All right, good evening. This is a meeting for the Rich and Elephant Reorganization Committee, and we'll
start with a word of prayer by Kevin. Father, we thank you for this day. Thank you for this weather.
It's supposed to be raining all day, and it's nice that it's not. We thank you for the opportunity to
gather like this and do what it is we're trying to do.
Help us with that, make sure that all the people involved feel like they're being, that they understand
it and that they're being represented. And try to make this meeting short. In Jesus' name, amen. 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.
Just one second. All right. Andrew Henry, present. Kevin Ferris. Here. Jerry Sanders. Present.
Mike Kornman. Present. Scott Reynolds. Here. Don Durnall. Present. William Ellis. Here. All present.
All right. Minutes have been set out.
Do we have a motion to accept them? So moved. Second. All right. Any discussion? This is a motion to
approve the minutes from two nights ago Monday. I'll go ahead and call it then. I vote yes. Kevin? Yes.
Jerry? Yes. Mike? Yes. Scott? Yes. Dawn? Yes. William? Yes. Motion passes.
I just want to thank you for, I mean, that was amazing getting those minutes out that quickly. Obviously
you don't have nothing else to do. I had a lot of espresso yesterday morning. All right, would anybody
from the public like to make a comment before we get started? Okay, I think the main order of business
tonight is to look at planning and zoning.
So I'll just open it up for discussion among the committee. Well, I think one of the questions that's
been on my mind that might address some other questions that I could ask, so I'll start with the bigger
one, and I know that there's been some discussion about this already in terms of the parallel tracks
that we talked about at the last meeting, but I think my concern, especially from
the perspective of the township is just that obviously if you're in the existing town, the zoning is
a known quantity because there's already ordinances in place. And so right now if we were to simply
adopt this plan and then, you know, this was the most that we would know about zoning on day one of
reorganized town and township.
be very hard to know in the township what that meant for me or for my neighbors. So I think it'd be
good if we could figure out the parallel tracks that we talked about a little bit. Obviously, there's
only so much that we're going to be able to get done in the next week, but it would be good to know
what we might task, you know, or what might happen between now and November voting day that would allow
as a township resident to know, me to know what is my zoning and what is my land use regulation gonna
be on day one of a reorganized town? My understanding is whatever it is today, no. I think
it'd be appropriate, Denise, would you wanna kind of go through what is planned for the first of the
year, what we've talked about,
I think what you talked about in your subcommittee, but about a future UDO and planning and zoning.
Yeah, so all of the subcommittee members but one were in the township. So it was very important that
how they come into the town is how they will be. We'll of course honor whatever that is,
The subcommittee report made provisions if they want to make changes or if they want to come into the
town. They tried to stick with the town district and the rural district to follow along with the taxing.
And so we will be, of course, amending our unified development ordinance and our comprehensive plan
accordingly to include the rural district and town district
We have no intention of changing any zoning for anybody, whether it's in the town or the township. For
example, Monroe County uses AGRR, agricultural rural reserve. It'll just simply become agriculture.
It's basically the same thing, and so that's our intent, and we intend to be ready with
both of those to move forward around the first of the year. With that, and of course there'll be public
meetings, public hearings, I'll have to go for the plan commission and the town council. So residents
will be able to come and have a say and have opportunity to read it before the public hearing. Does
that answer the question? Yeah, it really helps.
the intent would be to look at what the Monroe County zoning is for a particular parcel and try to find
the category that's most similar. Correct. And one of the things we also have to update is our zoning
map to now include Richland
And that will also be presented at the public hearings for people to look at. Sometimes it's easier
to see a map. Right, yeah. No, that's what I was, the first, one of the first things that occurred to
me was just, you know, if somebody were to come to me and ask, you know, after we approve, you know,
a plan, how do I know what my situation is gonna be on day one? Having some sort of map for them to
look at, you know, just to confirm in their own minds what that's going to be
I think would be very important to establish as much as possible before election day. Because I just,
otherwise I think there'll just be a lot of questions and people will be feeling like they would be
asked to sign up for something where they don't really know what they're signing up for. We also have
budgeted money so we can take a professional approach to this, not unlike when we did our first UDO.
went through planning and zoning. The first time we went through it, there was a collection of what,
15 or 20 people? 16 people and a consultant and it was about a year long process. Yeah, so it is a process
and it's a planned process. As far as I understand, in this parallel track approach, we can have
We can be working on a new UDO in advance of the reorganization vote, but we can't put that UDO in place
for any part of the township. So on day one, that new reorganized committee is responsible to move forward
from there and clarify what's happening. Correct. It would be up to the newly reorganized town council
to approve the new zoning ordinance. Right. So we can see a draft here, but it can't be locked in until
after day one.
Is that a concern? That's correct. If we do a graphic or something, it would show, this is
what an expectation is. We'd have to put something that so people know it's not final, and they still
will get public input into it. Right, we'd put something like, sorry. Oh, that's okay. It's for illustrative
purposes, and it could change or not change. You know, there could be changes. But when we have it ready
for that, it'll probably be what it will be.
When does the process start after the election and assuming it goes forward? We hope to start before
that. We're going to start as soon as possible. Because last time it took almost a year, but I think
the reason it took that long is because the town hadn't updated its UDO in a while. So since you just
updated it, it'll be two years ago, either this August or September, and the comp plan
was redone how many years ago, five? 23. Okay, so. I just wanted everybody to hear that. Yes, so it
shouldn't take that long to toggle with it a little bit. Our intent is to have it ready, go through
the planning commission, you know, it's probably gonna take longer than one meeting, that'll be, there'll
be public meetings before that, and then a public hearing at the planning commission.
and then however many meetings that takes, then they will make a recommendation to town council and
then it'll move on to town council and it may take a few meetings to get through the town council. It
isn't really the heart of what we're doing here. The fact that the township and the town will
have representation because it seems to be there's gonna be
a lot of decisions that are going to be made in all the areas that we've talked about Monday night and
tonight. That the key is, and what hopefully our citizens will understand is, as these decisions, if
we want to talk about planning and zoning, that will be coming to us in the future, the key is that
they'll be well represented in those future decisions.
legs of this whole project. And when we appeal to people, I know there is a neighborhood that thinks,
well, we're established. We're finding a county. Why would we want to change? And for them, my only
answer would be, will you be represented for everything that's going to change around you? And so whether
we do reorganize or we just
take a little longer process where we just keep annexing and growing. It's good to have a voice for
how we want things to be 10 and 20 years from now. Because that's when it's going to be important. What
happens next year is nothing big is going to happen next year, although as we know from three or four
years ago, you never know what somebody's thinking and what somebody might be planning.
And I watched the news before I came here, and there's a town somewhere where they're, I'll say it,
they're promoting a data center, and a lot of the residents don't want it, and I'm sure there's some
people that are not representative. They can't be represented because they're not in the correct position,
whether they're in the township or the town. Anyway, things change quickly,
And so even if you're okay with the way things are now, what about 10 years from now? I think that the
question of representation is actually an interesting one because I think that we would need to think
about how do we make sure that even if it can't be formal voting representation in this process of UDO
redesign or expansion between now and November,
how do we establish some sort of advisory positions or just voices at the table ensuring that township
residents would be heard in that process? Because otherwise it would just be the town and current town
board members who would be doing that work and then we would want to make sure that there was some township
representation. Is that going further than what?
This board's supposed to be thinking about it. I don't think that we need to put into this particular
plan the details about how the steering committee for the comp plan and the UDO will be organized. I
think that is outside the purview of the document. I certainly think it's worth having a conversation
about it because we're making a representation in public that those conversations will take place.
But in terms of putting that language in here, I think the plan commission subcommittee did a nice job
of putting in their report that they recommend updating the UDO and the comp plan as soon as reasonably
as possible. And Scott, as a member, which would be from the town, on the county council the first year
this is going to happen, I can tell you I would support having the majority of the people on the UDO
since the actual square miles of land
is in the old township area of having more, their representation more than the existing town, because
the town UDO is pretty much done. We did that two years ago. So what the question is, is we're expanding
it to the township, the old township area. So I, I mean, I can't speak for the other four members of
the board, but I can tell you I would support having more township representation on there than old town.
Isn't it more correct to say the new UDO is we are redoing the UDO with the thought that we are now
the whole township as opposed to moving it over and then updating just including the township. We actually
are gonna redo the UDO. There's things we will change and obviously we've got a template
But now we're a township-sized town, and so the UDO has to reflect. As Darla said, the last time it
took a year, because we were almost starting from scratch putting everything together, this would be
updating and tweaking the parts we've already done. But the big parts would be harmonizing with the
county and making sure that the township, which would be the old township residents, probably the last
time we would ever do this this transitional year would be represented more fully to address those concerns.
So can I add something? So I just wanted to tell you the subcommittee when we were talking about the
rural district in the report said the subcommittee recognizes the importance of preserving agricultural
uses and rural character within the rural district and the subcommittee recommended areas
agricultural zoning protections be maintained, the right to farm principles be incorporated into development
standards where appropriate, and zoning districts within the rural district reflect existing development
patterns and infrastructure availability. So I don't know if that helped answer your question. Yeah,
I mean, I think that's, to me anyway, and I think to some of my neighbors that I've talked to, you know,
I think that that's all very important. I think that, you know, one of the things, and I don't mean to
reopen things from a year ago. But I mean, one of the things that it looked like from the township side
was that that was protected agricultural zoning out near Flatwoods Park. So once it was annexed though,
I mean, admittedly it was at the request of the landowner at the time, the rezoning just happened very
quickly to
make that to light industrial use. And so I would just want to make sure that that's not what we mean
by agricultural zoning protections be maintained, right? Like that we would, that that would have a
lot more teeth to it than simply, well, as long as it is, you zone agricultural, they'll be maintained,
but we'll be able to flip that switch, you know, very easily, because then it kind of undermines the
idea of those protections being there.
Because I do think that this is an important issue, because a lot of people, as you pointed out, the
township is huge. And a lot of people that chose to live in the township chose to live there because
they want to live in the country and not next to light industrial. And so I think that we're going to
have to be able to be very clear on this, if we are in agreement,
that as this becomes something that's considered by the voters, that when they ask, we can say in good
conscience, good faith, that what we mean by that, that preservation. What do you think? Just out of
curiosity. Well, see, this is, and this is, you know, so moving down a little bit in the report to the
reclassification from rural district to town district, when I read the report, my understanding
that I took away was that it was the rural district concept that was going to provide the teeth to that
preservation, right, that was going to ensure that those agricultural uses and others will be maintained.
But then when we talk about in the report the reclassification from rural district to town district,
it says, you know, reclassification may be triggered by one or more of the following. And there are
many, many, many things. You know, availability of utilities, extension of services,
annexation, petition, adoption of rezoning, and then even periodic review conducted by the town council
and the plan commission. And so that makes it sound as though it would be very easy to move things from
rural to town because if one of the triggers is just utilities are available or periodic review, periodic
review means we just looked at it and decided it was gonna be town now.
I think anybody from the township who's concerned about this, who reads this, might feel like they're
not really protected. Yeah, and I've heard that concern voiced a lot in the last few weeks.
A matter of fact, probably more than anything else other than representation. For me, it all comes back
to when we say we, if we're talking about
the town or some government entity or something like that saying that we want to rezone, that's one
thing. That's what I'm totally against. But if it's somebody else, which could be your neighbor, saying
I would like to do this now, I've got the opportunity to do it, let's say sell to a developer and he
wants to develop it and turn it into residential.
As a landowner living in the township, I'm a big, hey, it's your land, that's what I hate about the
county, it's your land, you should be able to do what you want to with your land. Now, if you're talking
about putting a nuclear waste facility next to your property, absolutely, that shouldn't happen. Or
a meatpacking plant, or something like that that's gonna detrimentally affect not just your property
values, but your
your quality of life. Then the town, the government, the new entity, the government should be able to
step in and say no, for the sake of everybody, no. And the township should have a voice in that, which
brings up the whole other issue. But if the
If the landowner, if he wants to switch usage of his land, he doesn't want to farm no more, or he doesn't
want to do this, this, this, and this, I'm all for him being able to do within his land what he wants
to. That's not what you're asking though, right? Where is it? If it was in the rural district, I would
prefer that there be the preservation that Denise mentioned.
So Scott, in your mind, you've read the list of reclassification triggers. What do you think are appropriate
reclassification triggers? Because I don't think we can accept at all that there can be no reclassification
triggers at any point. Sure. I think, I mean, one critical question I think would be, right now, annexation,
for example, generally requires a certain amount of contiguity. Yeah, right.
And so I guess the question is, you know, is it intended that the town district be contiguous in the
same general fashion, or is it possible that we would wind up with pockets of town district, you know,
scattered throughout? Because I think right now, the way it's discussed, that possibility is there.
It's there. I agree, it's there. Yeah, it's there.
Okay, the county you've got the right to go to the can they've got the right to say no, but you've got
the right to do it the You know they make it so if you want if you've got I don't know how many acres
Just to make everything easy if you've got 100 acres in the county right now And you want to subdivide
that you can subdivide that into ten houses as long as you got ten acres per house you know you can
make that happen the and
They should have the right to do that if they want to do that. For one thing, have you ever farmed before?
It's a tough gig. There's a lot of better gigs. It's easier. And people don't want to farm no more,
especially the generation one or two removed. You don't see a whole lot of grandkids wanting to farm
land. I think just to, I mean, again, I'm not,
I'm just drawing out the conversation here just so we've got everything on the table. You know, I think,
I mean, you're exactly right. I mean, there are subdivision opportunities available at the county level
right now, which require pretty large lot sizes and, you know, lots of approvals and things like that.
Presumably, if, you know, I was that person with that 100 acres, though, and I was requested that my
rural parcel be reclassified as town,
That would allow a lot higher density than one per 10 acres. So I think that's, I guess, the bigger
question that I was trying to get at, which is if the rural district has larger lot sizes, similar to
what Monroe County has now, and I as a landowner with that 100 acres, even though I'm maybe in the southwest
part of Richland Township right now,
Can I ask to be reclassified as town and then build a hundred houses, even though I'm not contiguous
to what most people think of as the center of the urban zone of Alexville? I think the intention is
yes, you would be able to. Yes, you'd be able to.
asked to be changed to the county. The landowner could always ask for a rezone. You could always petition.
Otherwise, we're not much different than what's currently with the county. Yes, I know there's some
people, and those are legitimate concerns that you brought up, but there's also some people wanting
more industry, wanting more development.
And I mean, I do have a hard time telling somebody, you can't sell this property, you have to keep it
as this, and it just may sit there and be a blighted property if they're not farming it. I mean, so
I understand, I just don't know an easy solution to it. I think he's asking a 10,000 foot question,
valid, we're getting into weeds.
I like his idea of asking a blanket question about some of these things. As I see it, this is kind of
standard verbiage. The rest of the report, I think, is fabulous, but this is what anybody would do.
And we can't always dictate what future councils and planning commissions are going to be. His question
was, January 1, if this goes through, what's this going to look like? So I think that,
The explanation that Denise gave, I think, satisfies my question about what he asked for the most part.
I don't live in the town, John lives in the town, lifelong resident of the town. I don't understand
some of the issues that somebody lives outside of town. So I'm trying my best to sympathize. I've never
really done that before. So with living outside, I've sympathized before. You're married. You're married,
you sympathize. There's natural inhibitors to what
his scenario and how it could or couldn't play out, that doesn't allow for that to happen overnight
or even maybe even be considered, whether it's roads, sewer, even water for fire protection. And that's
kind of why the town and the townships laid out the way it is. Now, you brought up where the Kihi and
the Umberter property is.
That was planned 40 years ago. So it actually naturally happened because people have been planning on
it for decades. And the master plan for water, for instance, for the town has a large diamond remain
that goes 46 darts and comes back into town. And so that area was always planned to have that happen.
So, I mean, there is some natural things
has transpired and kind of shows you how we're laid out. So your concerns, I get it. And I think I'd
rather be a neighbor to 10 houses on 100 acres than 100 houses on 10 acres. So whatever, you know. But
I think there's some natural inhibitors for concerns. I'm not saying it can't happen, but. OK, we're
going to pause and hear a couple of comments from the public.
I'm a township resident and I read the plan, the subcommittee's plan and for my limited knowledge, I
understood it and I thought it was well done and answered my questions. My concern as I'm hearing here
is again, as a township resident, I have no security that Monroe County is not going to change and redo
things within the township.
So I'm understanding, I don't understand why we feel like we need to feel, offer that security here.
What would life be like if we don't reorganize? And what would life be like if we do? In both cases,
changes can be made by the governing entity. And I'd rather have my security with reorganization than
as I am now.
Because as I sit on the fringe area of much of Monroe County's planning, my land can change in a heartbeat.
And I have no way to voice that easily.
Hi, my name's Anne and I am a Township President. I think that reorganization gives us a really unique
opportunity to look at and really plan and have good representation around where growth might happen
for Ellitsville. Scott, I definitely understand and hear a lot of your concerns and the concerns that
your neighbors have. A question for you is,
Do you believe that there should be growth and development happening in Ellitsville and in Richland
Township? And if so, where? I'm happy to have this conversation, but I'm not sure that it's germane
necessarily to the meeting. I understand. From the comments you are making and the questions that you
are having, it sounds like there's a lot of concern around keeping
things exactly the way that they are right now. I understand that for a lot of individual residents.
I also understand as a resident of the township that there are likely things that are going to change
in the future and so that's why I'm asking that question as I feel like it's relevant to this is I do
believe that under reorganization change is coming and so I'm kind of curious what your thoughts are
on that. Yeah, I mean I can only speak for myself.
in favor of smart economic growth. I look at what Ellisville's planning has been. Obviously there's
been a lot of thought put into that. I think when people make a decision about where they're going to
locate as far as residents and everything goes, obviously they have the ability and might even say the
duty to investigate the constraints that exist
around them and are going to govern their use of their property and their neighbors because they have
a certain amount of expectation that things will generally stay the same, change over time gradually,
but generally they go in with an understanding of what's going to be possible. And so I think in this
particular instance, we're just looking at the possibility of what could be a large amount of change
in a short amount of time for township residents just in terms of what their immediate neighborhood
might look like. I think that's something that we need to take into consideration and address. And we
have to recognize that some people actually move to the county because they wanted the county's restrictive
zoning. And I'm just asking these questions so that we can be aware of how we
address those questions when people bring them to us. Yeah, I think it's, you know, I was on the planning
and zoning subcommittee. We spent a lot of time with Denise discussing updates to the UDO and updates
happening between now and day one, like we have all already mentioned. And I think that there's a big
opportunity there for residents within the township to come to the table and have their voice heard.
during that process, which is obviously going to happen between now and whenever that gets voted in,
if it does get voted in. So I think that there's a big opportunity there for more people to come and
voice their concerns about what that looks like. And I think that there's also a great chance
for representation as the
As a township resident right now, I don't feel like I have a whole lot of say in exactly what goes on.
If the area becomes smaller with reorganization, I do feel like I would have a greater say in how all
of that pans out. So thank you. Darlene, I have a question. Until a UDO is approved under the new reorganized
entity, we wouldn't be able to just rezone these
Correct. Okay. And so the suggestion from Mr. Dade is that assuming we have a semblance of a comp plan
and a UDO ready for shortly after the first of the year, I mean January, February, his suggestion was
that the newly reorganized town council pass a moratorium on permits, variance applications and so forth
so that you're not trying to do a dual zoning, you know, looking at Monroe County
If someone were to come in from the formerly unincorporated area of the township and file an application,
they would still be going under Monroe County Planning and Zoning. So his suggestion was pass a moratorium
long enough to get that UDO and that comp plan passed. That moratorium would be in effect from January
1? Correct. Or until extended or lifted by the Newtown Council. Correct.
It is. So what I said was that Sean Dade, the gentleman who helped us with the UDO last time, had suggested
that after the first of the year the Newtown Council pass a moratorium on the extension of application
or sorry, the extension of permits or variances or things of that nature until the UDO and the comp
plan is passed. You're welcome.
So, Scott, does that alleviate some of the concerns that that's done? So the neighbors aren't waking
up. I mean, I know that I'm using hyperbole here January 1, and all of a sudden they're all around rezoned.
Well, I think that helps to answer the question of what happens on January 1 and the timeframe afterwards.
I'm not sure that it addresses some of the other concerns that I mentioned. But the UDL can. Right, right.
I mean, that is something, you know, maybe that is worth clarifying too, that a lot of what's in the
subcommittee report will be subsumed within an updated UDO, correct? I mean, all of the reclassification
criteria and such are going to be something that's reflected in, you know, this document. It's not,
you know, we're not going to be depending upon the subcommittee report for the, you know, for the next
20 years. So when you say a moratorium, you're talking a moratorium for
the whole township? Because how would you do that when there's no governing body? No, you have a governing
body. You're talking January 1st. January 1st, yeah. Well, the UDO should be finished before January
1st, isn't it? Well, hopefully there will be a very good draft done, but you can't pass it until the
new government gets on board, for lack of a better word. And you want to see if the reorder passes.
So if it passes and you have your new newly reorganized town council, they will then have the authority
to look at approve whole public hearings on the comp plan and the UDO. Okay. So there will be some window
of time unavoidably after January 1 where there are public hearings and discussion. Correct. No matter
what state the UDO draft is in as of December 31, there will still be a process after the first of the
year to put it in place. Correct. Okay. Scott, the kind of edge case question of what do we do with
a property that
doesn't have municipal utilities, doesn't have water and wastewater service, isn't contiguous to any
part of this existing town. It's interesting because as I look at the map. Notice that, I mean, contiguity
is not, is not mentioned in here, right? But people, I think, generally would understand that a property
that is similar in character and contiguous to the town is more reasonably understood to be in the range
of rezoning than a property that is divorced from public services,
isolated, non-contiguous. If we do this reorganization, we no longer have only one contiguous developed
zone. There are properties along the southeast corner of this new township, this place that are significantly
industrialized and developed. And so we would have several kind of epicenters of more commercial, industrial,
light industrial area.
I mean, yeah, I understand what you're saying, but I do think, frankly, I think that, you know, obviously,
you're gonna be starting with pockets of town in different areas, but that town, but further additions
or, what's the word we're using, transition, no, sorry, reclassification from rural to town should be
contiguous to town.
I mean, I think that there's a good policy argument in favor of the current annexation requirements,
for example, because the patchwork quilt version of having more intense uses in the middle of non-intense
uses and going back and forth just doesn't make as much sense as having contiguous density. Because
that encourages growth that's smart.
as opposed to growth that happens in strange pockets just because of one landowner's desire. And I am
very much in favor of people having generally the right to do what they want. But there are things called
externalities where what I do does have an impact on my neighbors. And so I think that it's completely
appropriate to take that into consideration.
not only what the landowner wants. Is there any language that you think needs to be added, deleted,
revised to address some of the concerns? I mean, I could suggest some, but I don't know that it's going
to carry the day here. So it might be something that's. I'd like to hear it. Me too. Absolutely. Well,
I think the contiguity.
is a big one. It shouldn't be with town, but we've already established that the majority of our group.
There used to be, now this is, Mike might be able to help me, but there used to be something called
shoestring annexation, where as long as you had a major corridor connecting proper with something that
wanted to happen over here, exactly what you're talking about. And that got shot down, I don't know,
and a good example of it is,
Deer Run, whatever they call it. They call that Deer Run, don't they? Deer Park. That was shoestring
annexation. That was some folks that said, we want to develop this. County told them no. They said,
well, we'll annex to Ellisville. They didn't have anything contiguous, so they said, as long as it's...
And they somehow got that done with what's called shoestring annexation. That's outlawed now.
That's not even a possibility. So I see what you're saying, and it is a valid concern, but, you know,
as Andrew said, if you want to, obviously, the county missed a phenomenal opportunity. A chipmaker,
okay, working for Crane, wasn't it, wanted to build at the airport. Okay, the county was making it more
and more difficult with each passing moment.
And they finally said, hey, we've got several places that want us. And it was a chip maker, going to
employ a bunch of people for Crane. Southern Indiana cannot afford to have Crane move. You'd shut down
two or three counties. 70% or 75% of their citizenry is employed by them. If that opportunity reared
its ugly head in, no, I know what your concerns are, but if it's something like that, something that
made a whole lot of sense,
a holster manufacturer, and they wanted to build in the township. Why are you in Owen County? Because
you had the opportunity to buy up and revitalize an existing machine shop that was closing, rather than
build a new facility and go through all the zoning and planning hassles that would have happened in
Monroe County. There you go. So does that make sense? But a very practical limitation. We're not a very
big company.
But we couldn't look realistically at any location that didn't already have three-phase power run with
significant amperage available for our equipment. And so even if there were some beautiful isolated
pocket of property out in the township, if it didn't have access to the utilities we need, it wouldn't
matter how it was zoned. We literally couldn't operate there. Sure, tons of industry can't operate without
fiber optics.
Okay, so that shoots down 90% of what would happen in the township if a factory came in and wanted to
build and could afford everything and the fiber optic was the issue. It's not gonna happen overnight.
I'm not sure that's true. That it could happen overnight? Fiber optics? Oh, yeah. Well, I can name you
tons of places. I'm pretty sure we're wired here. No, you're not. And I'm pretty sure we are. Okay.
I'm Diane Crishlow and I also served on this planning and zoning subcommittee. And a couple of things
I want to share with you. I'm a Mary Kay sales director, which has nothing to do with this. However,
my father was a custom home builder. My oldest son owns a construction company. My middle son works
for that construction company and my youngest one sells floor covering. So I come from deep family history
of the value of
homes. While we're considering the people who live in the rural districts who purchase that property,
hoping that it would stay the same forever, we have to consider the people that own property in those
rural areas that want the opportunity to pass it on to their families with the opportunity to develop
it. If you don't give them that privilege, you are ruining a family's financial future.
which is what the county has done. Now, those zoning requirements do not allow you to build currently
100 houses in the middle of no place on 10 acres because you've got your sewer requirements there, okay?
And no, the county health department is not going to approve sewer for 100 houses on 10 acres. I think
you also have to consider
what this community overall has done in the past three to five years when it came to planning and zoning.
One, they put together a broad group of people, a very diverse group of people, to discuss what do we
want. Many of you were a part of that, okay? And they worked closely with a professional consulting firm
to put together a good plan. This microphone and I don't have, we're not good friends. And I have a
lot of faith in the basis, yes, the nature of people are going to change. They should. I live in the
township, okay? I want to have some say with what happens. But I do think we have to look at their past
record as to what they've done in the past five years and it was good and it was solid. If you require
growth only in contiguous property, there is no reason for the majority of your township residents to
come into this, really. If you're required to be contiguous, why do it, other than the fact the state
wants townships eliminated, and that's a factor that we're not talking about a whole lot here. But that's
my opinion, is please give consideration to all of the residents in the township.
We've got a really good discussion. Unless there's a recommendation for how we might adjust this part
of the plan, I suggest we move on to another topic. That's the last topic. Well, within the planning
and zoning. Is that the only thing we have to talk about with planning and zoning? I think so.
Scott, I'd still like to hear your language. I don't know what you would like to see in there. I really
would like to hear that. Well, I think, like I said, at this point, I would like to see a contiguity
aspect, or I would like to limit the freedom to reclassify from rural to town.
But at the end of the day, I really don't think that it's going to carry the day in our conversation.
And that's OK. I think it's probably issues that are better dealt with in the process of thinking through
the actual regulations and legal language that we would find in the UDO and the related documents than
to try to hash it out here.
I'm very sympathetic to the externalities requesting an argument. I would be much more cautious about
moving forward on this if we were putting the new rules in place right now tonight by our vote. But
what we're actually doing is agreeing to put it before the public for a general vote. And every single
voter in the township has a voice on that. And to the degree that Diane believes that a majority of
township residents would have
less or no reason to come in for a benefit of planning and zoning, if we required contiguous placement,
they will have the opportunity to tell us if we give them the opportunity to vote on it. And even if
they vote yes, that will still give them an opportunity and people feel this way to make those changes
in a UDO. So I mean, that just got this
this committee won't rule that out, we can't. That's gonna depend on it. And then there's always public
hearings. Right. And there's remonstrance, I mean there's a ton of safeguards put into place for that
kind of thing to happen, but in the end, being honest, I'm a proponent of, you've got land, somebody's
gotta come up with a good reason why I can't do something with it.
Anyways. I would entertain a motion at this point. I make a motion that we accept the subcommittee's
recommendations. Move forward on it. For planning and zoning. For planning and zoning. I second that
motion. Any further discussion?
Hearing no for the discussion, I'll call the vote to approve the planning and zoning subcommittee report
as submitted. I vote yes. Kevin? Yes. Jerry? Yes. Mike? Yes. Scott? I appreciate the work that's been
done, so I'm not going to vote against it, but I'll abstain from voting. Okay. Dawn? Yes. William? Yes.
Thank you. Vote passes.
Do we have anybody from the public that would like to come up and speak at this time? I very much appreciate
the planning and zoning subcommittee members making sure to be here. Thank you for your work. It's a
complicated issue, and the report was very helpful. You're welcome. And Denise wants out of here. Are
we going to have a meeting? We are going to have a meeting next Wednesday? Are we from tonight? Yes.
Yes, thank you for humoring me. I think though next Wednesday, unless there's
something from what I understand, it's just putting all of our discussions that we've done into one
report. So this really, for the most part, is a wrap on the organization committee and our work. And
I want to say I really enjoyed working with all of you. I think someone had said it, so I'm stealing
it. I can't remember who to give credit for. If this could be our new council, I'd love it. Because, you know,
I think that was Mike. Well, I would also compliment the people on this committee because there are
many of you who really carry the heavy load and I particularly relied on your hard work and your research
and your insights in making my decisions and I just appreciate
each and every one of you. Likewise. All right, any other thoughts? All right, we'll see you next Wednesday
night, six o'clock. This meeting has concluded.