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Voters in Sheridan and Adams Township on Tuesday approved a reorganization that will give Sheridan planning and zoning control over an area that is currently unincorporated and under the jurisdiction of county planners.
Sheridan residents approved the merger 73% to 27%, while people in Adams Township voted 62% to 38% to merge the town and township. The reorganization will go into effect Jan. 1.
“What’s satisfying is the margin of victory,” Sheridan Town Council President Silas Devaney III told IBJ. “If it were a tighter race, I don’t know if it would be as satisfying, but the margin of victory that we saw last night shows that we were doing what our constituents wanted us to do.”
Sheridan covers about 2 square miles at the intersection of state roads 38 and 47, while Adams Township comprises 48 square miles—from the county lines on its northern and western borders, east to U.S. 31 and south to 216th Street.
Under the reorganization, Sheridan’s borders will extend to cover the entirety of Adams Township. The town’s population will increase from about 3,100 to 5,200, and the five-member Sheridan Town Council will expand to seven members.
Devaney said Sheridan and Adams Township leaders began considering a reorganization in 2022.
“It was a long, hard fight for almost two years,” he said. “There’s a lot of work still to be done, and we knew there would be, but we’re going to take 48 hours and enjoy this and roll our sleeves up and get back at it.”
Devaney said several items of business remain before the reorganization goes into effect at the beginning of the year. Among them are drafting local agreements with the township to transfer their funds to the town and confirming an employment agreement with the Adams Township trustee.
The elected trustee position, held by Michelle Junkins, will become an appointed town position with the same responsibilities as the trustee within the “rural zone.” The Adams Township trustee’s duties include assistance with utility payments, maintenance of cemeteries and burials for those who cannot afford them.
The expanded town will have two taxing districts. Land inside Sheridan’s current town boundaries will be the “town zone.” What is now the rest of Adams Township will be the “rural zone.”
According to reorganization documents, the town’s property tax will increase in 2026 about 8 cents per $100 of net assessed value (about $160 a year for a house with a $200,000 net assessed value) to cover additional road maintenance costs. Each of the two zones will see a different increase: The town-zone rate would increase from $2.8268 to $2.9070, while the rural-zone rate would go from $1.8487 to $1.9289.
The property tax increase would generate nearly $319,000 in additional annual revenue for Sheridan, according to a fiscal analysis performed by Indianapolis-based LWG CPAs & Advisors.
The Sheridan Town Council and the Adams Township Advisory Board unanimously approved the consolidation on June 18.
Proponents of the plan said the reorganization will provide planning and zoning control, protect Sheridan Community Schools from becoming overcrowded, prevent another city or town from annexing parts of Adams Township and maintain Sheridan’s historic identity as a small agricultural community.
Sheridan is the third Indiana community to approve a government reorganization following Yorktown (2013) and Zionsville (2010 and 2014). Several other efforts have been rejected or were terminated before reaching voters. The Legislature in 2006 passed the Government Modernization Act, which gave local government units authority to consolidate by referendum.
Devaney said the town has authorized purchasing $400,000 worth of snow removal equipment that will be available by January. The town has also been in contact with multiple outsourcing units to handle snow removal.
“They will dedicate six large trucks to the rural district in case of a snow and they are also updating their quote to us to cover any summer storm damage that they could come in and help clean up rural roads,” Devaney said.
DeVaney approached his fellow Town Council members two years ago with the consolidation idea. Those efforts accelerated over the past year, particularly after Hamilton County began work last year on a $65 million regional utility district along U.S. 31.
The Hamilton County Regional Utility District initially will be limited to areas east and west of U.S. 31 between 236th and 276th streets. The Indiana National Guard is constructing an armory at U.S. 31 and 276th Street.
But eventually, the district operated by Hamilton County Utilities will likely have a service area bounded by 216th Street to the south, Devaney Road to the east, 296th Street to the north and Six Points Road to the west.
Sheridan officials also pointed to Westfield’s effort to annex 133 acres in Adams Township at the northwest corner of U.S. 31 and 216th Street as a reason to reorganize.
Indianapolis-based Shear Property Group owns the Adams Township property and a 60-acre parcel on the south side of 216th Street in Westfield Washington Township. The company plans to build an industrial or high-tech business development at the site. Shear Property Group requested the annexation, which the Westfield City Council last discussed in January and has yet to vote on.
Westfield Mayor Scott Willis said in June that the city will not allow any residential development on Shear’s property in Adams Township “because that wouldn’t be fair to Sheridan.” He added that there is no truth to rumors that Westfield plans to annex additional land along U.S. 31.
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Smart move by Sheridan. If they had not done this, Adams township would either be gobbled up by Westfield and/or filled up with county-led development that would be difficult to ever annex given Indiana’s current annexation laws.
For the record, the June 18 vote was not officially unanimous. While all Adams Township advisory board members did verbally indicate that they approved the Plan of Reorganization, one member did officially change his vote to a No after the meeting was adjourned in a 1-on-1 conversation with the Township Trustee.