When the current Westfield-Washington Township Comprehensive Plan was adopted in 2007, Westfield was not yet a city, it had at least 30,000 fewer residents than its current population of more than 62,000 and the Grand Park Sports Campus had yet to be built.
Almost two decades later, the Hamilton County city is nearing the end of a process to outline a new vision for growth and development.
After an 18-month-long process and more than half a million dollars, Westfield now has a draft comprehensive plan that includes ideas for development along trails, potential new riverfront districts and areas where the city’s historically rural character will be preserved.
Westfield Mayor Scott Willis noted at a city council meeting on March 9 that the plan city leaders approved in 2007 contains six broad land use categories, while the new plan identifies 19 specific “placetypes,” or visions for the type of development, general character or function of different areas of the city.
Willis emphasized that the new comprehensive plan would not rezone anybody’s land, force anyone to sell property or automatically annex areas of the Westfield Washington Township into the City of Westfield.
“Look folks, we’re not asking anybody to sell a property,” the mayor said. “What I care about is that we have a plan moving forward. If it takes us 1,000 years to build it, great.”
The city spent $520,000 to partner with Rundell Ernstberger Associates, a consulting firm with offices in Indianapolis and Louisville, on the new comprehensive plan.
Willis said when the city adopted a comprehensive plan 19 years ago, only 138 residents, or less than 1% of the city’s then-population, participated. This time, about 6,000 residents have participated in the process online, at meetings or at events the city hosted to gather feedback.
City Councilor Kurt Wanninger said this aspirational plan provides a better if not perfect vision for the city than the one from nearly two decades ago.
“I’ll agree with you, mayor, on one thing,” he said. “Not everybody is going to like this plan. They didn’t like the last one. I was here in 2007 when that came forward. I didn’t like it, and there were parts of it I did like.”
Jenell Fairman, executive chief of economic and community development for the city, told city councilors that identifying areas where smart, dense development can happen is key to supporting the city’s needs and operations.
“Concentrated growth really allows us to keep our revenues in line with the costs that are required to maintain the infrastructure and provide public service efficiently,” Fairman said.
The draft comprehensive plan identifies Westfield’s downtown and areas adjacent to the Monon and the Midland Trace Trail as locations where denser development can be successful.
The plan identifies “trail oriented development” as a new “placetype” and notes that more small-scale apartments, townhomes and commercial buildings could fit in along the city’s trails and that these developments should incorporate public art, small parks, plazas or other amenities for trail users.
The draft plan also identifies developments called “village centers” that would add some density in pockets of the city. These village centers would allow small-scale commercial, service and retail businesses that nearby residents could reach by foot or bike.
“We’re trying to create these little destinations or places for our residents who don’t want to live in our downtown area, which will tend to be a bit more dense,” Willis said of the village centers.
The draft plan also designates more potential riverfront districts although the city does not have a major body of water.
“I know this is crazy but the State of Indiana has this law around riverfront districts,” Willis said. “Literally it can be a dry creek bed that hasn’t seen water in 100 years, and we can turn that into a riverfront district, which allows liquor license and other things.”
Increasing retail and restaurants in the city could also help balance the city’s finances better as currently about 90% of the city’s tax revenues come from residential properties.
“I don’t want to ever raise taxes on our residents,” Willis said. “The only way we do that is by growing our commercial tax base. It’s the only path forward.”
But the draft plan also designates the northwest and southwest corners of Westfield Washington Township as locations that will be preserved as rural areas.
A copy of the draft comprehensive plan can be found online attached to the city council’s March 9 agenda. Residents can still provide feedback at the following meetings:
Willis emphasized that the comprehensive plan is a vision for the city that does not mandate any changes.
“I’m not asking a single farmer to sell their property,” Willis said. “I’m not asking a single resident to move. I’m just simply creating a vision so that if that day happens and that farmer decides they want to cash out, we control what it looks like. We are not going to be a patchwork of development with sprawl in our community. We actually have a vision.”
Contact Jake Allen at jake.allen@indystar.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @Jake_Allen19.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Village centers, riverfront districts? Westfield’s new growth plan almost done
Reporting by Jake Allen, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
