An area businessman has his sights set on a Greenwood City Council seat that’s long been held by the same council member.
Newcomer Michael Williams will face off against incumbent Bruce Armstrong for the Republican spot on the fall ballot during this spring’s primary election.
Voters will decide who should get the Republican nomination for races in all city council districts this spring. Whoever wins the District 3 seat will face Democratic candidate Terri Leonard and any independents who may file in the fall general election. The winner will join the other five district council members and three at-large members.
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Expansive as it is, District 3 includes an area ripe for development in southeast Greenwood, and the candidates have philosophies about what that development should look like. Neither of their visions include more warehouses.
“District 3 is the hotbed of everything happening in Greenwood right now because it’s the biggest open land area. So being able to help shape the future of that land … are we going to move the industrial warehouse route, or are we going to try to add things that improve the quality of life for the district?” Williams said.
Williams is the operations director at Wooden Bear Brewing, which has restaurants in Greenfield, Geist and now Franklin.
As a businessman, he supports tax abatements for new businesses.
“Economic development nowadays is a competition,” Williams said. “It’s all a game of who’s giving the most, and sadly it’s a game that has to be played. There is always going to be another community that wants to pay for a business to move there.”
He and his family have lived in Greenwood for about eight years. The focus of his candidacy — and his focus if he wins the seat — is on improving the city’s quality of life, particularly in southeast Greenwood, with more options for families near their homes.
“As someone who lives on that side of town, there’s not a whole lot there in terms of quality of life,” he said.
The I-65 and Worthsville Road interchange is the perfect opportunity to create a new gateway to the city, Williams said, something city leaders intended to do when it was first built. How the area east of that interchange should be developed is a hot topic in Greenwood right now with potential development and rezoning proposals coming before the council regularly.
Williams does not support warehouses of any kind near the interchange. Those types of businesses, including speculative buildings, should remain on the north side, in an area already zoned for that type of development, he said.
Armstrong believes the city has enough warehouses, he said.
“I would like to see us totally stop warehouses south of Allen Road. The number of warehouses that we put there is astronomical. I feel like we’ve got enough warehouses. We need businesses that will pay better than warehouse jobs do,” Armstrong said.
He often provides a lone “no” vote on the council, especially when it comes to rezoning large swaths of land, approving tax abatements for competing businesses and speculative buildings.
He supports tax abatements for some businesses, but not those that can’t provide details about the types of jobs, pay and benefits that will be associated with it, nor those that would compete with other similar Greenwood businesses, he said.
Armstrong, an engineer, has served the district for nearly 16 years. During his time on the council, he has pushed relentlessly for responsible spending within the city’s TIF districts, more police officers and another fire station in southeast Greenwood.
“Due to an increase in train traffic, we need another fire station on the east side of railroad tracks. Right now, if something happens and there’s a train going through, that area can only be serviced out of the northeast firehouse,” Armstrong said.
Ideally, he would like to see business offices that provide high-paying jobs and an upscale hotel near the Worthsville Road interchange, he said, which would have minimal impacts on traffic in the mostly residential area.
He also does not support more subdivisions in that area, and said the city needs more upscale housing.
“We have overbuilt Greenwood with starter homes and warehouses and I have been pushing for that for 16 years — no more starter homes and warehouses,” he said.
Outside of District 3, Williams supports Mayor Mark Myers’s plan for the former middle school property, and the revitalization efforts in Old Town Greenwood.
“Greenwood is growing outward, but while we’re doing that, we can’t ignore the inward,” Williams said.
Armstrong is leery of the mayor’s plans for downtown, particularly on the site of the former middle school property, which calls for more than 580 apartments and townhouses, 75,000 square feet of retail shops, restaurants and office space, 9.9 acres of open green space and includes 1.9 miles of new or renovated streets.
“I think it’s the kind of plan that you would put forth on the north side of Indy as opposed to what we have traditionally had here in Greenwood. I still believe that people want to have cars and drive as opposed to living in an apartment above a storefront,” Armstrong said.
“The issue I have is we’re having enough problems keeping brick and mortar businesses in motion. I am fine with some nice restaurants, but I have yet to see anything that has been proposed that makes sense.”
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Greenwood City Council District 3
Term: Four years
Pay: $12,612 per year
Duties: Set annual spending for the city, make policy changes, adopt new local rules and ordinances, approve new taxes, appoint members to various city boards.
District 3: Represents the east side of Greenwood, east of Interstate 65 on the north side of the city to County Line Road, east of Valle Vista Golf Course near Main Street, and east of the railroad tracks on the south side of the city to Worthsville Road.
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Name: Bruce Armstrong
Age: 62
Family: Wife, Susan; 2 adult sons
Occupation: Engineer at Faurecia; retired from General Motors
Education: Decatur Central High School; General Motors Institute; graduate of University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada with degrees in computer science and mathematics
Political experience: Greenwood City Council member since 2004
Memberships: Our Lady of the Greenwood Catholic Church; Parent Advisory Board at University of Evansville
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Name: Michael Williams
Age: 33
Family: Wife, Kristin; five-year-old son
Occupation: Director of operations at Wooden Bear Brewing
Education: Shelbyville High School; studied organizational leadership at IPFW
Political experience: None
Memberships: Emmanuel Church Greenwood
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