By AARON SMITH
Noblesville Common Council member
October was action-packed in the City of Noblesville. We approved a budget, shared the State of our City, and so much more. Before we jump in, a few things I wanted to be sure you knew:
- The Nickel Plate Trail is open. It looks great and you should give it a look.
- Costco is headed to Noblesville – and it’s opening soon. You’ll be able to shop there later this month.
- We have some pretty incredible employees in our Police and Fire Departments. We recently celebrated those with milestones. Take a look at those folks here.
Without further ado, here’s the latest happening in the ninth-largest city in the State of Indiana:
- We passed a budget.
In last month’s email, I did a deep dive into the budget. If you’d like to see the specifics of that message, click here. There are lots of important programs within the budget, but here are five that I think are important for you to know you are helping to fund:
- Protecting Brick Streets
- Assessing next steps for an additional fire station in Noblesville
- Expanding Boden and Olio roads
- Building sidewalks in Old Town
- Preparing for a new (and much-needed!) public safety building
Have any questions on the budget? I’m happy to field them.
- The State of Our City is Strong.
Chris Jensen took Noblesville’s story on the road on Tuesday, sharing the latest projects with more than 600 people at the Chamber’s State of the City. I was grateful to introduce him on behalf of the Council.
A few notes that I hit on in my remarks:
- Working alongside Mayor Chris Jensen, we have paved roads on the west side, built roundabouts on the east side, and preserved brick streets downtown.
- We’ve doubled down on the people of Noblesville – talking openly about mental health and advocating for those with disabilities.
- We’ve made our city safer with record investment in the men and women who serve and protect us each and every day.
- And we’ve seen more than $1.5 billion worth of private investment in our city.
We’ve bet on Noblesville in the past four years – and I know we are just getting started.
Click here for my full remarks.
- Eighth Street is (almost) open!
Over the last few months, the team has made strong progress on Pleasant Street extension. I’m excited to share that 8th Street is set to reopen NEXT WEEK! The bridge over the White River remains under construction – look to completion on that portion of the project next year.
Project Overview: As a reminder, the Pleasant Street project is a multi-year initiative to improve east-west connectivity in Noblesville. The project will be completed in three phases, the first of which is currently underway.
- Phase One: River Road to 10th Street
- Phase Two: 10th Street to State Road 37
- Phase Three: River Road to State Road 32
- New townhomes proposed at Moontown Road & SR 32
Last month, Lennar proposed 50 front facing, three-story townhomes which will have rear entry garages accessed via alleys. The proposed project is just north of Moontown and SR 32.
In the past, I’ve voted no on townhome proposals simply because I felt they didn’t meet the bar for our community. These brick townhomes on the west side will be a great addition to Noblesville. I hope to see more like them down the road.
The Indianapolis Business Journal picked the story up and shared a quote of mine from the project’s introduction at Council: “’This is a really strong town home product and really elevates the game,’ City Councilor Aaron Smith said. ‘I would like to show something like this to other developers that are coming in that are looking at creating those type of products.'”
Click here to learn more about the proposal.
- Reimagining Development: Cuyahoga County, Ohio
As Noblesville grows, development will play a key role in building the vision the city sets for its future. Each month, I try to share some of the examples of new development I’ve seen that I believe we should look to as inspiration down the road.
Cuyahoga County launched a search for a new or renovated home for its courts and the market responded with seven options.
One of them was presented by DMD Development Group. It proposes to demolish the entire Justice Center complex and replace it with eight lower-slung buildings, each of them evoking or replicating a historic structure that once stood in downtown Cleveland.
Aaron Smith lives in Old Town and represents District 3 on the Noblesville Common Council. You can read and subscribe to his monthly newsletter at noblesville.substack.com.