The Carmel City Council had its first chance Aug. 21 to publicly review plans to expand Conner Prairie west of the White River.
At the city council meeting, councilors heard a presentation on the project from the Conner Prairie planning team and gathered feedback from residents during a public hearing.
Conner Prairie, a living history museum, owns more than 1,000 acres that straddle the White River south of 146th Street, with all existing development east of the river in Fishers. It has requested a rezone of its land west of the river, which is in Carmel, to a planned unit development, meaning development guidelines would be specific to the site.
The proposed $100 million expansion includes a ticketed area with food, farm and energy exhibits; trails; White River education center; eco-lodge; office building; restaurant and more.
“We believe there will be nothing like it in the Midwest,” said Andrew Bradford, Conner Prairie vice president and chief advancement officer.
The expansion is expected to occur over 25 years, according to Ken Alexander, Conner Prairie site master plan manager. Bradford said the first aspects to be constructed would likely be the food, farm and energy exhibits; White River education center; and trails.
Carmel City Councilor Sue Finkam, whose district includes Conner Prairie, said she would like to see the council vote unanimously to approve the PUD but that she will not support the project if plans for a three-story office building – which could be used by up to 300 employees daily – on the White River remain. She said her constituents “don’t want a Midtown in east Carmel.”
“I would love to see (the office building) moved further north,” she said. “I would love to see it made smaller or eliminated and a reduction in the number of employees there every day.”
Other councilors asked for additional information about how the expansion would impact traffic and whether Conner Prairie would include a public boat launch area.
During the public hearing, several residents of The Overlook at Legacy neighborhood expressed concerns about the adjacent project, including proposed landscape buffers and the office building changing the character of the area.
“When I hear Conner Prairie say a developer wants to put in the office building, ‘developer’ to me is a scary word,” said Steve Baughman, a resident of The Overlook at Legacy, who is not against the expansion as a whole. “I believe also that office space in today’s environment with vacancy rates so high is a bad business idea.”
Others spoke in favor of the project, including Jack Russell, president of the OneZone chamber of commerce, and Brenda Myers, president and CEO of Hamilton County Tourism.
“We believe Conner Prairie has addressed the concerns, has researched the issues, is treating the river and the surrounding land with great care, and will positively impact the local ecology in advancing its visionary plans,” Myers said.
The council’s land use committee is set to review the proposed PUD before sending it back to the council by Oct. 25 for a vote. A committee meeting date had not been announced as of Aug. 23.
