The November Fishers City Council Meeting will be held at 7pm on Monday, November 14, 2022. I warmly encourage you to participate.
IMPORTANT LOCATION CHANGE: All City Council meetings will now be held at Launch Fishers, 12175 Visionary Way. Launch Fishers is located in the tech park, just north of Super Target.
How to Observe and Participate in the City Council Meeting at City Hall
- The meeting will be held in-person and will be open to in-person attendees.
- A video of the meeting will be broadcast live at http://tinyurl.com/CityOfFishers 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. In order to submit a comment, you need to designate the date of the meeting that you want to comment on. Look at the public meeting calendar. Then, complete the online Public Comment Form. Select “City Council” and that will open a comment box for you to type in. Submit your comments by NOON on Monday, the day of 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.
- 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 City of Fishers YouTube channel.
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. Council Committee Reports.
Finance Committee Report. The Finance Committee is charged with advising the City Council on matters concerning the general financial operations of the City. The City Council is responsible for fiscal oversight and final approval of the municipal budget. Typically, the Finance Committee meeting is reflected in action items for the City Council that are reflected in the “Budget/Financial” part of the meeting agenda.
6. Department Reports. The monthly Fishers Health Department report is usually made available to residents every month about our city’s vaccine status, COVID community risk status, and other important public health info. Here’s this month’s report.
The FHD 2021 annual report is now available.
7. 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
Andretti Autosports
8. Andretti Autosports announced in late August its intent to build and establish its $200 million global headquarters at the Indianapolis Metropolitan Airport’s undeveloped business park property. The headquarters will bring Andretti’s operations for all racing entities, research and development, and history museum to one campus location. Pending City Council approval, the facility will break ground in late 2022 and open early 2025. The project agreement was approved in Sept by the City Council. This item approves issuance of bonds (not to exceed $26 million and bonds will be purchased by the developer) which are paid back solely from TIF revenues from the project. No other City funds will be used to pay back the bonds.
96th & Allisonville
9. 96th & Allisonville Financing. The project agreement was approved by the City Council in February. This item is to issue the bonds, not to exceed $23 million. The bonds will be paid back by TIF revenues generated by the project. This is considered “conduit debt” because the bonds are not purchased by the city. They will be purchased by 96th Street Partners LLC. No other City funds will be used to pay back the bonds. $2.5 million will be devoted to a roundabout at 96th and Allisonville to replace the Michigan Left turning situation.
Project REV
10. Creation of the Area for REV. This step executes the approved partnership between the City and the Developer. The project is located at the current five-story, mixed-use building at 8603 E. 116th Street, located at the intersection of Municipal Drive and 116th Street. This is where Burn Boot Camp, People Factor, North Star Vitamins, Source Yoga and Thai Sushi are currently located. The new $35 million development will feature 36 for sale condominiums, a parking garage, and 23,000 square feet of commercial and office space. The luxury condos range from $600,000 to $1,000,000.
Here are the city’s press release and the local news articles about the proposal.
https://www.fishers.in.us/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=1065
https://www.larryinfishers.com/the-1-million-condo-development-coming-to-downtown-fishers/
https://www.ibj.com/articles/developers-propose-35m-luxury-condo-project-in-downtown-fishers
The city is going to take out a $3.125 million loan (bond) to help finance the project. The bond will be paid back over 25 years with the proceeds from the Tax Increment Finance arrangement. This is a city-backed bond. The city is responsible for repayment. This project will also extend Municipal Drive to the south, through the new building and align with the traffic light currently at 116th and Municipal Drive. Incentives that the City Intends to Provide Developer to Execute the Project
- The city is going to take out a $3.125 million loan (bond) to help finance the project. The bond will be paid back with the proceeds from the Tax Increment Finance arrangement.
- Waiver of sewer and stormwater impact fees, $9,000 total
- Public Infrastructure Grant: Up to $500,000 for Developer to construct improvements along 116th Street
- Trail Improvement Area/Easement Agreement: annual lease of public space within REV property lines that will be leased by the City to allow public access to the Nickel Plate Trail. City pays $308,000 annually to developer in perpetuity to allow residents to be able to access that space. Developer is responsible for maintaining this space.
Tax Increment Financing is a commonly used tactic to pay for infrastructure improvements designed to spur economic development in the area. I believe that TIF has to be used very carefully. I always apply the “but for” test. This is evidence that the development would be impossible “but for” the investment of TIF. When TIF is invested in a development, the incremental taxes that the developer would pay once the project is completed are diverted to pay off the bond that paid for the infrastructure improvements
More about TIF:
What Is a TIF short video – https://www.trilandproperties.com/what-is-a-tif-and-how-does-a-tif-work/
The Use of Tax Increment Finance – https://pcrd.purdue.edu/ruralindianastats/downloads/The-Use-of-Tax-Increment-Finance.pdf
Stevanato
11. Approving Stevanato’s SB-1. When a business receives a personal property tax abatement from the City as an incentive, the business must file an SB-1 form. (Statement of Benefits Personal Property form). This action is a review and approval of the SB-2 form from Stevanato, the Italian life sciences company that is building a big HQ at 126th and Cumberland Road to house up to 300 employees. The city provided Stevenato with tax abatements worth $9.2 million.
https://www.indystar.com/story/news/local/hamilton-county/2021/12/09/stevanato-plans-massive-plant-fishers-indiana/6447737001/
Annual General Obligation Bonds
City loans taken out to pay for community investments.
12 and 14. Road improvements – issuance of bonds not to exceed $5.5 million and appropriation of the funds for the proposed project
13 and 15. Trail improvements – issuance of bonds not to exceed $5.5 million and appropriation of the funds for the proposed project
Agenda items 14 and 15 will welcome public comments in a Public Hearing format.
A PUBLIC HEARING means that any resident is invited to comment on this topic. This is the only opportunity to make a comment and address the City Council on this specific matter. Fishers residents are welcomed to submit comments for the public hearing on this matter electronically prior to the meeting. All comments received by noon on Monday on the day of the meeting should be presented during this part of the meeting and will be part of the meeting’s official minutes. The Public Comment Form is live on the website right now.
If you do attend the City Council meeting in-person, you may comment on this matter during this part of the meeting. The City Council President will open the public hearing by asking if anyone would like to speak. If no one indicates that they want to speak, the public hearing can be closed quickly. So, please indicate immediately that you have something to say when the public hearing is opened. Otherwise, you may miss your chance.
Government/Miscellaneous
16. Restaurant Inspections by the Fishers Health Department. This is approval step for a new grading system for Retail Food Inspections.
https://www.fishers.in.us/1482/Retail-Food-Inspection-Grading-System
Planning and Zoning
17. Sunbeam PUD. Rezones the Next phase of the Fishers District area from an Employment Node to a Planned Unit Development. FINAL VOTE TO APPROVE.
18. 2040 Plan Update. Progress on the objectives and actions of city commissions have been added in this update to the planning document. The 2040 Plan is the City’s long-range roadmap. FINAL VOTE TO APPROVE.
19. Rezone Cyntheanne Woods. Proposed development on 41 acres for a residential subdivision located just north of Britton Falls on Cyntheanne. FIRST READING.
Unfinished/New Business.
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.