Plan Commission adopts zone improvement plan, recommends $318-per-trip road impact fee to council

The Whitestown Plan Commission adopted a zone improvement plan and gave Town Council a favorable recommendation on an ordinance establishing a road impact fee, after a consultant told the commission the proposed fee equates to about $318 per new trip.

Amanda Johnson of EMCS, the study vendor, summarized a ten-year, 2035 horizon analysis using ITE trip-generation rates and a study area covering most of Whitestown and a small portion of Boone County for potential annexation. The consultant reported an estimated 170,000 new daily trips attributable to projected development and calculated net attributable roadway costs near $53 million, leading to the proposed $318-per-trip figure. "So what that means... a new single-family house would be assessed approximately $3,000," Johnson said.

Builders who spoke at the hearing said they are not uniformly opposed but asked for more time to review appendices and to correct omissions; David Compton of Pulte Homes said several committed projects (Bridal Oaks, Highlands, Peabody Farms) were missing from early exhibits and requested 30 days to review new material. John Kinsell of the Builders Association of Greater Indianapolis repeated concerns about timing and argued the study and fee must strictly meet statutory tests of nexus and proportionality.

Legal counsel outlined the two constitutional tests (nexus and proportionality) and described the required review and appeals processes, including an advisory committee and an impact-fee review board with an appeals mechanism. The commission adopted the zone improvement plan (7–0) and then voted 7–0 to send a favorable recommendation on the road impact fee ordinance to Town Council. If council adopts the ordinance, the town will have a six-month waiting period before it may begin collecting fees to avoid unfairly affecting applicants already in the permit queue.