The County Line
Why the mystery?
In the not-too-distant future, downtown Noblesville is scheduled to get a $50 million building project that will transform the appearance of the city’s riverfront.
But City Hall won’t talk about it.
Republic Development, Inc., has purchased a full city block on the east bank of White River at Conner Street, but the city planning department says no application for the improvements has been received.
Earlier this month Hamilton County officials sold the property (currently an employee parking lot) to Republic for $4.55 million.
In the agreement, it was revealed that the development company will spend $50 million to build a multi-use complex, providing a big economic advantage for the city.
The cat was out of the bag, but Emily Gaylord, city communications director, says the city has no information on plans for anything at the site to announce at this time.
The phrase “to announce” probably includes the operative word here. But, why? The city is a public entity dealing with public issues.
Republic is a respected company, but how much of a break (if any) on property taxes was offered by the city?
What is this complex going to look like? What will be the impact on downtown traffic and parking?
These are questions that the public deserves to have answered well before construction begins and certainly before the traditional groundbreaking photo op when, suddenly, public officials are so happy to talk about the good news.
These questions just keeps coming back again and again don’t they? Who is profiting now from these government deals? Who’s getting richer on these deals because it is clearly NOT the taxpayers/voters who are footing the bill. The residents of Noblesville and Hamilton County were warned long ago by Save the Train supporters. First our “elected” officials went after the Indiana Transportation Museum and the railroad line – the government won that war (for now). Remember for years no parking garages were to be allowed in or around downtown, to help easy the parking and help the local merchants….now multiple ones are not only being proposed but approved. And who is going to profit from these new garages? Will these parking garages easy parking in downtown? Help our merchants? Did the merchants have any input in this? Our Historic downtown has been begging for years for a hazardous bypass so large dangerous chemical tankers can go around instead of thru downtown but it was more important to covert SR 37 to look like Carmel’s Keystone Parkway. Remember this when it is time to VOTE in NOVEMBER – Who has your back? It is time to replace our elite elected officials who no longer listen or do what the voters want but what they want or their donors want at our expense.
Starts with the mayor and the whole city council..drain the swamp…new kid in town mayor same old politics
That’s what happens when one party is given complete control over the city. These “Fiscal Conservatives “ are that in name only. The have a word for what they are trying to do on the west side of Noblesville. That’s ‘Gentrification’. First they cleared out where the park is and now they want to remove the Wendy’s and old Mexican restaurant. Then they’ll go across Logan and wipe out the old trailer park. Then this will happen across the river. McMillan will be pressured to do something with his property. Always on the table is the idea of routing 32 and 38 south from Hague Rd. To Pleasant street. Wonder how many properties that are seen as eyesores will be take by imminent domain? Politicians will say I don’t know what I’m talking about but we’ve seen what happened in Carmel when the Mayor and all of the City Council are the same party. City states they no nothing of this project but I find it extremely hard to believe that a developer would plan this project with this amount of detail without some kind of tacit approval from someone in City Hall.