Pam Faeber has passed along some notes from the meeting Monday afternoon regarding reclassification of “agricultural” land to “excess residential”. Thank you Pam!
According to Pam, the following representatives were on hand at the meeting:
All over Indiana and, in particular, Boone County, land is now being “re-classified” from agricultural land into “excess residential”. This is being done by the local assessors. The result, in a high-growth area like Boone County for instance, is a 1200% increase in assessed value of the land.
Example: one 17 acre parcel currently assessed as agricultural land at $17,000 would be reclassified as “excess residential” at $195,000. All land has the same rate with this “law” including flood plain, wooded ravines, land under high tension utility lines, horse pasture, etc. And this is perfectly legal unless the land-owner can prove the land is tilled for farm land and producing income.
The law being quoted is as follows:
Indiana Code section 6-1.1-4-13(a) declares, “In assessing or reassessing land, the land shall be assessed as agricultural land only when it is devoted to agricultural use”.
Several items have been found to contradict this in the assessors guide, but they are all over-ruled by this law.
A group, lead by Pam Faerber and others, wants to make it abundantly clear that land should not be “re-classified” unless the use of the land changes. State Senator Mike Delph has agreed to meet to discuss this issue at 4:30pm Monday, October 27th at the Traders Point Hunt House, 7240 Old Hunt Club Road (just west of Kissel Road). He is up for re-election Nov. 4th so it is imperative that we clearly understand where he is on this issue and that he understands what is happening to our land.
According to a June 25th Zionsville Times Sentinel article, Yates Construction has been chosen to build the replacement for the aging Ford Road Bridge south of Zionsville. The bid does not include any modifications to 96th Street or Ford Road near the bridge itself. It is unclear who will do that non-bridge construction work excluded from the accepted bid.
According to an article in the Zionsville Times Sentinel, three bids have been received for construction of the new Ford Road bridge:
Adding the construction cost for the new concrete bridge to the engineering fees already spent for previous concrete and truss bridge plans and the federal construction matching funds lost last year, the Ford Road bridge replacement has cost Boone County taxpayers at least:
Boone County Highway Superintendent Rick Carney will review the bids and recommend a winner to the Boone County Commissioners at a 9am meeting on June 24.
According to Current in Zionsville, bids will be sought during May for replacement of the Ford Road bridge. Construction is anticipated to be complete by the end of the year. As most area residents have surely noticed by now, many large trees have already been removed from the vicinity of the bridge and the sharp turn just south of the bridge on Ford Road.
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