Time for my weekly drop in. Picked my son up from camp in NY and now am with my mom in Ohio for her birthday tomorrow. Which means I can't go to this meeting but I wanted to get this info to all of you, actually I meant to last week but kept getting sidetracked by cute chicken pictures and stories on here and didn't get it done!
Indy Rezone Update
The Battle has begun!
The Indianapolis City Council has sent Indy Rezone to committee - specifically the Metropolitan and Economic Development Committee. Their
next meeting is Monday July 27 at 5:30 in room 260 of the City Council building. This is where there will be discussion and debate. Here is where the rubber meets the road and where a large presence is needed. This will be a critical meeting.
Monday night July 13, the "Retail Workers Bill of Rights" had a large group at the City Council meeting. They expected their Special Resolution for the Bill of Rights to pass, instead it was sent to committee -
the same committee and day that will hear comments about Indy rezone. They were not happy and will have an even larger group at the committee meeting. This is a critical turning point for them, and for Indy rezone. If there are not people there showing opposition to Indy Rezone, the absence of people will speak volumes.
Right now what is needed is twofold: Come to the meeting if at all possible (even if you have to get there late) and contact the councilors on the committee via e-mail and telephone, so that they know there is opposition/concern from more than just a handful of people. Here is the city webpage with the names of the committee members. Open each councilors page for their contact info:
http://www.indy.gov/eGov/Council/Committees/Pages/metro.aspx
We already know that Councilor Zach Adamson is not happy with this whole thing. We are working on talking to all of the committee members and hope you will too.
One of the many issues: All there is, is a draft for the livestock license - too many uncertainties that could be changed after this debacle is passed. And livestock is not the only draft of concern. This is from the .gov website (link further below):
"To accomplish the needed objective, sometimes other policies, codes, guidelines, or procedures need to change or be developed. Below are documents that are currently in a
working draft stage and
will be finalized in the months following ordinance adoption: (note there is only a link for a livestock draft)
Indianapolis Selected Plant List - DRAFT
Indianapolis Prohibited Plant List - DRAFT
Recommended Practices for Traffic Calmming in Subdivisions -DRAFT
Comments regarding these documents are being accepted. Simply fill-in this convenient
form."
Yeah right, and they listened so well to the comments last summer!
So what they are saying is: "we are drafting the ordinance but aren't going to tell you everything that is in it before it is passed AND it can change after it is passed"
There is so much wrong in Indy rezone, I could write a book (and that is without having read most of this 700+ page document!). There is a lot of confusing, unclear information in it. And in the words of someone working for Indy Rezone, who helped write it "It is Flawed". (She said this several times at the Metropolitan Development Commision meeting.)
Indy Rezone can be seen here:
http://www.indy.gov/egov/city/dmd/planning/services/current/Pages/ordinance.aspx
If you would like a searchable Word document you can access that here:
https://copy.com/pAwC1I46qpOItu1F
You may be surprised at what you find when searching for specific things.
If you are like me, you have a real hard time figuring out how many more restrictions make us more sustainable. I realize there is no way to make everyone happy. But why in the world would we pass something that we already know is admittedly so flawed?