A mixed-use development and a downtown master plan that will “set the stage” for future development in Bargersville are in the approval process.
These pieces were first dreamed up during development of the town’s Vision 2030 Plan, which outlines ways town officials — with input from residents — hope to revitalize downtown and the State Road 135 and County Road 144 corridor.
There are several steps to put the pieces in motion that are expected to unfold later this month and throughout May.
Bargersville will “dramatically change in the next three years if we get this right,” Andrew Greenwood, a town council and redevelopment commission member, said at a meeting on the projects earlier this week.
The Jefferson
The development, dubbed The Jefferson, redevelops the former site of the Bargersville Flea Market, which closed in 2019, plus additional acreage. After an unsuccessful attempt by late car dealership owner Charlie Milam to revive the market in 2020, the town acquired the land and sought to redevelop it.
The Bargersville Redevelopment Commission, or RDC, sought requests for proposals to develop mixed-use at the site in 2022 and have been in the process of bringing forward a proposal ever since. Now the commission is close to approving plans for a development that is hoped to revitalize the State Roads 135 and 144 corridor.
Town officials and Indianapolis developer Barrett and Stokely have “somewhat tentatively” come up with terms of a development agreement and are “very close” to finalizing the agreement, said Dax Norton, town manager.
The mixed-use development would cover 11 acres and is expected to bring commercial and retail spaces along with more than 200 residential units.
The Jefferson is hoped to be a “catalyst” that ignites other plans to help Bargersville grow, officials said at the RDC meeting last week. The hope is to introduce the project for a vote by the May 8 RDC meeting, or “be moving in a different direction,” Greenwood said.
Commissioners are both “super excited” and a bit nervous as the process goes on, RDC president Mike Patarino said at the meeting. Patarino asked if there was a timeline and wondered if there were investment issues holding up the process. He didn’t want to discuss the topic, but said he wanted to pose the question.
Greenwood said no particular issues were holding up the process, but “it’s a different environment than it was a few years ago.”
“A lot of the conversation has revolved around their desire to hit a certain internal written return in order to move forward,” he said.
Those conversations have been a part of the difficulty in getting a development agreement over the finish line. Plus changes in the project have caused some of the delays, he said.
“It’s the catalyst project that sets the stage for what we believe the corridor should have, architecture, design and thoughtfulness,” Greenwood said.
The town has been given $4 million in READI funds by the state, which will go toward building the project.
Master plan
The RDC is also currently in the process of discussing a Downtown and State Road 135 Corridor Master Plan. The plan, which is being developed by planning firm Browning Day and funded by the RDC, will be added to the comprehensive plan.
In the plan, the future of Bargersville is depicted as an urban community that keeps its roots in agriculture and creates a strong community connection with walkability and retail spaces. Attracting new consumers and new workers to live in Bargersville while keeping current residents and the history of Bargersville in mind is the goal, Norton said.
A public hearing will be held on April 21 at the Plan Commission, before making a recommendation to the town council. The RDC will also give its recommendation at its May 8 meeting, and the town council could consider approving the plan at the May 27th meeting.
The first part of the plan will focus on branding and marketing. After that, zoning changes would follow.
Downtown, the plan calls for a realignment and extension of Baldwin Street to include parking on the street and in a few small lots in downtown, along with new lots north of County Road 144. It will also redevelop the iconic Umbargar Feed Mill silos and town hall sites and include redevelopment south of Taxman Brewing Company. Central green space would run north and south among mixed-use and residential lots.
The plan includes distinct northern and southern corridors. The northern corridor would be made up of mixed use, retail and multifamily commercial spaces. The south corridor would be a more traditional industrial area and is the “dream” officials have for Bargersville’s growth into a community where people can both live and work, Norton said.
These pieces are part of a broad effort to shift the town’s property tax base in a plan dubbed 80/20 by 2030. Officials want to shift their focus to be a community where residents can work, shop and live, Norton said.
Bargersville officials have dreams beyond being a “bedroom community,” or a community where many residents commute to a larger city for work. The town won’t survive if it remains a bedroom community for the rest of its existence, Norton said.
The plan outlines priorities for the town and focuses on developing areas of town that had not previously been thought about, he said.
The plan and additional growth have also become more important because Senate Enrolled Act 1 has been signed into law, Greenwood said. The new law lowers property taxes by several hundred dollars annually for some Hoosier homeowners at the expense of lowering revenue for all of Indiana’s municipalities, schools and libraries — including Bargersville.
Pieces of the puzzle
To put the plans in motion, the town will have to be strategic and put together a strategy to attract private investors, Norton said. Having a mixed-use development like The Jefferson is hoped to show investors that the growing town has potential.
Filling out parts of the master plan will involve attracting retail, commercial, industrial and multifamily investments. Private investments will ensure that Bargersville becomes prosperous economically, civically and socially, he said.
“It’s always better if the community comes together to develop a vision and then the development community can see that, it becomes predictable and they know what they have to draw to fit into the vision,” Norton said.
The goal to the grow the town is more about quality than quantity.
“We don’t want to grow just because developers wanna come here and build something and growth for the sake of growth. We don’t want to do that,” Norton said.
Norton told the town council last week part of the hope for growth is “onshoring” of production that had been taken to foreign countries, but may be brought back to the United States as a result of President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Plus, a partnership with the Louisville and Indiana Railroad will connect Bargersville to Mount Vernon, the state’s largest port in cargo shipments and acreage. Eventually, the corridors will be officially designated in code so that they can begin financing infrastructure.
The creation of two new commissions, a community development corporation and a municipal arts and culture commission, will be “incredibly important” to drive economic development in Bargersville, Norton said.
Ordinances to establish a community development corporation and a municipal arts and culture commission were both introduced to the town council earlier this month. The ordinances will be considered for a second reading at the April 29 meeting.
The CDC will help Bargersville “narrowly focus” economic development of the area, Norton said.
Nearby, there’s another massive project, dubbed Pulte Iron Horse, that would include more than 3,200 residential and commercial units. Pulte Homes of Indiana is requesting to rezone 873 acres of farmland along State Road 135, Old Plank Road and State Road 144 to planned unit development. The project is planned south of the approved Meadowbrook planned unit development and the existing Three Notch neighborhood. Meadowbrook is platted for 412 homes and townhomes, and five commercial blocks.
Pulte Iron Horse was tabled at the plan commission’s February meeting, but will come back up again after discussions between the town, neighbors and the developer.