Greenwood residents beg city not to OK massive warehouses on farmland

The residents of southeast Greenwood are begging city leaders to stick to their overall vision for the city and reject plans for a massive business park that will include five warehouses on what is currently scenic farmland.

After a nearly 90-minute discussion on Monday night that included tears, cheers and dozens of comments, the city’s plan commission didn’t come to an agreement about whether to rezone land for a logistics company to build five large warehouses on 188 acres of land southeast of the Worthsville Road interchange. The property is owned by Kelsay Farms, a six-generation farm that sits on a total of 2,200 acres on the Greenwood-Whiteland line. The section available for purchase is on the corner of Worthsville and Collins roads.

Chicago-based Logistics Property Company, LLC wants to build speculative buildings, creating an industrial business park dubbed Logiport 65, that it hopes to fill with high-profile tenants in the next several years.

[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]

But dozens of area residents packed the council chambers Monday night to speak out against the proposed development. Families brought their kids who sat on the floor while their parents pleaded with the commissioners not to smash their dreams. Some cried as they told commissioners why they bought property in Greenwood, and why they don’t want vacant, crime-inducing warehouses scattered throughout their hometown, not to mention what it would do to their property values. Others pointed to the city’s 20-year comprehensive plan for the area which promised this wouldn’t happen, they said.

The passionate audience shouted at the commissioners and the developer, at one point chanting for him to “go back to Chicago.”

That developer, Aaron Martell, told commissioners he’s met with Mayor Mark Myers, his staff and city council president Mike Campbell about the possibilities for the business park, which he hopes will attract Fortune 500 companies and major retailers.

“We represent pension funds. So a pension fund adviser puts their trust in our ability to execute and we go out and find parcels of land like this — well located parcels of land — and try to make some money. There is a sizeable risk in what we’re trying to do here, but we feel as though this is a location in which we are pretty confident,” said Martell, executive vice president of Logistics.

He expects, eventually, the warehouses would bring 300 to 400 jobs to the city that pay $17 to $18 an hour, but there’s no way of knowing exactly what kinds of jobs these facilities would bring or what the wages would be, he said.

“What we’re going to build are inventory buildings. There are no tenants. I can’t tell you anything about the users, how many trucks, how many jobs,” he said. “But I can tell you that in the past, we’re used to seeing a certain amount of job creation and truck traffic is changing everyday. We can probably guess, but we do not have a user in tow.”

Logistics targets companies such as Amazon, which is already building a facility in Greenwood.

Examples of companies that have utilized Logistics warehouses in other communities are General Mills, L’Oreal, Michelin and Post cereals.

Currently, the company has 10 similar properties around the United States, totaling more than 17 million square feet and $1 billion in developments, Martell said.

Logistics chose Greenwood, and this plot of land specifically, because of Indianapolis’ centralized location to other major cities, and its proximity to the highway.

The company plans to spend $140 million on the five facilities in Greenwood. They would range in size from 285,000 square feet to 1.3 million square feet.

The first building, which they hope to start construction on this summer, would be a $40 million investment, but there’s no tenant.

“I have convinced my investors, and I am taking this risk personally as I am an owner of the company — a $40 million gamble that this is going to work out,” Martell said.

Ty Tran and his wife live near the land where Logistics wants to build the business park. Their back door looks out at where these warehouses would be built.

“It gives me pause, some of the words and terms that this gentlemen used, and I’m really surprised. If I had a pension, I don’t want to hear words like ‘sizeable risk,’ ‘speculative buildings’ or ‘$40 million gamble,’” Tran said.

Some area residents said they spent their savings and retirement funds to buy land in this area.

Many said they don’t have luxurious homes, but they’re concerned about lights, noise and traffic.

And others, such as Nick and Christina Hunter, are worried about what it will do to their American dream.

The couple has small children, and they bought their land near this property because they wanted to live among the farmers while still being close to the city, a sentiment several residents shared Monday night.

“I don’t know how often you guys get to go down there, but it’s a special piece of land. We have Hurricane Creek that flows right through it, and we’ve got a pre-Civil War cemetery. It’s history. It’s special. You go out there and you sit and you watch that sun go down, you see the horses in our backyard,” Christina Hunter said, crying and pleading.

“It takes away from our dreams of raising our kids out there, and I am begging you not to smash those dreams.”

Wendy Murphy, who lives in Lennar at South Lake, a subdivision on the other side of Interstate 65, moved her family to Greenwood from New York eight years ago, she said.

“Out of all the towns in Indiana we could choose, Greenwood is the one that I fell in love with. Why? Because it has residential; it has a commercial district, shopping, great schools for my kids and country. Green-wood. Greenwood. We need to keep some “green” in Greenwood. Just because I live near an interstate does not mean I want warehouses. We have plenty of warehouses,” Murphy said.

But the real point of contention among residents who purchased homes here, and among commissioners, is the city’s five-year-old comprehensive plan, a plan that promised certain things for certain areas. This area, if its zoning did change from agricultural, would be only for residential use, according to this plan.

Industrial would remain northeast of the I-65 and Worthsville Road interchange, the city said.

“How do more warehouses exactly fit into the image the city of Greenwood wants to project and convey to the general public as this new interstate exit is considered to be one of the new gateways to the city of Greenwood?” asked David Ebeyer, a lifelong resident of Greenwood.

“Common sense tells me, and you have to agree, that Greenwood has enough warehouses. When is enough enough? And I think the board needs to come to the understanding that everybody in this room right now has said, it’s enough. Take a look at your own comprehensive plans.”

The audience clapped and cheered.

Some planning commissioners agreed.

“This is a request to not follow the comprehensive plan that we do still have in place,” commissioner Duane O’Neal said.

But the city has already set a precedent, other commissioners argued.

Commissioner Phil Tinkle brought up FedEx, which proposed building a distribution facility northeast of the interchange, and Amazon, which is building a similar facility.

“We changed that to accommodate those folks. What makes this different than that? It’s the same thing. It’s the same interstate land-use plan. It’s just a couple hundred feet across Worthsville Road,” Tinkle said.

But residents want the city to draw the line at Worthsville Road.

Commissioner Matthew Smith said the city has to look at these proposals on a case-by-case basis and consider developments based on a developer or company’s merits.

The problem with this one is it doesn’t have specific tenants, commissioner Trent Pohlar said.

In the end, four members voted against the development — Pohlar, O’Neal, Smith and Monica Magna — and three voted in favor of it — Tinkle, John Shell and city engineer Daniel Johnston. Mike Sawa was absent and newly-appointed member Bob Dine abstained.

In order for the nine-member plan commission to make a recommendation to the city council, five voting members have to reach a consensus. They also have the option of sending it to the city council without a recommendation, but chose not to do that. Instead, they tabled it until the Jan. 28 meeting, when they will discuss it again.

Area residents were already rallying Monday night and plan on attending that meeting as well.

[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”About this proposed development” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]

Here is a look at some details of the proposed development for a portion of Kelsay Farms, southeast of the I-65 / Worthsville Road interchange:

Developer: Logistics Property Company, LLC of Chicago

The plan: Five speculative warehouses on more than 180 acres.

Possible jobs: As many as 300 to 400 jobs on paying about $17.50 per hour

The land: Zoned agricultural, and city’s comprehensive plan calls for it being developed as residential

[sc:pullout-text-end][sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”If you go” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]

WHAT: Greenwood’s plan commission and staff will discuss this proposed development again at its next meeting

WHEN: 7 p.m. Jan. 28

WHERE: Greenwood city center, 300 S. Madison Avenue

WHY: Commissioners failed to come to a consensus about whether to rezone the property and forward it on to city council

[sc:pullout-text-end]