Zionsville Town Council

Zionsville Town Council October 21, 2024 ZIONSVILLE TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES FOR OCTOBER 21, 2024 AT 7:30 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; Tim McElderry, Craig Melton, Evan Norris, Sarah Esterline Sampson, and Joe Stein Also Present : Heather Harris, Town Council Attorney; Mayor John Stehr; Deputy Mayor Justin Hage; Cindy Poore, Director of Finance & Records; Lance Lantz, Director of DPW; Jarod Logsdon, Superintendent of Parks & Recreation; ZPD Chief Michael Spears; Amy Lacy, Municipal Relations Coordinator; and other Town Department Staff OPENING A. Call meeting to order B. Pledge of Allegiance Plunkett All right, good morning. I will now call to order the Monday, October 21, 2024 Town Council meeting. If you would please, stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. All Pledge of Allegiance. APPROVAL OF THE MEMORANDUM OF THE OCTOBER 21, 2024 REGULAR MEETING Plunkett All right, up first on the agenda is the approval of the October 7, 2024 Town Council meeting memoranda. A copy has been posted. Are there any questions from Councilors? Sampson I had a correction. Umm, on page 13 at the bottom there’s, twice it says there is and it’s supposed to be bears. Lacy I’m sorry – what is it supposed to be? Page 1 of 31 Zionsville Town Council October 21, 2024 Sampson Bears. Lacy Bears? Okay. Sampson That’s it. Otherwise, I move to approve. Plunkett I got a first from Councilor Sampson. McElderry Second. Plunkett Second from Councilor McElderry. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 7 in favor, 0 opposed. APPROVAL OF THE SEPTEMBER 2024 PAYROLL CLAIMS Plunkett Up next is the approval of the September 2024 payroll claims. Are there any questions from Councilors? Otherwise, I would entertain a motion. Norris I’ll make a motion to approve the payroll claims. Sampson Second. Plunkett First from Councilor Norris, second from Councilor Sampson. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 7 in favor, 0 opposed. APPROVAL OF THE OCTOBER 21, 2024 CLAIMS Plunkett Up next is the approval of the October 21, 2024 claims. If there are no questions from Councilors I would entertain a motion. McElderry Move to approve. Plunkett First from Councilor McElderry. Stein Second. Page 2 of 31 Zionsville Town Council October 21, 2024 Plunkett Second from Councilor Stein. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett Those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 7 in favor, 0 opposed. Consideration of a Resolution Recognizing the Zionsville Girls Golf Team and Taylor Snively on Their State Championships Resolution 2024-16 Plunkett All right, moving along here – up next on the agenda we have a Consideration of a Resolution Recognizing the Zionsville Girls Golf Team and Taylor Snively on their State Championship. This is Resolution 2024-16. Thank you for being here today. If you would, we’ll just have the team come up here. I’ll go down and read the resolution and we’ve got, we’re going to get a formal resolution once we get signatures from all the Councilors so then we’ll get you guys a real nice, nice looking piece there and I will say before we jump into this, we did communicate with the school on behalf of the Boys State Championship Team as well so we didn’t forget that, right? But it is a little bit more difficult to get those guys back in the same room right now so we’re going to work on something for them as well from the Council. So, if you guys wouldn’t mind coming up here and we’ll read this into record. And, and you’ll have to bear with us, there’s a lot of Whereases in this and, and all kinds of stuff so. All right, Resolution of the Town Council of the Town of Zionsville, Indiana recognizing the Zionsville Girls Golf Team and Taylor Snively on their State Championships. Whereas, on October 5, 2024 the Zionsville Community High School Girls Varsity Golf Team won the Indiana State Athletic Association 52nd annual state championship at Prairie View Golf Club in Carmel, Indiana; The Zionsville Golf Team shot a 627, five strokes ahead of the runner-up Noblesville, to claim the state championship and this is the Zionsville Golf Team’s second state championship and first since 2018; The Zionsville Golf Team consists of Kaitlyn – and if I mess up your name I’m sorry I should’ve gone through this before with each one of you – Kaitlyn Adler, Paige Henney, Avery Lewis, Taylor Snively and Amaya Wade; Whereas, along with team success, the Zionsville Girls Golf Team, Zionsville freshman, Taylor Snively, also claimed the individual title making her only the third freshman in the 52-year history of the IHSAA finals to claim such honors. Taylor or Snively is the first individual champ, champion to play for the team since 1999; Whereas, the Zionsville Golf Team is coached by Maggie Nobbe, a former player of Zionsville Girls Golf Team that won its first state championship in 2018. This Page 3 of 31 Zionsville Town Council October 21, 2024 was Maggie’s fifth season as head coach of the team, first state championship title as head coach; and Whereas, the success of the Zionsville Golf Team, Girls Golf Team was a result of a season-long collaborative effort involving players, coaches, parents; The Town of Zionsville, Boone County, Indiana strives to support and celebrate the accomplishments of its citizens and its community; and The student athletes of Zionsville Girls Golf Team have devoted countless hours this season to balancing their schoolwork and sports commitment, and should be, should be commended for the dedication to, to both academics and athletics; Whereas, the Town would like to recognize, would like to use this resolution as an opportunity to recognize the Zionsville Girls Golf Team in winning the IHSAA state Championship. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the Town Council of Zionsville, Indiana that the Town of Zionsville, Boone County, Indiana recognizes and congratulates the Zionsville Community High School’s Varsity Girls Golf Team in winning the Indiana High School Athletic Association 52nd annual state championship; and The Town also recognizes and congratulates Taylor Snively in winning the individual state title at the IHSAA Girl’s Golf state championship becoming only the third freshman to ever accomplish such a feat. Congratulations! All right, so, thank you for your patience on that. That resolution does call for a motion. Are there any comments or questions from Councilors? Otherwise, I would entertain a motion. Sampson Sorry that we chose a morning meeting to make you come. It feels a little bit like a punishment maybe but welcome back to school. I move that we approve the resolution to recognize the Zionsville Girls Golf Team and Taylor Snively on their state championship. Burk Second. Plunkett We got a first from Councilor Sampson, a second from Vice President Burk. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 7 in favor, 0 opposed. Congratulations. And, again, we’ll get you a more formal, official copy that you guys can certainly have on record so. Also, if you guys don’t want to stick around for the rest of the meeting, you don’t have to do that. REQUEST TO SPEAK Page 4 of 31 Zionsville Town Council October 21, 2024 Plunkett All right. All right, up next on the agenda is a Request to Speak on Agenda Items and we have six folks to speak. So, for those of you that haven’t gone through a request to speak, you’ll have three minutes. I’ll call your name up and if you would just come to the lectern up here and then I’ll put a timer so when you get to two minutes I’ll just kind of wave you down so you know you have one minute left and at your, when you’re done with your three minutes, we’ll move on to the next person. So we’ll just take these in order that they were submitted. The first one up we have Kent Esra and if you would when you come up just speak your name into the microphone and your address and I’ll start your time after you’re done. Esra Good morning. My name is Kent Esra. I live at 654 Spring Hills Drive here in Zionsville. My wife, Liz, and I own Cobblestone at 160 South Main Street. A couple of things I wanted to say first, if you guys don’t already know this – I’ve had the pleasure of, of being your appointee to the RDC for multiple years now and I wanted to, Liz and I want to thank you for that because the opportunity to give back to Zionsville, we really appreciate that so. I enjoy that very much. Secondly, kind of an item along there, the last time I think President Plunkett was talking about restrooms downtown and the RDC has been in negotiations with a downtown business owner who owns a building downtown to possibly pay for some restrooms that would be available all the time. That’s still in negotiations but having said that, the EDA downtown, the Zionsville EDA does have capital funds that can go for restrooms. So there are EDA funds that could be used and I think maybe the Mayor is working on some, some things towards that also. So, yes, downtown we would like to have some restrooms, public restrooms if possible. I’m here today to speak in favor of DORA. That is kind of why we’re here today. DORA is a new item in the State of Indiana. Several communities around us already have or are in the process of getting DORAs – Carmel, Westfield, Noblesville, Lafayette. There are several places probably other than that that are going to have them also. Carmel, Carmel’s DORA is probably going to be the largest in the state. It encompasses a huge area. So as far as all of the positives or negatives, we believe, I believe, that the DORA is a great tool in the toolbox for EDA. It’s not necessarily a driver but it certainly is something that the Town of Zionsville can use in a positive sense. There has been some questions about it raising – Plunkett One minute left. Esra It raising insurance funds and I will tell you that my insurance agent who lives in Lafayette and knows about the DORA there says that that is not an issue currently. I think that the other thing is is that it can, it really can be a thing where a business can either opt in or opt out, either retail or for a restaurant like us. We have, as restaurant owners, if we have a liquor license we have that responsibility to serve alcohol or not serve alcohol to someone. So it doesn’t increase or, our representative, excuse me, doesn’t increase our responsibility in that sense. It kind of is, it is what it is. It really is a good tool. I think you guys should approve Page 5 of 31 Zionsville Town Council October 21, 2024 it. It’s going to be a good thing for Zionsville and a tool that we can use. Thank you. McElderry Thanks Kent. Plunkett Thank you. Sampson Thank you Kent. Plunkett All right, up next we have Angie McCloskey. McCloskey Angie McCloskey. I live at 10355 Wildwood Drive. We’ve lived in Zionsville for over 40 years and my business is at 31 East Pine Street. I appreciate the opportunity to speak today in favor of the DORA. I was unable to attend the meeting last month, two weeks ago but I was watching it from, live from home. Excuse me – I’m very nervous. This is not me. I would like to address a couple concerns that the Council members rose, rose about DORA. Mr. Melton, you rose an important question about the restrooms. I didn’t know what was happening but restrooms are a problem now. It does not affect DORA, DORA just amplifies that we do need bathrooms downtown. Also there was concern about people refilling their DORA cup with their own beverages from their car but the reality is once somebody purchases a drink we cannot control what they do next. If someone’s going to be that cheap and open their trunk and pour a beer into their container, we can’t, can’t stop that. And how do we know they’re not already carrying around a Stanley cup with a beverage in it currently? Mrs. Sampson mentioned the risk of people walking into traffic. Currently we don’t have adequate crosswalks and people already cross the downtown street between cars and we dart across First Street when we can’t find parking so we already are putting ourselves in danger by crossing the street. We are only highlighting the problem. DORA is not creating this problem. I listened to the comments that seemed to suggest DORA would turn Zionsville into a party town but Zionsville isn’t compared to Franklin, Nashville or Memphis, Tennessee as Mr. White mentioned. These towns are college towns, professional football team towns and a very active nightlife. Have you been at our downtown street at 9:30 at night? At 10:00 we all joke that the streets roll up. It’s not too far from the truth. Can we be sure that the DORA was the sole reason for the increase in insurance that Mr. White experienced? Could it be other circumstances – the nightlife, the riots, I don’t know when that happened but maybe there was other circumstances to the DORA being passed. Zionsville is a quiet, family-friendly town. We are not a party town. Keep in mind, this isn’t an all or nothing proposal. Even if few restaurants choose to participate, it would still make an impact. For my business, this could save me time and money on event permits for serving adult beverages like on Ladies Night and Bar Crawl. If the restaurants could handle the beverage, I can focus on what I can promote my business as and let the restaurants do that. Please do not base your decisions on the what-if scenarios, the worst-case fears or concerns about insurance increase. Let’s focus on what DORA can offer. Give our community the freedom to stroll through the downtown while waiting for a table, enjoy a leisurely walk after dinner or make their shopping experience more enjoyable. This would also create opportunities for the downtown business to host special events like Ladies’ Page 6 of 31 Zionsville Town Council October 21, 2024 Nights combining dining, shopping and a more relaxed atmosphere. You need to trust that our community knows how to drink responsibly, find a restroom when needed and cross the streets safely. Additionally, trust our restaurants that they know how to serve properly. Plunkett Thank you Angie. All right, up next we have Marcus White. White Thank you Council members. My name is Marcus White. I live at 380 West Hawthorne and I own the Zionsville Public House at 10615 Zionsville Road. I remain opposed to the DORA for all the reasons I detailed in the meeting two weeks ago. I’m simply here to request that the current DORA boundaries as proposed cut off at 106th Street excluding my business from the DORA. Plunkett Okay, up next we have Erica Carpenter. Carpenter Good morning and thank you for the opportunity to speak this morning. My name is Erica Carpenter. I live at 26 Cedar Crest. Brad, we could’ve carpooled this morning. And my business is Fivethirty Home located at 205 South Main Street in Zionsville. I think you guys already have my email. You know I’m in support of this. Since the last meeting, I was able to do a little research and I wanted to tell you kind of my experience as a 12-year Main Street business owner. One thing I’m always amazed by is the overwhelming support of our local businesses by residents and visitors alike. I am constantly grateful to hear, and I just heard this one last week, thank you for having your store here and I love your little town from visitors. What better way for us to thank those people in turn than to augment what we already offer in downtown Zionsville. I have attempted to do research, as I mentioned, on the potential economic impact by reaching out to four different communities in Ohio, the municipality, their Chambers of Commerce or their Main Street organizations, depending on where the DORA was listed for their specific town. None of them had numbers as far as actual data for economic impact which that’s something I think if this passes we can definitely work on so that we can show how it positively economically impacts our community but all did indicate a positive for the restaurants daily and for retail during special events. As the DORA comes online, I will consider extending our hours during the summer and holiday months. On the subject of special events and this is specifically as something that was discussed during the last meeting, I would encourage us not to close the street unless we are doing a special event. The work that goes into shutting down even one block which is setting up the No Parking signs, barricades, ensuring that cars are moved from the area, moving barricades again – can you tell I’ve moved a few barricades in my day – and then reopening the street is cumbersome and unnecessary unless we are bringing hundreds or thousands of people to the area like we do for Street Dance, obviously with the Farmers Market and other things. And I hate to mention the loss of parking on the potential for service nights if we would close the street. I also wanted to speak about this as my role with a founding Board member of Main Street Zionsville. I think one of the things that we really want to focus on is Page 7 of 31 Zionsville Town Council October 21, 2024 encouraging people to come see what our town has to offer and we want to also build community. As I’ve shared with some of you, as we apply to become a Main Street, we have to do work plans and one of the things we’d like to do is kind of relaunch Night on the Bricks which was an effort through 2020 to dine on the street to increase business during COVID. Some restaurants still were inhibited slightly depending on the type of liquor license that they have but with the DORA it would be available for all of the designees and I think establishing a DORA is another tool to help us promote Zionsville as a designation, destination, sorry. So, in conclusion, I request that you please approve the Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area. Let’s continue to create a place people want to be. Thank you. Plunkett Thank you. Up next we have Jeff, Jeff Sepiol. Sampson Sepiol. Plunkett Sepiol. It’s kind of hard to read here Jeff. Jeff Sepiol, sorry. Sepiol Good morning. Thanks for letting me take the time today and thank you all for serving our community. I’m very proud and grateful to live and Zionsville and I always will be. So thank you very much and I know a lot of other residents feel the same way. I would like to express to the Council that I’m in complete favor of the DORA. I think the added vibrancy and the potential to kickstart an absolute organic growth to our community is just too much, it’s just too high. I’d also like to address concerns of added expenses to small business owners. I did speak to both of my insurance carriers. One is Erie Insurance, the other is Indiana State Farm. Both knew of the DORA and, and recited it almost verbatim to what was in the last meeting. Both had no issues with increased premiums. Actually, from Indiana State Farm, the Donnelly Agency, he, he said the zip code reports that, that come in annually nowadays those are really just for home and auto. You live in an area that is, has a lot of fender benders, he, he cited Manhattan, your premiums are going to be a little bit higher. If there’s a lot of, of petty theft and crime, then your homeowner’s and auto is going to be a little bit higher but for commercial insurance they don’t, they don’t do that. Both also cited that we live in Zionsville and as I alluded to, I’m proud of our community and people I know are as well. I think we take care of our community and, and I don’t think we have to worry about a ton of, of claims out in the public because of this. Like both gentlemen, express that we are in Zionsville and that we take care of our community, I think just the vibrancy and what it can do to spark a little bit of growth down the road. As far as where can people go, I heard that topic a couple weeks ago. They can come to my place, they can go to other restaurants. There’s other stores, they can go to Fivethirty Home and one of them said what they have found over time – yes – is that there’s actually sometimes less drinking because there’s more movement. You’re in with your family, you get something, you leave, you go to a store, somebody sees something in a window and so there’s not necessarily more drinking in every instance. I think this town is, is similar to that. As far as other added expenses – cups, stickers, straws, lids. We, as business owners, choose this life and we have to work around it. Anything that changes in Page 8 of 31 Zionsville Town Council October 21, 2024 our community, that’s what we signed up for. I look at those expenses as paid for by extra revenue or the potential thereof. So I’m in favor. Thank you. McElderry Thank you. Plunkett Okay, and then last request to speak is Josh Garrett. Garrett Good morning. Josh Garrett, 760 Wood Court. I just want to talk a little bit in favor of DORA and my perspective on it especially from a historical standpoint. Zionsville has never really been a leader in new types of initiatives and, and that is not a criticism of current or past Councils. That is not a criticism of current or past Administrations. I think it’s actually a very prudent approach to these types of things and as you hear about all the other communities that have already implemented DORA, I think it’s a really good sign that is going successfully for them and will go well for us. As I’ve sorta thought about, in, in my past on Town Council and, and things I saw, one of the things that was most striking in terms of similarities was the golf course, Golf Cart Ordinance that we implemented that was led by President Plunkett. There were a lot of what-if scenarios related to safety, costs, enforcement but there was a lot of demand from our residents for this and there were a lot of other communities that had already done it and so we implemented a similar ordinance based on other communities’ successes and none of those worst-case scenarios ever came through. In fact, it’s been such a success we’ve expanded it because other parts of the community wanted access to that and I think you will find this with DORA that starts within the core Main Street but perhaps South 106th Street may want that. They may not but it’s the best type of legislation, I think, you can implement because you are not forcing businesses to participate, you are just giving them a toolbox that allows them to increase their business. If it doesn’t work they can self-select out and because it’s an ordinance, if it doesn’t work, you guys have the opportunity to amend it or also remove it as well. So you’re not writing something in stone, we’re just seeing based on the successes of other communities if we could have the same success which I very much think that we’ll be able to do. So, I hope you give it a chance and I appreciate your time this early in the morning. Melton Thanks Josh. Plunkett Thank you. Sampson Thanks Josh. MAYOR/ADMINISTRATION UPDATE Plunkett All right, up next on the agenda is the Mayor/Administration Update and we have Mayor Stehr with us this morning. Stehr Good morning Councilors. Sampson Good morning. Page 9 of 31 Zionsville Town Council October 21, 2024 Plunkett Good morning. Stehr Welcome back from fall break. The town is springing back to life this morning. It’s my first time not subject to the spring break/fall break schedule so it was interesting to see how things clear out during the time that fall break occurs. We got a lot done last week, that’s the good news. I wanted to start the Administration Update this morning with a look at the SBOA audit. The State Board of Accounts has substantially finished its audit of our finances in 2022 and 2023. The auditors are back in Town Hall this morning for exit interviews with key stakeholders which include Cindy, President Plunkett and myself. That will take place later this day, in fact, this morning after this meeting. The next step is is they will issue their initial report. We will have a chance to respond to that before the final report is registered with the state. Now we would be premature to talk about the audit results but I want the Council and the public to know that we are definitely on a better path with our finances. The main focus of my administration continues to be the restoration of the S&P 5 or S&P AA+ credit rating that we lost a few years ago and I will continue to keep the Council and the public informed as that process continues. And as part of that effort, we wanted to bring you today the most updated financial information that we have. I’m going to ask Cindy Poore to come up here and give us a progress report of where we are budget-wise as of September 30th which was the end of the third quarter. Poore Good morning. Sampson Good morning. Poore So, I’ll start with our summary which is what I present every time. The expenditures that I’m getting ready to present to you, we’ve removed payroll, health and FSA funds. These are just passthrough funds so they really don’t pertain to budget and true expenditures. The base for the budget numbers that I give you, it’s based on the budget, the additional appropriations and encumbrances combined and the ARPA transactions have also been removed. So the town’s miscellaneous revenue, this is basically everything except for property taxes. To date, we’ve received 101% of what we budgeted for 2024. This is mostly due to the supplemental LIT was received and as you’ll see below in the first, second and third quarters, those are the numbers itemized of what we’ve received with the total amount received to date – $25,586,922 which here again is, is slightly above what we have budgeted for 2024. Our total expense right now, our total expense to budget is at 60%. We’ve spent a little over $35 million out of a $59 million dollar budget. I will say that I know 60% through the third quarter may sound a little low but as I was just talking to Chief VanGorder, some of the equipment, a little over $2 million dollars’ worth of equipment that was in budget, unfortunately, it takes a couple years to get this equipment built and so some of the money that we budgeted for this year will actually end up being encumbered and we’ll have to carry that until the equipment is ready. So that, that is a little bit of portion of the reason why we’re only at 60%. Page 10 of 31 Zionsville Town Council October 21, 2024 This here shows where we’re at as far as per department and honestly, really nothing stands out as far as being out of the ordinary just depending on the department’s type of expenses makes a difference on what part of the year they land. So sometimes if we have large projects and there’s design and, and so forth that’s involved, by the time that work is done it’s later in the year when it gets paid. So really we’re, we’re on track. Anybody have any questions? Stein Cindy, is there a way or have you looked at adding back the encumbered expenses to see where we are had they hit? Poore I can do that for you. Stein I’m just curious because if adding those in if we’re at 90% then that’s kind of a scary story, if it puts us at 70%, not so much. Poore Yes, yes. Stein Just curious. Poore Well, and, yes, and those numbers are added into part of the budget so those are, but I can, I can do it both ways if you want to see that. Stein If you could just kind of – Poore Sure. Stein Thank you. Poore Yes. McElderry Cindy, we were just talking about the parks and the DPW being under 50% spent – Poore Yes – McElderry Through this point of the year and you mentioned that there’s some bigger things coming. It’s still a little bit questions whether or not the money was budgeted appropriately so we’re just wondering, Brad and I were thinking like what’s, what’s still coming that would push those numbers up to 100%? Poore Well, I would need the departments to actually speak to that but I do know that a lot of times with DPW they deal with a lot of large projects and so by the time you go through the whole process, it’s towards the end of the year when things are paid but as far as specifics, I would need Jarod and Lance to, to speak on that. I can’t speak on that. McElderry Thanks. Logsdon Morning Councilors, Jarod Logsdon, Superintendent of Parks and Rec. One of the largest ticket items that hasn’t been spent yet is the rehabilitation of the Page 11 of 31 Zionsville Town Council October 21, 2024 Turkey Foot bridge. We are expecting bids next month and award so we’ll get that under contract. Lantz Pretty much what Jarod just said. Our paving program is right now in full swing. Those bills usually lag 30, 45 days from the project so you see a lot of our bills come in in the third quarter as we wrap up projects plus we have two projects that are actually planned, pathway projects, planned for construction next year so they’re in the budget this year. We’ll be letting those projects later this year and then encumbering those funds to 2025. McElderry Thank you. Poore Any other questions? Sampson Do you have any other anticipated miscellaneous expenses, I mean, revenue coming? Do you, is this about when we’ve earned all that we’re going to earn? I know we’re already above, I just wondered if – Poore Right, well we get the local income tax and the Food & Beverage is a monthly revenue that we receive so we’ll still be getting more of that in. Fees, fee-based items we’ll be getting that in so we’ll still be receiving more income in this fourth quarter. Sampson Okay, was all – Poore And then plus, well, miscellaneous, it’s not miscellaneous but then we’ll get our second installment of settlement for property taxes at the end of the year. Sampson Right. It’s always good to be over what you budgeted – Poore Yes it is. Sampson And I wondered how much higher we were going. Plunkett Thanks Cindy. Poore Thank you. Stehr Yes, finances really has been a major focus for us this year and I have been on Cindy’s case almost daily and she has done a great job so we are fortunate to have her in our town and she’s really, she really is a rockstar and I appreciate everything she’s done and will do in the future. The next thing I have is, you may have heard about this is an election year and Election Day is upon us. Town Hall is a polling place once again and that includes five early voting dates. You’re seeing them on your screen right now. Now two that are not in bold type are weekend dates so I’m not as concerned about those but the days that are going to affect Town Hall are in bold type. So I just want everybody to know that on these days because polling starts at 1:00, we will be suspending all town business at noon and given the heightened scrutiny around elections this year, we will strictly enforce all protocols and those include Page 12 of 31 Zionsville Town Council October 21, 2024 during early voting town employees may not interact with voters in any way, shape or form. If they are working on those days, it’ll be in the back of the building where they will not be visible to the voting public or they will work from home and everybody needs to know that these are not off days so if employees do take time off, it’ll be considered PTO. And, again, polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Election Day, November 5th. That is a paid day off for all town employees, except our police officers, of course, will be working with our partners at the state, the Boone County Sheriff’s Office and neighboring police departments to make sure our elections are safe and secure and I want everybody to know we have a well thought out, detailed security plan in place to make sure that happens. So Chief Spears and his team have been on top of that as we’ve been getting closer to Election Day. And finally this morning, public restrooms. President Plunkett mentioned it at the end of the last meeting but I think everybody on the Council, everybody in Administration and just about everyone who’s one of our constituents understands that we need public restrooms in the Village. Now the previous Council committed $10,000 in ARPA money last year to the Chamber of Commerce for a downtown bathroom study. The result is an 18-page report that confirms that people would like downtown restrooms so we’re happy about that but I think that, that the reason we want to do this is simple. We want to support local businesses, enhance the visitor experience and also for community health and wellbeing. So the Chamber released this so I’m going to make sure I send all of you a copy later today. We’re going to post it on our website for the public to take a look at too. So, here’s what we are going to do to meet the need – as Kent Esra mentioned, we are working with a downtown property owner to temporarily open up restrooms in an existing building for public use but there are some concerns with that. They include liability, whether the facilities are able to handle the increased use and also the impact on current tenants in that building. We are working through those issues because this would be our first choice. We’ve also gotten some quotes on bringing in a trailer with nicer restrooms to provide a temporary solution but that may be a bit cost prohibitive, especially in the cold months. Between Thanksgiving and the end of the year it will cost us a little over $4,000 in part because operating in the winter adds to the cost. So we would want to take a look at that. But another possibility is for the town to buy a restroom trailer for use over the next few years until a permanent facility is built. So we would need to work through how we could service it and keep it open during the cold months if we did that. Long term we would put public restrooms in a parking structure or a public plaza area as those are developed but we will continue working on a temporary solution to what we know is a concern to the Council as well as all of our constituents and we would work toward getting something in place by the spring of 2025 to coincide with the beginning of the DORA if you were to approve that today. And that’s all I have. Does anybody have any questions? McElderry Yes, quick question – the existing building that you referenced, is it, you don’t have to tell us which one it is, but is it on Main Street or is it off of Main Street? Stehr It is Main Street adjacent. No, it is not on Main Street but it’s just half a block away. Page 13 of 31 Zionsville Town Council October 21, 2024 McElderry So signage, I’m assuming, would be something we would be considering – Stehr Yes – McElderry As well? Stehr Yes, yes. McElderry All right, thank you. Stehr And as far as a, the idea of the town buying a trailer – there is a show coming up, a trade show coming up in February for facilities like that. It’s called the Wet Show, Water and Wastewater, Environmentally Transport and something but it’s coming up in Indianapolis and that would give us the opportunity to look at our possibilities there and we could either service it ourselves using our employees or find a contractor to service it for us but I think, I think long term that may be the best solution. There’ll be some upfront costs but, then we would have the trailer that we could use and then maybe sell it in a couple years, maybe keep it for special events but I think we could find the funding to do that and I would come forth with a proposal at that time. Plunkett All right, thank you very much. Stehr Thank you. Burk Thank you. OLD BUSINESS Consideration of an Ordinance Establishing an Outdoor Refreshment Area (DORA) Ordinance 2024-25 (Final Reading) Plunkett Up next on the agenda is the first item of Old Business which is a Consideration of an Ordinance Establishing an Outdoor Refreshment Area or the DORA. This is Ordinance 2024-25. This is a final reading. We have Deputy Mayor, Justin Hage, and Parks Superintendent, Jarod Logsdon, both here to present. Good morning. Hage Thank you, good morning Councilmen. My name is Justin Hage and I serve as the Deputy Mayor here in Zionsville, very proud to do so. I first wanted to start by thanking members of the public and the Council for issues that were raised and concerns from the last meeting – Plunkett Hey Justin – I’m sorry – could you get closer to the microphone? Sorry about that. Hage Yes, no, of course. Thank you. My goal this morning really is to talk about some of those concerns and those questions and answer some of those things that were left unanswered last meeting. First of all, I want to really acknowledge that analyzing risk is very important and I think what we need to do is look at that Page 14 of 31 Zionsville Town Council October 21, 2024 risk, figure out ways to mitigate that risk, understand what those unintended consequences could be, figure out ways to avoid those and once we have really found that balance and understand those risks and understand those unintended consequences, figure out a way to move forward. If that balance shifts, we can always change course based on conditions on the ground. In terms of creating a Downtown Outdoor Refreshment Area or a DORA here in Zionsville, there are multiple benefits for our citizens, visitors and business owners. They include: • Increased foot traffic for shops, boutiques, art galleries throughout the DORA which will hopefully result in more sales; • Enhancement of a downtown experience and increase in vibrancy throughout the day and evening; • A boost to existing special events and the opportunity to create new events; • New experiences being offered in communities across Indiana to provide to visitors very walkable, to our very walkable downtown business district and just as a specific data point, there are 24 DORAs that have been approved in 23 municipalities. There are two in Fort Wayne and there are many that are being created in other cities as was mentioned – Westfield, Carmel and others. This program will really help to relax red tape, promote small businesses and provide additional vitality. Like all new things, there are definitely risks, I’ll address those in a moment but I believe the potential benefits very much outweigh the risks. One key area for clarification is the businesses that will be included. I know there was some lack of clarity last time so what we did this time was made sure that every business that was listed in the ordinance handed in that ATC form and so we have all of those forms that are for all of the businesses that are listed in the ordinance. I will just make two clarifications – one that when we first sent out the packet earlier in the week last week we had not yet received the form from Zionsville Pizzeria but we do have that form and then, additionally, Graham Rahal and his businesses are very interested in participating but they have not yet actually been issued a permit and that is pending right now and once they issue they permit, they’ll be able to go through the process of submitting a form to the town which then gets submitted to the ATC. We can figure out what the timing is in terms of when we do our submission to the, to the state as well. Speaking of that form, I also wanted to clarify the process in terms of what would happen after today. If the Council were to approve this ordinance this morning, the town would then collect all the materials, submit our application and along with that application goes all of the signed ATC forms. There would also be a map showing where designated retail permittees are located within the DORA and where temporary vendors are permitted to operate. The ATC will then approve the DORA. A refreshment area designation for each retailer permittee whose application was submitted by the municipality would then be approved by the ATC. So that’s the process after today. Page 15 of 31 Zionsville Town Council October 21, 2024 One other issue that I think was discussed last time that’s important is the geographic area. I got a chance to speak with Mr. White earlier this week and as he confirmed this morning, his desire is to not have his business in the area south of 106th Street included and that is what we had in the ordinance last time and I think what will also be considered this morning. As for concerns, I want to just go through those one by one. I think it’s important both for the Council and for the public to understand those risks and how I think they can be mitigated and how they balance out so, I think one that was raised last time and I think Councilor Melton had some specific questions about it was around public safety. So I’d like to ask Captain Samuelson to come up and speak to some feedback we received from other Police Departments in some adjacent states. There really hasn’t been DORAs in Indiana long enough I think really to have much data but we do have some discussions with some Police Departments here in Indiana but then also some adjacent states as well. Samuelson Good morning. All Good morning. Samuelson So for ZPD’s end of this, we did what we usually do with things that we haven’t experienced yet, we reached out to our partners. We spoke with six peers in the Midwest region. Two of those are in Indiana, Fort Wayne and Noblesville. One being Saugatuck, Michigan and then three in Ohio, two of those in suburban Columbus, Ohio and one in suburban Cincinnati. So, those the populations ranged anywhere from 873 in Saugatuck which changes significantly with tourism all the way up to a quarter million in Fort Wayne. Most of them kind of fell in the middle, closer to Zionsville’s population – 35,000, 45,000. They’ve had DORAs in place in this group anywhere from seven months to seven years. Some have multiple DORAs, some have several neighbors who have had DORAs and have learned from those experiences as well. The consensus between all six, no issues related to alcohol or disorder, no uptick in those issues, nothing more than what they were experiencing anyway, no pedestrian safety or public safety issues that they’re experiencing that they hadn’t before and then also no needs to increase staff or resources to manage these DORAs. One agency in particular, Dublin, Ohio, they did up their staffing initially just to be preemptive and then they found there was no need for it and they eventually walked it back to normal staffing levels. So, the documents in the packet, that’s a real quick summary of what we learned. I just want to keep this brief but happy to expand on any of it, answer any questions if you have them. All right. Melton I just want to say thank you for doing that research and, and giving us the public safety version of, of that. It’s important as we do something new and we bring something new on that is in its infancy in the State of Indiana, that we try to find out some of those information’s, those impacts either from your standpoint or even the economic impacts or the insurance impacts and I think we brought up a lot of valid points during this conversation and kind of extending this out a little bit and I really appreciate you digging into it and I appreciate Chief Spears taking my request to do that as well. Page 16 of 31 Zionsville Town Council October 21, 2024 Samuelson Very well. Melton Thank you. Sampson Thank you. Hage Thank you Captain Samuelson. One other issue that was raised was the hours for non-permitted businesses. I think it’s an important issue. There was concern raised that many of our shops, boutiques, art galleries, etc. are not open past 5:00 but I think one of the goals of this DORA is to increase foot traffic in the downtown business district which might lead to those businesses to extend their hours which Ms. Carpenter I think referenced which will hopefully lead to increased sales but I would also say that the DORA is for increased foot traffic during the day and has other benefits beyond just those for shops and boutiques in the evening. The Mayor referenced public restrooms and I think we heard the message loud and clear and our goal would be very much to have a public restroom solution in place by the time that the DORA was implemented which, just as a sidenote, we think that in terms of the ATC having to approve the DORA, for working out signage, working on some other details, that a launch in the spring is most prudent for the DORA if it were to be approved this morning. On the issue of liability that was discussed last time, I think it’s an important issue to discuss but at the same time I think anything in terms of what we would think around insurance premium increases would be purely speculative. We have heard from a couple of different businesses this morning that spoke to their brokers and carriers. I also think that based on some conversations I’ve had, there definitely isn’t evidence of anything like an increase that Mr. White referenced at the last meeting. I think we can all agree that risk can obviously lead to increases in premium but I also would say that it seems logical that many of those premium increases would be based primarily on claims as opposed to just purely the implementation of a policy like this. And, again, if businesses do experience increases that are just not palatable, then we can always change course. To better understand, I think I had some great requests as I spoke to some folks this week around what has been the experience in other places that have had these for a number of years. I tried to do my best but it was a little tricky to get hard data but I did something similar to what Ms. Carpenter did in terms of reaching out to some other municipalities that have had DORAs for a while in terms of both that premium increase question and the economic benefit question and I just want to read a couple of different excerpts from some towns that I was able to reach out to. This is from Hilliard, Ohio from their Parks & Rec Director saying “our DORA was originally created to combat issues created by COVID epidemic and the challenges our businesses faced due to the state regulations dealing with the epidemic. It worked so well we expanded the hours. We love our DORA. While I do not have before and after hard statistics, it has brought a vibrancy to our downtown area that did not exist before.” And then just a couple of ones that I think were relevant. I also spoke to the City of Dublin and they said “generally we’ve heard very positive reviews and know Page 17 of 31 Zionsville Town Council October 21, 2024 of very few complaints or concerns. It’s had to quantify the economic impact but I just checked in with our Tourism Bureau which reports that they have received positive feedback from local businesses and visitors. Everyone loves it and it has a substantial economic generator for downtown Dublin. None of us have heard anything about an increase in insurance premiums.” Hilliard, Ohio, again, this is from a restaurant owner – “I don’t believe our insurance has been affected by DORA.” He does say that he bought his business right around COVID time so he’s not sure if that necessarily factored in but he had not heard it and as, as reflected by some of these others, they hadn’t heard the concern either. The Downtown Manager for the City of Hilliard, Ohio – “I personally have never heard of our businesses mention their insurance premiums increased based on being a part of DORA.” City Manager from Mason, Ohio – “Since we created the DORA, it’s been very well received by businesses and residents. I’m not aware of any businesses experiencing any measurable increase in insurance premiums due to participating in the DORA. I don’t have direct knowledge of the premium activity but I’m pretty certain that I would’ve been made aware if anyone had experienced any large increases. The bars and restaurants have been very well pleased with the DORA and often express to me that in general terms.” So, again, that was, I think, pretty resounding feedback as it relates to both of those issues again. Not necessarily quantitative data but I think good feedback from those other locations. As for the days of operation, I think that was discussed last time as well. I think there was a discussion around Friday, Saturday, Sunday potentially. I would acknowledge those are the days where the DORA may be utilized the most but it would also lead to missed opportunities perhaps like three-day weekends or our Lincoln Park concert series on Wednesdays. I would also say that DORA one of its purposes is really to be an economic driver and for that reason it should be available Monday through Thursday when there is opportunities to, for example, have businesses band together on a Tuesday night to have a night where they will stay open later or other types of events like that throughout the week. Additionally, operating only three days a week has the potential to create a lack of clarity for both residents, visitors, staff at permitted businesses and law enforcement. And then I’ll briefly cover a couple of other issues that we had discussed, I think that closing of the streets was mentioned and I’m not sure if there’s necessarily broad support for that. Now with that being said, I do think there could be some value in doing so one Thursday a month or something to that effect that might be great for businesses to be able to have that opportunity to, to dine on the street like we have in the past. As for hours, I think similar to the discussion on days, I think a broader set of hours provides more opportunities for increased foot traffic throughout the day and the evening and doing some research – Hilliard, Ohio again, Columbus suburb of about 37,000 residents, they established their DORA in 2017. Until 2019 it was only effective on Thursdays or Saturdays in Page 18 of 31 Zionsville Town Council October 21, 2024 conjunction with live music at a downtown park. In 2020 they expanded the DORA to include hours on four days, I’m sorry – Wednesdays through Saturdays and eventually added Sundays and in 2021 they expanded to seven days per week but it was only June through October and then in 2022 they made it available year-round. So, I think that’s a similar sized city. The hours they had strong feedback and they increased the hours and the days. And then the last issue that I think is important to discuss and clarify was the question about whether DORA cups are allowed into permitted businesses and just to be crystal clear, I’ll read directly from the statute. It says “A person may consume an alcoholic beverage purchased from a designated permittee or vendor anywhere within the refreshment area boundaries subject to the right of any retail permittee or business within the refreshment area to refuse to allow individuals to enter the licensed premises or business with an alcoholic beverage.” So, in other words, it’s allowed but at the same time the business owner is allowed to deny access for any individual to bring a cup in. Now I think there’s many permitted businesses that will probably deny that access and completely understand but at the same time I did have a conversation with Scott Barnes who owns The Friendly and he has a little bit of a more unique situation in which he wants to be able to allow folks to buy a DORA beverage, sit outside his establishment while they wait for a table, say 15, 20 minutes, the table is ready, they haven’t completed drinking that beverage, they bring it back in. And what he could do is certainly allow that and if he wants to just be a little bit more clear that it was the beverage that he sold to that individual, mark on the cup with, with a sticker, with a Sharpie, with a wristband to indicate, yes, I sold this drink to Mr. Smith and Mr. Smith came back into the establishment 20 minutes later when his, his table was ready. So this issue has definitely been made more explicit within the ordinance. Just to run down a couple other changes too – there was a qualifier added to the ordinance as to what it takes to be listed in the ordinance, namely, that you’ve submitted the ATC form. We’ve revised the list of permittees. We added an outdoor dining exception and then there was an addition of a statement declaring the town’s control over sidewalks, common areas and public roads and streets. In conclusion, I think the Administration believes that the benefits outweigh the risks for the creation of a DORA here in Zionsville and it will be of great value to residents, visitors and business owners alike. I urge support of the ordinance and I’m happy to take any additional questions. Burk Justin, I just want to thank you not unlike what the Police Department has done, thank you for reaching out to these communities. I know after the last meeting I think we all want to do the right thing and there were just some loose ends and I thought it was just really helpful to take that extra couple weeks to button everything up so thank you for doing that. Based on anything that you heard, did you or do you recommend any changes to the current language that’s before the Council now or is, is what’s in here everything that you feel like is exactly what should be passed when we consider this? Any amendments? Hage I’d say it’s, in its current form, is the best possible option for Zionsville. Again, with the caveat that we make sure that we have the version that is just north of Page 19 of 31 Zionsville Town Council October 21, 2024 106th and then we might have Graham Rahal joining in the very short future but no, as is – Burk Okay. Hage As presented. Burk Thank you. Harris Just, just to clarify that, there is a redline document that I worked on with the Deputy Mayor and Jon Oberlander and Jarod so that is included in the packet so there are changes that are being recommended from the last meeting and I know the Deputy Mayor went through those. I’m happy to go through them in more detail if the Council would like me to but just to make sure that you’ve all reviewed the redline version. Burk So Heather when we make a motion later, we would just, the amended version – Harris Yes, exactly. Burk Would be the language? Okay. Harris Yep. Sampson Umm, yes, thank you so much for following up with so many of the businesses. I think that was really appreciated just having their chance to consider the concern and follow up with their own insurance providers and it was great because of a lot of people reached back out to me and confirmed that they had been doing their own due diligence as well. The only thing I saw that jumped out from what you presented was that there was in Hilliard a pedal car bars clause that they denied. Do, is that something we would also want to consider so that we don’t have a pop-up pedal bar in Zionsville? Hage I would say I don’t think that’s necessarily directly related to the DORA. If we had someone that wanted to have such a vehicle, I think we’d have to discuss it and we’d have to decide if there was an ordinance necessary to explicitly prevent that if that was the will of the Council but I see that as somewhat of a separate issue. I think it was just mentioned in relation to – Sampson It just got me thinking when I read it on your feedback I was like oh, Good Lord, that’s next but I really do appreciate all the follow-up you had and I think the clarifications that happened in the last two weeks were very important for people to feel like they were heard and to understand, so thank you I appreciate that. Hage You’re welcome. McElderry I’ll just address the pedal bar having been on one before with my daughter’s birthday. I think our bricks would be a rate limiting factor for a pedal bar. It would be a brutal ride so I don’t, I don’t anticipate that being an issue. Norris And a short one. Page 20 of 31 Zionsville Town Council October 21, 2024 Sampson And short – that’s what I was thinking. Stein I have a couple things – one, and you may have said this because I was, there was a lot of things going through my head. Are we able to answer the question can somebody buy a beverage at Friendly and walk into Zionsville Pizza with that beverage if everybody’s a participant? That’s the one, I just want to be able to answer questions if somebody asks. Harris The answer is yes if all of the parties approve and that would be in Section 6. We clarified that language if you take a look at the redline. So we lifted the language directly from state statute with a few modifications to just reference the DORA. So it says “a person may consume an alcoholic beverage purchased from a designated permittee or vendor anywhere within the DORA subject to the right of any designated permittee or vendor or business to refuse to allow individuals to enter the licensed premises or business with an alcoholic beverage.” And then we added a second clause that says “nothing herein prohibits a business or establishment including a designated permittee or vendor or business from prohibiting open containers of alcoholic beverages to enter its establishment or premises nor from prohibiting food or beverages purchased from another establishment.” So you could definitely take that if both, if the Zionsville Pizzeria in your example said yes, I’m happy to take a cup into my restaurant but probably more likely, would be my guess, you’ll see businesses saying hey, you want to sit outside and wait for a table you can bring your own cup back in. So we wanted to make sure that it was crystal clear that the business owner is really dictating the decision of whether or not to allow that DORA cup back into an establishment and then we coupled that with some extra language to clarify if you already have an outdoor dining experience. So if I’m at Cobblestone which I love to sit on your patio, if I’m at Cobblestone we don’t want to limit what they’re already doing with their business so we felt like it was important to lift some new language into the proposed ordinance to say if you’re sitting on a patio and you’re serving or you already have sort of a waiting area out on your patio, 1) that you can continue those activities even if your business is located within the DORA; but 2) that you can have a glass cup because the plastic cups will be the walking cups and so we didn’t want them to have to change their business practices for seated outdoor dining so we went ahead and lifted that in new Section 10 in the DORA as well. Stein Great, thank you. And then the second thing – this is a little uncomfortable – so Mr. White requested to opt out and, and have the DORA not include his property in essence. Hage Correct. Stein Can The Friendly do that? You see what I’m saying? So, I think we need to think long term and while I sure hope Public House is here for decades to come, if they were to change hands and then somebody wanted to opt in do we have to, what is, what is the process to redraw the boundaries? I guess where I’m going is if he’s going to opt out then he’s defined the relationship with the DORA. As Town Page 21 of 31 Zionsville Town Council October 21, 2024 Council thinking bigger than that, do we draw the lines where we want them so that in the future if the restaurant changes hands, he sells it to somebody and they want to opt in we don’t have to drum all this up again? I’m just suggesting and I know it’s kind of the eleventh hour but I didn’t, last time we met it was still drawn in and now it’s not so I’m just throwing that out there for discussion and, again, it’s not necessarily the hill I’m willing to die on but I think it’s worthy of conversation. Sampson So is the question is it hard to add onto a continuous part of the DORA? Is it a big process or is it a simple process? Harris I think we would be establishing a new DORA. Like if, so the process allows or the statute allows for up to seven DORAs in any community and so, for example, the Deputy Mayor mentioned Fort Wayne. I think what they saw as they established one DORA in the downtown area and then they decided hey, there’s some other businesses over here that would really like to do it. You’re going through a process with the Alcohol Tobacco Commission so when you are approving this initial DORA, that is what we’re submitting for the town and so we would have to go back and reestablish the DORA and/or establish a new DORA to add additional businesses in, to your point, so if you think you want it to be more broad, you could leave it above 106th Street but certainly there’s a process by which you can go back to the ATC to establish a new DORA. And we tried to also, I know the Deputy Mayor mentioned this, but it was something that I know Councilor Sampson talked about which is are these folks really in or out and so we clarified the language in Section 7 as well that when we are working with a permittee they have actually submitted the application to the town so that everybody that we have listed are folks that have affirmatively filled out the application with the right established leader in that business to be able to make that application approval and then that’s what’s doing to get attached to the ATC. You can always go back and add additional permittees in the DORA as long as they’re in the geographic map. So that’s the flexibility but we wanted to clarify that process a little bit that it wasn’t a verbal hey, I just want to be in but this, we’re actually taking them, attaching them and we talked to Westfield and a few other communities and that’s how they handled it. And, candidly, the town had a lot of those already in hand at the last meeting but we went back, back through and Deputy Mayor went back through and made sure every single business had their actual submitted application. Plunkett So Heather, if we have, we can add people to the process to add people to the DORA does not come back to the Town Council? Harris It does not. They would just submit their application and then we would submit it to the ATC. Plunkett The town would? Harris As long as they were in the map – Plunkett Yes. Page 22 of 31 Zionsville Town Council October 21, 2024 Harris Or in the DORA. Plunkett Yes, the town would do that. It has nothing to do with Council – Harris Correct. Plunkett Unless it’s through here. The other question that I have specific to these boundaries, if we do cut it off at 106th Street to Joe’s point, we can amend this initial DORA ordinance to allow for a larger map later if we want or is that, if by, would we just create another DORA and lose one of our seven? Like can we, since, since the area is contiguous to the existing map, can we just expand that map later or does that count for two DORAs? Harris No, I think we would have to go back and establish an additional DORA. Sampson That’s a good point because when we talked to – Harris I mean I don’t know that people have done that. I mean it talks about, I don’t know that we’ve had an instance yet in Indiana where someone’s gone back and amended their initial map. It’s so new I don’t – Plunkett Right. Harris I’m trying to rethink through the statute. Hage I think we’d have to confirm with ATC but my sense is that since it is contiguous, we would be able to expand the boundaries of this DORA but I can’t say that with certainty. I think the reason why, for example, they created the two in Fort Wayne is they’re not contiguous. One’s at Electric Works, one’s downtown, they’re far apart or relatively and there is property in between that didn’t want included so I think we could potentially amend this one but, again, that might be an issue of first instance we’d have to check with the ATC on how to do that but. Sampson Yes, there’s a property owner I don’t feel like we even checked, checked with if they wanted to be in the map or not between The Public House and 106th. Harris I mean I think key here too is we’re not forcing any permittee to participate, any vendor or any business. So just if you’re located within the map area, you are still making individual business decisions about participation, to your point Councilor Stein. So, to me that is probably more, the more important piece of this is each business owner still has their right as the property owner to decide how they want to participate and – Stein I agree with that. I’m just thinking let’s, I don’t even know what the north most restaurant is that serves alcohol – maybe North High, I don’t know, but let’s say it was them and they said we want the boundary line drawn south of us, would we do that? I think that’d be shortsighted to do that because I mean I’m in the restaurant business and I know restaurants turn over and so I think as a town we would be wise to make the boundaries what we think they should be and then people can opt out but, if, if I’m, if I pick up a DORA cup at Bub’s which I’ve Page 23 of 31 Zionsville Town Council October 21, 2024 not heard anything from Bub’s at all but if I picked up a cup at Bub’s and wanted to walk down to The Public House for dinner I couldn’t. I’d have to stop at 106th and stand there until I finished my drink. Burk Correct, yes. Stein But if, but if the boundaries were drawn I could walk all the way down, take my time, you see what I’m saying? So I, again, I’m not, I’m just throwing it out there for discussion because I think it’s worthy of contemplating whether or not as a town we want the boundaries to be what we want them to be and then participants can opt in or out as Heather said so. Plunkett Justin, do you have the other map that goes north or goes south of 106th Street that could be added to the ordinance now or no? Hage Yes, well we have it because it was in the first version and I think we did have a discussion of this potentially happening at this meeting that you could in your, in your motion say subject to the map from the first version from six weeks ago or four weeks ago, I guess now, being included. Second version. Melton President Plunkett, may I speak? Plunkett Yes. Melton I just want to, again, thank the Police Department for being so involved in this and as a restaurant owner, a father of four myself, this is kind of a conflicting thing to me and I actually have a lot of respect for all the supporters that came from the business owners and I appreciate you all coming up and showing up this early in the morning and staying through and then Past President Garrett, thanks for being here as well. I do just want to say this last little bit about this and it may not influence this Council to make a different decision but in general, and, and I want to also say that I called my insurance carrier and had, had that conversation and it was the same response. There is no information stating that this will directly increase rates so I wanted, want to be clear that I did some of that same research. I still lean not in favor of this, however, I also want to relay a message from our, our Pathways Committee, I sit on the Pathways Committee and generally we are not in support of alcohol consumption on our pathways in the Town of Zionsville. The Pathways Committee is, one of their items that they’re required to do is make recommendations of pathways, routes, locations and policies and we will present in the fourth quarter of this year our presentation as soon as we’re able to get it on the docket but I just wanted to make that clear as I see the DORA boundary includes several pathways. I will be voting no on this and that is generally the reason why. I hope the restaurants and the businesses continue to thrive and I hope it does well for the community but I just want to be clear that that’s my final little stab at this to get you to understand our perspective of – we’ve been on, the Pathways Committee in general for the last year have been talking about safety and mid-block crosswalks, all these different safety aspects and then we don’t have any documentation that says this is going to be an unsafe Page 24 of 31 Zionsville Town Council October 21, 2024 thing and I understand that and I appreciate you presenting that but that’s my final comment on DORA and I hope you all make it work. Plunkett All right, any other questions for Deputy Mayor? I will say I tend to agree with Joe in that if we can amend the ordinance or amend the motion to approve it subject to the map from the previous ordinance extending south of 106th Street, there was only one map – correction, there were two maps. So, I think, and Jarod is nodding his head too – there were two maps, one included the Taylor Oil field, the other one didn’t so I would, I would, I would personally be in favor of including the one that did not have the Taylor Oil but the one that had – Logsdon Included Taylor Oil as well as Creekside Corporate which was, there was two revisions – Creekside was not included in the very first map that did go below 106th. So this would be the middle iteration that included beneath 106th as well as Creekside Corporate. Plunkett Okay. Sampson But not Taylor? Plunkett Taylor Oil as well to get to Public House or to get to where we are ending below 106th it includes the Taylor Oil property. Harris Because of continuity requirements. Logsdon Yes. Plunkett So we would have to do that. Sampson We have to do it? Logsdon Yes. Sampson Why? We can’t just cross the street? You have to have a street or something? Harris It needs to be contiguous and I think that was the reason for the map being drawn the way it was. Logsdon Yep. Sampson So it can’t go down, take a sharp – it can’t be cut out? Logsdon It has to include the parcels that were included in the map. There’s been three iterations. The initial was from Poplar all the way to 106th. There was a request to include Creekside Corporate so that included. After last meeting’s revisions there was a request to remove anything below 106th so that was the third iteration. Sampson Well can’t, I remember last meeting that we could say whatever the map was supposed to be verbally approve that, could we not? Wasn’t that what was said? And also I have communicated with the owner of the property south of 106th and Page 25 of 31 Zionsville Town Council October 21, 2024 he would like to be included. So, just now, I’ve been texting with him. So we do need to have a different map? Logsdon No, the middle iteration which included parcels below 106th would be comprehensive of the request unless you’re saying there’s a property owner beneath that map that was provided. Sampson I’m saying I thought we were trying to exclude the Taylor property Oil, include the 106th and Zionsville Road southeast quadrant – Burk Jarod, if we were going to do that, the point is why, why couldn’t the map be extended and it’s just the south side of Zion, I guess not the south side but the – Stein East side. Burk East side of Zionsville Road without crossing over to the Taylor property on the west side? Sampson Yes and just end it. Burk That way we capture Public House or, or just down to where that, where that shopping area is. Plunkett Because there’s a, there’s a pathway on the east side of Zionsville Road. So – Logsdon Yes, we could, we could remove the west side of Zionsville Road and make that jog over. Plunkett You can, correct? Logsdon Yes. Plunkett So I think that would be my personal preference would be that we amend the map as presented here to add the east side of Zionsville Road south of, I don’t even know what those roads – Old 106th Street, I’m sorry – north of Old 106th Street, right? So bring it down – Burk South to what road? Plunkett South to where Old 106th Street is right there – Burk Right. Plunkett And then over to Dahlia. Burk Right. Plunkett And that would also include a pathway down to Creekside area. So could we make, could we do that in the motion then? Page 26 of 31 Zionsville Town Council October 21, 2024 Logsdon Yes and just to clarify – would you prefer that the pathway on the west side of the right-of-way be included in the DORA? Plunkett The pathway, sure, yes. Logsdon Okay, perfect. Plunkett Yes. Hage Yes, I think if you clarified that subject to a change to Exhibit B which is the legal description which we’ll have to create that corresponds to this map and then the change of the, of the map itself. Plunkett Okay. Hage So that would be Exhibit A, the map and Exhibit B, the legal description. Plunkett All right. Hage As well as C – Sampson C, yes. Hage C also indicates the locations for temporary vendors. So A is the DORA map, B is the legal description and C is the location that depicts where temporary vendors are permitted. Plunkett Okay. All right, I’m going to make a, I’m going to take a shot at this and we can continue additional discussion here but in an effort to make sure we get this motion correct, I would make a motion to approve on final reading Ordinance 2024-25 subject to the change in the Exhibits A, B and C as noted in this Council meeting to include the sidewalk on the west side of Zionsville Road extending south of 106th Street to the north side of Old 106th Street over to Dahlia. Stein East side. Plunkett East side of Dahlia. Correct. Stein The sidewalk is the east side. Plunkett Did that sound right? Stein You said sidewalk on the west side, sidewalk on the east side. Plunkett But we would include them both – Stein Oh, you both? Plunkett Because we can have – Stein Oh, yes, yes, yes. Page 27 of 31 Zionsville Town Council October 21, 2024 Plunkett Yes. McElderry But it’s west of Dahlia is what he’s referring to. Stein Yes. Sampson West of Dahlia. Plunkett Correct, west of Dahlia. Did I say east of Dahlia? McElderry Yes. Sampson I think you said north of Dahlia. McElderry You said east. Harris And one quick suggestion – and the amendments – Plunkett Yes – Harris In the revised ordinance. Sampson And the redline (inaudible). Plunkett And the amendment in the revised ordinance. McElderry Second. Plunkett All right, so we’ve got a first by President Plunkett, a second from Councilor McElderry – are there any other questions, discussions, anything else that we have here? Burk I don’t think so, I just want to make sure Heather’s clear that we have the motion the way we need it. Harris I think we’re good. Burk Okay. Plunkett Okay. All right, so all those in favor signify by saying aye. Norris, Aye. Sampson, Plunkett, Burk, McElderry, Stein Plunkett All those opposed same sign. Page 28 of 31 Zionsville Town Council October 21, 2024 Melton No. Plunkett Motion passes 6 in favor, 1 opposed. NEW BUSINESS Plunkett All right, up next is New Business. There are no New Business items. OTHER MATTERS Plunkett Up next would be Other Matters. I’ve got a couple of things to, to walk through there briefly. As I mentioned early in the meeting, we are going to work on the resolution for the Men’s Golf Team as well from Zionsville. Again, it’s difficult. That was a spring sport so it’s difficult to get all those guys, everyone together right now so maybe that’s something we can do over a holiday or in the summertime. There’s a couple of ordinances that we’re going to continue to, to rewrite and clean up. One is a sign ordinance. Obviously, we’re not going to be able to do that prior to this next election but I’d like for this Council to consider how many signs we want at polling locations – Melton Political signs, correct? Plunkett Political signs at polling locations. I know some neighboring communities have limited theirs to one or two. We have not done that yet so that’s something we should consider. Melton Is it, is it strictly political signs you’re looking at? Plunkett Yes. Melton Or an overall sign ordinance? Plunkett This would be specific to political, political signs. Melton Okay. Can, can I, can I ask that maybe we look into signage in general? Plunkett Sure. Melton I think there’s a deeper thing with signs in the Village and across the Town of Zionsville that we need to look at and I would request that we maybe kind of do Page 29 of 31 Zionsville Town Council October 21, 2024 a little bit of a delve into that just to make sure that it’s being, the ordinance is being cast – Plunkett Yes. Melton Town wide. Plunkett No, I think that’s great. I think the idea would be from Council anybody that has thoughts or ideas around signage and around, around these ordinances, it’s difficult for staff to enforce, it’s difficult for cleanup efforts after elections like for staff and so it’s just something to, to keep in mind here as we go through ordinance rewrite. Another ordinance that I’d like for us to address – Councilor Melton mentioned the Pathways Committee and their requirement to report to the Town Council. Obviously, you guys will recall earlier this year we merged a couple of groups together with the Pathways Committee. They’re required to give recommendations to the Town Council. The ordinance is written to require it in the fourth quarter but I talked, in communication with Brad Gressel and then just thinking through timing of this, obviously, recommendations that they would make for 2025 probably should’ve been included earlier in the year for those, for those considerations because those dollars are obviously already spoken for. So, I’d like for us to consider rewording this ordinance as well to allow for a Q2 or a Q3 presentation so that those priorities can be included and funded in potential future budgets. So, we got a lot, we got a lot we’re looking at over the rest of this year specific to ordinances and cleaning up the language and getting things wrapped up on that end so I’d like to have as much feedback as possible on those items between now and the end of the year so. Melton On that same ordinance for the town Pathways Committee, if Heather, maybe you could look at this at some point. You don’t have to look at it now but there is maybe some ambiguity with regards to five voting members, three members appointed by the Town Council – excuse me, it says three voting members by the Town Council, three voting members by the Mayor but yet it says five voting, five voting members and one non-voting member. So if we could just kind of clean that up and give better understanding. Is the Councilor that’s on there not supposed to vote, etc. and I don’t think that’s the case. I think it’s whether it’s going to be five members or six members plus the staff from the town, DPW. So, small thing. I appreciate that – that has come up. I will tell you the Pathways Committee is ready to report to this Council as soon as, as soon as you’re interested. I will say also real quick on that same thing, President Plunkett, that though we, this is our initial year of Pathways Committee so I think presenting at the end, in the fourth quarter like it was initially designed, I don’t think it’s a horrible thing for the initial one but if we do it now, what are we going to present to you in the second and third quarter, not much, but the Pathways Committee has done a very good job of, of meeting consistently and we’ve got a great presentation ready whenever we can get that in front of you as well so thank you. Plunkett That brings up another point – I would just reiterate to everybody, obviously, at the end of the year we go through appointments and Board Commissions. Councilors, if there’s Boards and Commissions that you’re on now that you’d Page 30 of 31 Zionsville Town Council October 21, 2024 like to stay on, it’d be important to send that information to myself and Amy and, obviously, folks who are serving on Boards and Commissions now from the public if you would, reach out, let us know if that’s still a priority. That would be great so. Anything else from Councilors? Sampson We have trick-or-treat hours from 5:30 to 8:30 on Halloween and hope for everyone to have a safe and fun holiday. ADJOURN Plunkett All right, I will make a motion to adjourn. Melton Second. Plunkett A second from Councilor Melton. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 7 in favor, 0 opposed. The next regular Town Council meeting is scheduled for Monday, November 4, 2024 at 7:00 p.m. in the Zionsville Town Hall Council Chambers. Final notice will be posted in compliance with the Indiana Open Door Law. Respectfully submitted, Amelia Anne Lacy, Municipal Relations Coordinator Page 31 of 31