FORTVILLE — Fortville Town Council approved the annexation of roughly 145 acres across multiple locations Tuesday night.
The parcels include a 138-acre section of land known as the Singh-Wright-Petty property west of Deaton’s Business Park, on the south side of West County Road 1000 North/96th Street and the north side of railroad tracks along U.S. 36, where a home builder plans to construct houses.
The council also approved annexing a 6.6-acre area referred to as the Huck Minor subdivision in the 600 block of West Ohio Street, as well as a .06-acre section referred to as the Rice-Ross property on Fortville Pike, south of Mt. Carmel Primitive Baptist Church.
Planning and Building Director Adam Zaklikowski said the annexations align with the town’s 10-year Comprehensive Plan Land Use Map, which was approved in November 2024 to guide growth through 2034.
All three annexations passed Tuesday are expected to become effective next month, at which time the town will provide non-capital services to the annexed territories, including police patrols, Vernon Township fire protection, roadway maintenance, participation in municipal elections, and other non-capital town services.
All capital utility services provided by the town will be available to the newly annexed territories within three years, or by February 2029. At that time property owners can seek to voluntarily connect to municipal sewer and water utilities. They will be required to pay the cost of those extensions, at no cost to the town.
Zaklikowski said a major reason property owners wish to annex is so that future owners will have access to such services.
“(Utilities) are the carrot we dangle to get people to come to Fortville,” he said.
While no further development is planned for the two smallest of the three territories approved for annexation Tuesday night, Zaklikowski said a home builder is under contract to develop the 138-acre property, although he said it’s too soon to release the builders’ names or specific details.
“We’ll certainly have more details when a plan becomes available and we take it through the public review process,” he said. “Hopefully in the next couple of months we’ll have more information.”
The newly annexed territory includes both current and former farmland, two single-family homes and a dance studio.
The areas annexed in Huck Minor subdivision include three parcels at 610, 620 and 630 W. Ohio St., which collectively covers 6.63 acres. Each parcel consists of one single-family home.
The newly annexed territory shall be zoned as Residential 1.0, the closest zoning district available to match the existing use, size and character of the lots, which is consistent with the town’s comprehensive plan.
The Rice-Ross annexation will be zoned as Residential 3.5 to match the remainder of the existing adjacent property within town limits.
“For that very small piece of property, (annexation) was simply a cleanup measure. There’s no plans for developing that,” said Zaklikowski.
The planner said Fortville residents can see the 10-year land use map posted onlinefortville.in.gov/planning-building, under “maps,” to get more familiar with the town’s plans for the future growth.
The projected footprint is bordered by County Road 1100 North to the north, County Road 600 North to the south, State Road 9 to the east and County Road 400 West to the west.
“The entire boundary of that map is what we would anticipate Fortville town limits to be at build-out,” said Zaklikowski, whcih is when all land has been developed to its maximum capacity under current zoning regulations.
“That could certainly take decades to get to that point, but that’s more or less what we would envision the boundaries to be,” said the planner.
“Then inside the map … are the different land uses that we’d like to see by the year 2034. Basically the eastern portion of the area and southern portion we’d like to keep agricultural and rural residential, at least until 2034 or 2035,” he said.