With possible violation of New Carlisle overlay district, county seeks to tweak wording.

With the promise of massive construction this year east of New Carlisle, the need for concrete is so significant that the Smith Ready Plant is leasing part of its lot to a competitor, Ozinga, to make even more concrete.

But as Ozinga started to build its temporary operations, St. Joseph County officials realized there was a problem. It appeared that the expansion may violate the county’s overlay district, which restricts what kinds of businesses can set up in the more than 3,000 acres that make up the Indiana Enterprise Center.

The district is there to prevent industry that local residents wouldn’t want, like sand, gravel and mining operations, slaughterhouses, shredder plants and junkyards, as Amazon builds a data center and GM-Samsung builds an electric vehicle battery plant.

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So, now county officials are trying to reword the overlay district’s regulations to avoid such dilemmas.

But, when The Tribune on May 22 called the area manager for Ozinga, he said he wasn’t aware of the overlay district or that the concrete operations may be out of compliance with it. The Tribune is waiting on a returned call from Smith’s owner.

A day earlier, on May 21, the county’s Area Plan Commission questioned the proposed change before they ultimately tabled it until their meeting on June 18. It was also headed to the county council for consideration in committee on May 28, then final vote on June 11. But the matter has since been removed from the council committee’s agenda for May 28.

The planning commissioners’ frustrations sparked discussion, too, about the ongoing delay for the county’s 20-year comprehensive plan for development.

More immediately, the proposed regulation change would apply to businesses that don’t conform with the permitted uses within the overlay district but that had existed before the county approved the district one year ago. The regulation currently allows them to continue operating, but it doesn't allow them to grow operations. The change would allow them to grow by 50%.

So, while this would allow concrete operations to grow at the Smith Ready Mix site, southeast of Edison and Walnut roads, it actually would permit the same growth to other “legally established nonconforming” businesses that had pre-existed in the overlay district, too.

“We’re accommodating someone who breaks the rules; that’s what we’re doing,” New Carlisle resident Dan Caruso told the Area Plan Commission.

Steve Francis of Granger echoed that, saying, “What you’re doing to the citizens is saying, ‘Oh, it’s OK, if you violate the law, it will get changed.’ It’s not only changed for one user, it’s changed for others.”

Both questioned whether they could still put faith in the protections of the overlay district, for which they both had advocated. And it doesn’t sit well with them after Kuert Concrete had to try three different agricultural sites near New Carlisle — thanks to residents’ resistance — before it found one that gained a county use variance. Kuert will set up a temporary concrete mixing plant at 56180 Larrison Blvd., just north of Indiana 2.

Kuert’s dilemma was different. It didn’t already have an existing site within the overlay district.

And county planner Shawn Klein told the Area Plan Commission, “There was no possible means forward for these existing uses to get even a limited expansion, and we feel it’s only fair they should have that limited expansion.”

Abby Wiles, executive director of the Area Plan Commission, said there had been similar language in the original overlay district that would have allowed this sort of expansion for nonconforming businesses — up to a certain percent. But Klein said it was never finalized.

Wiles explained that there was a “quite extensive” list of exceptions that faced public opposition in the district’s original draft. So, she said, county planning staff withdrew that portion of the district when it came for a vote before the county council.

Commission members were puzzled. Two of them asked why the concrete business couldn’t have come and asked for a special exception. Klein said there’s no means for a special exception, and Wiles said that, instead, the county would have to amend the overlay district to remove that one parcel.

Wiles said county officials still think they need to bring a full version of the overlay district, with restrictions, for approval. But, she said, officials need to first talk with the “business interest community.”

At the May 21 meeting, Wiles and Klein avoided naming Smith and Ozinga or even the type of business. But, when asked about Ozinga, Klein said the expansion is “not even close” to the full 50% that would be allowed in the proposed change.

Caruso had noticed the work at the Ozinga plant and started contacting officials. Wiles said that, after the county’s Department of Infrastructure, Planning & Growth was alerted to the “business in question,” it had the project submit its plans for review to the county. She said that various departments are still in the midst of reviewing whether other requirements need to be met.

“This is a stinky one,” commission member Molly Hannon said, adding that she struggled to separate the issue with the business and the overlay district. “There’s no good answer. But as a business owner, I’d hate for someone to tell me I couldn’t do what I wanted, if I was there before.”

As the commission voted to table the matter, Wiles agreed to come back to the June 18 meeting with a breakdown of all nonconforming uses in the overlay district.

Where’s the county’s comprehensive plan?

The planning commissioners’ frustration also led them to press Wiles on when the county’s 20-year comprehensive plan for growth and development would be finished. Lack of the plan — and reliance on the county plan from 2002 — has been a sore point at several county meetings recently as officials have had to make key decisions about plans for massive development near New Carlisle.

“We could cut down on a lot of time if we had a comprehensive plan,” commission member Robert Kruszynski said. “I know it’s a process, but it needs to get done.”

But commission member DJ Tavernier lamented his frustration over the amount of “complaining” and “nitpicking” at task force meetings from “everyone that wants to be involved with this.”

“I’d like to deliver a comprehensive plan that’s largely vetted,” Wiles responded. “We’ve spent a lot of time to ensure that it reads in a neutral voice, that the agreements are agreed to by multiple parties. That takes time.”

She said the county signed on with a contractor to help develop the plan in July 2021, originally set for two years of work, though it has now been almost three years.

She said comprehensive plans take years and pointed to the one for New Carlisle that took five years to develop. The commissioners had just approved it at their meeting.

Wiles pledged to provide a timeline for the county’s comprehensive plan to the commissioners by their June meeting. She said there was a task force meeting on May 14. She said they had the “least amount of edits” and that they’re working to finalize the land use maps. Public presentations will be scheduled in person and online, she said.

South Bend Tribune reporter Joseph Dits can be reached at 574-235-6158 or jdits@sbtinfo.com.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: St. Joseph County seeks fix to IEC overlay district