Economic Development Committee
The Franklin Township Chamber's volunteer Economic Development Committee members have been working to enhance and promote the business climate in our community for many years - Care to Join Us?
- Chair: Dick Nye [email protected]
- Co-Chair: Dave Baird [email protected]
- Founding Chair: Julia Dunkman (She passed away on 12/8/15. May she rest in peace.)
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2006 - then EconDevCom chair Julia Dunkman with then Mayor Bart Peterson at the public announcement of a half dozen Franklin Township properties available for city supported business development. This project began many months earlier, involving many people from here and downtown.
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2013 - then EconDevCom chair Dave Baird (left) with land owner Russ Flagle (center) at the ground breaking for our newest auto parts store. On Russ's right is his builder/developer, his left is his land use attorney (Dave Retherford), and on the far right is our most helpful Indianapolis City-County Counselor, Aaron Freeman.
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Growth of Franklin Township
click map for a full size version (.jpg download)
The Franklin Township Civic League’s Land Use committee members, the Positive Growth Assn members (a spin-off from the Civic League), the Economic Development Committee members from the Franklin Township Chamber of Commerce, among others, have been monitoring and participating in the discussions regarding growth and development in Franklin Township for decades.
While Franklin Township is just 10% of Marion County’s overall size, we have 40% of it’s remaining undeveloped farm ground (a partial reason our kids do so well in the Marion County 4-H Fair every summer - none of the other 8 townships have much of a 4-H left because they don’t have much agriculture any more).
As it is with life’s eventualities, our Franklin Township farmers grow up, grow old, eventually unable to till their lands, and if no one in their family is interested in continuing to farm the ground upon their retirement, they end up selling their farm land to someone with the money to buy it, not uncommonly a developer/builder.
Here in the USofA, every land owner has been granted the right to sell his/her property, and the new land owner the right to build on it. The city of Indianapolis has put guidelines on what can be built, and how it is to be built, but building will occur if the new owner desires none the less. There is NOTHING we as a community can do to STOP farm ground from eventually being built upon (unless some area billionaire is willing to buy each parcel as it comes for sale then let it sit?). The BEST we, as a community, can hope to do is work with the new owners to build something acceptable to as many as possible.
That’s what our community’s various committees of volunteer members do every month - monitor the proposals being submitted for new developments, communicate with those developers about their proposals, work with city zoning and planning personnel, and negotiate building/development plans that do the best in enhancing our neighborhoods while causing the least negative impact we can hope for. Sometimes those negotiations go well, sometimes they don’t.
In 1970, there were 2,641 owner occupied homes in Franklin Township (census) - the ’70’s saw that number double to 5,201 homes by 1980 - the ’80’s added another 2,422 (owner occupied homes, not counting rentals, etc.) to house our 1990 population of 21,533 residents.
Just 20 years later, we have 54,594 people living here (2010 census), enjoying a cost of living 21% below the national average, better employment than the rest of the country, the best school system in Indianapolis, and among the highest property taxes in the state. The vast majority of that building and developing from 1970 to now has been housing - very little business property development - we don’t have a Park 100 like Pike Township, nor even the complex of businesses and warehousing like that in the fields next to Mount Comfort Airport (just north of us, across the county line).
With so much of the ground here being built with homes over the last 40 years, it’s those same homes that must support township schools and fire departments and libraries through property tax dollars. Businesses pay 3 times as much in taxes per dollar of assessed value, and businesses have no children that need bus rides or classrooms or teachers (but their tax dollars help pay for all that, anyway).
One could argue that the problem with the high home property taxes is due to the relative lack of businesses in Franklin Township. The argument has also been made that that lack of business property tax income is hurting the budgets of our school system and, therefore, diminishing the education of our kids to some degree?
So if the acres upon acres of open ground in Franklin Township are to slowly but certainly be sold and developed, should we do our part to help ensure that businesses do as much of that developing as possible? Or should we keep it residential because we’re willing to pay more in taxes (and/or have less money for public education) to keep it vastly residential? That’s up to us caring community volunteers to determine and act upon. What do YOU think? Are you willing to meet with others who also care? Say, once a month? Will you write letters? Attend hearings? If we hope to have any voice in our own growth, SOMEBODY needs to do these things - why not YOU?
Public Comments (Facebook)
While Franklin Township is just 10% of Marion County’s overall size, we have 40% of it’s remaining undeveloped farm ground (a partial reason our kids do so well in the Marion County 4-H Fair every summer - none of the other 8 townships have much of a 4-H left because they don’t have much agriculture any more).
As it is with life’s eventualities, our Franklin Township farmers grow up, grow old, eventually unable to till their lands, and if no one in their family is interested in continuing to farm the ground upon their retirement, they end up selling their farm land to someone with the money to buy it, not uncommonly a developer/builder.
Here in the USofA, every land owner has been granted the right to sell his/her property, and the new land owner the right to build on it. The city of Indianapolis has put guidelines on what can be built, and how it is to be built, but building will occur if the new owner desires none the less. There is NOTHING we as a community can do to STOP farm ground from eventually being built upon (unless some area billionaire is willing to buy each parcel as it comes for sale then let it sit?). The BEST we, as a community, can hope to do is work with the new owners to build something acceptable to as many as possible.
That’s what our community’s various committees of volunteer members do every month - monitor the proposals being submitted for new developments, communicate with those developers about their proposals, work with city zoning and planning personnel, and negotiate building/development plans that do the best in enhancing our neighborhoods while causing the least negative impact we can hope for. Sometimes those negotiations go well, sometimes they don’t.
In 1970, there were 2,641 owner occupied homes in Franklin Township (census) - the ’70’s saw that number double to 5,201 homes by 1980 - the ’80’s added another 2,422 (owner occupied homes, not counting rentals, etc.) to house our 1990 population of 21,533 residents.
Just 20 years later, we have 54,594 people living here (2010 census), enjoying a cost of living 21% below the national average, better employment than the rest of the country, the best school system in Indianapolis, and among the highest property taxes in the state. The vast majority of that building and developing from 1970 to now has been housing - very little business property development - we don’t have a Park 100 like Pike Township, nor even the complex of businesses and warehousing like that in the fields next to Mount Comfort Airport (just north of us, across the county line).
With so much of the ground here being built with homes over the last 40 years, it’s those same homes that must support township schools and fire departments and libraries through property tax dollars. Businesses pay 3 times as much in taxes per dollar of assessed value, and businesses have no children that need bus rides or classrooms or teachers (but their tax dollars help pay for all that, anyway).
One could argue that the problem with the high home property taxes is due to the relative lack of businesses in Franklin Township. The argument has also been made that that lack of business property tax income is hurting the budgets of our school system and, therefore, diminishing the education of our kids to some degree?
So if the acres upon acres of open ground in Franklin Township are to slowly but certainly be sold and developed, should we do our part to help ensure that businesses do as much of that developing as possible? Or should we keep it residential because we’re willing to pay more in taxes (and/or have less money for public education) to keep it vastly residential? That’s up to us caring community volunteers to determine and act upon. What do YOU think? Are you willing to meet with others who also care? Say, once a month? Will you write letters? Attend hearings? If we hope to have any voice in our own growth, SOMEBODY needs to do these things - why not YOU?
Public Comments (Facebook)