The Carmel Clay Parks & Recreation board voted 7-0, with two abstentions, at a special meeting Dec. 5 to ask a judge to grant a temporary restraining order that would prevent the City of Carmel’s Board of Public Works from waiving park impact fees and instead send an amount equal to the waived funds to a Carmel Redevelopment Commission fund.

The BPW is set to vote on more than $10 million in park impact fee waivers at its Dec. 6 meeting, which begins at 10 a.m. CCPR officials said they are hopeful a Hamilton County judge will rule on the request before the BPW meeting begins.

“It is our legal opinion that that is not copacetic with the state statute and especially city ordinance,” CCPR Director Michael Klitzing said after the special meeting. “This is definitely not the preferred action we would like. We would have hoped that we wouldn’t have to resort to this, but unfortunately, we believe this is the only remedy that’s available to us, to have the courts take a look at it and determine the appropriateness of how park impact fees are being diverted.”

If granted, a temporary restraining order would be in effect for 10 days to give CCPR and the city additional time to reach a resolution. If they are unable to do so, Klitzing said he anticipates the parks board will seek a permanent injunction.

Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard said CCPR officials have repeatedly told him they do not want to be responsible for building urban parks in the city’s redeveloped downtown, so development of spaces like Midtown Plaza – which was partially funded through waived park impact fees – have become the responsibility of the city.

“It is regrettable that the independent parks board has chosen to discriminate against this area of the city,” Brainard said. “The public has repeatedly requested more parks and green space in this area and the parks board has not appropriately included residents of their downtown in their surveying and master planning process.”

He described the parks board, whose members are unelected, as a “holdover from when the city was very small.”

“(The parks board) should be disbanded and the parks consolidated with other city departments that are managed by an elected mayor and city council that is directly elected by voters as has been done in most other Indiana cities,” Brainard said.

The park impact fee waiver requests on the Dec. 6 BPW agenda were tabled at the Nov. 15 meeting to allow CCPR and city officials time to discuss the matter. Klitzing said CCPR shared its legal opinion with the city but that the city has not shared its legal opinion with CCPR. He also said that the CCPR board attorney requested a meeting with the city’s attorney but that it was not accepted.

“Our efforts to get to the root of our legal understanding and try to better understand their position simply through the attorneys was not reciprocated by the city, so that leads us to where we are today,” Klitzing said.

Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard said the city’s legal staff has had “numerous discussions” with the parks board attorney.

“To suggest that the city’s lawyers refused meetings is disingenuous,” Brainard said.

In the last decade, the BPW has agreed to waive more than $13 million in park impact fees charged to developers that would have helped the city expand its park system in underserved areas to accommodate population growth. Instead, those funds have supported urban parks or related amenities within or near redevelopment projects.

A park impact fee of $4,882 is charged for every new dwelling unit built in the city to help the park system expand to serve a growing population. In 2010 the city council gave the BPW authority to waive park impact fees in lieu of developers building park infrastructure, such as outdoor plazas.

In recent years, the number and amount of park impact fee waivers granted by the BPW has increased, leaving CCPR without funds it expected to have to acquire and develop park land. If the tabled impact fee waivers are approved, the BPW will have redirected more than 81 percent of impact fees generated since 2020 to the CRC, according to Klitzing.