With billions of dollars in investment coming, New Carlisle aims to hang onto its identity

NEW CARLISLE ― With billions of dollars in development planned or underway just a few miles away in Olive Township, New Carlisle is taking action to protect the character of its town.

During meetings at the New Carlisle-Olive Township Public Library on Tuesday, the public was invited to vote using red and green dots on the types of development they’d like to see throughout the town ― including the historic downtown, residential areas and an area on the east side that it hopes will serve as a buffer to the massive Indiana Enterprise Center in Olive Township.

The Enterprise Center includes about 2,900 acres roughly bounded by US 20 and Indiana 2 that is already about half filled with industrial and commercial businesses but will be followed over the next few years with a $3.5 billion EV battery plant that is being built by GM/Samsung SDI and will employ about 1,600.

While that project is underway, St. Joseph County officials also are working on a more secretive project dubbed Razor 5 that could also result in billions of dollars in investment on land near the GM project, and they’re juggling other prospective businesses interested in the land, water and power in the Enterprise Center.

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“People are concerned that the town will be swallowed by the development and that it won’t retain the historic charm that they’ve enjoyed,” said Marcy Kauffman, town council president and owner of the downtown business Feeney’s Hometown Goods.

Traffic, housing and demand on services and schools were also of concern to residents, even though the projects are expected to easily draw workers from 30 miles away.

“Having an updated plan is a way of protecting the town and providing it with a path to grow sustainably,” she said. “We’re in a time of transition. People are aging out,” she said, referring to some of the businesses that have closed in recent years.

While destination retailer The Village Shoppes closed a year ago, new businesses such as Studebaker Brewing Co. are preparing to open downtown next year, bringing its brewpub offerings to what it sees as a growing area.

The same is occurring just a couple of miles away at Spruce Road and U.S. 20 in Olive Township where a developer is interested in building apartments, villas and townhomes on about 75 acres of what is currently farmland, said Steve Smith, owner and managing broker at Irish Realty, adding that the project will require a zoning change.

The New Carlisle plan includes buffer zones of about a mile around the town that could be used to bring down the intensity of development closer to its borders, according to Donny Ritsema, a senior community development planner for MACOG or the Michiana Area Council of Governments.

MACOG, which has been working on the plan with New Carlisle residents for a couple of years, hopes to have its plan finalized in the next couple of months. At that time, it will be submitted to the St. Joseph Area Plan Commission, which will then make a recommendation to New Carlisle.

And while the New Carlisle plan is underway, the Plan Commission also is working to wrap up a comprehensive plan for the land in and around the Indiana Enterprise Center so that economic development officials and developers have a type of road map for development moving forward, said Carl Brown-Grimm, a county planner.

“Developers of every type have interest in the area,” said Smith. “With the number of jobs that are coming, some people will want to be close to where they work.”

But Smith is also in favor of having a good plan for the west side of the county to ensure that development efforts are aligned to ensure the various pieces fit together, rather than create potential problems and conflicts.

With the investment that is planned or under way, the larger community will have live with the end result for decades to come.

“We have to get it right,” Smith said.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: New Carlisle plan aims to protect town's charm despite GM investment