Matchbook Learning Schools received Plat Committee approval for a four‑lot commercial replat at the Indiana Avenue site (Case 2024 PLT 068) on Jan. 8, 2025, with a conditional sidewalk waiver. The committee approved the plat subject to staff conditions 1–11 and condition 13, omitted condition 12, and accepted a written commitment requiring installation of sidewalks on Ghent Avenue and 15th Street if the petitioner or a successor later takes ownership of lot 1. Committee members voted unanimously to approve the motion.

The matter drew prolonged discussion over a requested waiver of sidewalk installation on two public streets that front a neighboring industrial parcel owned by Spectrum. Joe Calderon, attorney for Matchbook Learning Schools of Indiana Inc., told the committee that Matchbook is acquiring “a tiny parcel” from Spectrum to locate a battery energy storage unit for use in instruction and that the replat is driven primarily by that small land transfer. Calderon said Matchbook will reconstruct the sidewalk along Rembrandt between 16th Street and Indiana Avenue and that the requested waiver applies only to sidewalks along Ghent and 15th Street, where Matchbook has no frontage.

Amy Swan, chief executive officer of Matchbook Learning Schools, described the parcel as necessary for educational programming: “So what we're trying to do is adaptive reuse…we're taking these old buildings, and we're turning them into a new type of career technical education building…If we don't have this small little triangle, we can't put in the solar, and the kids won't be able to stand around it and look at it to understand the system.” Swan said the school expects to fund sidewalk work only on streets it fronts and cannot afford to build sidewalks around property it does not own.

William Taft, a Matchbook volunteer board member and chair of the facilities committee, said the school is already paying to improve the sidewalk that students and neighbors will use and that building sidewalks on Ghent and 15th Street would impose a cost on the nonprofit that would not serve the school’s students. “We are putting money, and we did write a grant to improve the streets that the neighborhood and the community wants, that the kids will be walking on,” Taft said.

City staff recommended approval of the plat but recommended denial of the sidewalk waiver. Staff said the site sits in a highly urbanized, mixed‑use area with nearby Central Business District zoning, adjacent multifamily development and the 16 Tech campus, and that the subdivision ordinance requires sidewalks along the public streets. Staff reported that the total sidewalk length the ordinance would require along Ghent and 15th Street is 386.8 feet, as shown on the submitted survey, and that existing single‑family homes lie north and east of the site.

Committee members pressed for a compromise that would preserve the city’s future ability to require sidewalks if the adjacent parcel redevelops. After discussion, the petitioner agreed to a recorded written commitment. The committee’s motion approved the plat subject to staff conditions 1–11 and 13, omitted condition 12, and replaced conditions 14 and 15 with a commitment that Matchbook (or a successor) will install sidewalks along Ghent Avenue and 15th Street if the petitioner or its successor later takes ownership of lot 1. The committee recorded a unanimous vote: Miss Evans — yes; Destiny Lejohn — yes; Vice Chair Rasdell — yes.

The committee also noted that the waiver does not preclude the city from requiring sidewalks if lot 1 redevelops in the future; staff clarified that new development or rezoning could trigger sidewalk requirements under the zoning and subdivision ordinance. The committee directed staff and the petitioner to finalize the precise language of the written commitment to be recorded with the plat.

The plat approval allows Matchbook to proceed with the planned renovations and the small land acquisition needed to install the battery energy storage unit intended for instruction. The petitioner said the larger building is already in partial use and the new site is scheduled for broader opening in spring 2025.