GREENFIELD — Local leaders often hail growth and development in Hancock County as good news for the community, but cracks in that consensus have been showing recently as some officials and residents object to the pace of growth and the amount companies are giving back to the community.
That conflict was on display at the Hancock County Commissioners’ most recent meeting. The commissioners approved, although not unanimously, a plan to fund infrastructure improvements needed for a planned industrial park. They also signed off on the creation of a district designed to divert new tax funds generated there to benefit the area.
Red Rock Investment Partners, LLC is planning three buildings totaling more than 2.2 million square feet north of County Road 200N and east and west of Buck Creek Road. The developments are speculative, meaning they’re planned before occupants are secured.
A deal is in the works between Red Rock and the county in which the developer will make improvements needed for Buck Creek Road, and the county will reimburse those costs up to $1.5 million. The Hancock County Redevelopment Commission, which oversees the county’s tax increment financing, or TIF districts, agreed to provide that reimbursement last month.
Plans for a new TIF district are also underway between County Road 500N, Interstate 70 and County Road 800W. The district’s eastern boundary would be County Road 700W between Interstate 70 and County Road 400N, before jutting east about halfway to Mt. Comfort Road before continuing north back up to 500N.
After a TIF district is created, the amount of taxes generated up to that point continue going to all of the usual sources, while taxes generated by new development after that point can get set aside for redevelopment commissions to use to benefit that area. TIF districts are often used to fund infrastructure and draw economic development. The district currently under consideration would be the fifth in unincorporated Hancock County.
Two of the commissioners, John Jessup and Bill Spalding, voted in favor of the proposed TIF district and deal with Red Rock, while commissioner Marc Huber voted against both.
Huber told Randy Sorrell, director of the Hancock Economic Development Council, he would not be voting yes on moving forward with the plan without information on how money could be pulled from the TIF district to fund schools and public safety.
“I’m about up to here,” Huber said. “I don’t know how much more clear I can be.”
Sorrell said the Economic Development Council didn’t have the power to require businesses to make those contributions and could only estimate how much money might be contributed.
Hancock County law enforcement and fire departments have complained that the county’s numerous TIF districts pull money away from their services, even as they are required to provide services at large new developments like Amazon’s local facility. Millions of square feet of new construction — the vast majority for warehousing and logistics — has been built or is planned in the western part of the county.
Commissioner John Jessup expressed unhappiness with how the situation has unfolded as well.
“Our frustration is that when we started talking about this, when we asked that question our answer had been, ‘Well, we can figure that out later, we’re going to figure that out later,’” Jessup said. “It’s been a 30-step process, and the answer keeps being, ‘We’ll figure that out later.’ What we’re trying to say is that we want to figure it out before we move forward another 20 steps.”
Jessup said the TIF district would not receive final approval from the commissioners unless they were satisfied with developers’ commitments to public funding.
Next, the proposal over the new TIF district heads back for another vote from the county redevelopment commission as well as a public hearing. Sorrell said while it’s yet to be finalized, he believes both will be slated for the redevelopment commission’s next meeting — 8 a.m. Thursday, June 10, in the hearing room at the Hancock County government annex, 111 American Legion Place, Greenfield.
Some residents in the area also spoke during the meeting, objecting to the development near their homes. Sandra Hudson was one of them.
“Thousands of feet of industrial development are currently for lease or being built, and I’m asking you to say no to industrial development creeping north and encroaching on residential zoning,” she said.
Hudson asked the commissioners to say no to the proposed district, or at least to adjust its boundaries so that it would end at West County Road 350N rather than 500N.
Nancy Whelchel and her husband own a home in the Buck Creek area, where they’ve lived for 41 years. According to plans by the developers, the home will be surrounded by the Red Rock development. Whelchel says they were offered a low buyout price for their home but turned it down. Red Rock, she said, never came back with another offer, and now no buyout is forthcoming.
“They keep talking about the residents, and concern for the residents — no they’re not,” Whelchel said. “…You can’t fight them anymore, you can only comment, but nothing’s going to be done. It’s going to be where it’s going to be.”
Whelchel said property values and quality of life have already been lowered by the development in the area.
“I’m concerned with all the trucks, diesel fuel, and all the cars, all the traffic,” she said. “…We used to hear the birds sing.”
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The county is considering creating a new TIF district between County Road 500N, Interstate 70 and County Road 800W. It would be the fifth such district and would include four speculative buildings to be built by Red Rock Investment Partners, LLC.
The public will be able to comment on the matter at the next meeting of the Hancock County Redevelopment Commission, tentatively slated for 8 a.m. Thursday, June 10 in the hearing room at the Hancock County government annex, 111 American Legion Place, Greenfield.
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