City Council Meeting – Monday, March 15, 2021

Mar 13, 2021

The March Fishers City Council Meeting will be held on Monday, March 15 at 7pm.  I warmly encourage you to participate.

How to Observe and Participate in the City Council Meeting

  • The meeting will be held in-person and will be open to in-person attendees, but seating in City Hall is limited to ensure social distancing.
  • A video of the meeting will be broadcast live starting at 7pm on Monday so you can watch from home. This is a way to observe the meeting only.
  • In-person attendees are welcomed to address the City Council during the Public Hearings during the meeting and during Community Comment at the end of the meeting.
  • Fishers residents are also welcomed to submit public comments electronically prior to the meeting. All comments submitted before the meeting will be presented to City Council members. These comments are not read aloud but become part of the official meeting minutes. The Public Comment Form is live on the website right now. Please submit your comments as soon as possible, before noon on Monday is ideal.
  • “Community Comment” at the end of each City Council meeting is always open for your comment on any Fishers topic. This is an “open mic” opportunity for any Fishers resident to address the City Council for three minutes.
  • Meeting agendas and past meeting minutes can be found here, under City Council tab.
  • Past meeting videos are supposed to be posted within 48 hours of the meeting. Sometimes, you can find the videos here, in the Agenda Center, the TV icon under the “Media” column. Sometimes, City Council meeting videos are to be posted here.


City Council Meeting

The City Council Meeting agendas are available here. As always, the agenda has items that appear in blue that are links to open the supporting documents. Here’s my rundown of this meeting’s agenda items and my interpretation of them.

  1. Health Department Update. I believe that we are establishing a new routine that the Fishers Health Department provides the City Council an update at each month’s meeting. This is the second consecutive month for a FHD update and I appreciate learning about the department’s efforts on COVID testing, vaccinations and other public health concerns.
  2. Consent Agenda.
    There are two items on the Consent Agenda.
    Item a. is review of last month’s City Council meeting minutes.
    Item b. transfers funds. These actions transfer funds within the city budget, which is needed periodically. The transfers do not adjust the bottom line at all. This is a transfer of dollars from one budget category to another to avoid a negative balance in a category.The Consent Agenda is a grouping of routine reports that should be approved in one swift action, instead of approving each one separately. I believe that all items included on the Consent Agenda should be approved as presented and approved unanimously. If not, the item that requires a revision, abstention, or other action needs to be removed from the Consent Agenda and considered as a separate voting item.

REGULAR AGENDA

Economic Development

  1. Economic Development and Land Acquisition Agreement for Fishers Villas
    Fishers Villas is a proposed development of 250 apartments off of 116th St, just east of I-69. The location is east of Forum Credit Union and south of the new Fishers District.
    The developer, Thompson Thrift, requires 25 acres of land for the apartments. The owner of the land, Sunbeam, requires the land purchase to be no less than 35 acres. So, that if Thompson Thrift purchases the land, they will have 10 extra acres. This proposed Economic Development and Land Acquisition Agreement is for the City of Fishers to purchase the extra 10 acres.City provides incentives for the developer commitment to fulfill three desirable components
  • Public Infrastructure – public roads (green)
  • Trail and three pocket parks (red)
  • Apartments (blue)

The public infrastructure (green) is a new public road to be a connector from Fishers Villas to The District and IKEA, and also road improvements to USA Parkway, just north of Forum Credit Union. These improvements are construction of a left turn lane and median cut. The City is offering $300,000 grant for the developer to construct these public roads for the city. I believe that the total value of this public infrastructure is $1.2 Million.

The pedestrian trail (red) is a mile-long sidewalk pathway that will extend throughout the apartment development. There will also be three pocket parks. The City is offering $900,000 grant to defray some of the expense the developer will incur to construct this trail and the parks. The trail/park land will be given to the City of Fishers after it is constructed so that it will become an amenity for the entire public to enjoy as a City of Fishers Park. The City will maintain the trail/parks.

Fishers Villas (blue) is 210 paired villas and 40 townhomes that will be rental properties. Estimated rent would be $1400-$3200/month.
Thompson Thrift would pay all of their impact fees to the City. Those would not be waived.
The estimated new property tax collected on this development would be $800,000/year. The City is contributing $1.2 Million as a commercial property grant to pay for a portion of the roads (green) and trail/parks (red).

In addition, the City will pay $5.9 Million to purchase the extra 10 acres that will be held for future development. These 10 acres, located just south of the Villas and labeled as FUTURE DEVELOPMENT on this map, will then become a City asset. City Council will approve the plan for how the extra 10 acres is developed sometime in the future.
Tax Increment Financing (TIF) will be used for the City’s contributing. This is managed by the Redevelopment Commission.
Also see agenda item #19.

  1. Economic Revitalization Area for vacant Marsh Supermarket site at 96th and Lantern Road. PUBLIC HEARING
    According to the Economic Development Agreement that the City Council approved in December 2020, now the site at 8766 E 96th Street has to be established as an Economic Revitalization Area. This is the final step in the Economic Revitalization Area designation and tax abatement.
    Memory Ventures is planning a $1 million investment into the building. In return, Memory Ventures would receive a tax abatement. They would not pay any property taxes on the building for 10 years.
    In 2019, a plan was approved by the City Council for Strongbox, a commercial developer, to demolish the Marsh building with the city waiving fees. The new proposal is for the building to remain in place and be rehabilitated into the new headquarters for Memory Ventures, a Fishers company since the city is offering a tax abatement to Memory Ventures, who is planning a $1 million investment into the building. In return, Memory Ventures would not pay any property taxes on the building for 10 years.
    Memory Ventures came to Fishers in 2015 from California, receiving incentives to do so from Indiana Economic Development Corp. Their current HQ is located off Crosspoint Blvd, south of 106th Street.

A PUBLIC HEARING means that any resident is invited to comment on this topic. This is the only opportunity to make a comment and address the City Council on this specific matter.

Due to the meeting modifications to maximize physical distancing, Fishers residents are welcomed to submit public comments on this matter electronically prior to the meeting. The Public Comment Form is on the website right now. Please submit your comments as soon as possible, before noon on Monday is ideal.

If you do attend the City Council meeting in-person, you may comment on this matter during this part of the meeting. The City Council President will open the public hearing by asking if anyone would like to speak. If no one indicates that they want to speak, the public hearing can be closed quickly. So, please indicate immediately that you have something to say when the public hearing is opened. Otherwise, you may miss your chance.

  1. Amendment to Rubbermaid’s Economic Development Agreement
    Rubbermaid (formerly Jarden/Hearthmark) is a company with locations in Fishers who received incentives from the City in 2014. In the original Economic Development Agreement, Rubbermaid committed to employing 292 full-time employees at their Fishers locations. Unfortunately, the company did not achieve that and fell short of their employment commitment in 2019 and 2020. This amendment decreases the employment commitment from 292 to 270 and lowers the average hourly rate from $27.36 to $26.50. The City is recommending these adjustments because the company has exceeded their investment and their footprint in Fishers with three locations now.

Budget/Financial

  1. Re-establishing the Cumulative Capital Development Fund for 2022 – PUBLIC HEARING
    This is not a new tax nor is it a tax increase. This is a request to renew the collection of a property tax that is already in place. Here are the details.

Planning & Zoning

  1. Parkside PUD. FINAL READING
    12915 Parkside Dr, the eastside of Parkside Rd between 126th and 131st This is a 10-acre senior apartment complex of 162 units. This item is to amend the parking and landscaping requirements.
  2. Text amendment to Marina Planned Unit Development. FINAL READING
    Hamilton County, who has jurisdiction over Olio Road, has informed the City that the proposed location of the city’s future Geist Waterfront Park entrance needs to align with the existing entrance to the marina on the west side. That would require the park entrance to be moved 90 feet south and would be negatively impact the park design and circulation. Marina Limited Partnership has agreed to move their existing driveway as part of a text amendment that will allow for one (1) restaurant and a revised parking lot with landscaping.
  3. Request to approve a Right Of Way/Utility Easement Vacation for Maple Del. A PUBLIC HEARING will be held at this city council meeting to learn neighbors’ feedback. Maple Del is 18 acres located south of the intersection of 116th and Holland Drive that is being developed into 191 apartment, townhome and duplex units.

There are several voluntary annexations that are being considered at this meeting. When a property owner located in an unincorporated area would like to be annexed into the City of Fishers, a public hearing is held at a city council meeting to discuss. Many times, a property owner wants to improve the property and/or start receiving city services. Fishers has so many unannexed parcels that our incorporated city map is sometimes called “swiss cheese.” In general, an annexation is a positive action for both the city and the property owner.

  1. Voluntary Annexation – Legacy Bible Church. A PUBLIC HEARING will be held at this city council meeting to learn neighbors’ feedback. 13490 Howe Rd on the east side of Howe Rd, north of 131st St
  2. Voluntary Annexation – Summerfield. A PUBLIC HEARING will be held at this city council meeting to learn neighbors’ feedback.
    Five acres at 11137 E 136th Street. Also see agenda item #20.
  3. Voluntary Annexation – Wetherill Estates. A PUBLIC HEARING will be held at this city council meeting to learn neighbors’ feedback.
    Six acres at 10275 Cumberland Road.
  4. Voluntary Annexation – Sunderman Estates. A PUBLIC HEARING will be held at this city council meeting to learn neighbors’ feedback.
    5 acres at 11110 E 106th
  1. Rezone – The Villas at Fishers District. First Reading.
    Thompson Thrift is proposing a new single-family rental community directly south and adjacent to Fishers District. The Villas at Fishers District will be a 25.5 acres property consisting of 250 paired villa and townhome units. In addition to the Villas at Fishers District residential community, a 10.5-acre +/- area at the south east corner of IKEA Way and USA Parkway will be set aside for future commercial
  2. Rezone – Summerfield.
    5 acres at 11137 E 136th New home construction and sewer connection to City is reason for voluntary annexation. First, a rezone is needed from R2 Residential to ER Estate Residential.
  3. Unfinished/New Business.
  4. Community Comment. I don’t believe that in-person comments from the public will be available at this meeting, since the meeting is virtual. All comments submitted through the online form that are received before the meeting will be provided to the city council members before the meeting and will be part of the meeting’s record. The Public Comment Form is live on the website right now. Please submit your comments as soon as possible, before noon on Monday is ideal.

Meeting adjourned!

If you have any comments or questions, please send them my way. Email is a good way to get a hold of me.

Thank you for reading all of this. 🙂