The Indiana Economic Development Corp. has awarded $1.9 million to the Town of Zionsville to be used for the Zionsville Gateway Area project, a plan several years in the making that seeks to optimize land usage in the Zionsville area.
This grant is part of Gov. Eric Holcomb’s Indiana Regional Economic Accelerations and Development Initiative. The $1.9 million comes from a total $20 million in READI grant dollars to the White River Regional Opportunity Initiative partnership, which consists of representatives from three counties and eight communities, including Zionsville.
“With this grant, we are setting the stage for the future transformation of the gateway into our town, a vision that was cast by the public and stakeholders during previous planning phases,” DPW director Lance Lantz stated.
The ZGA project began in 2020 when the town demolished two buildings at the corner of Main and Sycamore streets. In the fall of 2020, months of public input meetings and stakeholder interviews took place. The resulting ZGA study took a community-serving approach, bringing together a menu of options for the downtown area.
Funding from the grant will be utilized in design work for the ZGA. Beginning in 2023, the Zionsville Dept. of Public Works will engage engineers and landscape architects to design the realignment of First Street south of Sycamore Street. This includes considerations for an extension of First Street south of Sycamore Street with intersection improvements, the creation of a pedestrian boulevard, a public plaza area and more.
Design and engineering are expected to be complete in the first half of 2024.
“This infrastructure investment will be a catalyst for implementing this mission and seeing future transformational development that compliments the activity and character of the Village,” mayor Emily Styron stated in a release.
