Submitted by James Master, Managing Editor of the Pilot News
Further discussion concerning Phase II of Veterans Parkway was held at the Sept. 13 meeting of the Plymouth Common Council. The project would extend Veterans Parkway from Michigan Road to Pioneer Drive.
“This was something that we initially started talking about a couple of years ago and then last year, with the council’s support, jointly applied for an INDOT grant for the extension all the way from Michigan Road to the west to Pioneer Drive. And that grant was denied. Since then the mayor and the county commissioners have done some outreach to INDOT and were encouraged to get started with engineering on the project and to break the project up into two components,” said City Attorney Sean Surrisi.
The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) had recommended that the City of Plymouth and Marshall County split the project up and apply separately, which is what they are proposing to do. Surrisi explained that the county would be constructing the portion from Michigan Road to Oak Drive and then the city would construct the portion from Oak Drive to Pioneer Drive.
One of the steps that needs to be taken is for the Plymouth Redevelopment Commission to add the project to its project list. The Plan Commission also had to approve of the project. The council has to approve resolutions that would allow the commission to add the project to the list.
“Then it came to you for consideration. Under the statutory process, your review is to confirm the Plan Commission’s order that said that the project is in line with the comprehensive plan’s goal,” said Surrisi.
The council voted down two resolutions regarding the project at a prior meeting due to questions about identifying where the financing would be. “The Redevelopment Commission had already engaged Baker Tilly to conduct a study of that funding, but it wasn’t completed when I presented that resolution to you the last time,” said Surrisi.
Heidi Amspaugh and Kyle Carlson with Baker Tilly attended the meeting via Microsoft Teams. They presented a report to the council. Amspaugh explained that the preliminary engineering costs would not be reimbursed by the city. Other costs such as engineering, right-of-way, construction and inspection the city will have to pay up front, but will be reimbursed for 80 percent by INDOT after the payment has been made.
“The city will ultimately only be responsible for 20 percent of those costs,” said Amspaugh.
She went on to explain that the third type of cost for construction of the project works a little bit different. “That’s where the city will only pay for the 20 percent portion of their project right out of the gate.”
Amspaugh stated that the total portion of what the city would have to pay is about $1,082,000.
“We right now are showing that TIF 3 will pay all of the costs of the Veterans Parkway Project and there’s more than sufficient funds to cover these,” she said.
Council Member Don Ecker Jr. asked Clerk-Treasurer Jeanine Xaver what her assessment was of the presentation given by Baker Tilly.
“I appreciate Heidi and Kyle going through these because it gives me the confidence that there is funding there. I looked at the map earlier today of the proposed roadway for Veterans Parkway. It looks like it’s only 700 feet inside the city limit toward the western edge. Which is like two city blocks. I question the wisdom of spending a million dollars on a road that’s going to detour traffic from downtown from the vast majority of our businesses. Why do we want to detour Plymouth?” said Xaver.
Surrisi said that he thought there was potential to activate northwest area of the city with this project. “There’s still quite a bit of land that is ripe for industrial development there. This will just provide one more piece of connectivity,” Surrisi said adding that he didn’t believe that this project would detour the downtown.
Council Member Jeff Houin asked if this was passed, then what would be the process going forward.
Surrisi responded that if the council passed the resolution, then the Redevelopment Commission would have to hold a public hearing regarding the project. “Assuming approval here and then eventual approval of the project, there’s going to be engagement of USI Consultants, the engineers, so that would be the roughly $140,000 or so over this year and next for the preliminary engineering. I think we’re kind of on that track that that would be expended with the idea that the grant application would get put in December.”
The council had more questions after the discussion and decided to wait to pass the resolution. Their concerns were: what’s the ultimate return on investment, what’s the plan to access the businesses already established there, traffic flows, and what are some of the maintenance costs once the road is built.
