Approvals now complete for purchase of North Park property as new Monroe County jail site
At its Tuesday meeting, the Monroe County council approved a $11.375-million purchase agreement for the land where a new county jail and co-located justice complex is now planned to be built.
The property that the councilors agreed to buy amounts to about 52 acres in North Park, off SR46, south of Hunter Valley Road, which is owned by Steve Crider through Logan Land Development.
Councilors approved the agreement on a 5–1 vote, with dissent from Marty Hawk. Cheryl Munson was absent.
For such a land purchase, approvals from both the board of commissioners and the county council are required under state law.
The council’s approval on Tuesday followed the authorization given by county commissioners in late October.
According to county attorney Jeff Cockerill, a next step will be to make a request of the county plan commission for a revision to the current PUD (planned unit development) zoning of the property. Cockerill told The B Square that the requested rezone could be in front of the plan commission by January 2025.
Construction is expected to take at least two and a half years.
[Added Nov. 15, 2024. A wrinkle has emerged. It turns out that a second vote by the county council will be required, because under state law The council’s action was taken in the form of an ordinance, which means that it will need another vote at a second meeting—because the first vote was not unanimous. That’s how state law works for ordinances (as opposed to resolutions) that are enacted by the county council.]
The timing of the planned construction of the colocated justice complex is reflected in the terms of the purchase agreement: “The County intends to complete the Jail structure first, however, it will not operate the facility until contracts are awarded for Courtroom construction.”
On Tuesday, the council voted to amend the contract in the same way the board of commissioners had, to change the execution date for the purchase agreement from Sept. 30 to Nov. 15.
In the purchase agreement, the closing date for the transaction is spelled out as June 1, 2025, but Cockerill told councilors that he thinks the closing will come much sooner than that.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Cockerill also estimated some additional costs that will come with the choice of the North Park property. For a shared roadway on the property, Cockerill said the cost would be around $400,000.
To hook up to the South Central Regional Sewer District plant, which would serve the jail complex, would cost $440,000, Cockerill said. But there will be an additional cost to expand the capacity of the plant. Doubling the capacity from 100,000 gallons a day would cost around $25 to $30 a gallon, Cockerill said. The math works out to a cost of up to $3 million.
Councilors took turns stating their reasons for supporting the land purchase or not.
Peter Iversen said he supported the land purchase for two reasons. First, Iversen said, “If we do not act, we will have other people coming in and doing this for us, and it will be more expensive.” That was an allusion to the reason why the county is now considering the construction of a new facility at all.
In 2008, the ACLU filed a lawsuit based the Monroe County jail operates under a settlement agreement that has been extended several times. The current effort towards constructing a new jail, stems from two reports from consultants hired to study the local criminal justice system. The reports were delivered three years ago, in July 2021.
The reports from the two consultants—RJS Justice Services and Inclusivity Strategic Consulting—highlighted a number of challenges in Monroe County’s criminal justice system. The key conclusion from the RJS study, which prompted the start to the recent effort was: “The jail facility is failing and cannot ensure consistent and sustainable provision of constitutional rights of incarcerated persons.”
Iversen’s allusion was to the possibility that a federal judge could mandate to the county how it resolves the question of constitutional care.
The second reason given by Iversen for supporting the land purchase was that it would allow the county to work on improvements to re-entry programs, community corrections, diversity equity and inclusion, and treatment.
Jennifer Crossley acknowledged that the process of finding a site for the new jail had been controversial: “Has it been contentious at times? Yes. Has it been messy at times? Absolutely.” But Crossley said, “I think we have done our due diligence. We’ve tried really hard to look at a lot of different properties. We’ve had some cooperation.”
Crossley wants to guard against the possibility that the jail would be built with not enough capacity, and that from the very start would be overcrowded. She does not want to be “doomed from Day One.” That was part of the reason that an alternative property on Vernal Pike was not pursued.
In late September, county commissioners had put off the North Park land purchase when it emerged that an alternative site, on Vernal Pike, had a feasible solution for getting sewer service, without being annexed into the city of Bloomington.
But the Vernal Pike property proved to have some topographical limitations that commissioners were not willing to accept. It was not clear there would be room for expansion in the future, if it turns out to be needed.
In his turn, Geoff McKim echoed the sentiments of county commissioner Penny Githens, who spoke from the public mic over a video conferencing connection, saying that the North Park property is “the best of our current options.” McKim said if time could be turned back to 10 years ago, the location where the new Hopewell neighborhood is being planned would have been an ideal place.
McKim also responded to remarks from the public mic on Tuesday by Bloomington resident Joe Davis, who called for using the land south of 3rd Street, where a convention center expansion is being planned, to construct a new jail. McKim said, “I don’t think there’s any purpose in discussing that property across from the convention center that is far too small.”
In opposing the choice of North Park, Marty Hawk said she favored the Fullerton Pike property, which had been considered, but seen a rejection of its required rezone by Bloomington’s city council, in late 2022. It’s a piece of land on the southwestern tip of the city.
Hawk said the new mayor and city council, who took office at the start of 2024, should have been approached to revisit the possibility of Fullerton Pike.
Hawk said she was voting against the North Park property, because of the opposition from Ellettsville residents. Hawk said, “You can say all you want: This isn’t in Ellettsville. But you must ask the people in Ellettsville, if they feel like it is, because it is very close.”
Hawk wrapped up her remarks by saying, “So I won’t be voting in favor of this. I have made my commitment, and when I make a commitment, I stick with it.”
Kate Wiltz said, “As everyone knows, this is not my first choice of property.” She added, “However, I’m a strong believer in advocacy first and compromise to wrap it up.”
Wiltz described the North Park property as the “most developable, with the least amount of environmental impact, according to the studies that were done.”
Wiltz wrapped up by saying, “So my period of advocacy for other properties and locations is over, and I am fully into compromising to move this project forward.”
Council president Trent Deckard described the action to purchase the North Park property as “getting something done.”
He described how the location of projects can often lead to controversy, citing as an example the location of what is now the Kroger on Kinser Pike near Arlington Elementary. “All the children and all the families around Arlington Elementary went after the commissioners in the letter campaign, because that Marsh North was going to destroy life as we know it,” Deckard said. He added that his wife was one of the people who signed a letter.
Deckard said he brought up the Marsh store example, not to be facetious, but to illustrate how new situations will somehow get dealt with. Deckard said, “I say this to say: We will manage it. We will have new headaches. We’ll have new needs tomorrow.” He added, “I think we’ve got to keep this moving.”
