Commission OK's 146th Street Access Points
Commission OK’s 146th Street Access Points
October 4, 2003 - Noblesville Ledger
By: Diana Lamirand
NOBLESVILLE – Hamilton County Commissioners have ironed out the final little kink in a plan to bring corporate development to what city engineers describe as the “golden triangle” in Noblesville – Interstate 69, Indiana 238 and Indiana 37.
September 23, the commissioners approved a plan outlined by City Engineer Kevin Jump to allow for a third access point onto Indiana 238, a portion of which will become a future 146th Street. This third access point will relieve traffic within the eastern anchor of Noblesville’s Corporate Campus, as well as around Verizon Wireless Music Center.
Noblesville police responded to 25,146 calls in 2002. The department is studying city maps and staffing needs, and may modify the way police officers patrol – especially if the city annexes the Corporate Campus and Verizon Wireless Music Center next year. The chart shows the number of calls for service this year in the city’s seven police districts.
Calling it critical for economic development, Jump said Republic Development requested the access roads be approved before it moves forward with a 280-acre corporate development that promises to bring offices, warehouses and corporate headquarters.
“It’s the future gateway into the city of Noblesville,” Jump told the commissioners.
Also at the meeting, the commissioners granted their consent to allow the city of Noblesville to develop a tax increment financing district (TIF) immediately south of Verizon. The TIF district will allow for the construction of public infrastructure including a gravity sanitary sewer, internal roadways, storm piping and retention facilities.
The city hired A&F Engineering to study the 146th Street corridor to determine traffic projections through 2021 and to determine the most efficient way to make 146th Street a primary arterial road, he said.
One access point will be Boden Road and 146th Street to the west, a second will be roads A/J and 146th Street to the east, and the third will be roads F/H and 146th Street. Jump said Road F will be built to the north of 146th Street and Road H will extend to the south of 146th Street.
Noblesville Common Council President Jim Snyder told the commissioners the study was quite an undertaking, but the road project was needed to boost corporate development for the city so the property-tax burden on residents could be lifted.
“It’s the final little kink to work out with our developer,” Snyder said. “I think it’s vital for this project and I think it’s something we can handle.”
Although there are still other issues to work out on the project, Hamilton County Highway Director Tom Stevens said his department also supported the new roads. He said the county’s comprehensive plan called for 146th Street to be a primary arterial road and it needed to be constructed to serve that purpose.
“I think we all understand that this needs to happen,” he said.
Republic has agreed to help fund roads and sewers at Exit 10, the Ind. 238/Interstate 69 interchange. The company has said it hopes to have tenants in buildings by next summer. Construction on sewers and roads could begin by December or early January, Jump said.
