November 4: Regular Session and Committee of the Whole

Legilsation for Second Reading and Resolutions

Ordinance 09-20: To expand the membership of the Commission on Sustainability to include a representative from IU and one from county government. Vote was 8-0 in favor.

Resolution 09-17: To authorize the purchase of a house at 3301 W. Tapp Rd. for an affordable housing project. Lisa Abbott presented this opportunity for HAND to purchase the house and rent it to low-income family. The owner of the house is eager to sell because it is potentially in the path of I-69. The vote was 8-1 in favor.

Appropriation Ordinance 09-10: To appropriate money from the city’s general fund for the purpose of buying a house of Tapp Road for an affordable housing project. The vote was 8-1 in favor.

Resolution 09-16: To expand the Adams Crossing Tax Increment Financing District. The city’s Redevelopment Commission and Plan Commission have approved expanding this TIF, which currently encompasses the Landmark area and old Rogers Building Supply site on the city’s west side to include the hospital and surrounding medical office area. The vote was 9-0 in favor.

Ordinance 09-21: To establish a historic district at the Elks Lodge #446 at 400 N. Walnut St. Nancy Hiestand from HAND described the process by which the Historic Preservation Commission decided to recommend historic designation for the Elks Lodge. Such designation would prevent the lodge from being demolished or refurbished in an historically inaccurate way. Melissa Starry and Stu Baggerly spoke for the Elks, who don’t want the designation because it does not benefit them financially and just adds one more hurdle if they want to make changes to the building.

After much discussion, the final vote was 6-3 in favor of granting the local historic designation.

Legislation for First Reading

Ordinance 09-22: To approve a Planned Unit Development (PUD) and to adopt the preliminary development plan for 1.6 acres alont Morton St. south of Dodds St. known as “McDoel Station”(Bryan White, Petitioner)

Committee of the Whole discussion

Resolution 09-19: To authorize representatives of the city to accept and administer an Indiana Brownfields grant for the B-Line Trail, Phase 2.

Ordinance 09-22: (See above) This is an unusually small parcel of land to be brought forward to zone as PUD. It is currently zoned Commerial Limited and is a brownfield, having been used for commercial purposes several decades ago. It is directly on the B-Line Trail south of W. Dodds St. Currently there is scrubby field on most of the area, with some mature trees in a few clusters. Bryan White of Arvis Homes is proposing to build 17 single-family homes on narrow lots, facing the B-Line with vehicle access from the north-south alley that runs parallel to Morton St. to the east. The driveways are to be made of permeable pavement and the homes will be highly insulated and feature other green building techniques. The style of the homes will be one of 4 historical styles used in the mid-1800s to the 1920s. Mr. White also plans to work with HAND to make a few of the homes “affordable” using federal and/or state subventions.

Council member Sturbaum was concerned that it did not specify in the PUD that the homes had to be 2-story. He didn’t see how the historical styles could be employed for single-story houses.

November 11: Veteran’s Day – no meeting

November 18: Regular Session and Committee of the Whole

Legislation for Second Reading and Resolutions

Resolution 09-19: See above. Passed 9-0.

Ordinance 09-22: Council member Sturbaum brought forward an amendment to require that all homes in the PUD be two stories. The amendment was passed and the ordinance was passed 9-0.

Legislation for First Reading

Appropriation Ordinance 09-11: To appropriate funds to cover various year-end expenditures as well as the city’s unusual 27^th payroll cycle.

Committee of the Whole Discussion

App Ord. 09-11: City controller Mike Trexler presented this ordinance, which would accomplish three things:

1. To move funds within departmental budgets from one expense code to another to match expenditures still needed this fiscal year.

2.  To cover the expense of the 27^th payroll of the year. Most years have 26 payroll cycles (every 2 weeks), but the year 2009 has 27, which means the city will have to spend about $1.5 million more for payroll. This ordinance would cover that with leftover (unspent) funds from various departments as well as $229,000 from the Rainy Day Fund.

3. To correct an error in budgeting in the fire pension fund. This error is about $290,000 which was not budgeted originally. Luckily, the state Public Employees Retirement Fund reimburses the city for all expenditures from the fire pension fund, so the newly appropriated money will come from the state.

Council member Brad Wisler said the city should have budgeted for the 27^th payroll initially, since they knew it was coming. Instead, the city relied on having leftover money and on the Rainy Day Fund. He thought this was somewhat irresponsible.

Resolution 09-18: To adopt the report of the City Council’s Peak Oil Task Force. Council member Dave Rollo introduced the report, and then members of the task force summarized each section. Dave reviewed the scientific evidence that the earth has just recently passed or is close to the peak of oil production. The Task Force estimates that from July 2008 forward there will be less and less oil available for human use. Oil fields have been tapped out and new discoveries are highly unlikely to make up for increasing demand. To  prepare for a future in which oil is increasingly scarce and therefore more and more expensive, the Task Force developed a report with recommendations for the community.

Sections of the report:

• Economy

• Municipal Services

• Transportation

• Land Use

• Housing

• Sustenance (including food and health care)