From the kitchen window that faces her backyard, Jessica Beck-Miller looks out at an empty plot of land extending nearly 100 acres west.
Just across the busy county highway in front of Beck-Miller’s Wayne Township home on South County Road 300W is the Woodside Northwest Industrial Park where nearly 10 industrial buildings are housed, including a Cummins Inc. facility and Tallman Equipment Company, Inc.
On Nov. 6, Columbus City Council members approved the annexation and rezoning of about 18 acres just behind Beck-Miller’s home near State Road 58 and County Road 300W. In January, the council will consider annexing and rezoning about 80 more acres adjacent to the 18 acres approved earlier this month.
Now, the Miller family and their neighbors fear their homes may be boxed inside an industrial park with large factories and warehouses on both the west and east sides of their homes.
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City moves forward
The Columbus Plan Commission unanimously recommended on Sept. 11 that Columbus City Council approve the annexation of 18.97 acres and rezoning of 16.83 acres from “agriculture: preferred” to “industrial: heavy” with some restrictions on the types of facilities that can be built on the property. Of the 18.97 acres that will be annexed, 16.83 of them are owned by the Deckard Family Trust. The annexation includes 2.14 acres of right-of-way on State Road 58 and County Road 300W.
The recommendation by the plan commission included commitments to prohibit certain types of industrial activities on the property and widen County Road 300W, requirements on the placement of vehicles and loading areas on the property and other provisions designed to “minimize impacts to immediately adjoining homes.”
One of the provisions is a 150-foot-long buffer zone that includes an elevated strip of land that is at least 8 feet tall with a staggered row of evergreen trees that are a minimum 5 feet in height.
At the Nov. 6 Columbus City Council meeting, at-large Councilman Tom Dell proposed an amendment to the original request to raise the 8-foot-tall berm by 2 feet and move the buffer back 25 feet toward the building.
Dell, along with District 4 Councilman Frank Miller, at-large Councilwoman Laurie Booher and District 2 Councilwoman Elaine Wagner all visited Beck-Miller’s property in October.
Dell suggested the amendment as a way to show “good faith” for everybody. He said moving the berm back wouldn’t have been an infringement on the developer, but it would have added more protection for nearby residences.
The amendment failed with support of only three of seven council members, including Dell, Booher and Wagner.
The council voted unanimously to adopt a fiscal plan for the property to be annexed and annex the property. Dell and Booher voted against the rezoning of 16.83 acres, but it passed with a majority vote with the commitments recommended by the city plan commission.
A fair price
Breeden Realtors President Mark Pratt, representing the Deckard Family Trust, said the homeowners were originally notified by the Columbus Plan Commission ahead of its July 10 meeting where commissioners initially discussed the annexation of the 18.97 acres of property and rezoning of the 16.83 acres.
Pratt said he can’t remember the nature of contact, but he said he made “some contact” with the homeowners to tell them about the plan to annex and rezone the land to make it ready for purchase by a developer.
Pratt said five or six homeowners whose properties are adjacent to the Deckard Family Trust land received letters from Pratt on or around Sept. 3. The letters listed an offer made by the prospective property buyer, T.M. Crowley & Associates, which identifies itself as “a leader in comprehensive procurement and management of high-end, national real estate developments,” to purchase their homes for 150% of their appraised value.
T.M. Crowley & Associates lists its global partners on its website, including Sunbelt Rentals, CVS Pharmacy, Toyota Tsusho and Cumberland Farms among others. Pratt said the company is interested in purchasing the land for industrial use.
Ten to 12 property owners live along the stretch near the vacant land. Pratt said initially the discussion was that the prospective buyer indicated a willingness to make the same offer to all of the property owners. Following a discussion with the plan commission, Pratt said the focus shifted to the first four homes nearest to the property, and an offer was actually made to the “first five or six homes” closest to the property.
The offer, however, is contingent upon all of the residential property owners accepting, as well as the Deckard Family Trust’s ability to rezone and annex the nearly 100 acres of land.
But the proposed buyout, Beck-Miller said, isn’t enough money for her family to purchase a comparable property in Bartholomew County with similar amenities to what they currently own. Beck-Miller and her family currently reside on about three acres of land with a barn that houses a horse and a fence on the property.
She said she had her home appraised in July and took that value and started searching for available homes on the market.
“I just put in basically what I already had. The house closest to my house on the market was $310,000,” Beck-Miller said.
That home, she said, didn’t have a barn, a fence or two acres of pasture that she currently owns. If she added a new barn and fence to that home, overall costs would amount to about $350,000.
“We were kind of excited in hopes that we were going to leave because we were like this is our ticket, we’re gone,” Beck-Miller said. “If you sell your house, would you not expect if you sell the house you’re living in, you should be able to purchase another house? So they’re basically like, ‘Why should we be required to replace your house?’ Well I should get a fair price for my house so that I can go purchase another house.”
Pratt said there’s nothing typical about the purchase offer that T.M. Crowley & Associates put out to the homeowners. He said their offer of 150% of appraised value was intended to demonstrate a willingness to help the homeowners out of the property.
The appraisal method has yet to be determined, Pratt said. The idea is to have a fair market value appraisal completed on the homes. Who would complete that appraisal is still unknown.
“We’ve developed hundreds of acres over the 40-plus years I’ve been here,” Pratt said. “I don’t know of anybody ever being offered 150% of their appraised home value. It was a show of good faith by the prospective buyer.”
As president of a realty company whose core business is residential real estate, Pratt said he is sensitive to the homeowners’ concerns. The purchase offer made by the prospective buyer, he said, also demonstrates sympathy and understanding.
Joey Thompson, who also lives on South County Road 300W, said none of the homeowners are looking to get rich.
“The end goal is either they don’t build the factories and we stay, or they give us a fair price and we leave and they can build their industrial park,” Thompson said.
Thompson said the 150% offer puts them about $40,000 short of what it would cost them to purchase a comparable home. He said $300,000 would be fair; $350,000 would make it easy on the families to move.
“At 150%, she (Beck-Miller) is looking at $260,000,” Thompson said. “So we’re within $40,000 which I don’t think is crazy.”
Next steps
Columbus City Council members will consider in January a recommendation by the Columbus Plan Commission to annex 78.93 acres and rezone 76.52 acres adjacent to the other nearly 20 acres. The additional 2.41 acres recommended for annexation are right-of-way.
With two new Democrats set to replace Booher and District 1 Councilman Dascal Bunch on the council in January, the vote for the second piece of land could be different from the November vote.
State law requires a 30-day waiting period from the day the council approved the annexation before it is effective. During the 30-day period, people can file objections in court to challenge how the city calculated the contiguity of the property with the current city limits.
State law requires a property to be at least 12.5% contiguous to the current city limits in order to be annexed. The Deckard Family Trust property is 13.36% contiguous.
Pratt said the prospective buyer isn’t fully in until all the acreage is rezoned and annexed, meaning if the second section of the land isn’t rezoned and annexed, the homeowners could end up safe with nothing being developed on the land in the short term.
“There’s every possibility that there will be no purchase of the Deckard property, in which case there will be nobody interested in buying any homes,” Pratt said at the Nov. 6 city council meeting. “It’s my impression this was to be considered irregardless of a buyer of the property, so I think the property owners should know that. There’s no urgency to when they would have to leave. As far as I’m concerned, that discussion is ongoing.”
However, Pratt said he would expect sooner than later, the property will be developed for industrial use.
If the homes are purchased by the prospective buyer, then, through the right channels, the buyer could modify the buffer and berm restrictions. The buffer and berm are currently required for the land if the homeowners decide to stay in the homes.
“I just think if the city wants an industrial park, they need to make it a park,” Thompson said. “That means buy the homes. They need to do what’s right for the people, not even the people that’s buying the land. The city needs to do what’s right for the people. If they want an industrial park, they need to make an industrial park. If that means buying all the homes down through here, that’s what they need to do.”
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Columbus City Council members will consider in January a recommendation by the Columbus Plan Commission to annex 78.93 acres and rezone 76.52 acres adjacent to the other nearly 20 acres in Wayne Township for possible industrial use. The additional 2.41 acres recommended for annexation are right-of-way.
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