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BSU Recommends Clermont Start Today
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This is a drawing of a possible transit station that would be at the site
of an old interurban
station
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(posted May 14)
Ball State University College of Architecture's first recommendation to
Clermont is to start "today" with the small things, like uniform
street banners and vegetation, to make the town center more desirable.
BSU Executive Director Scott Truex and his student architects presented
their images designed to enhance Clermont from ideas they
gathered at last month's charette. Trying not to offend
the 30 people in the audience at the May 13 meeting, Truex bluntly put
it that Clermont lacks "a great place to be." Truex said every
community needs a town center where people gather to feel a sense of place.
He said the redevelopment was about returning the community back to the
people. One suggested method is to install traffic calming measures to
make people slow down as they pass through Clermont. Truex could not stress
enough the importance of creating a place that makes people want to get
out of their cars. It was noted in the presentation that all the images,
as wild as some seem, like the coffee pot water tower, are doable.
Truex advised the group not to buy into mind set that development
can't occur in a land locked town. The town has potential to grow with
the infill and connective development by building at zero lot line requirements.
The presentation did not contain an implementation and financing plan.
Truex said as far as implementation is concerned, that part of the plan
has not really been thought through since Clermont is an included town
within the Indianapolis Marion County Unigov system. The town does
not control planning and zoning. The process is overseen by the Department
of Metropolitan Development.
He said it might take legislative action to create the town's own redevelopment
commission. He also said the town could dissolve to create a community
development corporation to implement the plan. Community Development Corporations
are guiding the revitalization in Crooked Creek, Haughville, Martindale-Brightwood
and Mapleton-Fall Creek areas.
He said that Speedway might be the model to look at since legislative action
created Speedway's redevelopment commission in 2005.
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