Council breaks into rainy day fund for PUD
Aug. 25—Money from the county's rainy day fund will finance planning for land the state has earmarked for industrial development.
The state is expected to reimburse the county for about half of the estimated $798,000 expenditure, Boone County Commissioners President Jeff Wolfe said Thursday.
Wolfe was speaking to the Boone County Council during a special meeting called to vote on funding. The council had hoped the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) would have put its reimbursement offer in writing before the meeting, but no written offer came.
Wolfe said the state has submitted offers in rough drafts of a memorandum of understanding with the IEDC. The offer is for about 50% of the cost of creating a planned use development (PUD) district and revising the county's master and transportation plans. Commissioners plan to argue for a larger reimbursement but can't guarantee it, Wolfe said.
The IEDC has given commissioners only until December to complete a PUD district for as many as 6,000 acres north and northwest of the city. Commissioners in July approved a contract with urban designer and planner Rundell Ernstberger Associates to do the work with community input. And REA is scheduled to enter into day-long meetings with community stakeholders next week.
Even if the state didn't reimburse the county, REA Partner Cynthia Bowen and Wolfe said in July the cost of planning is usually offset by savings realized in negotiations with a PUD's first two tenants.
The challenge for commissioners is completing a year-long planning project in less than six months. The challenge for the council was finding money for the unexpected expense.
The council is in the process of budgeting for 2022 and cutting expenses, and money is very tight, Council President Elise Nieshalla said.
"The county has never been in this position before," councilman Don Lamb said Thursday. "We've never experienced anything like this as far as the way the development is coming on ... We need to go forward, and I don't see a great second option."
Some council members didn't want to use rainy day funds, a sort of savings account to combat disaster, but citizens in attendance urged them to do so.
"This is a rainy day," Brian Daggy, who lives in the affected area, said.
The council voted three to three to pay for the project with rainy day funds, and Nieshalla cast the tiebreaker vote in favor. Other yes votes came from Lamb, Jennifer Hostettler, and Kevin Van Horn. Marcia Wilhoite, John Riner and Aaron Williams voted against the motion because they wanted better oversite of the funds.
Hostetter made a motion to create a budget line that will allow the council to track each expenditure for the project, and the council voted unanimously in favor.
Stalling could have made it impossible for Boone County Commissioners to meet the December deadline. In the absence of a plan, the state would turn to the city of Lebanon to annex properties for development, Lebanon Mayor Matthew Gentry told the council. The state has been fast-tracking the project and emphasizing that high-tech companies want to build immediately because being fast to market is key to their success.
A PUD guides developers on what mix of residential, commercial, industrial and other uses a community expects within a defined area. And commissioners see it as the best way to protect landowners in unincorporated areas who neighbor the coming development.
The city annexed the first 1,396 acres of the LEAP Lebanon Innovation and Research District at the request of property owners on July 11, despite objections from neighbors who live outside city limits. And the city zoned those acres as general industrial, excluding some objectionable uses that are not welcome in a research and innovation district.
