McCana General Membership Meeting – July 21, 2025
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Marion County Alliance of Neighborhood Associations General Membership Meeting – July 21, 2025
This general membership meeting of the Marion County Alliance of Neighborhood Associations (McCana) was held on Saturday, July 21, 2025, at North United Methodist Church (38th and Meridian) from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. The meeting focused on two main topics: the ongoing review of the Marion County Comprehensive Land Use Plan and the need to prioritize neighborhood concerns from the bottom up. President Kathy Burton led the discussion, with contributions from the mayor's neighborhood advocate Susan Martinez, land use chair Pat, health department representative Dana Rewise, and several neighborhood leaders.
Announcements & Community Updates
- Franklin Township Civic League (via member) reported a shoe-recycling program (Changing Footprints) with a goal of collecting 3,000 pairs of shoes; they are more than halfway there. They also announced a wetlands preservation initiative called "Wetlands, Not Warehouses" after persuading a developer to exclude a significant wetland area. Gersham and Partners donated $10,000 for a professional master plan.
- Marion County Health Department (Dana Rewise) reminded attendees of low-cost immunizations ($10 or less), sports physicals, dental services, and birth certificates through the Action Health Center (317-221-2000). Backpacks and car seats from the Covering Kids event may still be available.
- Susan Martinez (Mayor's Neighborhood Advocate, Area 6) announced the Indianapolis Neighborhood Resource Center (INRC) is accepting applications for the fall cohort of the Indianapolis Community Building Institute (ICBI) from July 8 to August 4, 2025. The program runs September 8 – November 3, 2025, and upon completion neighborhoods receive $1,500 for a community project. She also reminded attendees about All Star Weekend events (July 18-19, 2025) and free rides on Indigo downtown.
- Curfew Law Enforcement: Martinez clarified that Indianapolis curfew laws are active year-round, not only during large events. For youth 15-17: no public places between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. on weekends, and after 11 p.m. on Sunday through Thursday. For youth under 15: after 11 p.m. or before 5 a.m. any day. Enforcement begins with warnings, then escorts to a safe location, and parents are contacted. Repeated violations can lead to criminal charges against parents. Several attendees expressed concern about lack of police response in neighborhoods and asked for better communication with Community Resource Officers (CRUs).
Discussion Items
Review of the Marion County Comprehensive Land Use Plan
- Kathy Burton opened the discussion, noting that land use affects all residents. The city is updating the comprehensive plan (last adopted in 2019, intended to last 20 years). The current process includes only one in-person meeting per township plus a countywide meeting at Martin University, with an online comment portal not yet open (expected December 2025).
- Pat (land use chair) criticized the reduced outreach compared to previous cycles, where multiple township meetings, postcards, and library displays were used. She reported that Decatur Township's meeting had low turnout because of poor advertising—only three or four people were CC'd on an email. She also noted that the city is adding new land use categories (e.g., "tech logistics and office" and "civic") and redefining existing ones (e.g., "commercial mixed use" now includes industrial). The pattern book is being revised, but the city has not clearly explained how these changes will affect neighborhoods.
- Susan Martinez acknowledged the concerns, saying she would bring them to the new director of community outreach, Nadley Van Donkin. She stated that the city plans to have a public comment period in December/January, but attendees argued that December is a poor time for community engagement (holiday season). Jim and others noted that even active neighborhood leaders were unaware of the meetings, indicating a failure of outreach.
- Alma (G7 representative) said she learned about the comp plan meetings only through this meeting, despite being well-connected. She urged proactive sharing of information with neighborhood presidents.
- Key criticisms: insufficient in-person meetings, lack of a centralized online resource, no interactive map for comments, and the city's reliance on citizen advisory committees (five people per township) as a substitute for broader public input.
Prioritizing Neighborhood Needs
- Kathy Burton asked attendees to identify what their neighborhoods need most, rather than being told what is important. Responses included:
- Alleys (NESCO area): alleys behind the post office and library are in shameful condition; street projects (Michigan/New York conversion, Washington Street, Rural Street) are poorly coordinated and delayed.
- Auto repairs on streets (Alma): residents working on cars in the street, creating safety hazards and zoning issues; calls to code enforcement and IMPD often go unanswered.
- High weeds and grass (Alma, Pat): lack of consistent mowing by DPW; site distance issues at corners; health department (Dana Rewise) explained they handle residential high weeds and grass (through housing inspectors), while vacant lots and abandoned buildings fall under BNS (Building and Neighborhood Services).
- City legal understaffing (Pat): code enforcement violations are not prosecuted because city legal lacks resources; one variance violation has been ignored for a full year.
- Lack of primary care and OB/GYN in Decatur Township (Pat): no primary care physician for a population of 37,000; attempts to recruit Eskenazi failed. The airport's geography limits development.
- Road conditions (multiple speakers): poor roads, lack of sidewalks, inadequate transportation planning.
- Budget priorities (Kathy Burton): residents feel that money is spent on downtown events while neighborhoods are neglected. The next meeting (August 16, 2025) will be a work session to develop a list of neighborhood priorities.
Formation of G7
- Alma explained that G7 is a coalition of seven neighborhood organizations (Ottoman Garden, Arlington Woods, Devington, Forest Manor, and others) formed to tackle common problems by pooling voices. The group was initiated by Cecilia Dotson (Ottoman Garden) and meets regularly to identify shared issues and advocate together.
Key Outcomes
- Comprehensive Plan: The city's outreach process is deemed insufficient. Susan Martinez committed to sharing the meeting's concerns with the new director and to improve communication between DMD, the mayor's neighborhood advocates, and neighborhood leaders. No changes to the process were announced, but attendees will monitor for better engagement.
- Curfew Law: The group acknowledged the year-round curfew but expressed frustration with inconsistent enforcement. Martinez will ask IMPD for a list of current Community Resource Officers and explore stronger follow-up on reports.
- Neighborhood Priorities: The August 16, 2025, McCana meeting will be a dedicated work session to compile a prioritized list of neighborhood needs (e.g., roads, alleys, parks, city legal staffing, health services). This list will be shared with city officials and the media. All neighborhood representatives are encouraged to bring input from their communities.
- Next Meeting: Saturday, August 16, 2025, 9:00-11:00 a.m., North United Methodist Church (38th and Meridian). Open to all residents.
Meeting Transcript
Well, good morning. This is a general membership meeting of the Marion County Alliance of Neighborhood Associations. And I would like to welcome those of you who are watching us for the first time on the government channel and those of you who are able to make it in this morning. I know that there are lots of events going on around the city this morning, and summertime is typically a time when people have lots of other family activities going on. But we are going to proceed with the discussion this morning about a couple of different topics. Before we do that, I want to introduce myself. My name is Kathy Burton, and I'm the current president for the Marion County Alliance of Neighborhood Associations. For those of you who may not be familiar with us, we were founded in 1990 as a countywide organization. We are a 501c3. And the purpose of McCana is to help connect neighborhoods all across the county. The suburban townships, the center townships, whether you live in a neighborhood, out on a farm field, in an apartment complex, whatever it is, but to talk to people so that people who live in the neighborhood and live in the communities can talk with each other and share experiences, contacts, information, support each other in efforts that they may be trying to further in their community and to become more engaged in the government processes that affect all of our neighborhoods. We do have a meeting currently on the third Saturday of every month. It is at North United Methodist Church at 38th and Meridian. And those meetings are open to the community. It is from 9 to 11 on we do not have it on the third Saturday in December. Excuse me, I forgot to say that. But it's from 9 to 11 at North United Methodist Church at 38th and Meridian. And these meetings are always open to anyone in the community, whether you are a member of a neighborhood organization or an HOA or whatever organization you may be in, or if you're just an individual resident that would like to get more engaged in your community. So that people who are not able to attend meetings in person can still tune in and listen to the issues that are important in the neighborhood, perhaps identify somebody that they need to connect with across the county and have resources available to them. We do usually have speakers at our meetings, but sometimes we just have general discussions about issues that our neighborhood that are that are critical to neighborhoods so that we can talk to each other. I think that is getting more and more important in probably less and less opportunities for that to happen. And so with that, um, this morning we are in fact in one of those positions where we do not have a lot of people in attendance this morning, but we want to begin a conversation about a couple of things. One is specific, and that is the current review of the Marion County Comprehensive Land Use Plan. And regardless of where you live or work in Marion County land use issues, are very critical to our neighborhoods, both the developed and the undeveloped portions of our community. Currently, the City of Indianapolis is undergoing a review of the comprehensive plan, and part of our discussion this morning is going to be based around opportunities for public engagement and whether that process is working for your community. And then the second topic is to talk about prioritizing the needs of the neighborhoods. If you read your news online, if you read your news in hard copy, whatever it is, you see stories every day about issues that are identified as critical to neighborhoods, but it is often kind of driven from the top down, and those people who actually have boots on the ground, the ones that are out picking up the trash out of the off the curb in their neighborhood, trying to figure out how to navigate parking on the street that shouldn't be there all the way up to crime and homelessness in their communities. We want the neighborhoods to have an opportunity to talk to each other about what is important to them instead of being told what is important to them. So we're going to have both of those conversations today. And seven different neighborhood groups are putting this on called G7. Well, in a little while, Alma, when we get to the part about what neighborhoods need, I'm gonna ask you if you would kind of recap how you get those people involved. Oh because part of neighborhoods being able to really have a strong voice in prioritizing their needs. I think all of us are facing an issue with a dwindling number of people who come out for events and participate in things on ongoing basis. So if you've got an event coming up where you've got seven different neighborhoods involved, clearly something is going right with that event. And we're gonna ask if maybe you can share that. Okay. One is that our Franklin Township Civic League has partnered with a program called um change footprints for change, and it is where people can donate used shoes. And if the shoes are in good condition, then this organization we collectly used shoes, people drop them off and donate them to us, we pick them up at garage sales, but if they're in good shape, then they use those to redistribute to people that can't afford shoes, and it has been a very successful program. And if the shoes are not in good condition, then they send them to be recycled and they're ground up to make um like that the covering for playground and stuff. So they are recycled. Um excuse me, it's called changing footprints, get the name right. Um, and if you go to our website, which is FTCivicLeague.org, there's information on there about how you can get involved in that, and we would be glad to get shoes from you, or if you're interested in finding out more about that organization for your own neighborhood. Um, I know that they would welcome community partners. They do huge shoe giveaways. Um, our civic league by itself, our goal this year is 3,000 pairs. We're more than halfway there for collecting those, and so it is a very it is a very good way to recycle some of those very expensive shoes that children go through and outgrow on a very rapid basis, um, but it's it's a good way to get involved. And the other thing is that we have formed a task force in Franklin Township to try and preserve a significant wetlands that is on the far southwest corner of our township that was initially proposed for some industrial development. Um we were able to persuade the developer to not include this portion of ground, and we are now in the process of uh come of raising money to try and get a master plan for that. We're talking to various entities to see about getting them to make donations so that the wetlands can be purchased. Um we were very fortunate recently that actually one of the developers of the initial proposal made a 10,000 dollar donation so that we could afford to hire somebody to do a professional master plan that we can then take to potential donors and to see if we can get someone to assume the ownership and custody of it.
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