A Work Session about the Allisonville Road Corridor will take place before the Council Meeting, at 6:30pm. A Work Session is open to the public. It is an informational meeting only, no votes will be taken. Larry In Fishers wrote a recent article about the plans for a roundabout at Allisonville and 116th Street.
The March Fishers City Council Meeting will be held at 7pm on Monday, March 20, 2023. I warmly encourage you to participate.
IMPORTANT LOCATION CHANGE: All City Council meetings (and Work Sessions) will now be held at Launch Fishers, 12175 Visionary Way. Launch Fishers is located in the tech park, just north of Super Target.
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.
- A video of the meeting will be broadcast live at http://tinyurl.com/CityOfFishers starting at 7pm on Monday so you can watch from home. This is the way to observe the meeting remotely.
- In-person attendees are welcomed to address the City Council during any Public Hearings during the meeting – and during Community Comment, which is held at the end of every meeting.
- Fishers residents are also welcomed to submit public comments electronically prior to the meeting. In order to submit a comment, you need to designate the date of the meeting that you want to comment on. Look at the public meeting calendar. Then, complete the online Public Comment Form. Select “City Council” and that will open a comment box for you to type in. Submit your comments by NOON on Monday, the day of 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.
- 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 10 Fishers residents to address the City Council for up to three minutes each. The council members are not required to resolve or respond to your comments at that moment. Usually, pathways are identified for follow-up and additional dialogue.
- 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. You can find the videos in the City of Fishers YouTube channel.
CITY COUNCIL MEETING
The City Council Meeting agendas are available here, under the City Council header. Each agenda has items on it that appear in blue. These are links to open the supporting documents.
Here’s a rundown of this meeting’s agenda items and my interpretation of them.
5. Council Committee Reports.
Finance Committee Report. The Finance Committee is charged with advising the City Council on matters concerning the general financial operations of the City. The City Council is responsible for fiscal oversight and final approval of the municipal budget. Typically, the Finance Committee report is reflected in action items for the City Council that are reflected in the “Budget/Financial” part of the meeting agenda. The Finance Committee meeting is a public meeting that will take place at 6pm, before the Work Session.
6. Department Reports.
Item a. The monthly Fishers Health Department Report is usually made available to residents every month about our city’s vaccine status, COVID community risk status, and other important public health info. The FHD 2022 annual report will be available in early April.
Item b. The Engineering Report may include update on private roads and Barrett Law implementation.
7. Consent Agenda.
There are two items on the Consent Agenda.
Item a. is approval 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
Budget/Financial
8. Re-establish the Cumulative Capital Development Fund. This is not a new tax nor a tax increase. I explain more about the CCD Fund here in this article. In addition, the City of Fishers has an informational web page with FAQs.
This agenda item will be open for a Public Hearing.
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. Fishers residents are welcomed to submit comments for the public hearing on this matter electronically prior to the meeting. All comments received by noon on Monday on the day of the meeting should be presented during this part of the meeting and will be part of the meeting’s official minutes. The Public Comment Form is live on the website right now. 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.
9. Appropriation of additional economic development funds. This resolution establishes the new economic development fund (budget line item) from the new Food & Beverage Tax revenue and the Sewer Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) revenue. This resolution allows the collected revenue to be spent for the new Arena/Event Center. Current In Fishers wrote a recent article about the 1% Food & Beverage Tax and how the revenue will be used to fund the Arena.
Government/Miscellaneous
10. Adoption of Allisonville Road Corridor Study. The Work Session at 6:30pm will be the presentation of the Study and this action will conduct a vote to approve it and implement it.
11. Amending Code of Ordinances. The recommended changes are about towing vehicles and increasing the fee associated with having your vehicle towed. First Reading is the first presentation and consideration of an item, no action is taken.
Planning/Zoning
Ren Property is a Voluntary Annexation of less than ½-acre property located a quarter mile east of 126th Street and Cumberland Road.
A voluntary annexation is when a property owner wants to incorporate into the City of Fishers and receive city benefits, i.e., access to city utilities and city services like road maintenance and snow plowing. The annexed property will start paying city property tax to cover these benefits. Sometimes, annexations are a first step for a property being sold for development. Annexation Procedures can be found here.
12. Ren Fiscal Plan. A fiscal plan details the city’s costs to provide services to this property when it is annexed into the city.
13. Ren Property Voluntary Annexation. FINAL READING. A final reading is the final vote to approve or disapprove a matter.
Miscellaneous
14. Rezone for Geist Waterfront Park. Rezone property to Open Space, the zoning type that governs all the other public parks in Fishers. FINAL READING. A final reading is the last consideration of a matter and the final vote is taken.
Unfinished/New Business.
Community Comment. All comments submitted through the online are supposed to be provided to the city council members before the meeting and become a part of the meeting’s official record. The Public Comment Form is live on the website right now. Select “City Council Meeting” and that will open a comment box for you to type in. Submit your comments by noon on Monday, the day of the meeting, so they can be distributed before the meeting.
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.