Proposed UDO text amendments denied by commissioners

Back in April, several proposed text amendments to the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) were tabled by the county commissioners. The matter was revisited at a regular meeting on June 1. Before discussion started, Attorney Jacob Ahler gave the commissioners an update on where they are currently standing. He brought their attention to Indiana Code 36-7-4-606 subsection G, which states that the commissioners are within a 90 day window from when the Advisory Plan Commission (APC) presented the changes to them. Ahler said if they do nothing and do not respond to the recommended changes, then the amendments will pass as if they voted to approve it. If they either intend to deny it or send it back with amendments, they would have to make that decision at this meeting. President Don Street checked for clarification that the items and the additional items that were presented to them could infringe on the Economic Development Agreement (EDA) that they've signed. Attorney Ahler said that Street is referring to the issue that there is a provision in the EDA that somewhat vaguely states that the county will publicly support the project. Ahler said there is a potential for a legal argument to be made that these amendments are designed to make it impossible for the project to move forward. This would be in contradiction to the EDA.