A plan is in place and the road is coming, but Johnson County residents will still have a say in how areas around the county’s three new Interstate 69 interchanges are developed.
One thing is certain: the landscape won’t look the same.
Residents had lots of opportunities to look at Indiana Department of Transportation plans and give feedback on all aspects of the project for years are the corridor was being planned. Now, state crews are working on purchasing the needed land. And residents’ opportunity for input is now directed to what kinds of developments are built around the highway, said David Hittle, Johnson County’s planning director.
Interstate 69 will follow the path of State Road 37 through Johnson County, with interchanges at County Road 144, near Bargersville, Smith Valley Road and County Line Road, in White River Township.
Currently, those intersections are surrounded by farmland, gas stations and small convenience stores, along with a few, scattered residential neighborhoods to the east. But once they become interstate interchanges, they’re going to become more appealing to developers, Hittle said.
Developers are already interested in a major commercial center near what will become the Smith Valley exit, he said.
Areas west of the new highway won’t be as affected as areas east of it because of the floodplain. It doesn’t leave much viable room for development, according to the plan. Immediately west of the two White River Township intersections, planners have said they would like to see technology centers and high-end warehouses. But further out, if that area is redeveloped, it would only be for parks.
East of I-69, where there are homes, those homeowners’ surroundings will likely change significantly. How significantly, and what exactly it will look like, is still unknown and, in part, up to them.
When local leaders first envisioned the highway through the county, it was lined with businesses. But last year, that vision changed, and the newest corridor plan — the one officials will lean on when making future decisions — leaves room for multiple types of development, from housing and retail to offices and parks, and focuses only on areas surrounding the three local interchanges.
After some back and forth, both the Johnson County Board of Commissioners and Bargersville Town Council have approved that plan, prepared by HWC engineering and INDOT, laying the groundwork for development discussions to start taking shape. For years, state officials encouraged local leaders to start planning those projects so they could work toward securing the funding they need to help pay for them, but that planning was delayed.
Now that the state has started buying local land for the highway, it’s becoming more of a reality, Hittle said. Still, most development discussions won’t happen until after the highway is built or as it’s wrapping up, which could be several years from now. Current plans call for construction on this leg of I-69 to begin sometime next year.
While the state has control over the interstate, county officials and residents will make decisions regarding development around it. And how involved residents are in that process will determine whether some proposed developments move forward, Hittle said.
The county’s Board of Zoning Appeals, Plan Commission and, ultimately, Board of Commissioners will have final say. But a public hearing will be conducted for every proposed development, and several will be conducted for those that require rezoning land. During those meetings, residents will have their say in the matter too.
"The meat of it from this point forward will be zoning hearings. That’s when neighborhoods will see what developers are planning to do, comment and negotiate, and express concerns. The boards — the Plan Commission and BZA — place a lot of weight on what neighbors and concerned parties have to say about these things, especially if there are a large number of you. That carries a lot of weight with them," Hittle said.
The corridor plan is not a law officials are required to follow, but rather a guide. However, officials are obligated by state law to "pay reasonable regard" to the plan, he said.
“If they want to deviate significantly (from the plan), they would need to have a good documented reason for doing so,” Hittle said. “Citizens should be reasonably confident that they will make decisions that don’t conflict with what they want to see, and what they’ve already expressed they want to see.”
Community members had several opportunities to provide input about the interstate’s path through the state and where the interchanges would go, but ultimately, those decisions were up to the state, and the county had few strings to pull. Bargersville hosted its own town meetings, and INDOT has given presentations at various locations in the Center Grove area to update residents on what’s coming.
The state has very little stake, unless it’s providing funding for a project, in future development once the highway is built.
