Public outcry was not the only reason Greenwood asked a major logistics company to back out of its plan to build massive warehouses in a mostly agricultural area on the city’s southeast side.
Not knowing what kinds of jobs would be offered in those warehouses and the city’s low unemployment were also concerns, Greenwood Mayor Mark Myers said.
Logistics Property Company, LLC, a Chicago-based logistics company, withdrew its petition to build in Greenwood late last week, as the planning commission was set to review the plans for a second time amid public concern.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]
City officials were concerned about what businesses the five speculative warehouses would be leased to, and the possibility that they would be low-paying jobs, Myers said.
“I was concerned from the start that the buildings were too large and too many,” Myers said.
City officials were also concerned that there are not enough unemployed residents in the area to fill the hundreds of positions Logistics expected to bring during the next several years.
“Manpower was an issue that I brought up with the company and they assured me that they had done a study and there is still enough unemployment in the area to fill their positions,” he said.
But he reached out to a couple local employment firms and they were concerned as well that there wouldn’t be enough employees to fill the new positions, Myers said.
The company wanted to build speculative buildings, creating an industrial business park dubbed Logiport 65, that it hoped to fill with high-profile tenants in the next several years. The warehouses were planned on the property of Kelsay Farms, which sits on the Greenwood-Whiteland line, southeast of the Worthsville Road interchange.
Eventually, the warehouses would have brought 300 to 400 jobs to the city, but there was no way of knowing specifics on the number, type or pay of the jobs, the developer said.
The company planned to spend $140 million to build the five facilities. They would have ranged in size from 285,000 square feet to 1.3 million square feet, according to its application. The first building, which was to be built this summer, would have been a $40 million investment, the developer said.
“I did not feel that this is best for the city and didn’t believe that it would pass. In order to avoid a more contentious meeting and hand more residents upset because of the process, I talked with both the property owner and the company involved and asked that they withdraw their request due to a lack of public and administration support,” Myers said.
“They were very kind and understanding and appreciated our honesty.”
Regardless of the city’s reasoning, residents who live in the area are thrilled they won’t have to look out their back doors and see large warehouses instead of open fields, at least for now.
Randy Goodin, a former candidate for Greenwood City Council who created and manages a social media page for Concerned Citizens of Southeast Greenwood, is pleased city leaders listened to residents’ complaints and stepped in to help. He said he was also pleased to see so many of his neighbors get involved.
A lot of people rallied against this proposal because a lot of people felt betrayed, he said.
He pointed to the city’s 20-year comprehensive plan, which was updated in 2014 when the Interstate 65 and Worthsville Road interchange was put in, and said that area would remain mixed use — agricultural and residential.
“I think once they looked at what was promised to the people in that plan, it was only right of the leadership to ask (Logistics) to withdraw,” Goodin said.
He suspects most of the public outrage had to do with the location of the proposed development. Kelsay Farms is surrounded by estate-level homes, and those homeowners don’t want to look our their back doors and see giant warehouses, he said. If the proposed development had been north of Worthsville Road, the developer probably wouldn’t have faced as much resistance, he said.
But even west of I-65, where Goodin lives, residents in those subdivisions don’t want the highway exit that leads to their neighborhoods to have an industrial look and feel, he said.
“I think the people felt betrayed because here we go again. We were told a long time ago when they built this exit that this would be the new entrance to Greenwood. We’re fearful that this project would turn (the I-65 and Worthsville Road area) into another Main Street, and continue to bring the area down,” Goodin said.
The community rallied against the proposal. Dozens of area residents spoke against it at a plan commission meeting two weeks ago, and a petition titled “Stop the warehouses! Keep Greenwood ‘Green,’” garnered more than 900 signatures by Monday afternoon.
Another proposal to rezone farmland for an industrial business park was on the plan commission’s agenda Monday night, albeit in a different location northeast of the interchange, off Allen Road. Some of the same residents were planning to speak against that proposal as well, Goodin said Monday afternoon.
“I don’t think any of us when we moved here planned for what we’re getting,” Goodin said. “People are at a point now where they’re finally saying enough is enough.”
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”Pull Quote” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
“I did not feel that this is best for the city,”
Greenwood Mayor Mark Myers
[sc:pullout-text-end]
