(Submitted photo)
By Anna Skinner
The Fishers City Council met on Sept. 19 at city hall. The next scheduled meeting is 7 p.m. Oct. 17 at Fishers City Hall, 1 Municipal Dr.
The council approved an amendment to the Britton Falls Planned Unit Development to allow for three-door garages to be offered to all residents purchasing a home at the Piper Glen subdivision. The council approved the proposal 5-2, with Rich Block and Brad DeReamer against the petition.
Many council members were concerned about the subdivision not meeting requirements of the comprehensive plan, but others argued that it would be unfair to the petitioner to change the rules this far into the proposal. The issue of adequate numbers of stub streets arose, and DeReamer felt strongly on the case.
“It doesn’t make any sense to me as an elected official to approve a subdivision against the comprehensive plan and know is a safety factor for residents to live there,” he said. “Our point is to protect the public. The plan commission in Indiana is an advisory committee to the legislative committee of the city council, and it is up to city council to approve these things and take advice or not take advice from the plan commission. I strongly feel as I have said now that this subdivision needs to have four stub streets.”
DeReamer made a motion to deny the request unless stub streets were added. Block also agreed, saying it was a “tough case” and that stub streets were important for connectivity.
However, other council members felt it was unfair to deny it after moving it so far forward in the process.
“The problem I continue to have is we put this through the process and gave rules and all of a sudden we are coming back and changing the rules,” member Pete Peterson said. “That’s not how we play. This has gotten caught in the crossfire, every other future activity should be lined up with the 2040 plan and go through plan commission as such, but this was just before that. The changes made to the elevations are fantastic … my stand isn’t so much I disagree with Brad or Rich, I just disagree with this part of the project.”
