Okay, we'll call to order the meeting of the Elseville Plan Commission for Thursday, October 2nd, 2025.
Steve, would you listen to the Pledge of Allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States
of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty
and justice for all. Okay, Renee, roll call, please.
Here. Here. Here. Okay. The next time agenda on our agenda is approval of the minutes for the August
7th meeting. Motion to approve. So I have a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed.
Motion carries.
We have no old business. We have a monthly conflict of interest statement. Does anyone have a conflict
of interest on our items on the agenda tonight? Seeing none, our first item of new business is the voluntary
annexation of 5711 North Union Valley Road. Three parcels totaling 71.93 acres. The petitioners are
Michael and Megan Ripley. Case number PC25-25.
Denise. Good evening. Before you, this petition by Michael Megan Ripley to voluntarily annex three parcels
totaling approximately 71.93 acres of land. Subject parcels are located at 5711 North Union Valley Road,
4601 West McNeely Street, and 4.10 acres. Parcel number 53-04-11-100.
dash 010.000 dash 011 and upon annexation we will assign an address to that parcel. This is a super
voluntary annexation and contiguity of the parcels are as follows. 5711 North Union Valley Road is 20
percent contiguous. The 4.10 acres is 49 percent contiguous and
4601 West McNeely Street is 34% contiguous to the town of Eltsville, and 100% of the property owners
are parties to the petition. The properties are currently zoned Agricultural Residential, AGR, by Monroe
County, and are recommended to be designated as Agricultural AG upon annexation. Properties will be
located in Council Ward 3,
The plan commission's action shall be in the form of a favorable, unfavorable, or no recommendation
town council which takes final action on the annexation petition. Staff recommends a favorable recommendation
be afforded to town council with a recommended zoning of agricultural AG for all three parcels upon
annexation and petitioners are present if you have any questions.
Does anyone from the Planning Commission have any questions for Denise? Seeing none, does the petitioner
want to say anything? Okay. So let me just say something. So on this screen is the order of the parcels
to be annexed. The largest parcel come in first, smallest, which is the 4.10 acres second, and the other
parcel will be third.
And this is the zoning, surrounding zoning for the town. That's all. Okay. Before we open this up for
public comment, just let me make sure that everyone understands if anyone is wanting to comment about
this. Right now, this is just an annexation of the property into the town limits. It's going to have
the same zoning in the town that it had previously in the county.
We do not know at this point if there are any future plans for the owners of this property to do anything
with it. But once they have future plans, if they have any, they will have to come back to the plan
commission and then the town council to have the property rezoned if they wish to use it for a different
use. So all we're doing right now is annexing this into the town limits and that's it.
Is there anyone from the public who wants to comment on this petition? If so, you have three minutes.
Come on up and tell us your name and sign in.
My name is Jim Perry. I just have a question. Maybe Denise can address it, but you said it's agricultural
residential county, but then you said if it comes into this town, it would be agricultural. Is there
a difference? It's just the county calls their agricultural residential AGR, and we just call it agricultural.
So what does that mean, though, in terms of the zoning? Because obviously residential is in the county,
but it doesn't say residential in the town. It said agricultural. So is it agricultural land solely,
or is there a prospect for some mix? It's zoned agricultural, which includes residential. We just don't
call it agricultural residential.
But as you say, there would have to be a proposal for the use of the property. For other than agricultural
in our zone. So if there were a proposal that came forward for residential, that would be sustained
for that. So if somebody say purchased it or if the petitioners decided to change the zoning,
They would have to petition the plan commission for a recommendation to town council and then town council
would be the final authority on any rezone. Yeah, but if it permits residential, then there would be
no need for rezoning if somebody came forward with a residential proposal. How much residential does
the county allow in agricultural residential? Well, in Ellis, I don't know about the county, but in
Ellisville, it's a minimum of two acres to be
two acre parcels to be considered residential. And that means what? I mean, for residents to be residential,
be allowed in agricultural. In other words, they would have to have two acre lots if they wanted to
make it residential in an agricultural zone. Each lot would have to be two acres. Minimum. Minimum.
Correct. I just wanted a clarification on that.
Okay, okay. Do we have do we have any process for evaluating the consequences of even a voluntary?
Annexation. Well, we say let's say we were to annex something that would cost the town commit the town
to $1,000,000 a year public expenses. Yes, that's all figured out be undesirable. That's all figured
out beforehand and that's part of.
So that's part of the process? It is part of the process, yes. To figure out how much. And do we have
that analysis? Yes, we do a fiscal plan. A fiscal plan? Yes. Time's up. Okay. It's all written down
in the document set. If you don't have a copy of it, she can get you one. These documents? I can't see
what you've got there. I have what was sent to the homeowner. Well, no, it's on the town's website.
It's the fiscal plan.
that's on the town's website. So we'd have to go to the town website to understand the public costs
or benefits. Yes. What's the net? I don't believe there is any additional cost at this point in time.
Our fiscal plan covers if there's any increase on taxes, which is minute because he's bringing
in agricultural and there's not a tax increase when you bring in agricultural.
there is an assessment and the assessment will shift from the county to their town? Yes, but I mean
it's very minute. That's a positive. It is, but it's very minor because it's of the zoning. But it also
doesn't cost us anything at this point. And where on the town website is that listed? It's on the home
page at the bottom for recent news. Okay, good. Thank you. Name is down here.
Do you need anything else? No, that's it. Thank you. Was there anybody else? Come on up. My name is
Richard Dillon. I just have two or three questions. D-I-L-L-M-A-N.
Who's gonna take care of the McNeely Street from this point on if it's accepted? So when we annex properties
into town, we also annex the streets. Will McNeely Street be annexed? It'll come into the town inventory,
yes, that portion. The whole street? That portion, just the portion that's annexed. Only the portions
that are adjacent to the property being annexed. Okay, and the road is, the road, so in other words,
Everybody that lives across McNeely Street that borders this annexation are now bordering the city limits,
if this is accepted, is that correct? Yes. Yes, the town limits. Okay. Does the town have any future
plans on annexing all of your open spots? If you look at GIS now, you guys have got a lot of... We do,
but the state has made it virtually impossible to
involuntarily annex areas, so we can only take voluntary annexations. I mean, it's possible, but it's
extremely difficult. Okay, and that's just a question. The other question I had, I've always wanted
to ask this. What's the tax difference? If you're annexed into the city of Ellipsville, how much more
do you have to pay for taxes?
I don't know. That's a hard one to calculate. I know, but isn't there a benchmark of like maybe three
cents, 30 cents a thousand or something like that on assessment? No. On the paper it says the effective
annexation of the estimated tax rate increases from .5673 to .5645 for 2526. That's a number nobody
probably knows.
And the only other question I had is if let's say Mr. Ripley or someone else comes before the town council
to ask for a rezone, you would then have to notify all the people like you did this time. That's all
I know. I understand exactly why he's doing it because I've tried to deal with the county too. Okay,
anybody else?
so you may have already answered. I have a couple of simple questions. Our land borders the...
Excuse me, sir. Can you say your name? Jim Callie. Callie? Jim Callie, C-A-L-L-I, 5745 Union Valley
Road. We've been there about 25 years. And our property, in a small part, borders on that northeast,
that most northeast section. So the question I have is, with annexation,
How does the zoning laws change? It's currently 2.5 acres. It's currently 2.5. Do you need to stand
back a little bit from it? It's currently 2.5. It's currently 2.5 acres out there and it's been that
way for a while. So what changes if that is annexed? What changes in that? It doesn't really change
much of anything currently. The county has it zoned as agricultural and we are zoning it as agricultural.
Okay, so even if that's annex, it's still zoned agricultural? Yes. And how would that, so then there
wouldn't automatically be sewers, plumbing, et cetera, out there. It would stay as it is now. So how
would that, then how would someone subsequently be able to change that to rural? Would they have to
come back through the same process? They have to come back for another, for a rezoning, which comes back to,
Okay, so currently if this passes through, it'll still be 2.5 acres for a dwelling unit. Two under our
code. Two? Two under our code. Yeah. Okay, so it'll still be two acres for that, okay. That was my question,
thank you. Okay. Anybody else? Okay, seeing none, I will make a motion that we forward case number PC
25-25 to the town council with a favorable recommendation. Second. Pick one. Okay, we have a motion
and a second. Renee, roll call, please. David Drake. Yes. Dan Swoffer. Yes. Steve Hale. Yes.
Kamala Samples. Yes. Pat Wesolowski. Yes. Okay, motion carries. Thank you.
The next item on our agenda is resolution 03-2025, a resolution of the Ellsville Plan Commission approving
a declaratory resolution of the Ellsville Redevelopment Commission to amend the Ellsville Riverfront
Economic Development District. This is case number 2025-24. The board will recall that last year it
was established a redevelopment commission and a board. And in December, the redevelopment commission
passed two resolutions to establish two economic development areas in the town. One is the riverfront,
one's the west side. You will also recall that under the Indiana code, once the redevelopment commission
passes a resolution to establish an economic development area, the code requires it to come before the
plan commission for your consideration, then it goes to council, and then it finally comes back to the
redevelopment commission for a public hearing and for confirmation of that
resolution to establish economic development districts. So in December of last year, the RDC passed
two resolutions. They came before the Plan Commission, Town Council. In February, the Redevelopment
Commission confirmed their resolution. When it went to the auditor's office, when I say the resolution,
that includes plat maps showing the parcels.
to be included in the economic development districts and the legal descriptions. The auditor found some
inconsistencies. There were over 100 parcels in the Riverfront district and the auditor found
some inconsistencies. By that I mean she found that there were some parcels that were described in the
legal description but were not included on the plat map and vice versa.
properties on the plat map that weren't included in the legal. So we circled back around to Bynum-Fanio.
They corrected that. And under the Indiana Code, we have to start all over again in order to amend the
Riverfront District. So in August, the Redevelopment Commission passed a resolution to amend the downtown
or the Riverfront District.
This is step two. It now comes before you for your review and hopefully approval. If you approve it,
it goes to the plan commission and then it should come back to the RDC in November. This is just on
the downtown or the riverfront district. The west side economic development area is not going to be
changed. And the fact that there were discrepancies did not prevent an economic development district
from being
established for either the downtown or the west side area. If you go to Elevate and you start looking
at properties in Ellisville, you can see there's been established the west side economic development
area and the riverfront. We're just clarifying these few parcels here to make sure they get included
as well. Okay. Does anybody have any questions for Darla?
Okay, like where it says Park Street. The long thing sticking out. Okay. Okay, so how far does that
go? Like what's this at the end here? Like we're, Park Street's down by the ballpark. Right. Okay,
so what, like see how it angles out, you know, goes down, then kind of, what is that down there? That
includes the Township Trustee's office.
Okay, so that's as far as it goes basically that time? Yes, in that direction. And it looks funny because
they can't, when you take the map and you kind of flatten it out, it looks odd like that. That's, whole
area there is the Township Trustees Office. Okay, so it don't go really no further than that? No, I
mean it has to be still within the limits of the town. Okay.
Good question. I don't know exactly where the ball fields are, so I don't know. Well, they're in between
the trustees office. It doesn't go as far as on that. No, OK, that's that's what I'm wanting to know.
You answered it right there. I asked if it went as far as we're on that where I live. OK, any more questions?
Could they come in and, I say they, anybody or the town come in and wipe the houses out, put commercial
in? Well, the Redevelopment Commission has pretty broad powers under the statutes, so they
could theoretically work with a commercial developer to put in commercial properties. And they could
give them grants or something along those lines to encourage the development.
It don't sound very good. Well, I don't think that's in the works anytime soon, but. Well, yeah, but
we don't know. You don't? Is there something we can put in there that they can't do that? I think. They
can't take housing out? Well, can I ask Darla something real quick?
So when we came up with the TIF districts, we had to create a list of items that we would spend money
on. And what you just asked wasn't one of those things. Correct. So if they wanted to, meaning RDC wanted
to change the economic development plan, that's one of those things that they would have to start all
over again. The economic plan right now is just to do basic, what I call maintenance types of things,
sidewalks,
sewers, installation of utilities, parks, that kind of thing. There's no plan yet to do any major commercial
development or work with developers to get commercial developments in there. So they don't have to come
back to the other commissioners and to us? Correct. And then to the town council? Correct. If they wanted
to amend the development plan, they would have to do that. This plan
that goes with this proposal is the same as it was in the other proposal. Okay. Anybody else? Is there
any public comment? Seeing none, I will make a motion that we approve resolution or adopt resolution
03-2025 PC under case number
2025-24. Second. Yeah, we have a motion and a second. Roll call, please. David Drake. Yes. Dan Swaffer.
Yes. Steve Hale. Yes. Pamela Samples. Yes. And Pat Wasielowski. No. Okay. Does that mean it doesn't pass?
No, there was four in favor, correct? Yes. Oh, okay. Four's your quorum. My math is not... Four's your...
Well, I confused him earlier. Yeah. Okay, planning department update. Next meeting, let's try there,
is November 6th and you will have new business. Prior to the floor, is there anyone in the audience
that wants to address us on something that wasn't in our
Agenda. Seeing none, are there any planning commission comments? Seeing none, we're adjourned.