Bargersville Preps For Commercial & Residential Growth

Bargersville Preps For Commercial & Residential Growth

| Jennifer Uhl

atCenter Grove - City Officials Shoot-9
Kevin McGinnis, Bargersville Town Manager.

Visitors to Bargersville often stop near the town’s main intersection of State Roads 144 and 135 where the local flea market gathers every Saturday and dining hotspot Harvest Bistro melds fine dining with down-home comfort food. Others drive further west to Mallow Run Winery, a 600-acre farm known for its summer patio concerts and popular festivals. A few other businesses also dot the surrounding area and downtown; but currently, Bargersville isn’t known for a bustling main street, and large swaths of nearby vacant fields and farmland are largely untouched with nary a big-box store in sight. All that is about to change.

Bargersville, once neatly situated within 1.1 square miles, has annexed numerous times since 2005 and now encompasses more than 20 square miles extending west to the county line between Johnson and Morgan counties and, in places, as far north as Stones Crossing Road. However, the town’s geographical growth is just the first step in part of a long-term plan to prep the area for future housing and commercial buildings. In preparation for land developers, they expanded the waste treatment plant; and plans are in the works to widen a portion of State Road 135, with a stoplight added to the intersection at Smokey Row Road sometime next year. The Stones Crossing Health Pavilion, as discussed in last month’s Center Grove Community Newsletter, is about to open just south of Marsh, and a planned assisted-living facility slightly further south are already changing the landscape of Bargersville.

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Bargersville has grown in recent years through a series of annexations.

Town Manager Kevin McGinnis has been at his post for just three months; but as a 24-year director of REMC and a former homebuilder and VP of land development and finance, he’s beyond qualified to help lead Bargersville toward expansion. “As a land developer, what I need available is sewer and storm water drainage, and that’s been taken care of with the expansion of the [waste treatment] plant,” McGinnis said. “The goal right now is to get all the utilities poised for growth that will be coming south of the Center Grove school area. We’re lucky we have some time to get everything revised and prepared.”

The downtown of “Old Bargersville” is in need of some renovation. But they have plans in the work to support improvements downtown and elsewhere. Town Council President Rowana Umbarger says “The Town of Bargersville Endowment fund is very new and still in the early stages of development and planning. The hope is to grow this Endowment and use the interest from this fund to enhance the parks and downtown area. The funds available might be used to purchase benches, picnic tables, trees, lights. As the fund grows and more dollars become available to spend, projects might include enlarging our park system by acquiring additional land for a future park and connecting our park system with pedestrian pathways.”

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Architectural rending of the Aspen Trace senior living campus, Bargersville’s latest major development project. Click the photo to learn more about CarDon and Aspen Trace.

Bryan Pohl, Bargersville’s director of development, is also new to the job; but he’s no stranger to city planning, having worked as a code enforcement officer in Carmel, a senior planner for Indianapolis, and the past three years as Johnson County’s planning director. An avid cyclist, Pohl is committed to making the town attractive to businesses and new residents while incorporating amenities such as trails and equitable roadways.

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Dan Moore and Dr. Stephen Moore break ground on Aspen Trace, senior living campus, Bargersville’s latest major development project.

Pohl is also tackling the challenge of forwarding Bargersville’s image. “I’m really fascinated with Bargersville,” Pohl said. “When you look at what was annexed, there are residents with properties that have a Greenwood address, their children go to Center Grove schools, and they pay Bargersville utilities. We have these people who are Bargersville residents and may not even realize it, so we’re trying to have events that promote the town’s identity.” One such recent event was the Parks & Pancakes 5K bike/run/walk, which aimed to familiarize participants with Bargersville’s three parks. Looking ahead to summer, concerts will be set up in front of the town hall.

Residents who live near State Road 37 have wondered what may happen to Bargersville when the proposed leg of Interstate 69 goes through. Pohl admitted that would be a huge game changer for the town, but noted there’s a lot of uncertainty surrounding the timeline of the interstate. For now, any growth that comes to Bargersville will likely be via commercial and residential expansion along State Road 135 and Whiteland Road. Pohl also expects downtown — largely vacant, save for a salon, law office, popular pub, and a longstanding feed company — to undergo a rebirth once the town’s employment base grows and attractive housing expands. A few locals have already expressed interest in setting up shop downtown. “That’s very much the direction we need to go,” Pohl said. “Developments and changes are coming — I think one of the biggest challenges is getting people to create a vision for their community,” Pohl added. “If you have a vision in place, there’s a real opportunity here to make something special.”


Jennifer Uhl_1

Jennifer Uhl is a former associate editor of Indianapolis Monthly Home. Now a freelance writer and stay-at-home mom, Uhl’s work has also appeared in Indianapolis Monthly and the city’s suburb-based publications. She lives in Center Grove with her husband and two children.

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