McCORDSVILLE — Town officials are keeping on course for a new road with economic development implications despite the state slamming the brakes on funding for the project.
The Indiana Department of Transportation’s Community Crossings program awarded McCordsville almost $1 million late last year for several road projects. One of them was the creation of a new road called Aurora Way — planned to run east from Mt. Comfort Road for about a quarter mile — at a cost of more than $724,000. The new road will be located between County Roads 500N and 600N, which is a key development area for the town.
Community Crossings funds 75% of projects and calls for a 25% local match, but INDOT has pulled the approximately $540,000 it had awarded for Aurora Way.
McCordsville officials said the town was clear throughout the application process that the request for Aurora Way was for the creation of a new road.
For that award cycle, however, INDOT intended to grant Community Crossings funds only for maintaining and preserving existing infrastructure.
“The review committee thought the funds were going to a different, existing road,” Mallory Duncan, INDOT spokeswoman, told the Daily Reporter in an email.
Now, the town is looking in its own coffers to fund the project, which is estimated to cost a total of $1.08 million.
“It’s a heavy blow for us,” said Mark Witsman, McCordsville town engineer, of INDOT’s decision.
The quarter-mile Aurora Way will extend to the end of the property Southwark Metal Manufacturing Co. will operate on, and include a driveway to the facility.
But McCordsville officials hope the road will continue east to County Road 500W in the future.
Much of the area bounded by Mt. Comfort Road and County Roads 600N, 500W and 500N is undeveloped. About 210 acres there are in McCordsville town limits, all but 14 of which are zoned industrial, said planning and building director Ryan Crum. About 360 acres are unincorporated, all of which are zoned industrial.
“These parcels, whether we like it or not, are going to develop as industrial, and it’s all the more reason for the town to be involved and engaged in that development,” Crum said.
The only way to do that is through annexation, and extending Aurora Way is a way to entice that, he continued.
Having those future industrial properties within McCordsville’s boundaries would allow the town to mitigate their impacts on the nearby Woodhaven subdivision and future neighborhoods in the area, Crum said.
“Industrial developers, they want access to Mt. Comfort Road,” he said. “They want that access done efficiently, and to get those trucks as fast as possible in and out of their development and back down I-70 as fast as possible.”
Aurora Way gives them that access, Crum continued, adding he believes it would also reduce the amount of truck traffic on 600N, which leads to Woodhaven’s entrance.
Crum said he and his colleagues have been touting the future road to industrial developers interested in the area and that the feedback has been positive.
“They get the benefit, they see it, they want it,” he said. “So the idea of Aurora Way being that enticement for annexation is going to work if the town can produce this roadway.”
Getting the industrial developments in McCordsville would also add to the town’s assessed value and diversify its tax base, providing revenue for improvements into the future, officials say.
“This is a make-or-break moment, honestly, for getting non-residential tax bases brought into the town, and this is our avenue to do it,” said town council member Larry Longman, adding the diversification would also be able to help keep taxes low for residents.
Leaders are working on a new plan to fund the road entirely in house by finding money that’s able to be used for roads elsewhere in the town’s budget while also delaying other road maintenance and preservation projects.
Town council member Tom Strayer said at first he was concerned about using funds for Aurora Way that were already slated for other projects. But if developments allow the town to diversify its tax base, more funds would be available for those projects regardless, he concluded.
Councilman Branden Williams agreed.
“I feel like this is a gotta-do-it project,” he said. “One way or the other, we’ve got to get this done.”
Councilman Greg Brewer said his support for Aurora Way is not motivated by incentivizing industrial development, but rather diverting truck traffic from residential areas like Woodhaven.
“Our hands are kind of tied on this,” he said. “We’ve been out promoting this, assuming that we’re going to have the money and we’re going to be able to do the project, and so we got to step up here and get this done, unfortunately.”
McCordsville’s Community Crossings award was not affected for the other projects the town applied for, which include milling and resurfacing County Road 650N, Deer Crossing Boulevard, Bay Front Shores, Nautica Boulevard, Austin Trace Boulevard and Laredo Drive.
