The July Fishers City Council Meeting will be held on Monday, July 19 at 7pm. I warmly encourage you to participate.
WORK SESSION
A Work Session will be held at 6:45pm, prior to the 7pm City Council Meeting. No action is taken at a Work Session. It is a gathering of the city council members to gather information about a specific topic. Work Sessions are always open to the public to observe. Work Sessions are usually held in the Administrative Conference Room. In City Hall, take the steps up to the 2nd floor and turn left.
There is one agenda item for the Work Session: READI Grant Application Update
Fishers is partnering with Indianapolis, Noblesville, Zionsville, Carmel, Westfield, McCordsville and Anderson to develop a collaborative proposal to potentially be awarded up to a $50 million READI Grant to make transformative White River improvements.
CITY COUNCIL MEETING
How to Observe and Participate in the City Council Meeting at City Hall.
Masks are optional for fully vaccinated people.
- The meeting will be held in-person and will be open to in-person attendees.
- A video of the meeting will be broadcast live starting at 7pm on Monday so you can watch from home. This is a way to observe the meeting only.
- In-person attendees are welcomed to address the City Council during any Public Hearings during the meeting – and during Community Comment, which is held at the end of every meeting.
- Fishers residents are also welcomed to submit public comments electronically prior to the meeting. All comments submitted before the meeting will be presented to City Council members. These comments are not read aloud but become part of the official meeting minutes. The Public Comment Form is live on the website right now. Select “City Council Meeting” and that will open a comment box for you to type in. Submit your comments by NOON on Monday, the day of the meeting, so they can be distributed before the meeting.
- Community Comment at the end of each City Council meeting is always open for your comment on any Fishers topic. This is an “open mic” opportunity for 10 Fishers residents to address the City Council for up to three minutes each. The council members are not required to resolve or respond to your comments at that moment. Usually, pathways are identified for follow-up and additional dialogue.
- Meeting agendas and past meeting minutes can be found here, under City Council tab.
- Past meeting videos are supposed to be posted within 48 hours of the meeting. You can find the videos in the Agenda Center. Click on the TV icon under the “Media” column.
City Council Meeting
The City Council Meeting agendas are available here, under the City Council header. Each agenda has items on it that appear in blue. These are links to open the supporting documents.
Here’s a rundown of this meeting’s agenda items and my interpretation of them.
5. Finance Committee Report. I look forward to the Finance Committee presentation at each month’s City Council meeting. Since City Council is responsible for fiscal oversight, this monthly report is very important but usually brief and informal. The July Finance Committee Meeting was cancelled, so no report is expected.
I try to attend every Finance Committee meeting. At the recent meeting, it was announced that Fishers will receive $6.9 million from the American Rescue Plan. This is the new plan that provides direct relief to citizens, local governments and schools to contain COVID-19 and rescue the economy. The $6.9 million that the City of Fishers will receive must be spent by Dec 2024 on specific things only:
- Reimbursement and expenses related to COVID-19
- Grants to assist small businesses, non-profit organizations and industries impacted by the pandemic
- Water, sewer and broadband projects
I anticipate Mayor Fadness and the City Council working together to determine how the $6.9 million could be best invested for our community.
In addition, planning the 2022 municipal budget is about to begin. The concerns about the sustainability of the City Hall building and the interest for a city-constructed/operated community center are sure to be big discussion items in the 2022 budget.
The 2022 budget presentation and citizens’ only opportunity to provide feedback on the budget will be at the City Council Meeting on Sept 20, 2021.
HEALTH DEPARTMENT NOTE: There is no Fishers Health Department update on the agenda, as there has been for the past several months. Monica Heltz, Fishers Health Department’s Public Health Director, produced a video recently about the Delta variant and stated that the strongest protection against any variant of COVID-19 is vaccination. Please get vaccinated!
Fishers’ current COVID community risk rating has recently decreased to Green – Level 1 Low. Fishers was at Red – Level 4 Severe as recently as mid-February. This is clear proof of vaccine effectiveness!
The Fishers Health Department’s first Annual Report is currently available for review.
6. Consent Agenda.
There are two items on the Consent Agenda.
Item a. is approval of last month’s City Council meeting minutes.
Item b. transfers funds. These actions transfer funds within the city budget, which is needed periodically. The transfers do not adjust the bottom line at all. This is a transfer of dollars from one budget category to another to avoid a negative balance in a category
The Consent Agenda is a grouping of routine reports that should be approved in one swift action, instead of approving each one separately. I believe that all items included on the Consent Agenda should be approved as presented and approved unanimously. If not, the item that requires a revision, abstention, or other action needs to be removed from the Consent Agenda and considered as a separate voting item.
REGULAR AGENDA
Economic Development
7. Quantigen Agreement. Quantigen is a Fishers biotech firm that is moving its headquarters to a 25,000 sq ft space at 10300 Kincaid Drive in Fishers and plans to add 23 new full-time jobs by 2023. The city is proposing to provide incentives that waives all of the company’s personal property tax payments for five years. This is a tax abatement worth approximately $92,000. The Indiana Economic Development Corp has also offered Quantigen tax credits.
City of Fishers Press Release
8. Stevanato Resolution. The Stevanato Group is an Italian pharmaceutical (syringes/vials) company that plans employ over 200 in the next four years and invest $145 million in their new, 370,000 square-feet US plant located in Fishers at 126th St and Cumberland Road. This resolution offers Stevanato incentives to come to Fishers. These incentives include transferring 33 acres to the company, waiving 100% of their personal property taxes and providing a $2.4 million commercial property grant. The Indiana Economic Development Corp is also offering Stevanato tax credits and grants.
City of Fishers Press Release
9. Thyssenkrupp Presta Amendment. Some of the City of Fishers’ Economic Development Agreements with companies provide tax abatements for the company. This allows the company to receive a deduction from the company’s owed tax payment. In return for lower (or no) tax payments, the company guarantees specific investment/employment commitments that benefit the City. Each Economic Development Agreement includes a “clawback” which requires a payback of the tax abatements if the investment/employment commitments are not met by the company. The CF-1 form is used by the company to annually report the company’s compliance with their commitments.
Each year, companies like Quantigen, Stevenato and every company that have been provided tax abatements (deductions) by the City must submit a Compliance with Statement of Benefits Forms (CF-1) related to each of their respective abatements. The City is required to annually review each company’s CF-1 to determine whether each has substantially complied with its respective Statement of Benefits. Thyssenkrupp Presta’s CF-1 form was reviewed by the City Economic Development Director in May and was found not to be in compliance. The company did not fulfill its employment commitment.
ThyssenKrupp Presta is an automotive tech company that came to Fishers in 2018 and is located on Exit 5 Parkway, behind TopGolf. ThyssenKrupp Presta’s Economic Development Agreement was executed in 2018. The company received a 5-year 100% personal property tax abatement and a $50,000 grant for a 150 Full Time Employees by Dec 2020. Their current FTE count is 84. ThyssenKrupp Presta received a Notice from the City about their lack of compliance.
The City of Fishers could terminate the agreement with ThyssenKrupp Presta, since the company did not fulfill its commitment. Instead, the proposal is to adjust the agreement between the City and the company. The proposed adjustment would lower the amount of the tax abatement (incentive) and lower the employment requirement (commitment).
Planning & Zoning
10. Temporary Signs for SR 37 Businesses. This ordinance temporarily allows businesses affected by SR37 construction to install additional signage to assist their customers. FINAL READING is the final vote to approve or disapprove the matter.
11. Changes for Uses of 25,000 Square Feet+ Commercial Spaces. This is a proposed change to the City’s Unified Development Ordinance. The UDO is an important document of our city’s development and construction standards. The proposed revision would require City Council approval for some types of new tenants of big box store buildings, like Fry’s Electronics near I-69/96th St. If the new tenant of a big vacant space is retail, commercial, place of worship, or a school, City Council would review, could add conditions for the betterment of the neighborhood and community, and must vote to approve. (Medical, office, industrial and manufacturing would be exempt and not need City Council review and approval.) FINAL READING is the final vote to approve or disapprove the matter.
12. & 13. Rezone for Milford Park and The Cove at Thorpe Creek. There are two proposed new residential developments adjacent to each other located on the far east side of Fishers – north of Florida Road and 113th Street, near Whelchel Springs and Thorpe Creek neighborhoods. In total, these two proposed developments would add over 300 homes to the area.
12. Millford Park is a proposed development by Lennar of 121 homes. FIRST READING is the first, but not final, consideration of a matter. Next, the rezone will be considered by the Plan Commission on August 4, at which time the public and neighbors will have their only chance to voice questions or concerns about it.
13. The Cove at Thorpe Creek is a proposed development by Fischer Homes of 192 new homes. The Cove at Thorpe Creek includes both the east side and west side of Florida Road. FIRST READING is the first, but not final, consideration of a matter. Next, the rezone will be considered by the Plan Commission on August 4, at which time the public and neighbors will have their only chance to voice questions or concerns about it.
14. Nickel Plate District Code Amendment. This proposed adjustment to the code would require newly constructed residential dwellings to remain residential for at least three years before they could be converted to commercial. FIRST READING is the first, but not final, consideration of a matter. Next, the rezone will be considered by the Plan Commission on August 4, at which time the public and neighbors will have their only chance to voice questions or concerns about it.
Regular Items
15. Unfinished/New Business.
16. Community Comment. All comments submitted through the online are supposed to be provided to the city council members before the meeting and become a part of the meeting’s official record. The Public Comment Form is live on the website right now. Select “City Council Meeting” and that will open a comment box for you to type in. Submit your comments by noon on Monday, the day of the meeting, so they can be distributed before the meeting.
Meeting adjourned!
If you have any comments or questions, please send them my way. Email is a good way to get a hold of me.
Thank you for reading all of this. 🙂