October 23, 2008

The Ellettsville, Indiana, Redevelopment Commission met in regular session on Thursday, October 23, at the Fire Department Training and Conference Room. Darby McCarty called the meeting to order at 7:00 P.M., leading the Pledge of Allegiance.

Roll Call: Members present were Darby Mc Carty, Matthew Stille, Philip Rogers and Darlyne Sowder.

Members absent: Frank Buczolich

Approval of Minutes

Darby McCarty- Darby made a motion to approve the minutes of the August 21, 2008 meeting. Darlyne Sowder made a motion to approve of the amended minutes, Matthew Stille seconded the motion. Minutes approved.

Old Business-None

New Business-Status Report- Main Street Activities- Discussion

Frank Nierzwicki- A status report from October 23, 2008 was reviewed. Staff has been reviewing the Tax Increment Financing district, TIF. The original proposal, as submitted to the Plan Commission, did not receive zoning approval. Staff will submit a new proposal at the November Plan Commission meeting for review and approval at the December meeting.

Planning staff has been working on the Capital Improvement Plan for the Town, CIP.

We have a grant from INDOT for community planning. An inventory of all Town capital will be taken as part of the CIP. I would like to produce a six year plan to have a rolling replacement on items. We then will match revenue sources for these items. The Town Council will be able to look at costs and revenue to help with investment planning.

Darlyne Sowder- I would like to ask about the proposal that will be re-submitted to the Plan Commission in December.

Frank Nierzwicki- I’ll discuss this later in the meeting. I would like to discuss the timeline at the back of the packet. The Main Street Endowment Fund was discussed and how we need to raise a certain amount of money to be matched by the Monroe County Community Foundation. We need to raise $37,500. Money raised will go for gateway maintenance, Heritage Trail maintenance costs, and downtown merchant funds for façade improvements, flower pots, and signs.

Darby McCarty- Do you have the current total of what we have received?

Frank Nierzwicki- We are between $8,000 and $10,000 and we need to get $37,500. We have some people lined up to talk too, to ask for donations.

($7,105.00 Submitted by Pete Rhoda on December 8, 2008)

Frank discussed the Heritage Crossing Development Area Plan that was approved May 31, 2007. Appendix B- has the cost of the project, he discussed phase I from Sale Street to Village Inn. The cost to build the trail is $605,000. We have $169,000 in a grant.

Frank reviewed the timetable and checklist of establishing a TIF district.

February 14, 2007 Town agencies and area organizations submit projects to be considered in the Redevelopment Plan

February 15, 2007 Redevelopment Commission meets to discuss and review Redevelopment Plan

March 8, 2007 Redevelopment Commission meets to discuss the Declaratory Resolution creating a Development Area and adopting the Redevelopment Plan

April 19, 2007 Redevelopment Commission meets to discuss the Declaratory Resolution creating a Development Area and the Redevelopment Plan

May 31, 2007 Redevelopment Commission meets to adopt the Declaratory Resolution creating a Development Area and adopting the Redevelopment Plan (PASSED)

December 4, 2008 Town Plan Commission meets to approve, disapproves or amends the Declaratory Resolution and Redevelopment Plan

December 18, 2008* Last Redevelopment meeting of 2008; recommendations of action plan for Redevelopment Commission in 2009

January 15, 2009* First Redevelopment meeting of 2009, election of officers and approval of Redevelopment action plan for 2009.

CHANGED BACK TO JANUARY 8, 2009 Dec. 4, 2008 at the Plan Commission Meeting

January 26, 2009* Town Council meets and approves Declaratory Resolution and Redevelopment Plan

January 27, 2009* Impact Study delivered to Redevelopment Commission

January 27, 2009* Tax Impact Study distributed by Redevelopment Commission to overlapping taxing units, also at least 10 days before the Public Hearing (Certified Mail).

January 27, 2009* Notice of Adoption of Plan by Town Council and Public Hearing published in the Ellettsville Journal and filed with local agencies and overlapping taxing units as provided in IC 36-7-14(a) at least 10 days before the public hearing.

February 12, 2009* Redevelopment Commission holds Public Hearing and adopts Confirmatory Resolution approving redevelopment area and approving redevelopment plan.

February 27, 2009* Filings are made by staff with the County Auditor and Department of Local Government Finance

*Pending approval of Plan Commission at the December meeting and approval of each following requirement.

I would like to have your comments and suggestions for an action plan for next year. My record of hitting target dates hasn’t been good. I wanted to have this for us to discuss.

Darlyne Sowder- So, the new proposal is being submitted to the Plan Commission in December, is this correct?

Frank Nierzwicki- Yes.

Darlyne Sowder- Will this group be presented with the plan?

Frank Nierzwicki- That plan comes back to you, the body hasn’t changed, the zoning question will come back, and you will have the final approval, when we have the public hearing. So, Darlyne you will have a chance for input at that point. What could come back to this group is zoning.

Darlyne Sowder- So the revised document is coming from your office and straight to the Plan Commission?

Frank Nierzwicki- What we are going to be doing next time is some zoning changes for approval or they may determine they do not like the plan and don’t approve of it. We also didn’t have a full Plan Commission at that time. I’ll look at this from a broader stand point. I was looking at approval at that stage and I didn’t have anything else to look at that night, and I didn’t get any comments back from the Plan Commission. We will finish this up. How the plan will be spelled out, is still in question.

Philip Rogers- How much land do we have to acquire to build this trail that we don’t already own or control?

Frank Nierzwicki- Ideally there is a bare minimum, we have identified 12 acres that would be involved, and some of the acreage is in a flood plain. As of right now, we don’t own any of it. If the rails were ever taken out, and it was a lease for the rail road, then the land would revert back. The record keeping from the 1860’s isn’t good. Some land is land banked and protected from going back to the original property owners. I’ll have to go back and check on property ownership on the parcels. We have assessed evaluation of the parcels. We couldn’t find any record of the parcels at the assessor’ office, an easement may be possible to obtain.

Philip Rogers- I’m not sold on the trail, and I guess we can’t use the $169,000 for anything else but the trail. I told the council to send them back the money, since it will take a lot more money than this.

I’ve been working with the Town engineer and we are going to be working with INDOT, we would like to renegotiate the contract. We could build a bridge, with some of the work being done in house. Some environmental issues will still need to be looked at.

Philip Rogers- Why don’t they put it under the bridge?

Frank Nierzwicki- That would have been a good idea 6 years ago, when the highway was being built.

Darby McCarty- How long is the trail supposed to be?

Frank Nierzwicki- 3300 feet, this would go from the parking lot at Town Hall, along the creek and dead end by the Village Inn, and then we may have a side connection at First Street. There are different phases in the project that include different areas in the town. I think we will try to do as much work in house to save money.

Darlyne Sowder- As I look through this, it seems like our goal is to bring tourist into town?

Frank Nierzwicki- This goes back to the Comprehensive Plan. The plan calls for shops and professional businesses, and bed and breakfast down town.

We have a number of historic homes in the area that we would like to preserve, with a viable business in the home and mixed use businesses with the upper floor being apartments.

Public Comments

Russ Ryle- If I understand correctly from what I’ve been listening to is that the plan that was previously rejected is going back to Town Council, and the only change is dealing with the zoning options. Is that correct? Have there been any changes to the un-approved plan? So the only changes will be from a zoning context? The basic concept, structure, and area covered are identical the only changes are the zoning options? So, if I understand this it will be the previous plan with discussion of zoning options.

Philip Rogers brings up a good point on the costs of the trail. You have the issue of right of way, and you have the issue of contaminants, physical structures, and maintain it and keep it safe, are there any thoughts that the trail within the redevelopment area will follow the sidewalks that we already have. We have a wonderful sidewalk system along both of the divided pair highways, and they basically alleviate these problems, and they are already there and they won’t cost us a dime. They are maintained, you have security, because they are right along the road, you don’t have any pollution to deal with, you don’t have to build any structures. Why do we go out 50 to 60 feet out into a flood plain and re-invent the wheel when we hardly have money to keep up what we’ve got?

Frank Nierzwicki- It goes back to the Plan Commission. The plan was not approved. There will be changes made between now from the zoning point, it was a dead end. The other issues if any, the Plan Commission could have input on this. They are looking at fit with the town. We never got past the zoning issue last time. I would like to talk about the plan and how they work together. Once we get to this point is to approve it step by step. There may not be any zoning changes. I asked for input and they just looked at me.

There are some good points there. You can look at this like a linear park that goes from Bloomington to here. Say that never happens, and it stays green space between the one way pairs, that’s not a bad use for that land. Having access with the sidewalk would allow people to come to this area as a park area. Water is an attraction to the area. It’s not the Planning Departments plan on the train, it’s not my plan, and it’s the communities plan. If the community doesn’t want it, it won’t happen.

Russ Ryle- What I would like to conclude with, it is my opinion we have a trail, we have the sidewalk system, we have undeveloped land, that might come a fancy walking trail, but that is well into the future. It will be very expensive to bring this to fruition, plus you have a very limited geographic area. If you start at the Village Inn and go to Sale and Main Street, you have a very limited amount of acreage. You also want to include this area for development, so the flood plain is a big issue, it may be better right now to have it as an open green area. Why are we trying to figure out how we can turn $169,000 into 6 to $800,000 to build expensive parallel structures to what we’ve already got?

Frank Nierzwicki- I think one thing we are going to be looking at-I’ll be working with the Town Engineer and working with Seymour INDOT, so we’ll be looking at more options that we have. The Planning Dept. has directions to be working on this.

Darby McCarty- I know of people that aren’t comfortable using the sidewalks because of the speed of traffic. One of my other concerns, there has been so much growth along this area, that I don’t think it would be safe with the brush and tall vegetation.

Philip Rogers- If there are environmental problems, we don’t want it.

Darby McCarty- Somewhere along the line someone will have to deal with the problem.

Russ Ryle- The question is, does the town want to take on that problem.

Darby McCarty- Or, should the town take on the problem?

Russ Ryle- Exactly. Doesn’t the rail road have any responsibility once they abandon it?

Frank Nierzwicki- That is a federal situation. It goes through the state rail system at INDOT. There are certain things they can do and have to do. If they sign off and find something 10 years later, then they don’t have any responsibility anymore.

Russ Ryle- It looks like you have one or more years on just the environmental and legal issues before you can turn a spade. I think it is premature to be talking about trails until we know more about the legal and environmental concerns.

Matthew Stille- You have to make the plan to move forward.

Darby McCarty- I think primarily what we are trying to do is to develop the redevelopment so, we can pass it along and zoning can either give it a blessing or tear it apart. Do something, but they do have to move, and if it does come back to us for modification…..

Frank Nierzwicki- It comes back to you for final approval. Town Council also has their chance for comment.

I would like to meet in December and not in November. I would also like to know if you still want to be on the Redevelopment Commission.

Adjournment

Darby McCarty entertained a motion to adjourn at 8:30 P.M. Phillip Rogers made a motion to adjourn and Matthew Stille seconded the motion. Motion carried. Next meeting will be held on December 18, 2008.