BOONE COUNTY
Forum examines growth issues
Central Indiana is changing, so county needs to focus on things it can control.

By Phil Dunlap
Star correspondent
May 1, 2003

Growth, love it or hate it.

Participants couldn't find a lot of middle ground at the Boone County Economic Development Corporation's forum for community leaders this week.

Comparisons between Boone County and other central Indiana counties brought surprises -- positive and negative, with facts and figures being tossed around like confetti by officials of the Metropolitan Indianapolis Board of Realtors and the Builders Association of Greater Indianapolis.

Katie Culp, executive director of the development corporation, said many positive things are happening in the county, including "the creation and establishment of tax abatement policies, both at the county level and in the city of Lebanon."

Steve Lains, chief executive officer for the builders association, said growth will be a constant for the county in the next several years.

"From 2003-08, there will be a need for over 2,700 new homes to meet the demand in Boone County," Lains said.

He forecast the cost to build expected homes in Boone County in 2003 at $119 million.

"The average cost of a new home in the county is $255,000," said Lains, adding that the average cost of a new home in the nine-county area is $195,000.

"Affordability, diversity of housing and quality of life relate directly to economic development," Lains said.

Lou Zickler, representing the Realtors board, threw in one sour note.

"Of the labor force who lives here, 41 percent of them work outside (Boone County). That's over 13,000 people who leave the county every day who wouldn't have to (if jobs were available)."

Indiana University policy analyst Drew Klacik tried to stress solutions.

He said Boone County "will grow and change because you have no choice. You are part of a changing central Indiana."

He said that not everything that affects a community is within its control. "Your mission is to become what you want to be by controlling those things you can."

Growth depends mainly on perception, Klacik said. "For instance, it's not how good your schools are, it's how good people perceive your schools to be."

Klacik made comparisons between Boone and surrounding counties, because while changes will come to all, they won't necessarily coincide.

He pointed to Hamilton County, which showed 67 percent population growth from 1990 to 2000, whereas Boone County grew by only 21 percent.

However, Klacik said that Boone County was second in per-capita income during that period, at $35,695, just below Hamilton County's per-capita income of $41,519. "At one time, economic development was about tax incentives. Many argue now that (it) is about having the appropriate natural resources -- and the single most important natural resource necessary to grow economically is human capital," Klacik said.

"At one time our product was corn. Now our product is human beings. If we don't have well-educated, intelligent, productive (people), we're not going to grow economically."