Planning department budgets for expanded legal services, GIS and two TIF commitments

May Crancer, Planning and Development, presented the department's budget highlights to the Elkhart County Council, saying personnel-service adjustments follow county HR recommendations and that a $20,000 line was added to code-enforcement other professional services to cover recurring weed-and-nuisance work rather than requesting separate appropriations.

The planning commission fund includes two requested staff increases totaling about $12,000 that raise that fund's personnel cost roughly 2 percentage points above what had been projected. Legal services for the department rise materially: the line moved from $82,000 to about $131,000 after the department's board attorney retired and the county switched law firms, a change staff described as necessary to secure experienced land-use counsel.

May Crancer also described small operating increases: telephone and subscription costs rose modestly after adding staff phones and extra Adobe licenses. Crancer said the county IT office will likely consolidate vendor contracts but recommended departments retain awareness of departmental technology needs even if IT centralizes contracting.

On mapping and stormwater, GIS-related costs are rising: staff and software costs pushed the stormwater GIS line from $7,000 to $10,000 to cover yearly impervious-surface calculations run for the county. Crancer said the county is moving from a single GIS coordinator model to increased consultant support because mapping now requires a broader range of technical skills than one position can reliably provide.

The unsafe-building line jumped because the county has been more active with demolitions; liens collected from those actions go into a restricted account that can be used for future unsafe-cleanup work but were described as unstable revenue, since many liens are wiped out at tax sale.

TIFs: Crancer highlighted two large increases tied to multi-year TIF commitments. For Middlebury East the administrative fund will include $250,000 for wastewater-plant work in 2026; the State Road 13 interchange entry includes an additional $500,000 for the same overall project. Crancer said projections over seven years assume the county would cover about 40 percent of a roughly $22 million total project cost, with the town covering the remaining 60 percent. She offered to share the redevelopment spreadsheets with councilors so members could see 10-year projections and how TIF dollars might be scheduled for highway projects.

Councilors pressed for TIF spreadsheets and asked about using TIF funds for highways and other infrastructure. Crancer said the county meets monthly with Highway to coordinate potential right-of-way and highway projects and that TIF projections already prioritize highway projects in the county's planning work.

Less-critical details: Crancer told the council that permit volume has stayed about 2,500 permits per year, with several major subdivisions recently filed; high-dollar "outlier" permits (her definition: more than about $3,500) are uncommon in 2025.

Ending: Crancer said she would work with IT on centralizing software purchasing if the council prefers that approach and would email the TIF schedules and supporting documents to any councilor who requested them.