Road Case Unresolved  The road legal case is still on appeal, and the matter may not be finalized for 2 or 3 years.  A change in the map is premature until the case is resolved.

    Beltway 100S and Meridian Rd. are roads set out as the beltway around the City of Greenfield in the present County Comprehensive Plan as well as in the Greenfield Comprehensive Plan.  These roads are in heavy use as a beltway or bypass of Greenfield City traffic because of the congestion of US 40 and SR 9. 

    Cost to You and Me The estimate for alternate routes, without ever considering the cost of including intersection upgrades, is $12 Million if the roads are closed. Lilly’s financial contribution is ONLY some gravel and asphalt material on Rd 150W. The remaining $11.5 Million not including intersection upgrades-- the rest of us will end up paying for. Every property taxpayer whether in Wilkinson, McCordsville or New Palestine will end up paying for this. This will cost us each at least $575 or more on our property tax bill.  Year after year there will be more additional taxes on our property tax bills due to future increased road maintenance from the extra wear and tear of circuitous travel - more miles to drive around this land mass, which will cost us - all over the County.

    Traffic Jam Winston Hammons addressed the rapid expansion of housing on the south side. He called attention to the 277 new homes underway along Franklin Street south of Tague Street. These new homeowners will find themselves at the dead end of 100S - with their route to Indianapolis obstructed. The traffic from these 277 homes will further increase the present traffic overload on the intersection of Franklin and US 40. US 40 will already be absorbing the enormous Sawmill residential and commercial traffic.

    These 277 houses at 100S and Franklin are just a small part of the new traffic.  Altogether, there are 1000 acres already annexed into the City and ready to build houses right now in various locations south of 40 and east of Meridian Rd.  All of these new homes will depend on the 100S and Meridian Rd Bypass. 200S cannot substitute for 100S as an east-west bypass because 200S doesn’t go east of SR 9.  A new stoplight has been approved at SR 9 and Road 100S even though 100S going west would dead end in 1 ˝ mile!  As they say, go figure! 

    Future Planning Tim Wagner spoke of Plan Commission’s role to plan for the future. Since road closing is pending, it needs to be left alone. Planners need to factor in change of roads when doing development planning at later date - He also spoke of the heavy pressure on alternate roads. He said there was no way the alternate roads could take volume of traffic including that 150W would have to be much wider as well as upgraded significantly.

    Steering Committee Member Nick Gulling, Sheriff, addressed the Commission and said that he is a Member of the Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee. He said he did not know the roads had been taken out of the map. He wanted to go on record as not backing taking the roads out of the map.

    We are so very appreciative to the many of you who supported the roads by attending the Plan Commission hearing April 21, 2005. We had a good turnout. My gratitude to each of you for coming out that night.

    Rosemary Huffman