What WRT has to offer

Greenwood is not the only party with something of value in the reorganization discussion

At Thursday evening’s study committee formation meeting Greenwood city council member Ron Deer was quoted as saying “I will make one biased comment. Were it not for what we have in Greenwood, we wouldn’t have the opportunities that we have in White River Township. We’ve all contributed to this environment.”

In the spirit of that comment, I would like to add a few of my own biased comments. In no way do I want to detract from “what [they] have in Greenwood,” but I would like to focus on what we have in White River Township. Think of it, if White River Township had nothing to offer, why would Greenwood have approached us with a reorganization proposal in the first place?

So, what do we have to offer? We have 40,000 citizens that when combined with Greenwood’s population could result in what, if I recall correctly, would be the sixth largest city in Indiana. Right or wrong, larger is often perceived as better, especially to the politicians leading the city.

Those 40,000 citizens live in homes with average assessed value greater than the average assessed value of homes within the current city limits of Greenwood. This means that regardless of the tax rate, WRT citizens pay more property taxes per-capita than those in Greenwood. This isn’t a matter of “fairness” or something that needs to be addressed, it’s just an additional factor that makes reorganization with WRT more attractive.

Scattered among these higher-valued dwellings are significant areas ripe for commercial development. Over the past decade we have seen Greenwood annex every available commercial property in White River Township, until they now have essentially all of the businesses along SR 135  within the city limits, paying taxes to Greenwood and not the township. By forming a new entity which includes all of WRT, many other areas become available for development and future tax revenues.

Finally, White River Township offers access to the SR 37/I-69 corridor. While it is currently largely undeveloped, any municipal planning has to take the long view and over the next ten years this is going to become a very valuable part of Johnson County. Major roads are magnets to developers and while SR 37 is already a very busy highway, when the proposed extension of I-69 comes through it will become even more attractive. It also would put the new city in the unique position of being the only city in Indiana, other than Indianapolis,  with an Interstate highway on both the east and west sides of the city.

So, while certainly Greenwood brings its own value to the reorganization study, the value offered by White River Township should not be discounted. The members of the various study sub-committees need to keep these factors in mind while forming recommendations and and the residents of WRT need to be aware of them when providing feedback on these recommendations.

Related posts (Automatically generated):

1. WRT Board Meets Tuesday