Whiteland residents share their ideas for the town’s future with an HWC Engineering facilitator during the comprehensive plan meeting at Nire Event Center on Tuesday. Elissa Maudlin | Daily Journal
With a new comprehensive plan in the works, Whiteland residents brought their visions for the town to the table.
The Town of Whiteland and HWC Engineering held a community workshop Tuesday to get feedback for its new comprehensive plan. The plan is a “long-range guide to development, redevelopment and community investment” that will be used by town officials to make decisions and as an information and marketing tool, said Adam Peaper, project manager at HWC Engineering.
The town was awarded a grant that funds the majority of this process from the Indiana Office of Community & Rural Affairs, or OCRA. Whiteland’s last comprehensive plan was adopted in 2011.
Approximately 20 attendees showed up at Nire Event Center to give their thoughts on the direction of the town and what they’d like to see included in the plan.
The workshop’s purpose was for residents to give input, help establish a vision and set goals for the town.
“What we’re going to do through this process and kind of the purpose is to evaluate the existing conditions that are present in the community now,” Peaper said. “… [We will] use your input to establish a clear vision and set of goals for the community. Like I said, more importantly, it’s identifying the recommendations and how we translate the broader goals into the day-to-day recommendations, actions for Carmen, her staff, town council …”
During the event, attendees sat at tables and discussed with HWC Engineering facilitators what should be embodied in the plan’s vision, what issues and opportunities are present in the community and different solutions and desired outcomes for the town. Many of these ideas were written on sticky notes and posted on large stand-up notepads.
Some ideas on the sticky notes included keeping “the small town feel,” sustainability, transparency and community identity. Residents had visions like a recreation center and activities like shopping and eating, quality of life initiatives and preserving green space and farmland. Fixing up existing roads and keeping up with infrastructure were also noted.
Several members of the community presented their group’s thoughts at the end of the workshop.
For one table, their “pie in the sky” was a pedestrian bridge.
“We see a lot of high schoolers in our neighborhood trying to play “Frogger” across on 31 trying to get to the school,” said Carrie Miller, a resident. “And spoiler alert, one of the survey questions was access to entertainment and retail via bike and walking and I was like, ‘Not where I live,’ (because I can’t get there easily).”
Miller also said her table discussed beautifying downtown and plotted options for parks, buffer zones and trail connectivity “so we can see more of each other in our communities.”
Billy Patrick said his group discussed amenities and parks, restaurants, a community center and infrastructure.
“Finding a way for it to make sense for the town as a whole to where we end up as the beneficiary of all this stuff,” he said.
Josh Henry said his group discussed parks and creating a ballfield recreation center for kids. Residents at the table also discussed gateways for the town, infrastructure and sidewalks and safe traveling “to make it safe for all of our kids to go back and forth to the school.”
Brian Webb from the Whiteland Redevelopment Commission spoke for the last table, which discussed the unification of downtown, nature preserves, attracting commercial restaurants, land annexation, having a park and possibly getting YMCA or similar groups to bring their programming to the town.
The group also spoke about the town’s dog park, which they said needs some work.
“The current dog park we have right now … like (my) backyard is probably bigger than that dog park … (so we should make) a large dog park or we bring kids in the area (for a child-play area),” Webb said.
There are certain topics that must be addressed in the comprehensive plan.
According to a presentation by HWC Engineering, Indiana law mandates that the plan must include objectives for future development, policy for land-use development and policy for the development of public ways, public lands and public utilities. The town also can’t properly enforce zoning codes without a comprehensive plan.
OCRA also has specific requirements that go above and beyond the state guidelines, Peaper said in the presentation. The plan chapters will surround topics like land use, government facilities, infrastructure, placemaking, economic development, housing, parks and recreation, broadband access, historic and archaeological resources, hazard mitigation and more.
HWC Engineering also shared the results of a demographic snapshot of Whiteland. The results signified growth in population, educational attainment, median home values and median rent, among other results.
The comprehensive plan will continue to be developed through July and August, including a Big Ideas Open House and the plan’s first draft. The final draft of the plan is slated to be completed in September and November.
Residents can also fill out a survey to give feedback for the new plan via Survey Monkey by going to shorturl.at/0QH5P.
