By KEVIN NEVERS

The Chesterton Town Council’s annexation at its meeting Monday night of 75 acres located south of the Indiana Toll Road occasioned a sharpish exchange between members Jim Ton, R-1st, and Mike Bannon, R-5th, as well as the remonstration of a Liberty Township resident concerned by the encroachment of residential development on a traditionally agricultural community.

At issue: the parcel of land located immediately south of the Toll Road and east of Ind. 49, on which developer I-80 LLC has expressed an interest in building 320 multi-family residential units, a hotel, and an unspecified but significant amount of retail square-footage.

Members voted 5-0 to approve the annexation ordinance on first reading, then 5-0 to approve that ordinance on its final reading. It had been introduced previously at the Town Council’s last meeting.

Immediately after the vote Ton spoke of the importance of a municipality’s controlling its own borders, but he did express a desire to have heard more information about the developer’s plans from I-80 LLC attorney Cliff Fleming, who during a July 9 public hearing on the annexation declined to answer any questions from remonstrators about the mixed-use planned unit development which I-80 LLC principal Bob Rossman wants to build. At the time Fleming said that the subject of the public hearing was the annexation itself, not the PUD, and that the appropriate forum for remonstration on the PUD will be the Advisory Plan Commission.

That may be, Ton said on Monday, but it would at least have been “expedient” for Fleming to have provided “some answers.” After all, he added, “we’re in a seller’s market” right now and developers want the municipal services which Chesterton has to offer.

In any case, Ton stated flatly, he will oppose any use of the annexation area which entails the construction of multi-family residential units.

At this point Bannon repeated what he said at the July 9 public hearing, namely, that Fleming was right and that the subject of the public hearing was the annexation, not the PUD. The “proper time” to answer remonstrators’ questions, he replied to Ton, is during the PUD process and before the Advisory Plan Commission. “It’s not the proper time now.”

“I don’t need to take any lessons, Mike,” Ton immediately responded. “I was merely saying that it might have been expedient to answer those questions.”

For his part Liberty Township resident J.F. Schroeder suggested earlier in the meeting, prior to the vote, that the Town Council would do well to think about what it’s doing. A mixed-use development along the lines proposed by Rossman would not only “depreciate the value of my property,” he said, it would also pit a farming community against a residential one. New “residents won’t like the dust, the manure we use, the late working hours that we’re used to,” Schroeder said.

The Fiscal Plan

Before voting in favor of annexation, members also voted to 5-0 to adopt a fiscal plan prepared at the petitioner’s expense by H.J. Umbaugh & Associates. According to that fiscal plan, the total annual estimated cost of providing municipal services to the annexation area would be $277,486 plus additional equipment purchases totaling $68,231.

The fiscal plan’s projections:

•An additional police officer at an annual cost of $72,000.

•Three additional firefighters at an annual cost of $165,000.

•An additional quarter of a code enforcement officer at an annual cost of $9,000.

•Two additional park employees at an annual cost of $30,000.

•A new squad car, $30,000.

•A portion of the cost of a new aerial, $12,131.

•A new mower, $15,000.

•A quarter of a new vehicle for the Building Department, $5,500.

A chief assumption of the fiscal plan is that the Town of Chesterton will apply for an excess levy appeal of $331,281 to pay for these additional municipal services.

In theory, the increase in the total assessed valuation of the town as a result of the I-80 LLC development should either decrease the overall municipal tax rate or at least stabilize it.

The Annexation Agreement

Members also voted 5-0 to approve an annexation agreement with I-80 LLC, the terms of which essentially mirror previous agreements with Olson Farms LLC.

Under that agreement, Town Attorney Chuck Lukmann said, I-80 LLC will be responsible for installing all infrastructure at its own expense; will make a donation to the Parks & Recreation Department of $150,000; will agree to pay whatever parks and recreation impact fee which the Town of Chesterton may enact; and will make a payment of $28,875 to defray the cost of acquiring some of the equipment necessary to serve the new annexation area.

Julien

Also before the vote John Julien of Umbaugh made a short presentation to the Town Council on the subject of fiscal plans. These documents, he said–required under state statute–are not unerringly accurate crystal-ball delineations of the cost of annexation. They are, rather, projections, based on certain assumptions, which in the event may prove to be less than accurate.

Among the conditions which could affect the accuracy of a fiscal plan’s projections are these, Julien said:

•Development may occur faster or slower than expected.

•The assessed value of the development may materialize differently than expected.

•The costs of serving the annexation area may be higher or lower than expected.

•And the revenues which an annexation area may generate may be higher or lower than expected.

Thus, Julien said, “If actual results vary, the town will need to adjust accordingly. For example, if the development occurs slower than anticipated, the town will need to re-evaluate the need and timing of the equipment anticipated in the fiscal plan. If the anticipated revenues don’t materialize, the town will need to explore alternative revenue sources.”

Julien did say that a number of benefits which annexation could accrue for the town cannot be quantified by any fiscal plan and therefore are part of no fiscal plan. “These aspects that the fiscal plan doesn’t address are the economic benefits of having job growth, additional spending at the local businesses, and how a diversified tax base can add stability to the tax base.”

To those potential benefits Bannon added one other: the increase in CEDIT revenues, which are apportioned on a per capita basis. The more people who reside in Chesterton, he said, the more CEDIT funds will come the town’s way.

Posted 7/24/2007