Greenwood Mayor Mark Myers has asked a logistics company to withdraw its proposal to build massive speculative warehouses on about 200 acres of farmland in southeast Greenwood.
Logistics Property Company, LLC officially withdrew its petition Friday evening.
Myers discussed the move with city council members and planning commissioners this week, city officials said.
It was clear the project lacked community support, Myers said in a news release.
There was a lot of public outcry about the proposal, including a petition that had garnered more than 800 signatures by Friday afternoon.
“We appreciate both the company’s interest in Greenwood and constructive input given by residents. Government is most effective when citizens are engaged, and this process serves as an excellent example,” Myers said.
At its last meeting two weeks ago, the city’s plan commission failed to come to an agreement about whether to rezone the land for Logistics Property Company, LLC 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 Chicago-based logistics 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 developer said, eventually, the warehouses would have brought 300 to 400 jobs to the city, but there was no way of knowing exactly what kinds of jobs or what the wages would be.
The company planned to spend $140 million on the five facilities in Greenwood. They would have ranged in size from 285,000 square feet to 1.3 million square feet. The first building, which they hoped to start construction on this summer, would have been a $40 million investment, the developer said.
But dozens of area residents packed the council chambers to speak out against the proposed development. Families 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 proposed development was expected to be discussed again at the next plan commission meeting Monday night. Dozens of residents had already rallied and were planning to attend the meeting.
