The Spring Town Hall Meeting was held at Broad Ripple High School on March 18, 2008. About 90 attended in the mini-auditorium. Broad Ripple Village Association (BRVA) director Peter Dean opened the forum and introduced the panel: North District Major David Allender from Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD), Fire Chief Jim Greeson from Indianapolis Fire Department (IFD), Director Maury Plambeck of the Indianapolis Department of Metropolitan Development, City-County Councilor Ryan Vaughn, and Volunteer Coordinator and Red Cross Liaison Debbi Fletcher for Department of Metropolitan Development Emergency Management Division.

Nuvo's David Hoppe was the moderator for the evening. This Town Hall meeting's format was for attendees to write their questions on cards. David Hoppe read the cards and the panel responded. I believe this format was a result of some rather unruly meetings in the past where some attendees would not yield the floor and would become argumentative. The meeting did move along quickly and everyone remained polite, but a bit more interaction between the questioner and the responder would make the dialog more meaningful.

I will list some of the questions and answers here:

"This would have been David Sherman," said Ryan Vaughn, smiling and pointing to the empty seat next to him where David Sherman director of the Department of Public Works (DPW) was to be seated, but was unable to attend the meeting. Vaughn said that he recently presented Fred Mills at IPL a list of non-operational street lights. Vaughn asked that any information on still non-functioning lights be conveyed to him.

"This would have been David Sherman," replied Ryan Vaughn, laughing again. Vaughn stated that he heard the construction would run through the end of May.

Maury Plambeck said that he could forward these questions to David Sherman at DPW for answers. Vaughn replied that he receives a list of all area projects and had not seen any work scheduled for Compton.

One way to address these issues would be to notify me," said Vaughn, "then I can send a note to [DPW] and say this is an issue brought up to me by a constituent living in this area. Do you have something in the works, if not, can you have someone go out and take a look at it."

Vaughn can be contacted at vaughnforcouncil@gmail.com or on his cell phone at (317) 437-7701.

"After we merged (IPD and Sheriff), we were not as fully staffed as we would have liked to be," replied Major Allender. "We also got hit hard last year with a bunch of retirements. We lost 105 people last year. We are going to increase our numbers dramatically this year, so I can tell you in the next few months we will be putting more cars out here and you'll see more officers on patrol."

Vaughn commented that he has discussed bringing back the bike patrols with Major Allender.

"We went out last week and started putting the bikes back in shape," added Allender. They haven't been ridden for about a year and a half, so we started the maintenance process to get then up so we can get them out when it warms up."

Major Allender replied that enforcement is difficult. Apartment complexes, such as the ones on Compton, at one time had one or less cars per unit. They now have two or three cars per unit. The police try to allow people to park near their homes and near the stores they want to visit, but also try to keep the excess parking from impeding public safety, blocking fire truck access, for example. "I know we are going to have to start much more rigid enforcement on the weekends."

"The comprehensive plan is most often used as [DMD] staff is reviewing zoning petitions," replied Maury Plambeck. "And, if you've ever read a staff report, it is one of the primary things that is written in the report. Staff looks at the comprehensive plan first when they are making a recommendation, then they look at the site. Each case determines how the plan is implemented."

"My personal opinion," answered Plambeck, "is predicated on the fact that I am planner and I was a planner doing zoning work for many years. I think that Broad Ripple is in a stronger position than most of our neighborhoods in the inner part of Indianapolis. We have very few neighborhoods that have development without the city being involved in it. Almost all of the downtown [development] has had city assistance, Fall Creek Place had city or public assistance, and many neighborhoods have nothing going on. So I think the development that is happening here, and I know there is controversy over what type it is and densities and things like that, in the long run I think it is a good thing for Broad Ripple, and will be a benefit in the long term, and is probably a benefit for the City of Indianapolis, itself."

"Continued redevelopment of Broad Ripple is really necessary to maintain the quality of life here," replied Vaughn. "Because we are in a highly-competitive market where two miles north of us you can do substantially more for substantially less in an area that is growing quicker. To maintain interest in this area, we have to be willing to engage people who are willing to redevelop, because redeveloping is more expensive that developing. I am not opposed to a higher density type of living environment in Broad Ripple, and I am certainly not convinced that it is going to reduce the quality of life for the residents of Broad Ripple. I am convinced that continued redevelopment, whether it be some high density, some low density, some single-family, some business, is absolutely essential for us to maintain property values and quality of life. We have to be in a position as a community to foster that development and let people know we are willing to work with you and help you, but you have to take [infrastructure improvements, etc.] into consideration. I think the BRVA who routinely participates in these discussion is a good example of that."