The seventh meeting of the Envision Broad Ripple team met on December 11, 2008, at the Indianapolis Art Center. An amazing sunset was visible through the window behind the Christmas Tree in the Ruth Lilly Library.

This session was devoted to the future of Broad Ripple Avenue. Tom Healy opened the meeting. He mentioned that these meetings are a result of a comment made by Department of Metropolitan Development director Maury Plambeck at a Town Hall Meeting in Broad Ripple. Plambeck said that Broad Ripple should develop a set of design guidelines with enforcement possibilities to help define the future of the Village. Green Broad Ripple, Harmoni, and the Broad Ripple Village Association all got involved in that process, now called Envision Broad Ripple.

Tom Healy explained the background of the Envision process and reminded us that Broad Ripple has a green infrastructure that many other cities wish they had. We have the Monon Trail, the canal, the White River, and Broad Ripple Park.

Next, Kathleen Blackham presented a visual image survey. She displayed a series of 30 to 40 images in rapid succession and asked attendees to rate each image from -5 to +5. The images were of Broad Ripple, Mass Ave, downtown, and Carmel. I noticed that most of the non-Broad Ripple images were high contrast, blue sky, colorful images with few cars pictured, while the Broad Ripple images were low contrast, gray sky and loaded with parked cars. This may have been unintentional, but that could affect viewer's reactions. The surveys were collected so they could be tallied.

Bob Welch then presented some slides of architectural renderings of what a successful future Broad Ripple Avenue building might look like if it was designed to meet business, living, and parking needs. The building had retail on the ground floor with two levels of parking above. Residential could be placed atop the parking, if the upper floors were stepped back from the Avenue to minimize the effect of the height.

Kathy Shorter followed with a workshop session. As she pointed out, her sessions always use index cards. All of the audience was asked to fill out an index card. One piece of information on the card was a fill-in-the-blank. "Regarding Broad Ripple Avenue, I've always wished we could ________________." Groups were formed and details of desired Broad Ripple Avenue ideas were formed.

The next Envision Broad Ripple meeting will be held on January 15, 2009, at the Art Center starting at 5:30 pm.