Jail site update: Vernal Pike landowner wants to sell to Monroe County for new correctional facility

Craig Cowden would like to sell the Monroe County government 53 acres of his land at Vernal Pike and Woodyard Road west of Bloomington, so that a new county jail can be built there.

Cowden made his pitch at the regular meetings of the county council on Tuesday night and again on Wednesday morning, at the regular meeting of the county commissioners.

County commissioners are currently conducting an investigation of the North Park PUD property as a potential jail site, and are waiting on the results of the Phase 2 environmental study.

Based on their reaction to Cowden’s proposal on Wednesday morning, commissioners are not keen to begin actively considering Cowden’s land, until they have determined if the North Park property is viable.

But at their meeting the previous evening, some county council members seemed somewhat more receptive to the idea of considering Cowden’s land. And Cowden has the backing of both local chambers of commerce.

Appearing with Cowden to address the county council on Tuesday night, and county commissioners on Wednesday morning, were Eric Spoonmore and Christa Curtis.

Spoonmore is president of the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce and Curtis is the president of the board of the Greater Ellettsville Area Chamber of Commerce. The two sent county government leaders a joint letter of support, with logos from both organizations in the letterhead.

When Spoonmore and Curtis addressed the council and the board of commissioners, they echoed the sentiments from their letter. Bullet points from the letter include:

Fiscal responsibility of taxpayer dollars: We understand the price of this property to be significantly lower than other options, resulting in considerable savings of taxpayer dollars.

Proximity of services: The location is close to employers for potential work release programs; close to health and social services in Bloomington; close to recreational amenities and city bus service; easily accessible from Vernal Pike, Woodyard Rd, I-69; Close to Indiana state police post and fire protection services.

Future needs: The property has sufficient acreage for today’s justice center with room to grow as needed.

Economic development: This site will not interfere with local land use strategies and community visioning for future planning and economic development.

On the question of land cost, real estate broker Tom Orman appeared with Cowden at Tuesday’s county council meeting. Orman told councilors that the Vernal Pike land would, in his opinion, be appraised at “significantly cheaper, by probably a third” of the cost of the North Park property that is currently under consideration by commissioners.

The cost of the North Park property, which is located off SR 46 on Hunter Valley Road, is currently pegged by commissioners at $11,375,000, based on a table presented by commissioner Penny Githens at a mid-July meeting. Githens made the table to summarize the costs associated with different jail site options that the commissioners had previously considered.

Orman’s estimate would put the savings cost of purchasing Cowden’s land at around $3.75 million. The savings, of roughly $7.6 million, would presumably be balanced against any need to acquire additional land, beyond Cowden’s, to build the new jail. But on Tuesday, responding to a question from councilor Marty Hawk, Orman said there are 20 to 25 acres of buildable land on the Cowden property.

If more land is needed, now or in the future, adjacent property owner Dee Burris told councilors and commissioners at their meetings that she is willing to sell her land to the Monroe County government. The Monroe County property lookup system lists the roughly 46-acre property under Acacia Investments LLC & Texin LLC [Parcel Number = 53-04-25-400-020.000-011].

Hawk appears eager to consider the Cowden land. Other councilors seemed like they could be receptive to exploring the possibility. Councilor Cheryl Munson told Cowden: “I appreciate you coming forward to talk with the commissioners and then bring this to us as well.” Munson added, “Discussions will continue, I know.”

Under state law, the county council has to approve the purchase of any new significant property, regardless of how it is funded.

In her table presented in mid-July, in addition to the North Park location, Githens included columns for a potential jail location on FullertonPike, and the county-owned Thomson PUD. The commissioners had previously considered Fullerton Pike, but in late 2022 did not win approval from Bloomington’s city council for the required rezone for the land, which is located inside city limits.

The county council and county commissioners soured on the Thomson PUD, when it became apparent that a big debris pile and the relocation of Duke Energy power lines could cause considerable delay.

On Wednesday, the cost of delaying progress on the jail was pegged by Githens at around $800,000 per month. Currently, there’s pre-design work that is being done—by DLZ corporation, led by Scott Carnegie, working with jail transition director Cory Grass, and Monroe County sheriff Ruben Marté. Pre-design can be done, independent of any site selection.

The pre-design phase includes programming, master planning, and conceptual design. The programming phase is not site-specific, whereas master planning and conceptual design depend on a specific site.

The part of the predesign work that doesn’t depend on a specific site selection is expected to be completed by the end of August. After that, the rest of the predesign work can’t move ahead until a site is selected.

That means around the end of August, if no site is selected by then, it will be the lack of a site selection that is causing delay-related costs to accrue.

Cowden’s interest in selling his Vernal Pike land is as much about the suitability of his property—which offers a straight-line connection along Vernal Pike, then 17th Street, into Bloomington—as it is about preventing a jail from being built at North Park. 

It’s a point made  in the letter from the two chambers, too. The letter says the chambers  “believe that locating the justice center on [North Park] would not only have negative fiscal impacts for taxpayers but would be an underutilization of that location.” The letter continues, “As a gateway to Bloomington and Ellettsville, the North Park property could be incredibly valuable from an economic development standpoint.”

Cowden is from Ellettsville, so he put it like this: “I really don’t want a jail right there on the way into my hometown.”

Cowden has said he’s willing to pay for a Phase 1 environmental analysis of his property. After Wednesday’s meeting, Githens responded to a B Square question about the idea of proceeding with the Phase 1 environmental study, given that it would not cost Monroe County anything, and would reduce delay, in case North Park proved to be unsuitable for some reason.

Githens indicated that Cowden could proceed with a Phase 1 environmental study himself, and present the report to commissioners. They’d accept such a report, as long as it was done by a competent firm, Githens indicated.

Based on their remarks made during Wednesday’s meeting, county commissioners don’t sound like they’re interested in pursuing a parallel process for considering North Park and the Vernal Pike property.

At the start of Wednesday’s meeting, before Cowden made his pitch, commissioner Julie Thomas said about the North Park property, “We are anticipating the Phase 2 environmental report on the North Park project to be arriving soon.” After receiving the Phase 2 report, Thomas said, “If there are no issues, we will continue to look at that property—we have not made a decision yet, but we’ve clearly put a lot of effort into that study.”

Reacting to the proposals from Cowden and Burris, commissioner Lee Jones said, “I don’t think that we’re taking anything completely off the table at this point, but there is a particular site that we’re considering [North Park], and have already put quite a bit of money into figuring out whether or not it’s a possibility.”

Jones continued, “We don’t yet know if it’s a possibility.” About Cowden’s land, Jone’s said, “I think this property would be a good property to keep in mind for a backup,”

At the conclusion of his remarks on Wednesday, Cowden told county commissioners: “I’m here if you have any questions about the property.” Commissioners had no questions.

Typically, commissioners don’t engage speakers and the public mic during meetings, and Wednesday’s meeting was no different.

It is now roughly three years since the county’s two consultants delivered reports, one of which concluded that Monroe County’s jail is “failing” and is not able to provide constitutional levels of care.

The jail currently operates under a 2009 settlement agreement  with the ACLU, which filed a lawsuit over crowded conditions at the jail. The settlement agreement has been extended several times.