Need for housing doesn’t translate into tap fee waivers

Ask any realtor. Ask school administrators. Or city officials.

Housing is a discussion that continues to be on the front burner for any consideration of Greencastle growth.

The housing discussion arose again Thursday night after the Greencastle City Council unanimously approved Resolution 2019-12, authorizing acceptance of the infrastructure within Phase I of Whispering Winds Subdivision.

Whispering Winds is a 30-acre, approximately 50-lot development off Zinc Mill Road and County Road 200 South on the city’s southeast side.

“If you’ve driven back there,” Mayor Bill Dory said, “everything is about done except for a few lots they’re still working on.”

The development is the brainchild of Greencastle’s Jared Grable who had asked the Board of Works to waive sewer tap fees on the project. That request, however, was denied for fear of setting a precedent.

Councilor Stacie Langdon noted that housing again came up as an issue Wednesday night during the League of Women Voters panel on poverty.

“If we would waive sewer tap fees,” Langdon asked, “would that be the type of thing that would appeal to builders?”

Mayor Dory said waiving tap fees would not be enough since the city’s fees are “pretty modest.”

City officials recently did a “down-and-dirty study” of tap fees in other area communities, the mayor said, and the Greencastle numbers were “one of the lowest out there.”

In fact, city officials were advised not to waive tap fees, Dory said, because “that helps pay for improvements in the system.”

Besides, it’s not tap fees deterring developers from flocking to Greencastle.

“What’s really driving the fact that it’s hard to get developers out here,” Mayor Dory said, “is that it’s too easy to make money right now in the doughnut counties (those immediately surrounding Indianapolis and Marion County).”

Nonetheless, the mayor said he and other city officials “continue to have regular conversations with developers.“

“Some express more interest than others,” he added. “It just depends.”

But overall the lure of quicker, bigger bucks by building subdivisions around Indianapolis is something Greencastle is fighting against.

“Right now,” Dory said, “the market in Indianapolis is pretty active and very attractive.”

Another issue that has been raised by builders, Dory said, is a shortage of “skilled trade people” to build houses.

While Council members pondered what, if anything, could be done to change contractors’ minds and encourage them to tackle smaller projects in a place like Greencastle, Dory said there is no easy solution.

“I don’t know if there’s any one answer,” he said, “unless we write a big check.”

City Attorney Laurie Hardwick pointed out that buildable lots within city limits are few and far between presently.

“We’re about built out,” she said. “There aren’t a lot of places (to develop) left in the city.

“You’re probably going to have to start annexing if you want to grow,” she suggested.

While she quickly added that the Indiana Legislature is making annexation “harder and harder” to accomplish, city officials agreed on one thing.

That is a discussion for another day, another time.