Transportation Plan

June 2011

During my research on the 2003 Zionsville Comprehensive Plan, the previous Transportation Plans with their reference to the Cooper Road Interchange and Cooper Road Extension, I have found great thought and empathy toward residential concerns were greatly considered during the process.

I have some personal thoughts, June 2011 Transportation Plan Notes   along with a time link I have tried to create June 2011 Timeline   The 2000 Transportation Plan update – comments from the Plan Commission are here July 17, 2000 Plan Commission Transportation Plan Meeting  and the Town Council minutes are here Aug 28, 2000 Town Council Transportation Plan   The 2005 Plan Commission minutes concerning the ZCS Athletic Fields and Brenwick Development and their traffic impact can be found here Nov 1, 2005 Plan Commission Public Meeting Athletic Fields & Brenwick

This is the 2003 Zionsville Comprehensive Plan that includes the 1988 Transportation Plan, Redevelopment Plan, 2000 Transportation Plan update, and the 2002 Parks Master Plan.2003 Town of Zionsville Comprehensive Plan

February 2011

The Town Council will hold a Special Meeting, Wednesday, February 23rd,  7:00 pm, for the Council to hear from HNTB and BLN and have Council discussion on the Transportation Plan.

The current draft of the Zionsville Transportation Plan can be downloaded here. (It will open in a new window and is a large file so it may chug a bit.)

This is a review and update to the existing Transportation Plan for Zionsville that is part of the Metropolitan Planning Organization’s regional transportation plan. The plans are reviewed by the MPO every 10 years with the goal of looking forward 25 years. So the current plan is to be updated to see what the roadways and pathways may look like in 2035. Judith Essex is the Town Council’s representative on the Indianapolis Regional Transportation Council, the MPO body that considers the individual transportation plans in central Indiana. The work on updating the plan is federally funded and must be completed by the end of the year.

I have heard that Zionsville does not have a Comprehensive Plan (Land Use). This is not true as there had to be Comprehensive Plan adopted at the time of Reorganization. Click here to view the 2010 Town of Zionsville Comprehensive Plan. (another large file) This plan is a merging of the 2002 “old” Zionsville Plan as well as portions of the 2008 Boone County Plan for Eagle and Union Townships. As you may recall there was good turn out at the High School for the focus groups and lots of our input from the rural areas was included in the final county document. Chapter 8 of the Comp Plan contains the Transportation Plan and has a discussion of the “865 Cooper Road” interchange.

Zionsville Transportation Plan – Update

There has been a lot of discussion and several meetings involving rural Zionsville residents regarding the required update of the Metropolitan Planning Organization area transportation plan. The following was sent to Town Council members by Joe Turk, member of the Reorganization Committee. It is a thoughtful analysis with which I totally concur.

We are writing to you in support of the proposal to add an interchange at Cooper Road and to designate the combination of Cooper , 875 East and 900 East as a principal arterial.  We support this proposal for the following reasons:

• Our current road system in Zionsville is totally inadequate.

• The Cooper interchange and widening of Cooper north to 334 will provide another access for Zionsville residents and visitors to enter and leave the Zionsville area, providing alternatives to, and, as a result, reducing the congestion at 334/65 and the village traffic to access 421.

• We have only one continuous north/south road within Zionsville’s boundaries, which is 421.  The alternatives are Cooper-875, Kissell-700, and Ford-Pleasant View.  In time, each of these will become major arteries.  Since Cooper-875 is the most central and the only 865 connection option, it is a good place to start.

• Widening 875 north of 334 will provide adequate and safe access to the athletic fields, which soon will generate significant traffic.

There is one area of concern on the part of Zionsville residents that you could put to rest with a few rules.  Several are worried that the interchange and widening of Cooper will spawn commercial activity all along Cooper Road.  Why not insure that only the intersections at 334 and 32 could be zoned commercial.  Further, you could limit the traffic to automobiles and light trucks.
Addressing a second area of concern is more difficult.  A principle arterial can be anything from a two lane road to a freeway.  Those who like the idea see a super two, while those who don’t like it see a freeway.  You could, at least, present a time line that would show when the super two expansion of Cooper between 865 and  SR 334 would take place,  when a super two would be completed beyond 334 to 300 South, and when the proposal might go beyond 300 South to SR 32 and beyond.

Further, you might speculate on the level of population growth that would necessitate expansion beyond a super two.

Joe and Kathleen Turk
8183 East 50 South
Zionsville, Indiana 46077

February 22nd — Since there have been so many excellent points brought up regarding the proposed future interchange at 865 and Cooper Road and considering that homes have been built and roads widened based on the the transportation plan(s) approved by previous Town Councils, it would be irresponsible to just eliminate that item from the updated plan based on only subjective and anecdotal information. It is similarly irresponsible to recommend that it remain in the transportation plan just “because it was in it before”. An updated detailed study of current and future transportation patterns in Zionsville is necessary before an informed decision can be made either way.