The Shelbyville Common Council is the next stop for a proposed YMCA that Major Health Partners wants to build at the corner of North State Road 9 and Intelliplex Drive.

Rezoning the proposed YMCA location was necessary for the project, and in a special meeting Tuesday evening in City Hall, 44 W. Washington St., the city's Board of Zoning Appeals voted to recommend the rezoning request to the Shelbyville Plan Commission.

Meeting right after the zoning board, the Plan Commission also voted in favor of the proposal (premeeting discussion pictured).

Plan Commission member Barb Lewis recused herself because she's involved with Shelby Senior Services, and part of the project includes relocating Senior Services to the YMCA complex.

Government leaders of Shelbyville and Shelby County have pledged about $1.5 million each in public money to support the $18 million project. The rest is to be funded by the hospital.

But the rezoning approval came only after the Plan Commission heard from residents next to the site which was owned by a church before the hospital bought it.

Stacy Smith lives in Trotters Chase just north of the Intelliplex business park; his condo overlooks the YMCA development site to the south.

He asked that steps be taken to ease the impact on the neighbors.

“I moved out there, and I knew it was a church's land, and I thought, well, you know, when I bought that condo, staring right at where you guys are gonna be building. So I thought it was going to be a church, and there'd be noise on Sunday morning and that's about it. Now, you're talking about a YMCA, restaurant and everything staring right at us. And what I'm, you know, I knew something was gonna be built there sooner or later. You know, I'd like to fight it but I think that's gonna be a losing battle there. But, I was wondering what kind of fence they're gonna put up, something, so no house is staring at all that,” Smith said.

Mike Evans, president of the Shelbyville Plan Commission, replied that issues such as berms and other things to make the development more pleasing would come up later in the planning process.

With the OK from the Plan Commission, the City Council must give final approval to rezone the land for the YMCA development.

The council's next scheduled meeting is at 8 a.m. on June 17 in City Hall, 44 W. Washington St.

In other matters, the Board of Zoning Appeals and the Plan Commission approved variances to zoning regulations so Hoosier Energy can build an electrical substation to support an ethanol refinery to be built by POET Biorefining Shelbyville LLC.

The variances involved changes in setbacks and standards for vegetation plantings and driveways.

Hoosier Energy is building the substation for Rush-Shelby Energy which will provide the electricity to customers. Duke Energy owns power transmission lines that run near the 4-acre project site at the corner of County Road 300 North and Tom Hession Drive.

Building the substation close to the power lines is a necessity for the project.

The substation will power POET's ethanol refinery locating nearby on 300 North. It also will have the capacity to power other commercial developments as well as homes in that area northwest of Shelbyville which the city recently annexed.

Hoosier Energy is expected to begin moving dirt at the site as soon as weather permits.

Also on Tuesday evening, the Plan Commission approved a petition to allow the construction of 90 new homes at the Twin Lakes subdivision, located at McKay and Amos Roads.

Developer Westport Homes said it will work with the Twin Lakes homeowners group to address concerns about the type of houses to be built.