the rest of my life. I do hope that this is held to a high standard this this piece of development. Um speaking professionally, I do have several residents that walk up and down Milford, um which is currently a dead end. I do have concerns and have always had concerns with Jefferson and Milford not already being a four-way stop. I just see I mean my my office I can see that intersection all day long, people coming and and going and I do think that once that dead end is no longer there that people are just going to go even faster to to enter this residential area. So, I do think it's something that we should address before the the area is developed as well as I've had a couple of families um spouses of residents and things that actually don't visit their loved one after dark if they have to make a left turn off of Milford onto 44 onto King Street because with the, you know, the two lanes both directions. It's hard for them to make a left turn and there has been accidents at that intersection. So, I don't I don't know what the plan is for that intersection,

but if there's a way to do a roundabout or something different, um I just I think people are going to use that that road to cut through the neighborhood and get over to King Street so they can cut to the interstate. Um, I think I would do something like that myself, you know, out of convenience. So, um, I just again, if you can take it into consideration to get make Jefferson and Milford a four-way stop for the safety of not not only the residents at Morning Point, but the residents of the neighborhood who have children or walking their dogs. I mean, there's always people out and about walking. So, and I think that will just increase with this development if there's going to be parks and things and a nice area to walk. So, just something to think about. Um, and then obviously that main main road there at King and Milford, just try to have a plan for that because I do think um, you know, accidents and things could could happen with that increase in traffic. So, that's all I wanted to to speak on today. So, thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Anybody else? Hello. Um, my name is Cookie McWills and I'm a resident of Franklin. Um Glenn Carl Strand asked me to speak tonight about the traffic situation at Milford and King Street. And the reason he asked is because I'm one of the few people who's lived on both sides of that intersection. I lived 28 years in Jefferson Meadows and tried to turn left onto King Street. And now I've lived 10 years on the north side in uh the far west end of Club Estates and I'm trying to turn left to go out to the interstate and it's a dangerous intersection at certain times of the day. You can't get out at all. So the people in my neighborhood often have to drive down to the roundabout, make a U-turn in the roundabout and then go out to the interstate. And it's only at certain times of the day. Um, there's a lot of moving parts, I guess I would say, at that intersection. We have fire trucks and ambulances that are entering onto King Street from Milford. We have golf carts now that are going across because they can't drive on King Street right there because the speed limit's too high. We've got trails on both sides. So you've got bicyclists, you've got pedestrians, you've got uh joggers that are trying to cross there and it's very difficult. You've also got a frontage road um on our side on the north side. Um and that adds to the confusion at the intersection. Um one thing that I think that could be done

right now and it shouldn't be very expensive to do would be to put the arrows back down on the south side. When I lived in Jefferson Meadows, there were arrows painted on the sidewalk there or on the street, so you knew which lane to get into if you wanted to go straight. I'm a person that goes straight across that intersection when I can. A lot of times I can't. Um, but now after they redid King Street, those arrows disappeared when the road was paved and they've never been put back down. So, I don't know which lane to get in when I want to go straight across there. If I'm headed north, am I supposed to be in the left lane with the left turn people? Am I supposed to be in the right lane? And it's um it's just very confusing. So, I'm just concerned about the additional traffic and how that might affect the intersection.

Thank you. I'm Judy Carl Strand. Um, thank you for listening to all these requests and and and discussions and thank you all for being here. Um, I am a member of the Jefferson neighborhood group and I just want to say a few things about the apartments. Yes, I've lived 13 years outside of the country and what I really think is beautiful and I could see it right here is mixed apartments above things to do. When you're strolling around a European city, which I love to do, or living in Latin America, that's what you can do. You can get outside of your house and walk. And I think we would all agree we need to walk. Americans need to walk. And uh that would take that brown part there and make it purple. You know, just add a place where people can have cafes and things down there. I think it would be the best of all possible worlds. We were originally zoned, as you said, for RS1 and RT1, and I think that's a good compromise. And Joanna explained to us that you need to have transition between the the um strictly commercial and the single housing residences and that would make kind of a great transition. I love that idea and I can just have this vision. Town and gown are united. We have the same purposes and we also have a beautiful place to walk that is safe. So I urge you to consider changing that brown to purple. Um, and to not bring the bulldozers down Milford. Thank you.

Thank you. Anybody else? Okay. Is there anybody else before we close the public hearing? Okay. Renee. Renee, don't be shy. Mr. Shy, I I went to high school. Hey, I went to high school with Renee, so I know he's not shy. I was gonna say he never had a shy day in his life. Renee, you got five minutes and 50 seconds, sir. I know. Maybe I shouldn't have told him that, right?

Yeah. 50 seconds. I want to keep Milford, you know, uh, and Steve, I I heard that you had a conversation with Glenn saying that you would take care of things. I'm sorry, Mayor Barnett. Steve,

excuse me. I don't mean to be disrespectful. I'm sorry about that. U, yeah, I I can agree with uh I think she left um over there. going left, going right. I had an accident. Not because I'm handicapped, but because I had an accident. Cars were zooming fast. And I've mentioned this before over there at the intersection of King and uh and Milford. Um so I, you know, I know I can't do anything about Milford. you guys want to extend it and you're going to extend it. But, uh, if there's any way to figure out how to do that a little bit different, I would plead with you to consider that because of all that's been mentioned and because it's it's going to change everything and that's been a part of my life for 22 years. Um, and I appreciate everything that's going on, everybody that that's saying positive things about it. Just give me five more years or seven more years. Uh, but u, all joking aside, I I I would ask you to consider I asked uh this gentleman over here next to Todd I mean, Councilman Todd.

Yeah. Sean. Yes. I asked you how many times I could bring this up. You said as many as I wanted to. Exactly. That's what I'm doing. But that's that's all I have to say really. Thank you. Thank you, Renee.

Well, I can I can tell you the conversation that I had with Carl and Trent McWills. Uh it was Cookie that just spoke about the arrows on the road. We can probably address those arrows on the road pretty quickly and have our street department look at that. Um, that was just brought to my attention. I didn't realize that one. The stop sign is a little bit u more study goes into that because by law we have to do that. But the conversation was said with Trent about the stops and Carl the stop sign put at King and and Milford. I'm not one or stop light. I'm not one to put in stop lightss. I'm one let's put a roundabout there if we're g we we got an open nice entryway into our city and we certainly don't want to put stop lightss there. However, whenever we do the traffic study, the traffic study is done. If it calls for a stoplight, we're going to put a roundabout in. So, I'm just I'm just

Yeah. So, and and I'm not I'm not a crazy about roundabouts. And it's a lot less. It's a lot more affordable, too. Stop lights are ridiculously high.

So, I just wanted to Renee, you brought that up that I said we would take care of that kind of stuff and we will. And I guess the the thing that I wanted to say is look around Franklin here and I think what Joanna was saying in the conversation, you need to trust us because I've been mayor for nine years. I was on city council for eight years. And when you look around Franklin or what's been done, I can't look at something that we can all look at and say that is terrible. So, I don't think that we're in the business to do terrible things to Franklin. We're in the business to listen to our constituents and try to do what's right for 26,000 people and try to do what's right for the growth of the city at the right pace. So, with that being said, I just wanted to say that, Renee, because you brought that up and I I appreciate that. So, is there anybody else that would like to say something?

I I think we're going to close the public hearing at this time and the petitioner has five remaining five remaining minutes. Sir, I might be able to get through this in less than five. Um, want want to thank everyone for their comments. Um, I'll try to address them kind of in order. Um Mr. Carl Strand said trust and verify. Absolutely.

And the great again the great thing here is um you have a community partner that's at the heart of this Franklin College and I well you know President Prather you pick up the phone and call him. Um you don't often get that opportunity. Um but absolutely trust and verify. We no problems with that. Encourage it. How are the commitments enforced? we get to put that in the commitments themselves. We're happy to give the enforcement ability to the city unless they don't want it. Um, but we can also give that to and we can list anybody that lives within 1,000 ft of the perimeter of the property.

Happy to do that. U, we want to have a clear enforcement mechanism in the in the commitment and it will have that. Um, uh, no apartments. Um, again, we there has to be a mix. Um, you know, uh, ironically, uh, I moved my youngest, uh, daughter, 26 years old, into an apartment over the weekend. Um, and it, uh, I don't know, it kind of bothers me when, when people say, "Oh, apartments are bad." And I, you know, I would like to think that my daughter who is a gra just graduated medical school and is a and is a resident uh that any community uh in the United States would want to have someone like her as a resident. And right now the the place that's best for her to live is an apartment. It they're necessary. They they ser it's a housing choice that is part of the pantheon of available places to live and they serve a role. Um and I think it's well thought out how this was done. Um with respect to uh Miss Puit Tristan Puit um we want people like her to move in here by the way. though, um uh that we agree with all of her comments. Um um you know, again, we share the traffic concerns and we look forward to the traffic study and the resolutions that come from it. I think there's actually an existing problem from what we hear at Milford and King. Boy, this is a great opportunity to fix it. Um, and so we we look forward to continuing to work with uh the city and the city's engineering

department, street department to figure out the best way to make this a safe project. And it will include sidewalks and paths that are designed uh for for pedestrianfriendly uh development. Same thing with um with I think Cookie was her name. Um we we we agree wholeheartedly. Let's let's make this safe. Um there's nothing that's in this PUB that would make it unsafe. Um finally, uh Mrs. Carl Strand said make the brown purple. Um there's a couple of issues there. Um number one, the the purple does allow what she suggested, which is um residential over retail is the simplest way to put it. And it's not a coincidence that the purple area when compared to the brown area is elongated and extended along a street frontage. You think again what she described as a place in Europe. All of those residential over retail type uses. They're pushed all the way up against the street. They have building frontage, sidewalk street. um you need a a vibrant street frontage to get that done. Uh that works really well for the purple area. It doesn't work as well for the brown area, number one. Two, um those communities that you see that being done in Europe were either developed several hundred years ago um or they're in extremely dense urban environments. You go to Paris, you see a lot of that. There's millions and millions of people in Paris. And while this is urbanistic in its concept, this isn't a super dense area with thousands

and thousands of people. And so we can do some uh perhaps residential or retail. We can't make it all that. It won't it doesn't work. Uh that's been tried in other areas around central Indiana. And when you build too much, the the retail portions on the first floor just sit empty. And you don't want that. When you have vacant storefronts, it's bad. It interferes with marketing and development of the site. Um so, um again, we'd be happy to answer any questions that the council might have and um again appreciate your attention to to this request. So, thank you.

Okay. So public hearing is totally closed and now it's up to the council with your questions. Uh please.

Okay. I um I'll start and I'll just um go on record. You know, I'm 98% approval of this project and I talked to President Prather and Mr. Greenwood over the weekend. Um but to me there just seems to be a couple things that are lacking in there. Um, and if you could, how many homes can you build on that gold? Uh, what what is a single family? How many homes are you thinking and plotting in there? It hasn't been completely laid out. Um, but if we were able to design it in a way where we, you know, peaked at the maximum allowed density, you're looking at probably 75 to 80 homes.

75 to 80. That's that was all be the in that in that area. Yes. Okay. What I refer to as the gold area. Yeah. Okay. now. And then then you with bringing it in right now you're looking at about you know backing up to that neighborhood you're you know bringing in those in at I believe 12,500 square ft on the lot size.

Um what what made you decide on that? Because if you go through that neighborhood, and I just went through Thornberg Lane, uh, which is on the north side of that subdivision that just basically had it, and all their, um, numbers were between, um, 13,000 and 15,000 square foot on Thornberg Lane, just two streets north of that. Uh, that backs up there to King. So, I just, you know, why would um and then the houses that are buted up to that property um fall into about that same category. There's some that, you know, that are 27, which is about 11,000. There's um but most of them fall in that 13 to 14 to 15,000 range. Um ultimately, why wouldn't you go ahead and put those that are backing up to in that range? you know, the we laid this out as best we could. Um, you know, sometimes you you ask why why do you you adopt an ordinance that makes the speed limit 35 on a given street instead of 30. Um, and it was a judgment call.

Yeah. And so we looked at it and said, um, we think 12,500 works best.

Yeah. And then, you know, every single home in that uh section is, you know, is a custom home. It's not a track build. Um, you know, why wouldn't we, you know, if you can put 70 homes in there, why wouldn't we put 25 of them that are customuilt or 40 of them that are custom build? Because right now within the city of Franklin, talking to um the realtors and other things, right now, the only place you can build a custom home is Hillview. and talking with them, they have 14 lots available. Um, so if you're, you know, all the other lots that are basically all track homes with the Arbor homes that were just approved, everything else, we have 4 over four almost 495 future lots is what Steve gave me tonight. 495 future lots and 14 of them are and only 14 that can be custom built.

And so I'm just, you know, oh, why wouldn't we, you know, at least entertain that option to have, you know, that those that are backing up to the neighborhood, you know, let those be custom lots at, you know, 14,000 square ft where you can put a threecar garage. You don't have to make an exception to, you know, the side the side, you know, standards to bring in a threec car garage or put a pool in or put a nice barbecue patio out back. You know, you know, that would be to me would be an ideal place for those. And that's coming from the realtors here in town. And I'm sorry. Do you

Well, just ultimately you just want a question. Yeah, it's definitely a question. Why, you know, ultimately why aren't there any custom homes in there versus bringing in a track home builder? Um, and you know, putting that in our large lots that you said you wanted to mirror the neighborhood. Right now, you're technically not mirroring the neighborhood.

Yeah. Andrew Greenman with patch development. The whole idea was to try and mirror the lots to the north. We increased the buffer to so that it was a larger buffer between them. And then what we have found with our market research is that we're trying to hit what we call the missing middle. Right? So these are homes, they're not large estate lots. We found that there's not enough builders that want to build that. We've talked to multiple home builders on from Johnson County and others that are building here in Franklin and our advice and in consultation with the college was that that would be a mistake if we said this is an entirety of all custom lots. We would be 20 years

before it would happen and we don't think that's the proper thing. So we tried to attack it from a different angle and say okay what is the market telling us? We didn't we're not trying to promote uh starter homes or um you know the lower end of the production. I mean while there is a place for that in every community, we don't believe that this is the right place for that. But we are trying to like I said the missing middle and I know I can talk about pricing but the way that these homes and lots are designed

the pricing of these homes will wind up putting us in that $500,000 to a million dollar range. Those larger lots will allow for threec car garages and a pool if you want to do that. Um, and we have not selected a builder yet. So, none of this is in stone. We're setting this up to allow the market to dictate what would happen.

Yeah. Well, just, you know, just from my uh research with the realtors here in town, they're telling me that, you know, just in Hillview right now, and I forwarded you the letter that, you know, there's over 10 approved builders that are building in Hillview right now and they want to stay in Franklin. And you know ultimately we have 14 lots left available for them to build and go go forward with. So um and then you you know u with the 16 you know 100 foot home or uh on this on the larger lots and then you we drop down to a,200 foot minimum home. What's to say that you would bring in a track builder and they're at, you know, 1,200 square foot, three bedroomedroom, two bath ranch, they can build it, correct? As long as they make a brick.

If they as long as they meet all the requirements, they'll a builder will be able to build in there. So, what we're saying is that that is hitting the market that we want to hit, which is a nice built home at a certain price point that is exceeds or meets what's to the north. Now, not every home there. Everyone's home is a little bit different. Some of that subjective,

but it's not mirroring the north with the way you way it's laid out. It's not mirroring the north. It's not mirroring those houses that are in there. When you bring a track home in, all those homes that are north of it are are, you know, customuilt homes at one point in time. And, you know, that's been in mo one of the most desirable neighborhoods to live in in Franklin for years, you know. Um, so I don't know why we wouldn't want to. If you want to mirror it, let's mirror it. Well, we we decided to mirror the lot sizes so that that would work. But in terms of the homes, uh we don't believe that the demand is there for 60 to 80 custom lots.

I'm not I'm not asking for 68 cups of lots. I'm saying, you know, let's think about it outside the box a little bit and ask for a little something better for Franklin and put 30 in there. Yeah. What we've said is we've not selected a builder yet and that it's it would be open for that conversation. But at this point in time, the market that we see, we're designing these lots and home lots are designed to attract that missing middle and that's and that's

I guess who are who are you talking to to pull your information from? Are you talking to local realtors? Who are you talking to? Whereas the terms of uh the conversations I've had have been with three different Johnson County custom home builders who have declined to buy lots in this section. And then I've talked to two u I would call them north side predominantly homebuilders who have built down here in Franklin in Hillview and they declined to buy additional lots if we would set that up that way which is why I am where I am and saying what I'm saying. So this is not based on this is just based on my experience and my conversations with folks and and what we're seeing and that was that's been our advice. But ultimately the market will dictate it and if there's if there's a swelling of demand and there are a lot of custom home builders and they won't give them my number, we'll be happy to sell all of these lots as custom lots.

Yeah. But if you bring if you're bringing you know some of these lots in at,200 foot, they're not going to build on those. You mean 12,000?

12,000 square. Yeah. But you know there no well the the other lots you're bringing in a 108. So I mean you got to get a variance to bring a threecar garage in on a on a 108. Yeah. I think we have over 20 lots roughly that we would be you would easily be able to fit the threecar garage. And if if we had a ground if there was enough interest and that came back to us from the market we would gladly come back and ask for variance and change the dimensions so that we could fit that. Oh, we wouldn't need a variance. We would come back. We would make it bigger. Sorry. I apologize.

I just I I I think once again, I mean, we did it before and I think we're selling on selling Franklin a little bit short that that we can't that people won't build in Franklin. You know, we heard that at the last meeting um that you know, only people that'll build in Franklin is Arbor. You know, I think we're selling the the city short. We're not promoting that level of home, but I'll leave it at that. Thank you.

Yes. No, I I you you and I had that conversation, you know, this weekend and I appreciate your time and appreciate u President Prather's time and, you know, to invite me and chat chat with it, but I just think we're that missing middle would be a row of custom lots that backs up to um these guys neighborhood. That's 90% of the why reason why these people have been here and they've been organized and um you know you know I'm hoping to be a voice for them up here. So but you know right now that is ex that that's all they were asking safety and put a nice house behind mine you know and hopefully fix the drainage as it goes through. There wasn't a whole lot of other things that they really asked for you know they wanted nice house by right behind them. They didn't want they didn't want a track builder coming in and building a house behind and they you know one of the guys that are building you know uh building you know put 30 nice homes there behind them.

Anybody else? Um, I'll just bring up a couple things that that the people that live in Jefferson Meadows had had gathered and me and Sean met with you guys and then we talked and a lot of the things you're bringing up tonight and have brought up is stuff that the city needs to deal with, right, that has really nothing to do with the PUD. You know, the left turn on King Street from Milford is a problem. We already know that. Um, it's going to be addressed. Um, yeah, as far as protection and safety, that's going to be paramount. We don't have we don't build subdivisions that are unsafe. We don't have any in town like that. Sean brings up a good point. Um, I'll have to respectfully disagree with him on a few of those points. I don't live in a two-story 2600 foot home, you know. So, um, but he does bring up a good point though.

But, but your lot size is about 14,000 foot. It is, and I get that. But, you know, times have changed, too. We have to agree that it's 2026 and it's not, you know, 1975 or 1980 when these were built. So anyway,

yeah, I just my biggest thing that you know it's it was brought in as RS1 originally. Now we're taking it back down to basically the lowest level we can except for or except for 25 homes. So we're taking it to the lowest standard that's in Franklin. We're adding, you know, brick and those type of things to it to make it a nicer home. But, you know, it's at RS1, you know, now we're taking it to RS3 with commitments for basically 20 25 homes.

Anybody else? Well, the only thing that I was thinking is, and correct me if I'm wrong here, Sean. um Homestead when it started, it had a couple of custom home builders and they brought in more because they couldn't sell the lots, right? Yeah. They couldn't sell the lots and also they the infrastructure side of it was awful. So they so they had to come in and

build bring dirt and just get to get it out the drainage and all those, you know, those type of things. And that that could be very well the case here as well. But you know that that was the you know talking with those guys and the builders that was the biggest delay was dirt and then once it got going and you know and all the realtors you know here in town have all told me three years ago project would have never happened. You know ultimately they they was slow. Um but over the last two years um the need and the uh want for those style homes has grown tremendously. It has.

And so, you know, and you know, one of the real, you know, just the apartments there across from um the garment factory, you know, who would have thought you would ever $1.2 million, you know, that that are being sold in Franklin, you know. So, those things are happening. You know, if everyone here has been to our farmers market, been to the square, been to the aircraft,

I don't want to be with any of that. I think everyone here is on a board with Franklin and the direction it's headed, but also to go back to Homestead. They've now brought in a lot of different builders because it couldn't they couldn't make it work. And I love my business partner is a custom home builder. Has been for 38 years. Okay. So, I kind of know that area because if you know Mike Wall, he'll say, "Now listen to me. That's his favorite thing to say. So, um I don't know as far as custom homes, we just approved something out on um

that's a whole another 17 lots. Yeah. 17 lots on, you know, and that's going to be custom homes.

Um I don't I'm not sure that the need for custom homes is quite as great as it used to be. Um, I personally would build a custom home and and I'm sure you would also. Um, but I don't think everybody wants a bigger yard these days. Uh, they like the amenities that the city provides such as the amphitheater, the parks, the trails, and so forth. So, uh, the use of this land, it looks like it's perfect for that area. in coordination with the location to I65, excuse me, in downtown Franklin. Most of us probably envisioned something like this years ago when we saw Milford dead into that cornfield years ago. I mean, it's been there for, right, Alivos? A long time. You guys have been there what, 20 years?

It's Yeah. We all saw it coming. It's just now that's it's finally got to this point. So, and I think we're all pretty close on the same page here. Uh I I'm not hearing too many people say anything about the lots tonight. They mainly said something about the safety, uh the traffic, the apartments and the apartments.

So, those are the issues. You look at the layout of that road. If I was in an apartment complex and I had to get to the highway, I'd go to Umbberger Lane. I wouldn't go uh to King Street and take a right-hand turn there. Um and obviously if I'm going downtown that might be or if you're going to go to Walmart or Meyers, you might want to go up there. And you said maybe we can look at that uh issue there at King Street. And also the traffic study is going to be done. My guess is they'll come back and say we have to have a four-way stop at Jeff and uh Milford. So Uh-huh. Which would end up being a roundabout. Not that one. Uh, not that one.

No. That probably would be probably Yeah. So, Jefferson Street would probably become a four-way stop. And anybody else who wanted to get downtown if they lived there long enough would go over to Greensburg Road and take uh that road to get downtown. So, um, I think it's a great use. Jefferson Meadows, you guys are well organized and I appreciate everything that you've uh come to the table and listen, you've made them change some things along the way. That doesn't happen very often. Does not happen very often. So, kudos to you guys for doing that. So, that's all I want to add.

I just want to add one thing when we talk about that really hit me whenever we're hearing talk about the left turns. Turning left is dangerous on King Street. That's exactly why the state highway is out here on US 31 taking away the lefthand turns that are dangerous that I get beat up on Facebook every single day. That's why they're out there doing that. So, I'm glad to hear that we don't like the left turns on King Street. We'll address that. Aren't you the race car driver that turned left for years and years and years?

I like you did. I was going to say that's all you did. So anyway, all these concerns that we talk about the traffic and the safety, it it will be addressed at the proper time. That will be taken care of. Like if we do uh call for a roundabout, that's not something that would be on the college, that would be on the city. But if they tell us that's what we need to do as taxpayers, we're going to do that to to make everyone in our city safe. So, just want you to feel uh just want you to feel we're hearing what you're saying. So, thank you for that. Anybody else?

Can I say that um I actually feel like that most of everything that was actually emailed to me and sent to me over the course of the last month or so has been addressed um tonight. Um but with the and and Sean, I respect what you said. I heard it and and there's parts of it I do agree with too as well. Um, but with the apartments, I wanted to say that, um, you know, I work up at UPY on campus there. We do have apartments up there that have, um, restaurants and little knickknacky stores up there on 10th Street if you guys go through there. Um, and I just um didn't know if we could work it in to where maybe some or few of the apartments could have like little some little shop some way somehow if we could throw that in there for

um that into town for them because that is something that we're not taking in consideration for them too. Yeah. Is that a question and it is allowed. Okay. Thank you. Anybody else? Any comments?

I just want to thank everyone. I think you guys have done such a great job of coming together as a neighborhood and um presenting your concerns and being respectful. Um that's unheard of these days. So thank you very much and um again I hope this is a continued effort between the college and between the residents and it will definitely be top priority for us here as council. So thank you

Josh. I think every council person spoke unless you want to speak again. I think we're ready for a motion either way. I'll make a motion to approve the ordinance 2026-08 resoning to be known as Innovation Park, Franklin College PUB as presented. May I indicate that that that presentation will also include a voluntary commitment in some form legally acceptable to us regarding subsidized housing? Is that part of the motion? So moved. Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Jan, can you do a roll call vote, please? Yeah. Mr. Prime, yes.

Miss McGinness, yes. Mr. Austin, yes. Miss Nally, yes. Mr. Taylor, yes. Mr. Sheek, yes. 6. Yes. Joanna, would you be so kind since we have everybody here in a captive audience, would you please explain next steps so we all can be on the same page, please?

Thank you. That has been one of the questions that I've heard the most is um once this PUB was approved is it a done deal and they can start putting a shovel in the ground. Um and they cannot. So there are a number of steps. Uh the first step they would need to go through is primary plat. That primary plat is forwarded to the technical review committee and then is forwarded to the plan commission as a public hearing. uh public notices go out both to the adjoining property owners and also a legal ad in the newspaper. Following the primary plat there is the next step which is secondary plat and construction plans and that is for the overall infrastructure of the development itself. Um, and it's where they go through and finalize the exact layout of lots, setbacks, um, easements, sidewalks, trees, um, basically everything that goes into the ground. If it is an area that is multifamily, um, industrial, institutional or commercial, in addition to that, secondary platin construction plans, um, there is the site development plan. So those two steps are administrative where it does go to the technical review committee which is a public meeting not a public hearing. Um and those are reviewed following those reviews. Anything that then goes into the ground if it's over an acre they submit to both the state and us for a land disturbance permit. Um, in addition, when it's industrial, commercial, or institutional for the actual building construction itself, the state of Indiana through the Indiana Department of Homeland Security plan review section reviews those building plans. Um, in addition to that, there are the requirements in the PUD for the

architectural standards that are overseen by the city of Franklin and also the architectural control committee that Franklin College will administer. When it comes to the development of each of the homes independent, uh those building permits do come to the planning department and are reviewed for um all of the standards outlined in the PUD, which is done by our senior planner or myself to make sure that it does meet all of those requirements. In addition, the building construction and those plans are reviewed by the building official. So there is a lot of review and oversight by the city and the state before a shovel can really go into the ground.

Can you also address because I know these issues have come up traffic studies and uh drainage review please and what phase that will occur. So with the primary plat um there's an overall preliminary review of the traffic patterns and analysis and then also the drainage when it comes into so there will be a traffic study that is completed um when it comes to the secondary plat and construction plans. That's when all of the details of those drainage studies and traffic studies will come into place for the drainage. Because there is a legal drain that runs through this area, there will be oversight not only from the city of Franklin, but from the Johnson County drainage board. Johnson County actually has stricter requirements in regard to drainage than what we do. And any of those that are stricter, it has to meet those requirements. Thank you.

Do you have a time frame on breaking ground? I mean, all these projects have an estimate, but it never really works out that way. Usually longer.

Now that I've heard from Joanna, I'm not sure we want to keep going with this project. But what she just described is what we've assured everyone to in terms of the layers of scrutiny that each piece of this project will have. Uh we have not talked about a timetable certain although we do have a clock on some state funds that are dedicated to this project that will flow through the city. So we'll work with uh Mayor Barnett and you folks to see how that timeline takes shape so that we make full use of those funds. Carrie, can you tell us a little Sorry. Go ahead.

I I'm hoping maybe we can do some kind of a ceremonial I'm afraid to put a shovel in the ground, but some of ceremonial groundbreaking maybe this summer would be my hope. Do you have a time frame on the complete buildout?

No. Patch when we first started this project, we talked about somewhere between 12 15 years probably. But, you know, it's all going to be market driven. we could have interest tomorrow from you know and that's I think the exciting thing about the project is we don't know exactly how it's going to um we want as much as much publicity as we can so we can attract the right kind of business which will attract the right kind of amenities and it all builds out from there so um you know it'll be a matter of mostly market timing thank you okay we still may be in a meeting we might

so with that Being said, I I unless the council has another question, I think it's time for us to move on to item number two under old business, which was also scheduled for a public hearing. Uh, it is item number two, approval of budgetary ordinance 26-06, additional appropriation of a grant drug-free Johnson County Fund Police Chief Kirby Cochran, and it was introduced April 6th.

Thank you, mayor. Short and sweet. I'm just asking for the uh appropriate or the uh grant funds from drug-free Johnson County in amount of $6,143 to be appropriated used for some coart uh narcotics equipment. Okay. And this is scheduled for public hearing. So, we'll open the public hearing up. If anyone has any questions, now's the time to do that. So, the public hearing is still open and it's going going gone. Public hearing is closed. Uh so now it's up to the council for the action or questions. Move to approve budgetary ordinance 2606. Second. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor by saying I.

I. Thank you. Thank you. We'll go into new business. Move to read new business by title only. Second. Okay. We have a motion in a second to read by title only. All those in favor? I. Okay. Item number one, which is introduction only. Uh, request approval of budgetary resol. Oh, it's not. It's a It's resolution. It's resolution. It's just transfer. Okay. I thought budgetary resolution is okay. Ordinance, but sounds resolution. We're transferring within program. Thank you, Jan. That makes our next meeting quicker. That's right.

Okay. So, so we can work on this tonight. request approval of budgetary resolution 26-01 authorizing transfer from MVH restricted and NVH capital outlays to community crossing grants 2026. Uh and that goes to cover our portion of the $910,959.70 worth of grants that we got from the community costing uh from IDM INDOT, I'm sorry, from INDOT. Um, so that's what that is. Um, any questions? Okay, we're ready for move to approve. Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second to approve. All those in favor?

I. Any opposed? Thank you. Hearing none. We will go on to the next item. Uh, request approval of resolution 26-06 authorizing the use of electronic funds transfers for the payment of claims. Clerk, Treasure Jan Jones.

Yeah, this is just kind of a housekeeping item with the bond that we received for the um new sewer plant and Westside Interceptor and the sewer billing project. Um that money is in trust as you know. Um and it's easier for us to make payments to the different contractors and subcontractors through a direct a from trust to their bank. Um and they like it because they get paid a lot faster as well. So, this is just asking permission to be able to pay through a

kudos to kudos to Jan and Erica in her office. As you probably know, in your personal lives, fewer and fewer checks are being written and alternate means of transferring are being done. So, she was on top of it. And well, kudos to Erica. I'm going to give her that that she caught that. Um, it just basically uh got passed that all this could be done this way. So, she caught it and so kudos to her for sure. The legislation has finally caught up. So, yeah. Good job, Jan and Erica. Yes. And we can do this tonight, right? We can. Okay. Move to approve. Oh, wow. Second. We have a motion and a second. So, all those in favor by saying I I.

Okay. We'll go on to item number three, which is introduction tonight. Right, Jan? Okay. request to use blank uh blankenship fireworks grant monies this year. This grant is used for the firework festival scheduled for Friday, July the 3rd, 2026 at Young's Creek Amphitheater. Request approval of budgetary ordinance 26-07. Additional appropriation to grant Blankenship Patriotic Supplies in amount of $1,243 uh director of parks and recreationship owner. That's a mouthful. I just sit through this entire meeting for this.

Yeah, I'll talk to I'll talk to Brooke about that tomorrow cuz I had like four meetings until July 3rd. Uh first of all, I want to thank everybody for staying for this portion of it. Um I take no offense whatsoever. Just real quick, this is money that we actually get every year. It's actually this is a fund at the community foundation a little bit like the active adult center one. This is money that we're spitting off interest on uh that it actually goes toward the fireworks every year and this is just to appropriate the money. So, okay. Thank you for introducing that, Chip. Okay. Old business uh the 2025 TIFF management report. Clerk treasurer Jan Jones.

Yeah, this is just a yearly report that I uh put through Gateway. Uh basically just tracking what we get, what we spend from TIFF monies. Um so you've seen it every year. Um, anyway, I've been here a copy and the copy was should have been given to you, so it's just for your information. Thank you. Thank you, Jan. Okay, council comments, Josh.

Yeah, I got a couple here. Um, well, Joanna has left and mostly people. They're going to compend them on the community involvement, especially uh all the work that Joan has done and the other department has done on the comprehensive plan. I came and attended that meeting um last week. Um great attendance by everybody's here. I'm glad to see you know that involvement and people there. Um the other thing I had here is uh on chip um working diligently and quickly on a request that I had received um on adding a uh another uh a dog way station along the trail on Hurricane Road there. Um, so I appreciate Chip and his staff on uh working diligently and quickly on finding one that we had in stock. So,

okay. Thank you, Josh. And nothing. Thank you, Ken. I mentioned at the uh border works meeting and shout out to the fire department and chief and the assistant chief and his crew and and the whole city staff. It's wasn't just the fire department. And it was the whole city and and the staff that uh and that and also our employees obviously that worked a lot over the last uh few weeks here concerning all these fires, but you guys did a great job and need to be amended. Thank you. Thank you, Ken. Sean, I think I've said enough tonight. You did good, buddy. You did good. You did good. All good. Todd.

Yes, sir. Um same to this group right here. Brian, thanks for being here every time. Prayers you lead us. Thank you. Nothing for me. Thank you. Ter it's called pets on the trail Sunday at the theater to bring your pet $20.

Okay. Thank you, Lynn. Just very briefly for those people watching online that weren't here earlier. You heard Joanna go through the list of reviews that we do as a city when projects come in. Um, and sometimes we get a little push back about why we have to review it so many times and how much we do it. But I'm here to tell you that those kinds of reviews, those kinds of requirements, those kinds of things are what saved lives at the Masonic Home because of it. So, good work from you guys and good work from the people who do enforce the rules. that they matter. So, thank you. Okay. I just want to say thank you to everybody and I think we're ready for a adjournment. Move tojourn. Second. All those in favor? I. All right. Thank you.