Russellville council waiting on adopting comprehensive plan

RUSSELLVILLE — Town leaders in Russellville are holding off on adopting the county’s revamped land use comprehensive plan. This is as its formal approval is not expected until later this year.

With Tony Riggen absent, Cary McGaughey and Cathy Jones heard a pitch for opting into the plan by County Planning Director Lisa Zeiner at the Russellville Town Council’s regular meeting Wednesday evening.

Zeiner outlined two options in which each municipality can participate with the comprehensive plan. With a cost of $8,300, one is in which the town can adopt it and have its own sub-area section with specific requirements. The other is adopting the county’s overall requirements at no cost.

To come up with the town’s section, a public workshop would be held to gather information before it would be presented and approved. Zeiner also noted that with competitive grant funding, having a comprehensive plan means being able to secure more of it.

“A lot of businesses won’t come into a town or a county without having a comprehensive plan and a zoning board,” Zeiner advocated. This, she suggested, is as they would want to build a useful and attractive facility and be by others which are, too.

With Russellville not having its own zoning now, Town Attorney Stu Weliever provided that the council had to weigh whether applying the county’s requirements within the town’s boundaries is advantageous. This is as having the section would lend it some control.

“Right now, if you don’t do your personalized plan, then you’re trying to put a round peg in a square hole, quite frankly,” Weliever said.

To a question from the Banner Graphic, Zeiner clarified that the $8,300 fee applies generally to each town except Cloverdale. Its $12,000 fee was to cover extensive revamping of its own planning and zoning requirements.

Zeiner added that should it adopt the plan without its own section, the town could ask for one to be included when it is next redone. Ideally, she said, comprehensive plans are redone every five-to-10 years. The current plan dates back to 2008.

A component of the comprehensive plan is the creation of a unified development ordinance (UDO) and adopting it at no cost. This would update the county’s zoning and subdivision control requirements, which have not been revised since being adopted in 1992.

Zeiner currently administers such for Roachdale and Bainbridge, in which she interprets their ordinances and advises on issues with setbacks, rezoning and variances. Unlike Russellville, both have their own zoning appeals boards and planning commissions.

“The other option is to keep everything the way it is,” Zeiner said otherwise. “You could have a 50-lot subdivision go in with no regulation, houses on top of houses. ‘Anything goes’ is what you have right now.”

Zeiner stipulated that while rezoning could be approved or denied by the county, the town would be on a technical review committee about those decisions. With having a BZA and a planning commission, an interlocal agreement would have the county decide on issues apart from rezoning.

Zeiner noted that five community members have to serve on a BZA or a planning commission, with she and Weliever referencing that Roachdale and Bainbridge struggle with them meeting regularly.

The county will hold a public meeting on March 6 at Ivy Tech Greencastle to present its draft of the comprehensive plan. Zeiner said the hope is that it is to be officially adopted in June.

McGaughey and Jones signaled that they wanted to consult with Riggen before deciding on the comprehensive plan and the UDO. The considerations may be brought up at the council’s meeting next month.

In other business:

• The council approved a county ordinance to control development in town areas which might be prone to flooding. Zeiner said her office already looks at potential hazards when issuing building permits, and that the ordinance simplifies flood insurance.

Zeiner noted that each town has adopted the ordinance except Fillmore. This is as her office is not allowed to issue building permits there and, as she related, does not have jurisdiction generally.

• The council approved a $2,000 contract with 120Water in Zionsville to compile data on the town’s water service lines. This is related to new regulations in which municipalities are required to inventory existing lines, with the purpose of identifying lead ones.

In bringing the contract, UMAC’s Troy Elless iterated that the inventory would be narrowed by age or when lines were installed, referring to when lead pipes were federally banned in 1986. This is as communities would be expected to replace them.

“It is better to get positive identification now when we do this,” Elless said. “For us down the road, the less unknowns we have, it’s going to be less of a headache we have on the next step.”

Inventories are due to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management by October 2024.

With Street Superintendent John Boller absent, new Deputy Clerk-Treasurer Teresa Ciulla, Clerk-Treasurer Martha Mandleco and Town Marshal Matt Biggs were also in attendance.

The next regular meeting of the Russellville Town Council is set for Wednesday, March 22 at 7 p.m. at the Russellville Community Center.