MORGAN COUNTY — All things considered, it was a short meeting.
The Morgan County Plan Commission met Monday night to consider a request for a rezoning for property on Beech Grove Road and a request by the Morgan County Redevelopment Commission to approve a resolution for the proposed Tax Increment Financing (TIF) District at the site of Google’s data center in Monroe Township.
There were around a dozen people who attended the meeting.
Under plan commission rules, no public comment was permitted during the 10 minutes it took for Morgan County Redevelopment Commission administrator Chelsey Manns to present the request.
According to Manns, the TIF area is the property where the data center will be located. Funds from the TIF area will go to fund a study for a proposed truck route that will provide a way for trucks to go around Mooresville. That route will connect I-70 to Ind. 42 to Ind. 67 to I-69.
According to the county, the truck route has been discussed for around 10 years but very little work has been done on the project.
The area that is included in the plan runs from parts of Adam, Monroe, and Brown townships.
Manns said the plan commission was there to determine if the proposed plan conforms to the county’s comprehensive plan.
She said funding from the TIF will help with future development in the designated area.
There was very little discussion from the commission, though county commissioner plan commission member Mike Kirsch lauded the effort citing talks with a member of the Monrovia Redevelopment Commission, who said it could be an opportunity “to make their 39 overlay really start to come together” and alleviate some traffic through the town.
“It’s going to be a community effort from everybody,” he said.
Commission member Bill Rumbaugh then made a motion to approve the resolution, which member Melanie DePoy seconded. The vote was 7-2 for approval.
Commission members Brian Patrick and Jason Maxwell voted against the motion. Patrick said he did not understand everything about the plan while Maxwell said he did not like TIF districts because he felt they took money from other government agencies such as schools.
“I oppose this TIF proposal because, in Indiana, the costs are real,” Maxwell said in a statement following the meeting. “When a TIF captures growth in assessed value, that revenue does not flow normally to school corporations, libraries and counties.
“At a time when local budgets are already tight, that matters. The Indiana Department of Local Government Finance has recognized that TIF can carry risk and leave other taxing units stuck at the base while the redevelopment commission controls the increment. “Before approving this, we should demand clear proof that the project would not happen without TIF, full transparency, and a full accounting of the impact on schools and taxpayers,” Maxwell continued. “Economic development should benefit the whole community, not shift long-term costs onto everyone else.
“TIF, as it is used most of the time, appears to only help developers financially and politicians with pet projects they don’t want to have to budget for within their own unit of government, so no accountability is required on their part.”
Manns said the procedure for the TIF now goes to the commissioners for approval, then back to the RDC for a public hearing and final approval, which is expected July 8.
Other business
- Commission members gave a favorable recommendation to rezone property at 6435 Beech Grove Road from Agricultural to Residential-2.
The property had two homes on it. The family split off one home from the main part of the property. Because the newly created lot was less than an acre in size, the county’s zoning ordinance said it was too small to be zoning Residential-1. The property is owned by Jessie Jones who told commission members he planned to construct a garage on the land.
Jones’s request now goes to the county commissioners for approval.
- Kirsch said he would like the commission to work with other plan commissions in the county to come up with regulations for data centers.
He proposed having representatives from the Monrovia Plan Commission, Martinsville Plan Commission, Mooresville Plan Commission, and Morgantown Plan Commission form a committee to look at a new ordinance that would allow for the regulation of data centers.
Due to the county fair taking place in July and many of the plan commission members being a part of the fair, the July meeting has been canceled.
Because of that, commission chairman Terry Brock said the August meeting will be packed with requests, so they should wait until the September meeting to consider Kirsch’s request.
The next scheduled county plan commission meeting is Aug. 1 at 6:30 p.m. at the administration building, 180 S. Main St. in Martinsville.
