The August public meeting of the Broad Ripple Village Association (BRVA) Land Use and Development (LUD) committee was held at Northminster Presbyterian Church on August 25th. There were four audience attendees at the meeting. This was the first in-person (it was masked and socially distanced) meeting since the May meeting that was held at The Hatch. There were three items on the agenda, in bold below.

The petitioner was unable to attend tonight's meeting. Members of the committee had visited the site and reviewed the proposal. There was a motion to support the petition and the committee voted in favor.

This proposal is to add a structure connecting the existing Broad Ripple Animal Clinic at 6225 Broadway Street to the house next door at 6221. The house to the south has been used as office space for the clinic for the past eight years. This addition will connect it to the main building. The house will remain residential in appearance. The committee voted to support this petition.

This was an information-only item, as there are no zoning modifcations needed for this use. Indy Go has purchased the old KeyBank building at 64th and College Avenue. The parking lot is planned to become a charging station for the electric Red Line buses. Jennifer said that due to the less-than-promised battery capacity of the electric bus batteries from the manufacturer, the buses currently head to the south side of Indianapolis every other route trip to recharge. This scheme will not work this winter when the heaters activate in the buses, using even more power. This new charging station will allow Red Line buses to recharge on both sides of town.

The plan is for a bus to leave the 67th Street platform and head south on College. It would turn west on 64th and then turn north into the KeyBank lot, travel to the north side of the bank building, then park on the charging plate for 5 to 20 minutes for a recharge. Private IndyGo restrooms will be available for the driver inside the building. There may or may not still be passengers in the charging bus.

The bank building, except for the new private restrooms, will be used for some to-be-determined community use.

There was a long discussion about the effect this new system will have on the traffic problems that exist at the 64th and College intersection today. One possible solution is to add left turn arrows in a staggered east/west traffic light configuration to ease the backups.

IndyGo will involve the public in the process of continuing to pursue this bus charging solution.

The next public meeting of the LUD committee is scheduled for Tuesday, September 22 at 6:00 P.M., at Northminster Presbyterian Church.