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Public hearing on Evansville growth rescheduled at larger site

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Evansville future growth plan

EVANSVILLE — Union Township residents are expected to turn out in force May 2 for the continuation of an Evansville public hearing about city growth.

The plan commission public hearing continues the hearing that started April 4 but was adjourned before anyone spoke because it attracted a standing-room-only crowd.

The May 2 meeting will be at 6 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center at Evansville High School, 640 S. 5th St.

Town of Union Chairman Kendall Schneider expects town residents to attend and voice their concerns about city sprawl into the township, which surrounds Evansville.

The plan commission is considering an amendment to the city’s Smart Growth plan, including a map with a 20-year growth boundary and descriptions of proposed land uses, transportation improvements and utility improvements through 2030.

The 20-year growth boundary would remain inside the city’s 1.5-mile extraterritorial land division boundary, which was included when the original Smart Growth plan was adopted in 2005.

Town resident Robert Janes fired up his neighbors last month by running ads in the Evansville Review saying the city and Mayor Sandy Decker “want your tax dollars” and “quietly put together a plan that hopes to swallow over 2,000 acres of land that currently belongs” to the town.

Decker said the ad was full of misinformation, and the city has no immediate plans to annex property.

The new map is part of a review the city started last year to look at how the Smart Growth plan has been implemented in its first five years, Decker previously told the Gazette. Since the plan was adopted in 2005, several amendments were made but not updated on the map, and major improvements were made to the wastewater treatment plant that increased capacity, she said.

The May 2 meeting also will include a public hearing tabled April 4 to consider changes to land divisions within the city’s long-term growth boundary.