By ANNIE GOELLER, Daily Journal of Johnson County staff writer
A slew of landowners south of Franklin have a question for the state government and a Colorado-based pipeline company: Where's the map?
Whether their concern is a natural gas pipeline planned south of Franklin or a proposed toll road that would run somewhere between State Roads 44 and 252, landowners want to know how their property is affected.
But officials from both the pipeline company, Rockies Express Pipeline, and the state have said they won't have a detailed map to give out for anywhere from five months to two years.
And that's not soon enough for landowners worried their property will be hit with one or both projects, ruining their quiet setting or leaving a line of land that they feel will be worthless.
"I'd like to know now if they intend to use our property. I'd like to know now how it will affect us. I don't want to sit on the bubble for years to come," said Joyce Lowder, whose home could be affected by both proposals.
Landowners have clamored for a map of where a proposed 1,663-mile natural gas pipeline will run through the county since the proposal was first introduced in June and the route was changed in August. The 42-inch diameter pipeline is planned to cut through Union, Franklin, Nineveh and Blue River townships in Johnson County, along with eight other Indiana counties.
But pipeline officials have repeatedly said they likely will not release a map until April, when they propose their final route to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the group that would approve a natural gas pipeline, because the route could change in the future.
And now, following a proposal by Gov. Mitch Daniels this month, landowners want to know whether a highway with speeding tractor-semitrailers will be the view from their front porch in the coming years.
But officials from the Indiana Department of Transportation said studies that will determine the beltway's route could take as long as two years.
Both groups have handed out preliminary maps with little detail, showing few roads and labeling only Interstate 65. Landowners have complained that there are no road names that would allow them to figure out where their property is in relation to the proposed project.
"I'm sure they have something in the mind, but the map is very elusive," said Ann Wood, who owns 40 acres on the line between Johnson and Shelby counties.
She's worried about the toll road and how close it will come to the property where her daughter just built a home.
"My concern is where in the devil they plan to put this thing. You certainly don't want it right next door. I wouldn't want it even a mile away from me," Wood said.
Wood said she is eager to see a map and feels two years is a long time to wait.
But state officials said studies to determine if the highway is even possible will take at least that long.
A map the governor handed out in his news conference Nov. 9 shows a route for the Indiana Commerce Connector that is miles wide, somewhere south of Franklin.
No existing highways are labeled except I-65, and landowners don't have an inkling of where the toll road could be located. Local officials estimated the maps showed the road somewhere between State Roads 44 and 252, a more than 3-mile-wide stretch.
Before getting a final route, or even deciding if the project should be done, the state will need to conduct two years of studies, said Joe Gustin, deputy commissioner for public-private partnerships with the department of transportation.
Officials will do traffic studies, look at how the road will affect the land and environment surrounding it, how much land is needed, the economic impact and whether the project is possible to construct affordably, Gustin said. Daniels' plan is to have the beltway be a toll road, which would be built and operated by a private company.
"At the end of that two-year - plus or minus - study, we hope to have an answer that will tell the governor that yes, this is a fantastic project, that we can move forward with it, or no, it's not; but we have no idea what that answer is today," Gustin said.
The studies will also help officials narrow the exact route of the toll road, which is shown as miles wide on maps the governor handed out.
"That (map) represented a very broad, conceptual path for this connector. People will see maps that show wide corridors, and they should not jump to the conclusion that that is how much property the state's going to buy. That's just the study area," Gustin said.
The route starts as a footprint, showing an area where the road can be built. That area is narrowed down to a 2,000-foot-wide corridor and individual routes are chosen within that area. Once a final route is selected, the land area affected for a four-lane interstate would be about 300 to 400 feet wide, Gustin said. The state has not specified how many lanes the new toll road could or will have.
But making landowners wait that long to see how their land will be affected is unfair, Lowden said.
Lowden's two-story, six-year-old home is located on County Road 300S, just south of Franklin, and near where both the pipeline and the toll road are proposed. But since no one will give out detailed maps, she doesn't know whether a pipeline will snake through her yard or a she'll wake up to the hum of traffic every morning.
"The maps aren't specific enough," Lowder said.
The only map the pipeline company has released shows the route running diagonally south across part of the county, then heading due east into Shelby County and staying south of Franklin.
No county roads are labeled, leaving landowners guessing which properties the route crosses and trying to pick out well-known roads such as U.S. 31 and State Road 135 to use as landmarks.
In meetings, the company provided aerial maps, which give landowners a better idea of where their specific property is. But some have complained that the maps showed confusing turns in the route and not all pages were the same.
A Morgan County couple became frustrated in an October meeting with pipeline officials when one map showed the route bisecting their property and another showed the pipeline didn't touch their 52 acres at all.
"I don't know how they anticipate building this thing when they can't create maps," said Dotty Jacobs.
Company officials said they don't plan to give out specific maps until they have finalized the route, likely next year, because it could change in the meantime.
"It's too early and the route's not certain enough," said Allen Fore, spokesman for the pipeline company.
Until then, landowners are left to wonder about the future of their property.