A splotch of brown and white sticking out among the rows of houses marks another addition to the neighborhood spreading along the horizon. Ruth Pierce watched as the small farm town slowly became more and more urban.
Pierce is a retired teacher who has lived in southern Indiana for the past 55 years. Like many community members, she is acutely aware of the changes happening in her town.
“This area has changed tremendously since when I first moved here. It used to feel like you were out in the country, and there were not many houses around. Now there are subdivisions every which way you look,” said Pierce
This steep increase in housing demand in the area has been built up over the past decade, with more and more subdivisions and apartments popping up around the area. The demand for houses stems from the steady increase of people moving into the local counties, which has been on the rise in the past few years.
“Floyd County has been growing for two reasons. One is because of its proximity to Louisville, it’s a desirable place to live. People want to get out of the field; they don’t want to work in the city, but that is where the corporations are, but here they can go back and forth on the bridge. But the main reason it’s a desirable place to live is because of the quality of our school systems,” said Floyd County Commissioner Frank Loop.
However, not everyone has welcomed the area’s recent plans for development. The change from rural to urban is one of the things unnerving the area’s current residents, who have seen the rolling farmland that used to make up the majority of the counties shrink and shrink as the years go by.
“People are upset with the development. Seems that they are adding all these new subdivisions and apartments left and right without even thinking of the rural community and the infrastructure on like traffic and getting around,” said county resident and truck driver Micheal Gary.
Population density increases have led to more strain on local roads, which have recently become increasingly noticeable.
“I can really tell the difference, especially here on our little road, on Corydon Ridge Road. Usually, we had barely anybody on it, and now there are cars on it all the time,” said Pierce.
For students, this strain presents a unique problem with buses having to adapt not just to the increase of cars on the road but to the clutter thats caused by the neighborhood construction process.
“The consturction makes it harder for trying to get to school with the buses trying to get in there. We had to change the routes a bunch of times because the buses just couldn’t get around the trucks and stuff,” said 10th grader Sarah Barbato, whose neighborhood is near the construction of the new subdivision The Highlands.
Some residents have taken their discontent to the public, with social media groups being made to document and petition development that is unwelcome by the residents. Most recently, the debate has come down to a 152-unit apartment complex that has been pitched to be built across from the Highlander Point Medical Center.
“We, the undersigned residents of Floyds Knobs, Indiana, strongly oppose the proposed 152-unit apartment development near the intersection of Old Vincennes Road and State Road 150. This proposed high-density development poses significant concerns for the safety, infrastructure, and character of our community,” said a Change.Org petition created by Floyd County resident Aaron Jones. Currently, the petition sits at 1,716 signatures.
The petition touts several concerns about the impact of the complex being built, including the strain it will present on the New Albany-Floyd County school system. The petition’s worries may not be unfounded, with the very thing many subdivisions advertise as a selling point—the school system—struggling under the rapid growth.
“I do believe at some point in the next few years, we will see more and more students. I think our enrollment will increase. I don’t think it’s an emergency in the next few years, but we are getting close in our capacity,” said Floyd Central principal Scott Hatton.
For FC, the limitsiations on student counts fall on the building and
“I think with our school, it is a matter of that if I had to add four or five classrooms, that’s a problem. There is no place to add them. You would have to add onto the school, and if you start looking at the footprint around the school, it would be a tricky thing to manage,” said Hatton.
With more housing being built every month, the population growth seems to have no near end. For the schools, the problem starts to be less about what to do to adapt and more about how to fund it.
“The school system is going to have to adjust. And from what I’ve seen, the school system does adjust. The school system has purchased land that could be used for another middle school. So, they are planning for growth. The issue, to me, is how much tax dollars they can bring in from income tax. Where does it come from? Property taxes? That’s where a lot of people get upset because they don’t want to pay those expenses,” said Loop, who continued to discuss the reasons the middle school has yet to be built, having been shot down once before when the issue came down to the vote.
“That’s where a lot of people get upset because they don’t want to pay those expenses. A couple of years back, they passed a law that said if you do a public project for more than 20 million dollars, then the project has to be on the vote. And the voters have to determine if they are going to pass that or not,” said Loop.
The question of whether or not a new school will be built in the future remains. The facts are that Floyd County and its neighbors are continuing to grow at a rapid pace. The skyline seen from the Pierce family farm is the best illustration of that, with houses spreading out like bugs in the distance. The number continues to grow and appears to have no discernible stopping point with land not already built on, bulldozed, and ready for construction to begin.
“The growth is going to continue until I guess, it reaches the point where it can’t. But they are finding every little space to put something. If not a neighborhood, then apartments. It’s not good for us, and it’s hurting our schools,” said Pierce.