BTC President Curtis Ward wants Brookville to establish own Area Plan; there may be some costs involved

By John Estridge

Brookville Town Council President Curtis Ward wants the town to leave the county’s unified zoning code and create its own.

Ward made the announcement during the BTC’s March 23 meeting.

Since its inception in 1965, Brookville has been a part of the county’s unified zoning code. However, Ward wants to see that change.

“I want to see if there’s any interest with the board of removing us from the area planning commission and establishing our own area planning commission,” Ward said.

Ward wants to establish a committee from council members to look into the process for moving out of the county’s area plan commission and starting the town’s own. He said Batesville, Rushville and Connersville all are not part of their respective county area plans and have their own individual area plans.

However, Brookville Attorney Tammy Davis, who is also the Franklin County Area Plan Commission attorney, said Connersville does not have its own area plan and is part of the Fayette County Area Plan.

According to openpayrolls.com, Rushville has a director of its Area Plan. The director made $40,500.20 in 2019. Rushville also hires an outside consultant for some work. The consultant is paid by the hour.

Using the same website, Batesville has a director of operations for both the Area Plan and streets. That salary in 2019 was $76,439.46. The code enforcement officer in the area plan made $53,396. It is not known if there is a secretary or receptionist.

According to Ward, one of the reasons he wants this to happen is the town has smaller lots than what the county has. Thus, he said, the library had to get a variance to be able to build its recent addition.

Ward went on to explain the town council must pass an ordinance withdrawing from the county’s area plan. Until that occurs, the town council must look at the current zoning ordinance and decide what to take with them from the county ordinance and what to change.

Then, council would adopt the new zoning ordinance to replace the one it uses with the county. He said it would take until summer or early fall to go through the process.

Ward said he had served on the county’s area plan commission and would be happy to be on the committee to go through that process.

Council members voted unanimously to start the process.