Plan Commission to review UDO chapter by chapter
With entry lines nearly reaching the back door of Owen Valley High School, approximately 400 concerned citizens packed the OVHS Auditorium and provided two hours worth of comment concerning the draft Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) set before the Owen County Plan Commission.
A UDO is a local policy instrument that combines zoning, subdivision and other regulations into a single document.
More than 25 individuals signed up to provide public comment, at the Oct. 22 meeting, with each comment being against the UDO in general or the current draft of the document.
The meeting followed an Oct. 6 open house held at the Owen County Courthouse.
“This UDO document that we have before us is a draft. I don’t know if that was ever made clear to everyone, but a draft is a document that’s in progress, and we will edit it as needed,” Plan Commission President Norm Warner said. “We already have planning and zoning. It was implemented in 2002. I don’t know how many folks knew that this UDO is an update to those documents. There are parts of the UDO that bring us into compliance with state statute. The rest can be changed to fit our needs.”
Warner continued providing background information at the start of the meeting.
“The only way the zoning on your property can be changed is if you come to the planning commission and you ask for it to be changed. These documents don’t do any of that,” he said.
He noted that the plan commission is an advisory board. As such, the commission can choose to make a favorable, unfavorable or no recommendation before the matter goes to the county commissioners.
“No one on the steering committee or the planning commission sitting up here wrote a single word of this document. This was done by a consultant with input from the steering committee. The problem with that is due to the times of the meetings, which was right in the center of the day, I work a job, and most of the people up here do as well. I made three out of 10 meetings,” Warner said. “No decision on this thing will be made tonight or any time in the near future by this commission, until we have time to go through it [and] document [changes] chapter by chapter.”
He added, “What we do not want to do is get in a hurry here at the end and get stuff that we do not want.”
He proposed creating a subcommittee or steering committee set by the Plan Commission to act as a working group to review and edit the draft UDO.
“And if it takes a year, it takes a year. If it takes 16 or 18 months, it takes 16 or 18 months. There is no hurry. So if you think we’re going to shove it through, that’s not the case. Won’t let it happen, not as long as I’m sitting here anyway,” Warner said.
Plan Commission member Bill Purcell shared the attendance of the various steering committee members for the UDO and pointed out again that the meetings were held during the middle of the day.
“Please be kind to those people because they were doing their best,” Purcell said.
It was determined that Purcell would chair the subcommittee.
Warner began the public comment period by reading a statement from former sheriff and commissioner-elect Sam Hobbs.
“To the people of Owen County, as your commissioner-elect for 2025, I encourage everyone to just take a deep breath and relax,” Warner read on Hobbs’ behalf. “I believe we need to regroup and sit down with the people of Owen County to establish what is in the best interest of the people of Owen County. The draft needs to be dissected, and we, the people need to address each and every chapter slowly and take as much time as needed to establish what’s best for the citizens of Owen County… I will not, as your commissioner-elect, move forward with this current draft until it is meticulously and thoroughly examined and resolved.”
Members of the public had up to three minutes to speak.
Several of the initial comments centered around not wanting a UDO at all, and many of the comments criticized the Plan Commission.
“The planning and zoning board here, they are not your punching bag for today. They were handed this by another entity. It is not them that this stuff is for. It’s not them that will approve it. They are here to make adjustments for it and send it to the commissioners for approval or denial. It’s your commissioners that you need to be in an uproar with,” County Council candidate Joe Frye said. “If we send something back, and we say we don’t want it, then what you’re going to get is what’s already there. So we’ve got to comb through it. We’ve got to fix it.”
One member of the public requested that footnotes are included to indicate what the changes are, what the previous zoning law dictated and whether or not it is based on state statute.
Commissioner candidate William Jennings also spoke. He said that the UDO would never pass with him on the board.
“I call this meeting adjourned. I think we ought to adjourn because 90 percent of the people here do not want it,” he said, recommending that the Plan Commission vote to not recommend the UDO that night.
County Council President Polly Chesser, who is seeking re-election this year, spoke up from the audience.
“You do not want this going to the commissioners right now. I promise you, because they don't have to take [the Plan Commission’s] recommendation. If they sent this to the commissioners right now, the current commissioners that are sitting on there, I guarantee would pass this, disregarding whatever they said,” Chesser said. “What they’re doing, slowing it down until after the first of the year is exactly what needs to be done.”
Resident Will Daubenspeck spoke about the UDO, citing the potential for growth both along the I-70 corridor and State Road 46. He said he experienced the creation of a UDO in Hamilton County years ago and that it was part of why he moved to Owen County in the first place.
“This is your chance to make a stand properly to protect yourself,” he said. “If you don’t put the right things in this UDO, you’re gong to be wishing you would’ve… Everyone’s wanting to fight against it. These people up here will help you put in what needs to be put into it to protect yourself and your property. So this meeting should be more about things that you don’t want in it versus we don’t want a UDO. I’m telling you, I’ve seen it with my own eyes. I’ve lived it. That’s the reason I moved to Owen County…I don’t think those people standing up there really want to be talking about this right now, but I’m going to tell you, if you don’t put regulation in to control growth, you will be sorry. I’ve seen it.”
Resident Chris Carey also spoke on the matter.
“What we really need to keep in mind, I know you guys don’t have any power to really do anything, except for the commissioner [Bob Curry who sits on the plan commission], and the other commissioners and whoever else is involved with bringing this in and sticking it in our laps, if they’re not going to show up and allow us to voice our opinions, we need to take it to them,” he said. “Find their addresses, their phone numbers, their emails and just light it up and tell them what we think, and don’t let up. I mean, we need these people to understand this is our county, they work for us, they’re our employees, and we can’t just go making these decisions willy-nilly.”
Commissioner candidate Dave Risk also spoke on the matter. He commented on the Enabling Act and what is and is not legally required of the county.
“There’s a structure already in place in Indiana code for ordinances,” he said. “I have verified we are not required to have a UDO in Owen County.”
He added, “The purpose of a UDO is to combine the various series of local ordinances into one document.”
Chesser then took her three minutes to speak.
“These people have nothing to do with getting this done under the radar. It was not them. They’re doing exactly what they need to be doing. They’re slowing this down until we get our new commissioners in because like I was trying to say, if they pass this right now… and said no we don’t want this, the commissioners can still say, ‘We don’t care what you say. We want it anyway.’ So the fact that they are slowing this down and getting your input and listening to all of you, that’s what needs to be done. That’s what should have been done in the first place,” Chesser said.
She added that the steering committee was filled with good people but that the daytime meetings meant they were not always there and understandably so.
“Those people on the committee are going to listen to their neighbors, they’re going to take out the crap, and they’re going to protect you. So the fact that they're doing it this way is awesome, and that’s the way it should have been done,” Chesser said before encouraging people to stay engaged both with this issue and other county government matters.
The Plan Commission will meet again at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 19. Warner said that the OVHS auditorium would not be available but that he would look into reserving space at Owen Valley Middle School.
