A plan to enlarge Duke Homes’ commercial development at County Road 144 and State Road 37 will not come to fruition.
A rezoning proposal from local developer Mike Duke, owner and broker of Duke Homes, and landowner PDJ, LLC, would have added 60 acres to the 166 acres Duke had rezoned in 2017 for The Grove at White River, a development that is already in the works. Of those 60 acres, Duke planned to use 30 acres to grow the project. The property was to be rezoned from agricultural to C-4, a broad commercial classification.
After hearing from Duke, Greg Ilko of CrossRoad Engineers, PC, and several concerned neighbors, Bargersville Town Council member James Rumell called for a motion to consider, which was met by silence. An eventual motion died for lack of a second. The council’s inaction means the rezoning request is off the table.
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Without the council’s approval, Duke is weighing his options and reconsidering buying the 60 acres, he said.
The 166-acre development will go forward as planned, but the scale will not be as grand as it would have been had the additional rezoning request been approved, Duke said. His site plan calls for two hotels, a medical office building, several commercial buildings and multi-family housing.
With the additional 30 acres, the development, a $200 million investment, would have brought about $2.5 million annually in new tax revenue to Bargersville. Without the additional acreage, the smaller investment will bring fewer tax dollars.
Under C-4 zoning, many types of businesses are possible, but Duke had agreed to limits on what types of businesses could move in.
The commitments, along with a buffer area that is 20 feet larger than what is required by the town were ways Duke was working with neighbors, trying to respect their concerns, he said. Plans for the additional acreage also included a conservation area and walking trails.
Right now, Duke is working to finalize a contract with a local health system, and reviewing proposals from upscale businesses, he said. The goal is to be a destination where nearby residents will want to come, not just a pit-stop on the way to somewhere else, he said.
Concerned neighbors who spoke out at the town council meeting earlier this month returned Tuesday, along with some new faces. They again shared their concerns about property values, quality of life and traffic that having a development so close to their homes could bring.
“We’ve put in a lot of blood, sweat and tears. We wouldn’t want to see that all go away with there being a commercial development across the street. If you can consider that, I would appreciate it,” said Pete Olson, a neighbor.
They were also concerned the proposal did not fit well with the comprehensive plan’s emphasis on preserving the town’s rural character, arguing that it does not mesh well with nearby estate-level homes and agribusinesses.
Another concern was having a large retail-dependent development that may not fill up or could empty out if the consumer market continues to swing more heavily toward online shopping.
“I do a lot of work with Fortune 500 companies … including Simon (Malls). They all recognize that the retail base has changed. So I’m pretty much dubious why we need to force in a rezoning of C-4 when we already have hundreds of acres at this interchange that need to be developed first,” said James Pheifer, an attorney who lives near the development.
Duke told the council the property would sell to a developer eventually, so why not let that developer be him, a local man with roots in the community, who would tie the property into a master-planned project.
“They are going to sell. There is going to be someone coming to them. I feel like adding it onto the project we have will enhance it, versus someone coming in there and trying to cram something in,” Duke said. “It is going to be sold. It is not going to be residential. It is not going to be a park; no one is going to buy it and donate a park.”
