- All right. I'm going to call to order this work session the Monroe County Board of Commissioners. It
- is a very long meeting day and beautiful spring, cold, chilly day. But before we get to our first item,
- I was alerted that our vote on item T, as in Tom or Thomas, wasn't clear. And that's on ordinance 2026-12,
- Highlands Parcel E.
- The vote I called was related to accepting the planning commission's recommendation. That's not typically
- how we vote. So to be clear, a yes vote would be to allow the planned unit development to enter into
- a private. It would be to do what Mr. Winninger wants.
- and has requested, so that's a yes vote. And a no vote would be to agree with the plan commission that
- we need these changes made to the original plan. So, on ordinance 2026-12, let's do roll call. Let's
- do roll call. If you don't mind. Unless, let's be clear, a yes vote means Mr. Winniger
- is approved in making the changes he wants to make, including keeping the street private. So we're doing
- it opposite how we did it. Yes, we are. And the no vote would be to follow along to support the planned
- commission vote that says, no, you should make this public road. And there are other changes as well.
- But simply put. Yeah. OK. I understand. Ms. Turner-King, would you call the roll? Commissioner Jones?
- No. Commissioner Thomas? No.
- Shiner Madeira. State. Motion passes 2-0-0-2-1. Two nays and one abstention. It doesn't pass.
- It's not passed. The motion fails. Let me turn this over. The motion fails 0-2-1. You know, we should
- not be doing this. I think we should have moved that by the very beginning of our agenda.
- and caffeine food, I'm tapped. All right. Thank you. All right, we're good. Now let's move on to our
- work session, please. First is approval of distribution of timber sale funds. Ms. Bird? Excuse me, yeah.
- So I don't think we've had one of these for a few years, but the Indiana Department of Natural Resources,
- retain 15% of the proceeds received from permits, lease or contracts entered into for the removal and
- sale of what's termed mercantible timber. Timber for sale. Timber for sale from our local forestry.
- So we have received a sum of $25,719.
- And the receipt of those funds are also somewhat dispersed. So the maximum dispersal of the funds is
- that $1,000 of each of the money is to go to each department that has signed a contract. The mutual
- aid agreement with? Yeah, it's a cooperative agreement with the
- DNR and we have, I believe, four, let's see here. Yeah, three, okay. And so you can either give them
- $1,000 and the rest would remain in county general or the board of commissioners as the legislative
- body can decide to provide a larger distribution.
- And that's what we're here for today is to discuss whether or not you want to give a larger distribution.
- Right. And we don't have to hear this again. Once we vote on it today. This is a public. Yeah. So I
- prefer that we distribute everything. Now there was something said at Tuesday night's meeting about
- some money in the fund that shouldn't be there because it's not just county general money. So look into
- that and we may come back and have another
- vote on additional funds if there are additional funds there. But let's just deal with the money that's
- there now that we know is there now. Would you be okay with a motion on all of them? Okay, so I'm going
- to go ahead and move that we distribute the timber sale funds to the Beam Blossom Township Fire, Volunteer
- Fire Department, Bloomington Fire Department, Ellisville Fire Department, and Monroe Fire Protection District.
- in the amount of $6,429.75 per unit to cover a total of $25,719. And this is fund number 1,000 and that
- total amount. Second. Thank you. We have a motion and we have a second. Any public comment on this item?
- All right, seeing none, all those in favor of approving the distribution of timber sale funds signify
- by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries.
- 3-0, thank you. Ms. Biermann from the planning, are we good? Yes, thank you, sorry. Ms. Biermann from
- planning department, she's the assistant director and acting director right now. You have been patient.
- You and Mr. Smith have been so patient. Thank you for waiting and please tell us about ordinance 2026-15.
- Right, I'm gonna go ahead and share screen for this one. So at the beginning of our ordinance, we have
- a list of revisions.
- And this is the summary of the revisions that we have. A lot of it is just some Scrivener errors or
- trying to keep up with some of the state statute that is coming through. And so I know this didn't end
- up in the work session packet, but this is the packet from the plan commission from April 21st. And
- I'm just going to highlight a couple of the major substantive text amendments and not fritter our time
- with the little things.
- I probably have like 10 things I'd like to address. And so in red, this is what will be amending. And
- on the second page, it delves into that as well. So looking for my page number. All right. So we do
- have on our two pagers, we're clarifying some how we look at front setbacks for lot lines.
- I'm going to jump right over to page 85 now. And those are going to be through each of our two pagers.
- And then in our use table, the state statute said we needed to have schools permitted in every zone.
- So we're going to add them to the industrial zones and mineral extraction on page 88 of that packet.
- This is something that we're addressing now is battery energy storage systems and we have added a definition
- for this. We have also added conditions that would go with this use and it is to be permitted in the
- IP zone, HI, and airport zones. And then also on this page,
- Just confirming that data center is not a permitted use in Monroe County. We also are stating that small
- modular nuclear reactors are not permitted in the county. And this is kind of a response to some of
- the state legislation that we've been seeing. And then skipping to another page. This is the conditions
- that we associated with the battery energy storage systems. And this would have to go in front of the
- Board of Zoning Appeals to be approved.
- And we would make sure that all of these things were compliant. And then we are looking at, in this instance,
- We have an alternative transportation map that we use to reference whether sidewalks or certain road
- improvements are required or not with a subdivision or a commercial improvement. And we've been seeing
- some, a lot of waivers and variances associated with ones that are moderate. They're just kind of far
- out there. What we wanna do eventually is have a better map, a better, clearer vision with an alternative
- transportation plan. And so at this point, we're gonna just exnay the moderate
- road improvements, at least that's what we're proposing, and we hope that you support that. And we're
- still going to go with high priority, but not the ones that are moderate priority at this time. And
- then we are doing a modification to the expenses section to clarify payment for planned commission board
- members. And then finally, we have several
- amendments that are associated with our definitions chapter. And so this is battery energy storage systems
- that we have. And then I think another one that I want to touch on is 524, our lot line, and how we've
- clarified this to give staff a little more guidance when we're trying to figure out what is a front
- yard setback. We did provide
- a diagram in the ordinance to assist our staff. Then finally, we have a major utility definition and
- we are making sure that it excludes the small modular nuclear reactors and battery energy storage systems
- because we are defining those elsewhere in the ordinance. That pretty much is our summary
- of our ordinances. Does anyone have any questions on that? Let's see if my colleagues have questions.
- Commissioner Maduro? No, I don't. It's all very clear. Thank you. Commissioner Jones? No, I don't. It
- really is about fixing. You always find typos. You always find mistakes. But it's about fixing that.
- But it is also about updating it to match state
- state statute and all of that. So, and really the mini nuclear reactors issue is kind of a big deal.
- And it's often utilized for data centers, which are huge buildings that take up a lot of resources,
- but don't employ very many people. And, and so we felt like that risk was way too high to have it in
- Monroe County. And we have to have that done before the end of the year, I believe, based on states
- that decision. And that would be this, right?
- Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much. So when do you want to hear this? Yeah. May I say, can I skip next
- year? Please, please, please. Sorry. There's a chance I'm not here next week. So at the earliest would
- be the May 14th for me. But anytime after that. Okay. That's cool. Is it okay date for everybody?
- Fourteenths. Okay. Let's aim for that. That's perfect. Yeah. Whatever works for you all. We're good.
- Okay. Okay. Thank you so much. Appreciate you. Yes. Take care.
- Okay, anybody else have anything for work session? This is a marathon meeting. I talk too much. I apologize
- for that. Thank you, TSD, as always. Thank you, Katz. And we are adjourned, and our next meeting is
- May 7th, right here in the Nat Yohuru Room. We're adjourned.