City Attorney Lynn Gray talks about the Dunn and Snepp annexation request Tuesday during the Franklin Plan Commission meeting at city hall.
Leeann Doerflein | Daily Journal
The annexation of 240 acres into the city was not an issue, but a rezone of the property gave members of the Franklin Plan Commission pause.
Two petitioners, Hugh Dunn and the Snepp Joint Trust, are requesting the city annex 240 acres into the city. The request is for Dunn’s 80 acres to the west to be zoned Industrial General and Snepp’s 160 acres to the east to be zoned Agriculture. Those zoning categories were chosen because they fit with the current zoning of adjacent properties, said Larry Gesse, an attorney for both petitioners.
There is no project for either parcel at this time, though the Dunn parcel is being advertised to potential developers, he said.
“Neither property is under any current request for any kind of a development,” Gesse said. “Specifically for the large parcel — the 160 acres — we felt like annexation was appropriate and that for the rezoning we would deal with that whenever there was anything specific to bring before the city.”
The plan commission was unanimously in favor of annexing the land, but members balked at the proposed zoning. So, commission members decided to split up the vote on zoning for the parcels. They gave the Dunn property’s Industrial General request an unfavorable recommendation with a 7-2 vote and the Snepp property’s Agriculture request a favorable recommendation with a 9-0 vote.
The city council will ultimately decide if the property will join the city and what the zoning will be at a meeting next month. A public hearing will likely be held on June 19.
Resident concerns
About a dozen nearby residents turned out to the meeting and four spoke against the Industrial General zoning during the meeting. They came to question whether the area’s infrastructure is prepared for additional development of this type.
Chief concerns for Jill Beavins were additional semi-traffic on roads surrounding the parcel and additional water that development at the site might send to Hurricane Creek.
Beavins, who lives across the street from the Snepp property, said she works from home and watches semis go past her house all day, every day. That concerns her because the road has no shoulder and isn’t wide enough for semis, she said.
The semi-traffic has become a public safety hazard. The semis have frequent accidents — sometimes taking out power poles — and have caused the edges of the road to crumble, Beavins said.
Until roads have been upgraded, Beavins asked the commission to put a pause on further development of the area.
Kelli Gordon is also concerned about semi-traffic and the problem is bigger than knocked-over mailboxes. She said her son was nearly involved in an accident after a semi went off the road next to her driveway.
Linda Norton asked that the commission wait to see what will develop at this property to approve the zoning. She called on the members to approve businesses that are both “environmentally friendly and economically beneficial” for Franklin.
“I think we’ve hit our limit (on warehouses). And we deserve better,” Norton said.
Jill Jongeling came to speak on behalf of her mother, whose house would be surrounded by whatever development comes to the Snepp property. Her parents used to own the land but sold it off and still live in the home that sits in the center of the parcel on the south edge by Earlywood Drive.
Jongeling asked the commission to think about the future and what Franklin really needs when making the decision.
“Let’s consider, you know, do we need to do all of it? Do we need can we do part of it? Because it does impact all of us as far as taxes,” Jongeling said.
City’s plans for the area
The once-rural area between the Franklin and Whiteland interchanges is developing more rapidly in recent years. Several expansions and new construction of warehouses and manufacturing facilities are underway on Earlywood Drive already and similar facilities are being constructed just north in Whiteland.
There are hopes for an Earlywood Drive interchange with Interstate 65, but if that happens, it would be years in the future. Both city and Johnson County officials — because the county’s TIF district overlaps with it — are working together to pitch the idea to Indiana Department of Transportation, Mayor Steve Barnett has said.
The city is planning several projects for portions of Graham Road, Earlywood Drive and Paul Hand Boulevard that are already in city limits. This year the city is repaving Earlywood Drive and Paul Hand Boulevard within city limits. A $2 million extension of Graham Road is also planned using $500,000 from a developer and $650,000 from the state’s READI grant.
Roundabouts at Earlywood Drive and Graham Road, and Paul Hand and Graham Road are planned in 2024. Additional road work and a project to straighten out S-curves on Graham Road are also planned in the coming years, Barnett said in his State of the City address.
Another goal of city officials is to widen Earlywood Drive and other roads in that area. The obstacle to that is funding. The city has applied for funding to widen the roads from the Indianapolis Metropolitan Planning Organization, or IMPO, but the project was passed over, said Mark Richards, Franklin city engineer.
City officials will continue to search for funding for that project, he said.
