Photo provided The Toyota Material Handling entrance is shown.
A significant expansion by a leading employer and a proposed housing development off State Street are included in annexation requests to be heard by the Columbus Plan Commission Wednesday.
The meeting will begin at 4 p.m. inside the second-floor council chambers at Columbus City Hall.
Toyota Material Handling is asking the city to annex 70.53 acres, as well as rezone 65 acres, directly north of its current facility. The property is on the east side of Interstate 65 and County Road 225W, between Deaver Road and County Road 300S.
The rezoning request calls for changing the 65 acres from a classification of Agricultural Preferred to Industrial. However, planning staff say the rezoning and annexation requests will be handled as two separate issues during Wednesday’s meeting.
In documents filed with the request, the company states it needs the property for a future 260,000-square-foot manufacturing facility. It would be focused on producing electric products and energy solutions to meet immediate needs, as well as to handle a 10-year growth of the material handling market, the application states.
Toyota Material Handling Sr. Vice-President Tony Miller wrote in the application he recognizes the proposal is “a slight departure” from the land use map in the city’s Comprehensive Plan.
“But the proposed property is contiguous to existing development, has the required infrastructure, and aligns well with the (plan’s) stated goals and policies,” Miller wrote. “We are confident we can coexist in harmony with our residential neighbors through proper site planning, as we have done for more than 30 years on our current campus.”
Toyota’s proposal includes widening the company’s frontage along County Road 225W to 24 feet, adding curb and gutters on both sides of the road. In addition, the manufacturer is proposing a number of infrastructure improvements that include the realigning of Road 225W north of its intersection with Deaver Road.
The annexation has received a favorable recommendation from the plan commission staff.
Second annexation request
In another agenda item, developers are asking the city to annex about 289 acres along State Street, from the current city limits near Fairview Drive southeast to County Road 250E in Columbus Township. Part of the property is currently zoned as Agricultural Preferred, while the other is zoned Commercial: Community.
The applicants are JOLI Development (Joseph W. Conner), Joshua Aciukewicz and Lenell Properties, LLC (John Whittington). They state in their application that they want to create long-term future residential development.
Besides three-quarters of a mile of State Street, the proposed annexation includes a fifth-of-a-mile of County Road 100S and a half-mile of County Road 250E. A total of 1.4 miles of additional roads will be annexed if the proposal is approved.
If approved, new housing would be built on approximately 64 acres already owned by the developers.
“The remaining acreage has been included in the annexation petition to satisfy Indiana law requirements for the contiguity of the annexation area with the existing city limits,” the application states.
The planning staff has given the proposal a favorable recommendation.
The proposal includes annexing properties owned by Clifty Creek Farm, LLC and Mark Rediker, who are not petitioners.
The proposal will also result in seven properties becoming surrounded by Columbus while remaining unincorporated. The owners of those properties have been invited to participate in Wednesday’s meeting.
Updating annexation
State annexation laws frequently change, including the extent to which streets adjacent to annexed properties may be brought into the city. City and county planners say this has resulted in a patch work of annexed road segments around the perimeter of the city.
In many cases, the current right-of-way is half-city and half-county, with the city limits running down the middle of the road, the planners state. After working with other departments, they have developed a proposal to address inconsistencies.
There are 29 areas and 22 streets in the planning department’s proposal to annex the contiguous rights-of-way into the city limits. They are located in multiple locations in Columbus, Wayne, Flatrock and Harrison townships.
If approved, the annexation would result in 6.7 linear miles of additional area of maintenance and repair, as well as 3.42 linear miles of additional snow removal.
