The Town of Zionsville Board of Parks and Recreation continued deliberation on a request involving an existing water-rights easement that lies in the middle of the Lions Club’s newly acquired five-acre parcel.

Roger Burrus, speaking for the Lions Club and identifying himself as their longtime legal counsel, said the club wants to develop the new acreage but cannot proceed until Citizens agrees to release the existing easement that contains an old below-grade vault. Burrus described negotiations with Citizens over a replacement easement: the Lions Club would accept a comparable easement elsewhere to allow removal of the vault and to proceed with park development.

Burrus told trustees the Lions Club has sought language to protect both the club’s and the parks board’s interests and that Citizens wants the option to retain water rights in that corridor for future use. “We would share that cost with them,” Burrus said of removing the existing vault and capping old test wells; he also said the replacement easement would be negotiated to allow coordination with park uses.

Board members asked for clearer specifics before approving any replacement easement: soil-test results to determine where a new well could physically go, an explicit graphic showing proposed alternative locations, setback requirements and protective language that would preserve the parks’ future trail alignments and ball fields. Staff said the replacement easement being discussed would match the parks’ existing greenway footprint, but acknowledged exact placement remains undetermined until soils work is complete.

Given those unknowns, the board voted to continue the item to next month. Staff agreed to include Citizens’ rendering of a typical installation, any soil-test options identified by Citizens, and proposed easement language that protects future park layouts.