Zionsville Town Council

Zionsville Town Council May 16, 2022 ZIONSVILLE TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES FOR MONDAY, MAY 16, 2022 AT 8:00 A.M. EST ONSITE MEETING 1100 West Oak Street This meeting was conducted onsite. All Councilors participated in person. Council Members Present: Jason Plunkett, President; Brad Burk, Vice-President; Alex Choi, Joe Culp, Josh Garrett, Craig Melton, and Bryan Traylor Also Present: Mayor Emily Styron, Deputy Mayor Julie Johns-Cole, Heather Harris, Town Council Attorney; Amy Lacy, Municipal Relations Coordinator, and other Town Department Staff. OPENING A. Call meeting to order B. Pledge of Allegiance Plunkett Call to order the meeting for Monday, May 16, 2022. Would you please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance? All Pledge of Allegiance. APPROVAL OF THE MEMORANDUM OF THE APRIL 11, 2022 REGULAR MEETING Plunkett Up first is the approval of the memorandum of the May 2, 2022 regular Town Council meeting. Those have been posted. Are there any questions? Garrett I make a motion to approve. Plunkett First by Councilor Garrett. Burk Second. Page 1 of 28 Zionsville Town Council May 16, 2022 Plunkett Second by Vice President Burk. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 7 in favor, 0 opposed. CLAIMS Plunkett Up next is Claims. Councilors, you will notice that we’ve moved this up to accommodate the Finance Department so that they don’t have to sit through all of our meeting for its entirety. So certainly, if there will be finance questions and concerns in meetings we would obviously request the Finance Department stick around for those in future meetings but any questions for Claims? I’ll make a motion to approve Claims. Traylor Second. Plunkett Second by Councilor Traylor. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 7 in favor, 0 oppose REQUEST TO SPEAK ON AGENDA ITEM Plunkett Up next is Request to Speak on Agenda Items. Amy, do we have any requests to speak? Lacy No. We have no requests to speak. Plunkett Very good. MAYOR/ADMINISTRATION UPDATE Plunkett Up next will be the Mayor/Administration update. Welcome Mayor. Styron Good morning. Thank you. I want to welcome Noblesville Mayor, Chris Jensen, who is joining us this morning to discuss an item on your agenda which is the adoption of a Central Indiana Regional Development Authority for which Zionsville will be a participant in. As you know, Mayor Haak initially joined a group of Central Indiana Mayors or elected officials to discuss executive level opportunities and challenges in our region. I continued this upon entering office. This long-term collaboration made our CICEO a natural fit for pursuing Ready Grant dollars administered by the state. Mayor Jensen forwarded to the group a Page 2 of 28 Zionsville Town Council May 16, 2022 one-page fact sheet explaining the Central Indiana Regional Development Authority, its purpose and benefits as well as the state statute that supports this ordinance. Zionsville initially requested $2.7 million dollars through this process. However, the total request for the region exceeded the dollars available. Once we create the RDA, we will have a better sense of which projects align with various funding sources and the Governor’s priorities. I look forward to announcing when the final amount is determined. We are excited to share with you Zionsville Parks Carpenter Nature Preserve Master Plan presentation. Jarod will walk us through this plan later in the morning’s meeting. I have heard from many of you over the past year since we launched this effort and I’m so grateful to this Council for your support of the Carpenter Nature Preserve. I believe our community is going to love what they see in this morning’s presentation. The Boone County Justice Commission Report was released on May 6th. The Commission’s recommendation is that the jail project as proposed by the County Commissioners is not what is needed in Boone County. Any future recommendation must decrease the cost and scope to meet the current and future needs of the Boone County Inmate Community Corrections population. We will share this report with you via email and place it on the Town’s website for the community’s review. While this decision is not in our purview specifically, it would impact our taxpayers and I am hopeful you will see that the proposed project is not fiscally responsible or what our county needs at this time. We have lost a great leader on our team. Wayne DeLong has submitted his resignation and our Community and Economic Development team as well as the leadership team is sad to see him leave. He has built an amazing team and we are all going to miss him and his leadership. Today the Town of Zionsville averages 1,000 hits per day on our commercial lending page and the average length of time for those hits is a minute which is significant when you’re talking about cruising through, you know, your news feed and Wayne and his team have worked diligently and successfully to build that interest over the past several years. Finally, I want to share with you some information we’ve learned with regard to LIT distributions. They remain below last year largely due to the impact of the pandemic and the reserve amounts the state maintains to protect against major recessionary effects. Generally, LIT revenues have a delay to them. So, 2022 is seeing the effects of income tax receipts from 2020 during the initial shutdowns. We anticipate the revenues to bounce back for 2023 just as employment did during that time period. Additionally, LIT revenues are not based upon actuals for each city and town. They are collected by county and then allocated based upon the levy to the corresponding units within the county. So, we are dependent upon the economy of Boone County instead of just the economic effects within Zionsville. We have compared local or the total LIT distributions for neighboring counties and it looks like both Howard and Boone have had the largest negative effect in total LIT between 2021 and 2022 with Hamilton also seeing a negative effect. Both Hendricks and Clinton have seen slight increases in LIT dollars over the past two years. So, what this means in totality is that for Zionsville and Boone County where in 2021 those LIT distributions were $16.5 million dollars Page 3 of 28 Zionsville Town Council May 16, 2022 roughly, in 2022 they’re projected at $15.5 million dollars resulting in a 6% decrease or $1 million dollars. I received this information late last week and wanted to make sure I shared it with you as soon as I got it. Thank you. Plunkett Thank you. Traylor Thank you. Garrett Mayor. Styron Yes. Garrett I have a couple of quick questions. Styron Sure. Garrett So thinking about finances, you answered the question which I was going to have which was how granular does it get so there’s no real true up that happens, because I suspect other parts of Boone County contributed more to that decline than Zionsville where I think most folks were able to work from home but there’s no, their decline is our decline? Styron Yes. Garrett Do we know yet of that 6% of that million dollars what proportion of it is, is ours and what impact that will have on the budget yet? Styron I don’t. I don’t know that question. And I will say that I do believe that many of the financial and you know, efforts that are being made at the state level are working to in totality address the issues of COVID and so when you look at the opportunities that we have with the Ready Grant and that I’m hopeful for other supplemental revenue that may come down after this particular, this first distribution, it will help to try to mitigate some of that lost revenue. Garrett Do you know the timing, you mentioned you’re looking forward to telling us when you, when you know the amount, do you know roughly a timing or is that just – Styron I don’t know. Garrett Okay. Styron And it’s not because someone else smarter than me doesn’t know, it’s just that I don’t know. Garrett Yes. No, that’s fair. The last meeting you were at we were talking about the finance system there were a couple of questions that you said you would look into. One was if we were still paying the full monthly services fees for the system even if it’s yet to be implemented. Do you know that answer yet by chance? Page 4 of 28 Zionsville Town Council May 16, 2022 Styron No and I really would like to pull together information and discuss some of these issues in executive session as we discussed before just so that we can maintain the information we need in a confidential way given the potential for litigation. Garrett Got it. Last I want to thank you for supporting us and supporting Graham Rahal Performance going through the RDC process, at least going into the negotiation process – Styron Yes. Garrett We really haven’t done that, but I know that was something that was important to a lot of the Councilors, so I appreciated you coming to that last RDC meeting and speaking, I know, Jason spoke, I spoke, Bryan spoke and so it was good to have alignment on that. Thank you. Styron Thank you. Plunkett Thank you. OLD BUSINESS Plunkett Up next is Old Business and we have no Old Business, so we’ll move on to New Business NEW BUSINESS A. Carpenter Nature Preserve Master Plan Presentation – Tricia McClellan, Rundell Ernstberger Associates and Sam Vonderau, DELV Architects Plunkett Up first is the Carpenter Nature Preserve Master Plan presentation. I believe Jarod you’re going to present this and is it Tricia also? Logsdon Yes as well as Sam from DELV Architects. Plunkett Very good. Logsdon Good morning Councilors. Last fall with an additional appropriation the Zionsville Parks Department began the master planning for the Carpenter Nature Preserve. The Carpenter Nature Preserve is 215 acres in northern rural Zionsville that was purchased by Jim and Nancy Carpenter with the idea to preserve this and create a public park so we entered into the master planning with them, identified what the mission and the inspiration behind this section of land would be and then open it up to public discussion and had a robust community engagement process which we’ll talk in full detail today, so. I just wanted to let you know kind of everything that came out of that plan and how we intend to move forward. So, with no further ado, I’ll introduce Tricia of Runsdell Ernstberger & Associates. McClellan Thank you for having us here this morning. Just want to give you a quick run through of the Master Plan if my computer will work. So, it was a four-phase Page 5 of 28 Zionsville Town Council May 16, 2022 process that we went through. We utilized a charrette process to kind of condense the timeline. And what the charrette was, was a three-day session where we had a full day and I think it bled over even into the next day and talked to a variety of stakeholders and focus groups. I know a few of you were a part of those discussions. From that we developed the vision and the goals like Jarod said and some conceptual layouts. Before the charrette we did have an intense inventory process which included an ecological assessment done by EcoLogic. He spent about a week out there on the site doing a very intense detailed look of the habitat and the ecological conditions of the site. We also looked at slopes, we looked at vegetation, we looked at flood plain, just getting a, a good handle on the site and what’s out there. From that came a Proposed Restoration Plant Communities Plan and I put emphasis on this because it did drive the Master Plan. It really did drive the layout this is a preserve, a nature preserve, so establishing habitats and ecological systems is important. So, this really was a guiding factor for the Master Plan itself. And now I’ll turn it over to Sam. They did an assessment of the existing buildings that are out there on the site, the clubhouse and then the bunkhouse. Vonderau Good morning. So there, there are two existing structures on the site. One is the old clubhouse. It’s about 9,000 square feet and one is the old bunkhouse that is about 4,000 square feet. So, we went through and did an objective facilities assessment really just to test the feasibility if any of this existing stock would be appropriate to rehabilitate and reuse as the, the nature center. So those structures we believe were built in the early to mid-1980s of a residential, level construction and what we did in, in digging further is really just understand some of the opportunities and constraints that, that renovating these buildings would, would offer. The opportunities are that it, it’s sited really well on the property, on a, on a bluff with great views. And the clubhouse really is appropriately sized at about 9,000 square feet for a nature center program. Some of the constraints that, that renovation would present to us are that really the, the structural system is in poor condition. There’s a lot of moisture issues infiltration into the basement as well as mold issues. When the buildings were abandoned there were stripped of their mechanical and electrical systems so there’s a large upfront cost to bring those back up to working order as well as you can see in some of these pictures structural deficiencies. As I said, it was, it was built to kind of a low quality residential standard and to be used by the public essentially all of the structure would need to be reinforced and doubled up adding in new joists and ceiling, and columns and beams in the basement. So, a lot of, of pretty significant challenges to reusing the existing structure. I’ll hand it back over to Tricia here to talk about some other themes that we heard from the community and during the charrette process. Page 6 of 28 Zionsville Town Council May 16, 2022 McClellan So these were those recurring themes that we heard. Bring people and nature together. So, balancing the need to inspire and attract people but also the need to protect and preserve the site for habitat. That it would be a nature preserve with an emphasis on Eagle Creek ecosystem so ecological programming, habitat creation and restoration strategy for Eagle Creek. Create dedicated and protected habitat areas. Again, we want to get people out there, but we also want this to be a nature preserve for, for animals. Light footprint so low impact, sustainable and resilient design approach, again, nature preserve. Prairie, forest/woodland, stream habitats but those are interpretative themes for trails, art, activities and then programming too. And the nature center should be adaptable. So not just a nature center for nature, education and programming but also a park community center which led directly into the looking at the, the space planning for the nature center itself. It was also important since this is a nature preserve and not, you know, just a, a traditional recreational park to what we don’t want. We took the time to outline things that, that would be detrimental to, to what we want with this with this Master Plan. So, equestrian trails, mountain bike trails, sports ball fields, live music, lighting bright lighting greenhouse, community gardens. A lot of those have a much heavier footprint on the land so you can, you can understand why those were identified that we didn’t want those. From all of that, what really rose to the top was this as the, the vision, the mission for the park so it needs to inspire, attract and preserve. One of the things that was mentioned early on was this needs to be a place that will, I mean, of course, nature lovers are automatically going to be drawn to it but people that might think they’re really not interested in a nature preserve, a reason for them to come out here and see how beautiful it is and what it has to offer so to get them out there and, you know, dip their toes in and find out hey maybe I am a little more interested in nature and learning about it. So from the charrette there were three concepts that were developed and I’ll give you a brief overview of it but kind of the key takeaway is when we get to the Preferred Plan, you’ll notice there’s pieces that came from each of it and this is common in our process and that’s why we do the different alternatives so people can consider different layouts and different elements that are on the site and then how they all work together. So, this one, the nature center is located essentially where the clubhouse is today so it’s on top of that hill kind of overlooking the valley of Eagle Creek. It included a boardwalk over the existing wetland, it includes expanding the wetland it included outdoor classrooms – those are the purple/pink dot that you see. It also includes a network of pathways. This one, again, does have those ecological zones that were in that proposed ecological map. This one also includes a tree arbor so those circles that are close to the nature center down in this area and the tree gallery is, is like an arbor it would be less natural and made massings but still the native plants, but it could be used as like an educational outdoor classroom where those trees are identified. Concept B again utilized the, you know, the entrance drive that comes in, Page 7 of 28 Zionsville Town Council May 16, 2022 the existing location of the nature center and I will say A and B when we were looking at them we were considering are we utilizing the existing structure or is this a brand new structure. So, at that point we were still working through that, and you’ll notice at this location it could be either of those. This one included a paved, this light blue path is a paved path that kind of sits on top of the hill that would be accessible. It included a cross country course a 5K cross country course that goes throughout the site and again, really relied heavily on those ecological zones. B had a unique element and we called it White Oak Commons. When you first drive into the site there’s this huge, beautiful, old oak tree so it’s named after that, that white oak that everyone will pass by, but it would be a like a, a restaurant event center in a very small scale and very in context and I’ll show you some examples of what that might look like. So, it might be a farm-to-table restaurant, it could be some outfitters that might have fishing poles for people to rent or skis for cross country skiing that people could rent there. And then Concept C took a totally new look at oaky let’s put the nature center in a different place so it’s located up here long one of the ponds which would mean a new building and, hit a button, sorry about that – you don’t want to see it blue – and then it did include a formal allée, a tree allée, that would tie it back towards the entrance, there was a big spiral overlook we were utilizing the existing parking area and, again, that network of trails that would go throughout the site. A lot of these trails are utilizing the pathway of the old cart paths they’re torn up, they would need to be rebuilt but a lot of these are also rustic trails so they would just be a natural path, it wouldn’t be paved. From that came the Preferred Concept and, again, you’ll see there’s pieces that came from each. We kept the nature center in the current location. With this we’re planning on proposed new building, and we’ll talk a little bit about that and how we came to that the 5K cross country course is still included on this layout. It’s utilizing the existing barns that are up near County Road 900 East using those as a maintenance area for the Parks Department with some much needed storage. It does include a primary entrance off of State Road 32 which that property is now owned by the school corporation so we would need to work with the school corporation. We started Jarod has actually started conversations with the school corporation and then a secondary entrance which would come off the county road. The boardwalk is incorporated in this one and then another element is a canopy walk. And then phase 2, like I said, is the White Oak Commons there towards the entrance at 900 East. This just identifies those habitats that were again on that proposed map and just show how those work with the different elements that we have on the site. With the concept that we ended up with, you’ll notice it’s kind of a heavier touch on the land with that White Oak Commons near 900 and as you get closer to Eagle Creek, it’s a much lighter much more of the, the natural areas and less of an impact from, from people. So, there is a network of trails. The trail it, again, is sort of on top of the hill as a paved trail. It would be accessible so Page 8 of 28 Zionsville Town Council May 16, 2022 that kids going out to the classrooms you would have that accessible route with a paved trail network and then that highlights the 5K cross country course. We talked about having meets out here and decided there just, there’s too much impact that come with cross country meets, even smaller meets, you know, even if it’s just a couple of schools so this would just be used for practice and just for, you know, runners that or walkers that would like that three-mile loop. This is a close, close-up of White Oak Commons, again, showing you the, what that might look like, you know, a big green area in the center, a pergola that goes around the outside of it you could have an event barn, you could have a restaurant and outfitters like we mentioned. So, this gives you an idea of what we’re thinking. When we say event barn I’m sure there’s a lot of different scales and things you could think of so this gives you more of the character or the aesthetic that we’re thinking of for what that might look like. So very in character with the site but, again, the idea that someone might come out for this quaint, you know, unique restaurant thinking they have no desire to get any further back in the site and see how beautiful it is and really be drawn back into the site and the nature center. So, the nature center which will be the focus of the site, again, there on top of the hill with that great view incorporated with that we’ve got – and I did it again, I knew I was going to – we have the nature play, a nature-inspired play and then behind we also have treehouse and that canopy walk. So, it’s like a boardwalk but in the top of the trees and then it’s punctuated by treehouses and wildlife blind which is where people can sit and not be seen by the animals but, but actually watch the animals. A nice boardwalk that goes over the wetland. We’ll expand the wetland in the, do some reforestation but there’s also an amphitheater there at the bottom of the hill where classrooms or programs could be conducted as a part of the nature center. This gives you an idea of what we’re thinking when we’re talking about that canopy walk and the treehouses. So, another play opportunity but another opportunity for just viewing nature as you’re out there on the site. Art is an important part of the Master Plan but it’s, you know, art and nature so it’s more specific to the nature in context with the site. Turn it back over to Sam and he’s going to talk a little bit about the three options we looked at for the nature center and then how we ended up where we ended up. Vonderau We developed three parallel programs for what a potential nature center could be agnostic of, of where it would be located on the site just to understand. Again, looking at what the opportunities and constraints of the existing building present to us which I won’t get into the data on the screen because it’s small, but I’ll be available for questions later but on, on the lefthand column is, is looking at utilizing the existing 9,000 square foot center and then two new construction options on the right, a 12,000 square foot and a 5,000 square foot option. And really the intent of this exercise was just to, you know, work with stakeholders in the community and the Town to understand the wants and needs of what a, a nature center Page 9 of 28 Zionsville Town Council May 16, 2022 would present and the, the variety of scales that, that those sizes could accommodate. So, as an example, the smaller 5,000 square foot option would have a potential meeting space for 49 but the larger 12,000 square foot would have a meeting space for 149 and then all of the other program, whether it be exhibit space or classroom space, would scale up accordingly. So, we started to, to jump into some of what the organization of the program of the nature center could be. Just to, to get further input from the stakeholders in that charrette process and help to communicate and help people understand that scale of, of what we’re talking about with the, the, the 9,000, 5,000 and square 12,000 square foot options. Sustainability is a lens that we, that we always cast over any decisions that, that we’re making or recommending, whether it be salvaging and preserving an existing building or recommending new construction. So total life cycle cost is an important way to help us understand that so, again, a lot of data on this sheet but I’ll use it to say that, that we have looked at what if new construction options were built to a net zero energy, energy standard the, the bottom chart is showing what the, the annual cumulative energy costs would potentially be with the three options showing that, that the top orange bar would be renovating the existing structure with residential style equipment which is low, low cost and what was on it to begin with would be significantly higher ongoing 30-year energy costs and then rolling that into the chart on the top which is showing the, the overall initial spend upfront costs of the three options would be plus the cumulative energy use and, again, presuming that the existing structures are have substandard quality and nearing into their usable life even with retrofit assuming that 15 or 20 years down the line would be the end of their useful life and there would be a significant spend to replace them at that time after and then initial immediate spend for a nature center program to begin with. We also did a precedent study of other comparable scale nature centers throughout the country. So looking at, again, the programs that are in each of those and the scale, quality of construction sustainability, aspirations and standards that each of these have had one element that a takeaway learning from these is that there is a way to potentially phase construction to, to create a building that is you know, meets the needs initially and then is able to adapt and grow as the community grows, as and as more funds might become available. So, there are a few – Columbus, Ohio at 12,000 square feet and Clermont, Kentucky on, on the lower scale that would be good precedents to do a field trip to at some point and study and see the impact that these centers are having on their communities. I’ll hand it back over to Tricia to give an overview of what we learned from the public input sessions after all of the, the previous information was made available to the community. McClellan So we had a project website after we came up with those preferred concepts and then really, hopefully some of you saw that, really went into detail for the site telling a little bit about what those elements were going Page 10 of 28 Zionsville Town Council May 16, 2022 to look like. The project website, which was specific to Carpenter Nature Preserve, had close to 8,000 total visits at about 1,300 unique users so that tells you a lot of people were going back to look at it again to see it more than once or maybe a couple of people in the same household. But that’s 8,000 businesses are a lot of eyes on the plan. We did have a survey that was a part of it, so we asked a few questions and there were 170 survey responses so fewer, fewer people decided to answer those questions than look and see what was there which is pretty normal. So, we’re going to show you just a few of the questions we asked. In the Master Plan itself in the appendix we’ll have the full I think there were eight questions, eight or 10 questions, and we’ll have those full results in the appendix. But this question was what are you most excited to see and they could pick anything. They weren’t limited to just picking three but what we heard was trails, pathways and boardwalks. I’m sure you’re all surprised to hear that. It seems like every community outreach we have we hear that. Um another one that was very high in the responses was the nature center that people are looking forward to that, that nature center with the, the ideas that we were presenting, and then ecological habitats was also very high. So, these two questions are how would you like the Town to pay for acquiring the property and then the second one is how would you like the Town to pay for constructing the, the park basically. And what we saw was pretty much a mix, again, everybody could pick whatever they want there weren’t any limits on that, so this is just interesting to see. The largest was a combination of private and public funds, that’s the yellow, and then the purple, which was donations or fundraising which, again, is, is something pretty common when we ask this question. Wanted to know where people that were answering the questions where they lived. The green is Zionsville, the urban district so most of them were in Zionsville. Then we had one that was very specific Whitestown smack up against Zionsville so, I think they could’ve been honorary Zionsville. So, Master Plan Cost Opinion. I aways have to put the little asterisks when I put the Master Plan. It is still very general, you know, we haven’t designed the building, we haven’t designed the width of the pathways, you know, those specifics, the utilities those haven’t been designed. We have an idea of the range that it might cost to, to do these so this gives you an idea of what that range is, and I’ll give you a brief overview of it and then I’m going to throw it back to Jarod and he can tell you about next steps but – so Phase 1 would be acquisition and construction documents for that first phase. Phase 2 and there could be Phase 2 a, b, c, you know, you really can break this down however you need to once you get to that point, but it is approximately $4-6 million. That includes the bigger nature center, that 12,000 square foot nature center all the roads and the parking all the outdoor classrooms that canopy walk and the treehouses, rehabbing the bridges that are out there – they need quite a bit of work to utilize the, the land on the other side of Eagle Creek playground, shelters and utilities. So, Page 11 of 28 Zionsville Town Council May 16, 2022 all that is included but it also includes stream bank enhancement, wetland and reforestation. Garrett I’m sorry did you say that includes the nature center or does not? Culp That’s what I thought too. McClellan No it does not. Garrett Yes, okay. Okay. I thought I heard that wrong. McClellan Sorry. Nature blinds Phase 3 would be the nature center and that could be anywhere from $7-10 million but it does include the nature center, the amphitheater and the boardwalk and, again, that’s a 12,000 square foot nature center. When it actually becomes time to design it, that could be much smaller could even be bigger, could be designed to be scaled and then the White Oak Commons, again $5-10 million that’s a big range because, again, it could look so different from one barn out there for events to multiple restaurants arbor an event for weddings you know, just the scale of it really could vary. So, I’ll turn it back over to Jarod and let you talk about next steps. Burk Just a question – each, each phase is independently budgeted, so aggregately you’re talking $20-30 million dollars for the four phases? McClellan Yes. Logsdon Yes, so looking at the numbers, you know, this is a legacy project very similar to our Rail Trail which began in 1992 2022 we’re finally looking at acquiring the final parcels and completing our section of the Rail Trail but throughout this 30 years of the Rail Trail, people have been able to enjoy it along the way and it just becomes a better investment for our community. So very similar to the Carpenter Nature Preserve step one we, we have to acquire the land. With the land in our pocket, we can begin to work with all the tools in our toolbelt, we can begin to partner with the Zionsville Parks Foundation who are very eager to begin their first capital campaign with this project. So currently as Nancy Carpenter is both the chair of the Zionsville Parks Foundation as well as the owner of the land, there’s a conflict there for raising funds for this project now but once the land is Town property, we can begin fundraising for sites and features on the site or as well as just the nature center itself so kind of this phasing allows for us to acquire the land, begin the construction documents, Phase 2 open the park up very similar to Starkey Park, so going out there to enjoy nature, building on that support and that institution within the community, having a couple of bells and whistles with the classrooms, the nature blinds and the restroom and then just beginning to build that Page 12 of 28 Zionsville Town Council May 16, 2022 emotional investment in the community of what this preserve could become and then as the Master Plan indicated, partnering with public and private funds to complete this vision and have a nature center in the future. So happy to answer any questions about the master planning process for this project. Garrett So, legacy projects are great. I don’t want to leave this Town with legacy debt. What I think is most interesting to me, I mean, it all looks great right? And I think in a public process if you ask people do you want this they’re going to say absolutely this looks great. I mean I see that; I think that looks great but then you see the price and that, that price is going to keep going up as the time to fund it goes up, right? So, if you don’t do that nature center for eight years, that $7-10 million suddenly becomes $12-15 million. What I want to make sure that we aren’t doing is we aren’t chasing shiny new objects because we have an overall park plan, Master Park Plan, this park, while beautiful, is sort of what I would consider on the fringes of, of Zionsville population today. You know, if there’s an ask for money I want to see how that ask for money impacts the current overall Parks Master Plan and that we aren’t robbing that Master Plan of future funding because we’ve put it all in on this. So, you know, whether it’s something like golf course improvements, you know, certainly we could use a new clubhouse there or other things that may be coming that the Parks Board has decided we need, I just want to make sure that in five years we can’t buy, we can’t build a playground, we can’t make an improvement in the new Overley-Worman Park opening Friday because we’ve done this. If we can, it’s not an issue but looking at bonding capacity, current budget, all those sort of things, I think that’s got to be part of the sell, at least to me, and to this community is to be making sure we can afford that. And I’m sure you’ve already thought through that because you’ve been nodding a lot so, that, that’s good but I just, I wanted to make sure we’re on the same page there. Logsdon Absolutely. So, you know, part of when I was interviewing for this position, John Stehr asked, you know, what’s more important, continuing to develop a park system or taking care of what you have? And I answered well that’s, you know, that’s 50/50. You have to maintain what you have and the brand you have while you expand and John let me know that I was wrong and it’s actually 100%/100%, so – it is within our, uh priorities to expand into northern Zionsville we have no park presence there at this time as we leave kind of the urban core but I completely agree this has to be balanced with the larger park system and these questions or this information will be transported into the Five-Year Master Plan which we are currently kicking off now. Garrett Yes, that’s I think the important piece, right? Because if they saw the examples given that other communities have done this, you know, it was Page 13 of 28 Zionsville Town Council May 16, 2022 Columbus, it was Pittsburgh, it was San Antonio and there was the one in Kentucky, that’s the one I’m more interested in because those other communities are 30x, 40x our size which means they have similar sized budgets. Again, I just don’t want to make sure we put all of our chips in that one basket and beautiful as it may be it starts straining other parts of the system. Logsdon Absolutely. Culp And that was going to be my question. So, what’s the operating cost if we, is Phase 1 happened today? So, like are you going to have to have a full- time person out there maintaining it? I mean what, what’s the operating cost and then what would be the operating cost let’s just say after Phase 3? Is it going to have some sort of break even point through what kind of money? Logsdon Absolutely. So, Phase 1 with acquisition our operating cost would just be the maintenance of the land. So, Phase 1 truly is just acquiring it as the Town and then doing our due diligence to keep that property safe, you know, at this point it wouldn’t be open to the public. There would still be the old structures onsite that would need demolished as well as the cart paths are in disrepair, so that is truly just acquiring the land and beginning to formalize those construction documents. So, we could fold that within current operations. Now adding 214 acres to our park system would require additional personal or additional contract services to keep up with that investment so as we open this up to a park we would surely need to request additional staffing and support to keep up with the operations and safety of the that park as we do with all of our parkland. Culp Would that be Phase 1 or you mean Phase 2? Logsdon That would be Phase 2. So, Phase 1 is simply getting this property in perpetuity as Town property. So isolate or owning that land, you know, having that large of a segment of Eagle Creek in our park system which we currently have seven parks along Eagle Creek. It’s been a mission to continue to invest in the banks of Eagle Creek to improve our drinking water and reduce erosion throughout Starkey and now we’re looking at Overley-Worman as well. So, this would be a nice capstone to that legacy of investment in our own drinking water in Eagle Creek. On top of that the 214 acres of greenspace which we could improve habitat so as development continues wildlife is going to continue to be pushed north because that’s the rural section. Already we’ve heard of residents that are seeing more fox and more coyotes as Holliday Farms has come online. So that is only going to continue to happen as we continue to expand north into Union Township. So, this park, 214 acres, at some point in the future is going to be a green oasis whereas everything else could, you know, 50, Page 14 of 28 Zionsville Town Council May 16, 2022 100 years from now be developed. So, the importance of having this staple within our community is, is only going to become more and more critical as we continue to grow. So, getting back to your question – infrastructure, you know, we will need additional resources to take care of a park but within the Phase 2 step that’s very similar to taking care of Starkey Park or Turkeyfoot. It’s passive recreation, it’s our nature center staff going out and programming the site but it’s no true investment of facilities on the scale of a nature center yet. Then once funds are available and resources are available, we look at Phase 3 and that’s when the nature center actually comes online and, you know, the nature center has been a part of this community for the past 20 years and it has been within school facilities, now within the library facility but always the backbone of our nature programming. You know, we’re still seeing 1,400 people walk through the door about every single month now that it’s in the library. So, a highly visible, highly desired asset in the community and this would be the capstone of that providing the permanent location for that foundation that we built up over the last 20 years. And White Oaks Common, you know, that could happen 50 years from now, that could happen, you know, that could fall off and never happen. That is kind of just, in this process we were asked to dream and what could possibly happen, and White Oaks Common is an opportunity to generate additional revenue for the site to reduce the support it would need from taxpayer funds and just create a new amenity that might draw someone else to the site, so we’re not really worried about White Oak Commons yet. That is something that would be wonderful to get to someday but Phases 1, 2 and 3 are kind of what are on our purview for this, beginning of this legacy project. Garrett Jarod, I don’t know that I would discount Phase 4 as sort of like a nice to have or, or the end goal. I mean if you look at the, if you look at the survey sort of, when you think of public/private partnership, right? Everyone expects private to pay for stuff but they’re not going to pay for, you know, pathways or shelters, what they’re going to pay for is something like that where they can then make money. So, if that’s a way to jump start things because it is a, you know, private event center that utilizes that space and then goes towards, you know, some rent funding the rest of the stuff, you know, that’s the kind of public/private partnership I think that works and so I would certainly encourage that as well as the Foundation that’s been set up. The, the more that comes from that and the less that comes from us makes it both easier and quicker to do, right? Logsdon Completely fair. Traylor Jarod, do you know what the bonding capacity of the Parks Department is right now or the Parks? Page 15 of 28 Zionsville Town Council May 16, 2022 Logsdon We began that conversation so based on kind of preliminary history it looks like we’re right around $10 million for the Park Board – Traylor Yes. Logsdon In bonding capacity. Traylor All right. Logsdon I think it’s also important to note that the Land Water Conservation Fund, which is funded in perpetuity through the state, that’s actually a federal program that is up to a half a million dollars and we could be eligible for that every two years and just the scope and scale of this type of project, it checks the majority of their criteria for each funding cycle. So, with the actual acquisition we wouldn’t have to spend a dollar on that match, and we would have a half a million dollars right there to invest in the park on day one. And then two years later we could apply again and have another half million and that’s just one very large grant program and, again, I, it’s important to remember we do have a Foundation, while it is a young Foundation, they are very eager and with, in line with their mission to fundraise for this site and specifically the nature center, so. Traylor So, what I would, you know, just throwing this out there – it looks like you know, once we have Phase 1 and Phase 2 completed essentially we could start using the park you know prior to Phase 3 being implemented. My, my thought on this, I understand the conflict of interest with Mrs. Carpenter being both the owner and the president of the Foundation and not being able to raise and I, I do believe we can raise a lot of this money through people that want to commemorate their family legacy, if you will, over for the next 100 years or however long, you know, this goes on but you know, so my initial thought is bond for the acquisition and then start the fundraising to fund Phase 2 because then you’ve got things that people can put their family name on as well as businesses put their names on because that’s, you know, you, you love to make a donation but you also want to see your name there and you want your, you know, I’m, I’m thinking, you know, it would be cool if my grandkids, you know, walk by and saw their family name on something that was in this park I’m obviously a big supporter of this. I also, I, I want to be helpful, I want to be a part of it but I’m also very - I want to do it in a fiscally responsible way. So, I want to help, I, I want to be a part of it, anything I can do to be a part of it I will probably be one that pushes back on the financial aspect but the actual park itself I want to make that happen. Logsdon Thank you very much for saying that. And I completely agree with what you just said so just a smaller example – we began a memorial program within our park system for benches and trees and it was so successful in Page 16 of 28 Zionsville Town Council May 16, 2022 year one we actually had to sunset it in the fall because we just couldn’t take on anymore benches. We were able to look at where we needed them and open it back up and, again, we receive applications every few months so there is, you know, a strong support of our park system within Zionsville and, I, I completely agree as we offer those opportunities to not only leave their legacy but build a new one, I think people will come. Burk I think we all echo Councilor Traylor’s sentiments the price tag is, you know, obviously, it’s something that we really have to, to figure out. You mentioned this a couple of times though the Foundation is up and going, obviously there’s some conflict of interest and we need to fix that quickly. Do you not see the Foundation as a part of Phase 1 because you mentioned, you know, they’re ready to go once it’s acquired. So it sounds like you don’t believe that the Foundation is going to be able to be instrumental until Phase 2 that wasn’t, you know, when, when we started the Foundation and when, when we first visited this, this park, what about a year ago I was excited and I thought that the Foundation piece to, to Bryan’s point, there are a lot of people who I think would want to, want to make a donation to this but I pictured that part in parcel to this $4.5 million acquisition and not after the fact. Logsdon Right because of that conflict, it would be after the acquisition just because the acquisition is so directly tied to both to Carpenter on both sides of that equation. But as Councilor Traylor mentioned, you know, every item within building the site could be something that could be part of their capital campaign and receiving fundraising, so, the, the Foundation does receive regular donations and they are assisting us park system wide so they wouldn’t be just completely focused on the Carpenter Nature Preserve so we are working with them. They’ve actually sponsored our summer camp program and provided scholarships to two families so five camps were paid for completely by the Foundation. We are working out at the golf course to transition some of those rough areas into native plantings and pollinator gardens to provide a little bit of habitat that doesn’t interfere with play and reduces the maintenance on the site for our teams. So, they are looking at the holistic approach until they can really set their sights on the, the preserve and begin capital raising for that. Burk What would be your preferred suggestion to fund the $4.5 million dollar acquisition if you wanted to do that in the next 12 months? Logsdon Yes, so I think we do have the bonding capacity to not only afford the acquisition of this but also have funds leftover should another opportunity arrive. So, again, to Councilor Garrett’s point, not putting all of our eggs in this one basket, still being able to provide for the rest of our park system. So, I think that’s important we’re not stretching ourselves too far, but we can put the kickstand up and allow the Foundation and Page 17 of 28 Zionsville Town Council May 16, 2022 public/private partnerships to really take off once the land is owned by the Town. Traylor Something else to consider, you know, the, the conflict of interest I, I completely understand that with and I don’t want to have to, you know cut the Carpenters out of any aspect of this because they’re so, you know, they’re such a cornerstone to this happening but one thing to consider is to get rid of that conflict of interest is we have to acquire the property. We could bond for that acquisition and as the, the flavor of the Council is okay now we don’t approve any additional funding until now we’ve got the opportunity to raise funds you can raise funds, pay down that bond to the point that the Council would want, whether that’s off or just pay down a couple of million or, or whatever you know those are, those are options too. I think, you know, obviously step one while you know the Carpenters are committed to saving this property for the Town, you know, also understand I don’t want to take advantage of their generosity any longer than we have to so I think if we could get the acquisition done then kind of everything else we can – it’s a legacy project, you know, everything else time can, time’s on our side. Burk I’m just curious, obviously you know, the methodology and you had the website up and obviously, you know, you have 8,000 people checking it out and not quite 200 people weighed in. I’m not surprised by the results. Obviously there wasn’t a price tag on there. What I would be super curious in moving forward is what’s the will of the, the entire community of Zionsville to bond $5 million dollars for this property? Because I, I don’t know. I don’t know if that’s a part of your next, part of a phase of surveying a financial component to see if people have an appetite for this? Logsdon Absolutely, yes. We were hoping to kind of assess that out through the community survey and so, it, it’s there but, as you mentioned, that is a small portion of the entire, entirety of Zionsville so, certainly capturing that in the next Five-Year Master Plan but to not sit on our hands and actually beginning the bonding process since that takes a while, I think we will look at providing some opportunity for additional community input on the bonding process. Melton Jarod, this says acquisition and construction docs. What are the construction docs? Logsdon That would be for the, the infrastructure, you know, surveying the land. Melton So this right here or additional? Additional over and above what’s already been studied here? Page 18 of 28 Zionsville Town Council May 16, 2022 Logsdon So master planning level, you know, is at that 30,000 foot level and this would actually get in the minutia of the site to make it more appropriate, you know, studying the topography, studying some of the other limitations of the site, what utilities might actually cost but, again, those construction documents would only be tied to the infrastructure so the, the roads, the parks, the restroom and then we would, you know, have construction documents made when we are ready to move forward with the nature center and, again, when we’re ready to move forward with the White Oak Commons, so – Melton Do you have an estimated cost on that? Logsdon On the construction documents? It’s usually about 10% of the total cost so if we look at Phase 2, you know, that’s around $400,000 or $600,000 for the construction documents, for everything within that. Melton Thank you. Logsdon And one thing we haven’t talked about as another tool in our toolbelt, is the impact fee which we receive from each development and house that comes into town. So historically the park system has sat on those, unfortunately, so we do have a large number of impact fees that we do need to identify projects for, one of those being a community room which could be satisfied within the nature center but there are also other things, you know, shelters, restroom buildings, we can look at all of that with the previous impact fee study as well as the current one that was just adopted this year. Melton White Oak Commons – the how, how many people would that hold for the gathering area? I know in Boone County we don’t have very many areas that can house larger groups and I think that’s something that I’ve heard from my constituents is where can we throw a big party. Logsdon Absolutely. I believe that as some ability to be scaled as well. You saw that in the center there was a large greenspace. That could obviously become a part of a structure if needed. I think that barn is very interchangeable about its actual dimensions so I completely agree, you know, we now began shelter reservations and we reserve quite a few shelters throughout the year as well as Lincoln Park which is kind of the wedding destination in the, in the middle of Zionsville and that is booked almost every weekend of the summer for these events, so certainly there are a number of people that would like to be able to have their reception at the same location as their ceremony and be able to accommodate medium- sized parties. So, I completely agree there’s a need right now for that. Page 19 of 28 Zionsville Town Council May 16, 2022 Choi As we look into things like White Oak Commons nothing to do about here. I doubt you’ve looked at how it affects the neighboring areas but because it’s in the, it’s proposed in the southwest corner, I want us to keep in mind how it impacts neighbors around there. I don’t know what it looks like as far as demographics, not demographics but the population around that area looks like but as we deal with some of the other issues around other facilities in the Town and the impact that it’s caused to neighboring areas, I want to be mindful when we move forward that, of things like White Oak Commons that’s going to be on the edge of the property and what it does noise wise to the surrounding areas. Logsdon That’s a fantastic point. We’ve actually began conversations with the neighbors of the site. Originally proposed was a spiral hill which would’ve been the kickoff point for the, the 5Ks or the cross country meets and, you know, there was a lot of concern about a spiral hill that looked directly into their pools and their backyards so, that concept was kind of scraped completely and through feedback we’ve learned that, you know, this site won’t be a good spot for those meets altogether so we are certainly at a point where we can still change plans to best accommodate not only our neighbors but the community. So, we’ll, we’ll most certainly have those conversations and we have spoke with them about White Oak Commons and kind of what that would be in initial conversations so. Plunkett Any other questions for Jarod? Garrett Thanks Jarod. Burk Thank you. Culp Thanks Jarod. Logsdon Thank you all very much. B. Central Indiana Regional Development Authority Update – Noblesville Mayor Chris Jensen Plunkett Up next on the agenda is a presentation regarding the Central Indiana Regional Development Authority. Noblesville Mayor, Chris Jensen is going to present. Welcome Mayor. Jensen Good morning. It’s a pleasure to be with you. I was, it, it’s always wonderful to sit and listen to other communities grapple with the same challenges that Noblesville grapples with. If we all had all the money coming out the trees that we plant right we’d be in better shape, so, kudos to you. It’s great to be with you in Zionsville this morning. I laugh, I was telling Mayor Styron that I came over about a year ago and had lunch with Page 20 of 28 Zionsville Town Council May 16, 2022 her at Rosie’s, which is not the original Rosie’s, the original Rosie’s is in downtown Noblesville, side commentary – still the Ooey Gooey cookies are just as good over here. But it was about a year ago and so I haven’t been back since but then I had the pleasure of attending, not the pleasure I attended a funeral in Zionsville on Friday and then played baseball, I didn’t – my son – on Saturday and Sunday so this is four days in a row to be in your wonderful community and I spent a little bit of money too while I was here, so. Thank you for allowing me to be here this morning to talk a little bit about the proposed Central Indiana Regional Development Authority. This is really a, as Mayor Styron teed up well, a, a continuation of really a decade’s long conversation around regional, regionalism. Roughly 10 years ago with the leadership of Mayor Fadness of Fishers and at the time Mayor Cook of Westfield, really started talking a little bit about not so much acting individually but looking at a regional approach to our Central Indiana community and the CICEO that was formed that group meets on a monthly basis in downtown Indianapolis for lunch to discuss a whole host of issues. Most recently last week we were discussing development, the cost of development of which you are seeing major changes in as well and meet with different groups to just get our heads around different ideas and share struggles, challenges, opportunities that we all face. In 2020 the Indiana General Assembly, our good friends down there passed a piece of legislation allowing Central Indiana to form a new RDA, a Regional Development Authority. There have been many attempts in the past to form and RDA I can tell you I think I’ve been asked many times why hasn’t this happened until now. I think all too often in Central Indiana, in particular, our individual communities, whether it be Zionsville or any Hamilton County community, Johnson County, etc. have strong economic development engines on their own and so oftentimes to get us around one table, around one vision, can be an incredible challenge. What the Town of Zionsville faces on a daily basis is different than we face in Noblesville, in Greenwood and in Shelbyville, for example. So, in the last 18 months we decided to take a different approach. We decided to start with our governmental structure to get everyone on the same page from a governmental body standpoint then convene going forward and discuss some of these regional opportunities and envision for the region. We didn’t know at the time that the Ready Grant opportunity would be a perfect opportunity for us to start with. You may recall about eight, about a little over a year ago the General Assembly allotted a half a billion dollars for Ready Grant funding for communities around the State of Indiana to apply on a regional basis for community development projects, projects focused on quality of life, projects focus, focused on housing and increasing the population of the State of Indiana which is a mission for not only each one of our communities as we are forced with major workforce challenges but the State as a whole. You may recall, we formed a partnership along the White River region of which Zionsville – when people ask the question on how Zionsville snuck in there – you are Page 21 of 28 Zionsville Town Council May 16, 2022 actually a part of the watershed for the White River Region so Zionsville was part of our region and we, we gathered together and over the course of really 60 days I thought really moved the needle forward in, in discussion around regionalism. We were able to come together exhaustively to put together a list of projects to apply for the Ready Grant funding. We applied for a $50 million dollar opportunity. I can tell you when we went down to pitch our project and Mayor Styron was there that day down in Indianapolis at the Dallara factory we learned a lot of lessons that day. While I thought we had an incredibly strong presentation around why the State should invest $50 million dollars in the White River Region, we also saw other regions around the State, whether it be southwest Indiana down in Evansville with their One Southern Indiana or northwest Indiana or Northeast Indiana were already very cohesive in their approach. They had already formed RDAs in their area with staff on staff helping to guide those conversations – not that we didn’t have a great, cohesive presentation but we were doing it with our existing staff amongst city staff and town staff going forward and so we saw an obvious shortcoming that we had of Central Indiana buy not having a formed RDA in place. As you all well know, every region in the State of Indiana was awarded funding for the Ready Grant opportunity. We were awarded $20 million and are currently going through the exhaustive process of trimming down our $50 million dollar ask. I can tell you while Noblesville took the lead in the overall Ready application, our project was cut from the list. It’s nothing like a little backhanded compliment from our friends at the State but that’s okay. We continue to push forward. Zionsville does have a funded opportunity – Mayor Styron mentioned that earlier kind of working on those final dollar amounts here for the next several, several months to, to see that going forward. But we learned from that experience that the fact that we don’t have an established RDA was really at a detriment and we were told by the State of Indiana and promised by the Governor you may have heard him say that his plan is to put another hopefully half a billion dollars in next year’s legislative budget to fund Ready 2.0 and we don’t want to make the same mistakes we made with round one so we decided the time was now to push forward on the development of a Regional Development Authority. So, what you will have before you in two weeks and the way this works is every town or city in the nine-county region with a population over 5,000 people – I counted last night – there are 29 cities and towns in the nine counties that will be able to adopt into this new RDA. Going forward what each town or city will do is adopt a resolution per state statue which requires two meetings and then you’ll I’m sorry a, an ordinance which requires two meetings and then a resolution opting yourself into the Regional Development Authority. Now you may ask, what what’s the cost, what’s the hang up, what’s the hook – I get that all the time. There’s currently no funding attached to the existing RDA. Other RDAs around the state have different tax and authority, for example, this RDA does not have that. I think long term there’ll be a Page 22 of 28 Zionsville Town Council May 16, 2022 conversation amongst members of that RDA to look for additional funding sources for it. I think the, the ability to hire staff going forward will help take the focus of the RDA out of each individual town or city and put it in a centralized unit that will require some funding long term but we’re not to that discussion yet. I can tell you most of the communities in the in the RDA region already exist pay an existing fee to the Indy Chamber partnership. For example, there’s been some discussions of taking some funding from, from that group and placing it in this RDA to hire some staff but we’re not to that point and going forward I, I would be remiss if I didn’t say that I’m sure those conversations will be forthcoming. The idea here is to have a full-time group of people hired by all the Central Indiana Region constantly looking at the state and federal government for funding opportunities. In particular, at the federal level, I’ve never seen a money making machine and printing press like they have in Washington D.C. I don’t think we have one in Noblesville. I don’t know, maybe Zionsville does. But the amount of dollars flowing from Washington D.C. of which I have a lot of questions on but that’s a whole other conversation is plenty currently and I think it’s only to our cities’ benefit and our region’s benefit to have folks looking for those funding opportunities because we know Central Indiana is a huge economic drive for the State of Indiana. So again, the goal here is to get everyone in the same group, in the same region, growing towards the same mission and to get everyone around a table to start looking at long-term opportunities. We know ahead of us Ready 2.0 will be coming up next year but that will just be hopefully one piece of a much larger puzzle as grant dollars continue to flow from the federal government and the state government having a group of people focused on the different needs of all of our different communities, I think will be a huge benefit to us going forward. I can tell you to date the City of Noblesville and the City of Fishers have both adopted this resolution. The Town of McCordsville in Hancock County has as well, and Marion County in Indianapolis will be taking it up later this month as well going forward. So, the first swath of people will be those in the White River Redevelopment the Ready Project. In order to receive our Ready Grant dollars, every community needs to be in an RDA. So, we will start with those who receive dollars from the White River Ready Grant application. Other communities in the nine-county region were a part of a different RDA for application for Ready dollars. Example – Shelbyville teamed up with some of those communities on the I-74 corridor to apply for their Ready Grant dollars so they’re ineligible as of right now to join our RDA until they spend their current Ready dollars. Once they do that, they will leave the RDA that they are in, and they will join the Central Indiana Regional Development Authority going forward. So again, I think this is an incredible opportunity for all of us for once to come together on a, on a, a positive step forward to make ourselves ready for additional funding coming forward and I would ask for your consideration of this here in two weeks when it comes before you and I am here today, again, just to really Page 23 of 28 Zionsville Town Council May 16, 2022 answer any questions that you have regarding it. Seeing none – thanks so much. I’m just kidding. Garrett So, it sounds good. No problems. I’m assuming being in an RDA with, with communities where we may be competing with projects on or maybe setting our own economic agenda for what drives us, being in an RDA if that conflicts with the RDA’s mission doesn’t prevent us from setting our own destiny for how we want to drive economic development locally, correct? Jensen I think that’s a really great point. Thank you for mentioning it. Really, the main vision and point of this regional RDA is, is not to compete with one another. We’re going to have that every single day amongst us which I think is great and healthy. This RDA is really aimed at competing with Columbus, Ohio, Nashville, Tennessee, Denver, Colorado, Minneapolis, Minnesota we, I, I think that the local competition will happen every single day. This is more designed of big, regional projects. I use the example like the Amazon 2.0 project that was several years ago that was going to have a huge impact on Central Indiana. Those are the type of projects this region will go after. In terms of economic development, local economic development will still be up to every city and town in our community because again, to your point, I don’t need a nine-county region telling me what’s best for Noblesville thus you don’t need that for Zionsville as well. Garrett Do, how much does the state get involved or help with this? I know that statutorily they set it up but if you think about or have read the news about the state buying or allegedly buying 5,000 acres in Boone County north of Lebanon, you know, who knows for what, you know, but you talk about competing regionally, right? Columbus, Ohio just got that Intel factory, I suspect that’s probably something that’s set up similarly. Do state initiatives that are sort of tangentially related to the RDA, are they sort of folded in or cooperative or are they, the state’s the state and really has nothing to do with what we’re doing. Jensen They will be folded in, especially I, I think the state is looking for those big $200 million dollar type Intel projects. They will, if something like that were to come about, they would immediately lean on the RDA for that conversation. As you and I know, Josh, that at the end of the day a, a huge Intel project while may benefit directly the tax base of Boone County, is going to impact the, the workers of Hamilton County and the residents of Hamilton County and Clinton County and surrounding counties as well, so, projects of that size, of that scope involving the 5,000 acres that you alluded to that we’ve read about will be folded in directly with, with this RDA and its vision. Page 24 of 28 Zionsville Town Council May 16, 2022 Garrett Very good. Plunkett I noticed in the IBJ article a couple of weeks ago there’s no, you mentioned this before, there’s no projects or anything that you guys have outlined. This is just simply an opportunity to be prepared for that should it come down the pike. Jensen Yes. I think in the past that some of the trip ups have been, there have been too many you know, if you will, like a cart in front of the horse conversation. There’s been conversations around regional I use this example lightly but a, a commuter tax, for example. Indianapolis, I know, has discussed that in the past, Mayor Hogsett has. Nothing will tick off a nine-county region more than a commuter tax conversation and rightfully so, so I think where our goal here is why don’t we get ourselves organized as an actual governmental body and then start tackling some of those regional conversations. I think we have the ability to do that now. We know there are regional dollars coming down, down the pike so why we wouldn’t get ourselves organized first and then move towards a regional conversation and knowing at the same time too that each community may have different regional visions for themselves. You know, it’s not going to be everyone chasing one pile of money on Ready 2.0. Ready 2.0, for example, may make sense for five communities in the Central Indiana RDA and 24 others may not make sense and they may be going after a different federal grant program, for example. This, the whole point is that every single day we’re looking at these opportunities and what dollars make sense for what communities. Plunkett And we have your staff has sent over the ordinance and resolutions and the state statute and Heather, I believe, you were on that email so Councilors we would certainly just, you know, modify that to be specific to Zionsville and present that, if ready, at the next meeting in a couple of weeks. Jensen In the meantime, we stand ready if there’s any questions you have, you know, President Plunkett has my number, Dr. Choi as well, you know, call or text. I’m happy to have these conversations with you individually as well. Plunkett Sounds great. Any other questions? Garrett Thanks for coming. Jensen Appreciate the time. Plunkett Thanks for coming. Page 25 of 28 Zionsville Town Council May 16, 2022 Jensen It was a beautiful drive this morning. Have a good day. Burk Come back for day five. Jensen Yes, I’ll look forward to it. Thank you. OTHER MATTERS Plunkett Up next on the agenda is Other Matters. Are there any Councilors that have any other matters they would like to discuss? Garrett Yes, one quick thing. Plunkett Sure. Garrett So, the Mayor mentioned this in her administration update talking about what the county is doing with this jail project. You know, about five years ago, give or take the previous Council and every local Council, so, Whitestown, Lebanon, Thorntown, went through a pretty exhaustive process of implementing a public safety LIT. That was a 1% tax for all residents of the entire county that was to go towards to pay public safety and it was needed. I voted for it. I stand by that. It helped with our police, it helped with our fire. We needed that funding but 50% of that revenue goes to the county. The County Council is now looking at another 0.2% income tax for this proposed jail project and the justification is well it’s only going to cost X amount of dollars, right? A family making $75,000 is only going to pay $56 or whatever it may be, and I hate those justifications because you start adding up a bunch of little taxes and they’ll only start becoming a pretty big number and so I agree with the Mayor wholly that I don’t think this, I think this needs more thinking through. I think this needs more public dialogue. I don’t think that’s a good way to spend $50, $60 million dollars you look at, I’m sure everyone here has gotten their property tax assessments, mine went up tremendously which is great, my home is worth a lot more but it’s terrible because my property taxes are going to be a lot more as well. So, people are already getting shocked by that, you’ve got inflation going on and now you’ve got this proposed jail I’m further concerned with the fact that I think Zionsville will bear a disproportionately larger share of this jail than what we will use it for. So, I’m certainly encouraging our County Council to rethink this. I’m certainly encouraging the members of that Council that represent this Town to really think if that is the right point here. I was glad that the Mayor talked about that and, I’m welcoming any of your thoughts on this as well but, I think this, we as a community should push back and see are there better ways to do this, are there cheaper ways to do this, you know, now we’re being told we’ve got to do it right away because costs are going up. Well, are there other ways to do this as well? So, I’m a little concerned Page 26 of 28 Zionsville Town Council May 16, 2022 what’s going on there. I know we don’t have a vote on it like we did on the public safety LIT but certainly I want to make sure this Council has a voice on it much like the Mayor has weighed in as well on that as well. So that was, that was my other matter. Traylor And I totally agree with everything you just said. I just want to make one quick correction because I know the, the folks out there in the public probably caught it and just but it was we, the LIT tax was raised one-half of 1% not 1%. Garrett Oh Yes. Traylor So it was raised to a total of 1.5% -- Garrett Thank you. Traylor From 1%. Garrett Yes. Traylor Yes. But totally agree with everything. Plunkett Yes, very true. Melton One last comment for the other matters. I just wanted to ask this Council and the Mayor to potentially join me in investigating additional ARPA disbursements to those specifically that had increased job duties due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Dealing with keeping us connected for these meetings, whether it was dealing with public waste or the facilities I just would like to see if there’s an appetite for that with this Council as well as continue that discussion and hopefully in the next couple of meetings get something created where we could present that to the public and get some additional disbursements out these are the people that work for the Town that are the first responders to the first responders. So just wanted to throw that out there Mayor. Styron Thank you so much, Councilor. We will have data to share with you to support Councilor Melton’s suggestion. I agree whole, wholeheartedly. Plunkett Very good. Any other matters or anything else from other Councilors? No? Page 27 of 28 Zionsville Town Council May 16, 2022 ADJOURN Burk Move to adjourn. Plunkett First by Councilor Burk. Culp Second. Plunkett Second by Councilor Culp. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. Motion passes 7 in favor, 0 opposed. The next regularly scheduled Town Council meeting is scheduled for Monday, June 6, 2022 at 7 p.m. in the Zionsville Town Hall Council Chambers. Final notice will be posted in compliance with the Indiana Open Door Law. Thanks so much. Respectfully Submitted, Amelia Anne Lacy, Municipal Relations Coordinator Town of Zionsville Page 28 of 28