A gravel and mining company in the Center Grove area is one step closer to building a concrete plant after the county approved rezoning its land.
The Johnson County board of commissioners unanimously approved rezoning 5.4 acres of land at 6221 W. Smith Valley Road in Greenwood, to heavy industrial from single-family residential.
The land, near Smith Valley Road and State Road 37, is owned by Irving Materials Inc., which has operations on neighboring land. They want to use the land to build a concrete plant and help with Interstate 69 projects, according to the rezone application.
Their application was approved after the the company committed to taking steps to protect the environment following questions from Greenwood-based Indiana American Water and the Town of Bargersville.
IMI is a concrete mixing and mining company that has offices in Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee. The company produces specialized concrete mixes for construction work, according to the company’s website.
The company is losing two concrete plants with the development of I-69 in Marion County, and the plant that may be built in Johnson County would replace those operations, said Tim Ochs, IMI’s legal representation with Ice Miller in Indianapolis.
The company sought to rezone the land they owned to eventually build a concrete plant. The commissioners, planning and zoning boards have so far only OK’d the rezoning.
The concrete plant cannot be built until a special exception petition is approved during a public hearing by the county’s board of zoning appeals. The plan for the concrete plant was filed with the county earlier this week, said David Hittle, Johnson County Planning Director.
IMI owns a 52-acre plot on the land, but the rezoning is for 5.4 acres and is on the I-69 corridor. The I-69 plan calls for the land to be used for industrial, and the rezoned land is small fraction of the land in that area, Hittle said.
“We thought, given the safeguards in the form of commitments, it was a suitable request,” he said.
The company agreed not to store liquids besides water and other natural, inert liquids needed for concrete production. The company also agreed to fuel their vehicles off-site, according to county documents.
Commitments in the application also prohibit IMI from using the property for other specific outlined uses ranging from livestock auctions to a car repair shop.
Other commitments in the application include pledges to not store a septic tank on the property, and that water used to wash trucks would not have chemicals in the run-off, silos and other storage bins would be water tight, and chemical storage would be in a contained area with a concrete floor. The company must also come up with a contingency plan to deal with spills on the property, county documents said.
The company is seeking plant operations to help streamline some transportation operations. IMI has a sanding and gravel operation on the land adjoining the recently rezoned property, Ochs said.
The property was originally rezoned as residential, but the property is on the I-69 corridor in Johnson County and had other issues that would have precluded the land from ever being considered for residential development, commissioner Ron West said.
“It was never going to be developed, and (now) it will be commercial,” he said.
