HANCOCK COUNTY — Towns and businesses are seeking feedback from the public as they continue to envision the future of the quickly growing Mt. Comfort Corridor.
The corridor runs 14 miles along Mt. Comfort Road between the Hamilton County line and West Stinemyer Road in Sugar Creek Township. It touches three communities — Cumberland, McCordsville and New Palestine — and intersects four highways. Indianapolis Regional Airport is also on the corridor.
A group leading plans for the corridor commissioned land-use maps splitting the area into six zones exploring where certain kinds of housing, jobs, recreation and amenities should go. An opportunity continues online to view and weigh in on those general recommendations.
The Coalition for Smart Growth in the Mount Comfort Corridor is made up of NineStar Connect; Hancock Health; Greenfield Banking Company; and the towns of McCordsville, Cumberland and New Palestine. The group is working with The Veridus Group, a civil engineering firm in Indianapolis.
Their efforts stem from a study the Urban Land Institute completed in 2019 that envisions planned growth along the corridor. Along with land use, a housing plan and economic impact analysis are also among the group’s objectives.
Jim Rawlinson, a project manager with The Veridus Group, said at a McCordsville Town Council meeting earlier this month that the Mt. Comfort Corridor’s housing stock currently meets only 67% of demand. Based on building trends and job growth, a housing gap of nearly 14,000 homes is estimated over the next 10 years, he continued.
“There’s potential for that to be higher, if more jobs come and the population continues to accelerate in the way that it has,” Rawlinson said.
Christine Owens, director of planning and development for Cumberland, agreed housing is a vital part of plans for the area.
“We’re growing so much and we have so many new jobs coming to the corridor, we really need to understand the housing situation and what the demand is; what we think it’s going to be over the next 10 years; and understand what our housing mix currently looks like and what we want to strive for,” she told the Daily Reporter.
Land use is equally important for the various stakeholders to determine, Owens continued.
“That really starts to put us on the same page, so that we’re all looking at things the same way … so that as one area succeeds, we all benefit,” she said.
Ryan Crum, director of planning and building for McCordsville, agreed collaboration is key.
“There is a lot of development occurring on the corridor at a substantial clip, and so it’s occurred to us now for a number of years that it would be great if all the different jurisdictions could get, to some degree, on the same page, or at least have some coordinated discussions, and strategy, and vision for this corridor,” he said.
The best way to do that, Crum continued, is to start with a high-level look at existing land uses and development patterns projecting what the future of the area could and should look like.
The coalition hopes to include recommendations resulting from their endeavor in Hancock County’s upcoming comprehensive plan update as well as updates to comprehensive plans of the three associated towns.
Details of the Mount Comfort Corridor Visioning Project can be viewed online via the platform Mural, through which questions, comments and concerns can also be left on the various parts of the plan by leaving digital sticky notes.
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Details of the Mount Comfort Corridor Visioning Project can be viewed online bit.ly/3gMcvO8 via the platform Mural, through which questions, comments and concerns can also be left on the various parts of the plan by leaving digital sticky notes.
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