Homes in Emerson Heights were already surprisingly affordable, now they even more affordable to restore.

Homes in our neighborhood that are used as a principal residence are potentially eligible for a 20% Indiana Residential Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit.


General Requirements
This credit is available to us because we are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The credit is available for contributing properties used as a principal residence, where substantial rehabilitation ($10,000 or more) is being done. The proposed work must conform to a Rehabilitation Plan that must be submitted to the state for approval first. The plan must be historically appropriate (they aren’t going to approve vinyl windows or vinyl siding, for example). The credit cannot be applied to landscaping or expanding the size of the home. For more details on requirements please see the link at the bottom of this page.


Example
For example, let’s say that you own a home in Emerson Heights that you intend to spend $30,000 restoring (roof, siding, foundation, structural work, mechanicals, etc.) You could be eligible to reduce your state income tax bill by $6,000 (it’s a credit, not a deduction) – making the cost to rehabilitate the house $24,000. The tax credit can be carried forward for up to 15 years. The work plan may be done in phases – over a period of up to five years (so, for example, you can do $10,000 the first year, $10,000 the next, etc.)
This credit can make the total cost of buying and rehabilitating a home in Emerson Heights much more attractive – particularly if the home is large or needs a lot of attention.

Income Producing Property a Different Program
This program is for owner- occupied homes. Income producing property falls under a different program. The tax credits for income producing property have been committed so far in the future that it doesn’t make sense to pursue those projects at this time.

List of Contributing Properties:
This link takes you to the National Register nomination form that lists the Contributing and Non-Contributing structures. You will need Adobe Reader. The list begins on Page 52. There is a rating given to both the House or Primary Structure and the Garage (“C” for contributing, “N” for non-contributing). The rational for deciding if a building is contributing or non-contributing is on page 9, second paragraph.

The availability of the historic tax credits is another reason not to make alterations to your home such as replacing windows and doors or altering the front that would make a historically contributing
property into a non-contributing property. Residents who are interested in the program are encouraged to understand the requirements and understand the tax benefits before beginning any work.

Additional Information and Application
More details on the program as well as applications: Residential Historic Rehabilitation Credit

Grants and Loans available for Near-East Side homes for Energy Efficiency
Better Buildings is a grant program – $1,500 for homes and $2,000 for businesses – for energy efficiency updates in the NESCO area. It’s federal money administered by the City of Indianapolis and IAD. There is also a program for low interest loans.

The program was featured in the March neighborhood newsletter and a representative from IAD was at the March Emerson Heights neighborhood meeting to explain the program.

The grant is available for property owners or renters in the NESCO area and doesn’t have income guidelines.
Improvement/Retrofits include the following:

• Installation of insulation
• Installation of efficient lighting
• Heating, venting, and air conditioning (HVAC)
• High-efficiency shower/faucet upgrades
• Weather sealing
• The purchase and installation of ENERGY STAR appliances

It includes an energy assessment to help prioritize improvements. The City has qualified contractors who do all of the work.

Virtually every home in Emerson Heights would benefit from this program – please take advantage of it! Every dollar that we don’t spend on heating and cooling our homes is money that we can spend on fixing them up or on other necessities.


Please fill out the pre-application before April 15th, 2011 and send it in to the address at the bottom of the application.

For more information call:

Indy‐east Asset Development
2236 East 10th Street, Indianapolis, IN 46201
Phone: 808‐2318 or 808‐2308
Better Buildings Website

Use the Emerson Heights promotional material to help "sell the neighborhood" along with the house.

Place some of our fliers on the kitchen counter or with the Fact Sheet for the house. Also give one to your Realtor so that they know some of the selling points of the neighborhood.

You may either print these from the PDF file or you may request color printed versions from webmaster@emersonheights.org




Download "A Neighborhood You Can Both Love"





Download "Minutes to the Theater"


Neighborhood brochure:

This attractive brochure lets prospective buyers know about the good things that are happening in the neighborhood and why a home in Emerson Heights is a good investment. It prints on legal size paper in landscape format.

Download Emerson Heights brochure

Be patient, this is a large file (22 meg).


You will need acrobat reader.

A series of articles about ways that we can reduce energy consumption, save money and reduce the impact on the environment.

There are many features of our neighborhood that help it to stand-out, that make it special and make our homes potentially more desirable and marketable. A priority this year will be to bring more attention to how well our neighborhood lends itself to being “Green”.

To highlight the green nature of our neighborhood, we will feature a series of articles in the newsletter and website about energy saving products, materials and other ways that we can reduce energy consumption, save money and reduce the impact on the environment. This fall, we hope to have an open house to show off at least some of these energy saving products and techniques.

~See: Emerson Heights - A Green Neighborhood~

Emerson Heights is fortunate to be served by a variety of good schools with a proven track record of academic performance. Parents can choose from a menu of schools that offer innovative teaching styles, extended school days, enhanced art and music programs, focused curriculum and an emphasis on leadership and values—just to name a few of the possible options. Because these schools vary greatly in their teaching styles and emphasis, parents are encouraged to visit and learn about these schools in order to find the best fit for their child. Several of these schools are located very near the neighborhood.

Some of the school choices include:

More...

Our neighborhoods, including Emerson Heights, Little Flower and Irvington have done a significant amount of work to replace trees in the neighborhood. Tree plantings have been done with Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, Inc. and supported by volunteers.

Here is some excellent technical information about urban tree planting and preserving trees during development.
The documents are produced by the US Forestry Service and are very high quality.

Urban Tree Planting Guide

Urban Tree Risk Management

Urban Watershed and Conserving and Planting Trees

A new Noise Ordinance for Indianapolis was signed into law in Feb of 2006.


What do boom cars, fireworks, children playing and cell phone conversations all have in common? According to the Revised Noise Ordinance for the City of Indianapolis (Article III, Section 391-301-303), given the time of day and environment, they are all examples of unreasonable noise. Fines for unreasonable noise are $50 for the first offense, $250 for the second, and $500 for the third (within a 12-month period). Additionally, the ticket can be issued to the property owner.

But, before you start thinking that the City of Indianapolis has gone too far in regulating “children playing” or controlling the use of your cell-phone (or free speech for that matter), consider what the new ordinance says. Rather than using a device that measures decibels to determine what is noise, the city has now defined Unreasonable Noise as:

“Sound that is of a volume, frequency, or pattern that prohibits, disrupts, injures, or endangers the health, safety, welfare, prosperity, comfort, or repose of reasonable persons of ordinary sensitivities within the city, given the time of day and environment in which the sound is made.”

And, there are no intentions of limiting First Amendment Free Speech rights because the ordinance states:

“That the sole intent of the provisions of this chapter is declared to be, as a matter of legislative determination for this declaration of public policy, to secure and promote the health, safety, welfare, prosperity, comfort, and repose of persons in this city by reducing unreasonable noise, and a determination of violation of this chapter may not be based on the content of any message conveyed during the creation of any noise or the identity of any person responsible for or associated with the creation of any noise.”


Unreasonable noise can occur 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Unreasonable noise can be from sources such as car horns, loud stereos or radios, people yelling or screaming, and vendor’s vehicles (ice cream trucks). Below is a digest you can print out to place on your refrigerator.

If you experience unreasonable noise, ask the offender(s) to either turn the noise down or stop the noise. If they do not comply, call the police non-emergency number at 327-3811. According to Sheriff Frank Anderson “the law is the law.” Therefore, if a responding officer tells you that it is not worth their time to ticket a $50 offense, you may ask him if he would give the same response if Sheriff Anderson were calling. You may also ask the officer how he knows that the offender doesn’t already have the $50 ticket. The price of the first ticket may be only $50, but for neighborhoods and communities---well, you’ve HEARD it before, the ticket is priceless.

Below are copies of the Indianapolis Noise Ordinance and a handy digest:

Prop_50_approved_2-13-06.doc

Noise_Digest.pdf

Here is some basic information about the Eastside HOTIF and the Eastside Redevelopment Area

Neareastside_HOTIF_FAQs.pdf

HoTIF_description.pdf

NESCO-Redev-HoTIF_map.pdf

More information is available from:

Joe Bowling
Community Builder
Great Indy Neighborhoods Initiative
http://www.greatindyneighborhoods.org
2236 E. 10th St.
Indianapolis, IN 46201
P: 317.633.8210, 2357
C: 317.496-2662
F: 317.633.3006

Marion County residents have two ways to recycle through the Indianapolis Recycles! program.

Pickup
For a $5 monthly fee, residents can sign up for curbside pickup by calling the Mayor's Action Center at (317) 327-4622. You will get a bin for recyclables, and you will be billed every three months.

Drop-off
For no charge, residents also can take recyclable materials to drop-off locations throughout the county.
Indianapolis Recycles! accepts the following types of items for recycling:
• Aerosol, aluminum and steel cans.
• Glass (clear, green or brown).
• Newspapers.
• Plastics of the No. 1 and 2 types.

Drop-off sites
Here are recycling drop-off sites on the Eastside of Marion County.

8939 E. 38th St. (southwest corner of 38th and Post Road). The container is at the Kroger parking lot.

5550 E. Fall Creek Parkway, North Drive. The container is at the east side of the O'Malia's supermarket.

7150 E. Washington St. (northeast corner of Washington and Shadeland Avenue). The container is at the lower-level parking lot of the former Eastgate Consumer Mall, behind Ryan's Steakhouse.

10450 E. Washington St. (just east of Washington Square shopping mall, on the north side of the street). The container is at the Kroger.

Brookside Park, main parking area of the community center.