The Hobart City Council set May 6 for a second reading for two requests for proposed industrial development, including one at the site of the former U.S. 30 Dragstrip.
The council gave initial approval at the April 15 meeting to a rezone request at the corner of 61st Avenue and Liverpool Road for Northwind North Industrial Park, and to a rezone request for a proposed industrial development at the northwest corner of Clay Street and U.S. 30, site of the former drag strip.
The plan commission held a public hearing for both requests at its April 2 meeting.
The council gave its initial approval and set a second reading for petitioner Paul Thurston of Becknell Industrial for his request to rezone 26.78 acres at the corner of 61st Avenue and Liverpool Road.
Thurston is seeking a rezone from B-3 to PUD to go forward with the construction of a 356,000-square-foot, four-building structure.
Plans by Becknell are to build the speculative structure, to be called Northwind North Business Park, and utilize it for light industrial businesses to rent.
The total construction cost is $56 million and the developers expect it will result in 150 construction jobs plus 330 full-time jobs once completed, Thurston said.
The new park, if approved, will be located north of the existing NorthWind Crossings, Becknell Industrial’s 200-acre business park.
Thurston said the market for the future businesses the industrial park will attract is “underserved.”
The buildings within the structure include two that will be 83,166 square feet and two that are 95,046 square feet.
Thurston agreed with the verbiage from the Hobart Plan Commission to strike out any plans for a data center and to work with staff on screenings and landscaping of the property if it goes forward.
The city council also set a May 6 second reading for petitioner Jason Simon of Clay 138 LLC, who was not in attendance, to change an R-2 zone to an M-1 classification for 138.98 acres at the northwest corner of Clay Street and U.S. 30, known as the site of the former U.S. 30 Dragstrip.
Plans, as outlined at the plan commission, are to utilize the property for industrial development.
The council, in granting initial approval, said petitioners must provide a full development plan and agree to improvements at the site.
Those improvements include widening of Clay Street, paying for utilities such as water and sewers, and purchasing a home on the west side of the property.
In other business, the city council approved a voluntary annexation request of 6.6 acres located west of Interstate 65 and north of 37th Avenue.
Attorney Richard Anderson, petitioner of the annexation request, said the property, owned by Hobart Property Holdings LLC, will be earmarked for industrial use.
During the public comment portion of the meeting, several residents requested the city’s assistance in revamping of the Hobart Humane Society, located at 2054 E. State Road 130.
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Volunteer Kathy Smith said the shelter, which was founded 72 years ago, is in desperate need of help.
“This place is falling apart, and we ask you to visit it especially in the rain,” Smith said.
She said that about 2,500 animals pass through the facility annually.
“It’s time somebody steps up and helps the animals,” Smith said.
Mayor Josh Huddlestun said he had already planned on meeting with the shelter’s director on Thursday.
“Thanks for all you do and we have worked with Jenny (Webber, the executive director) … I’m glad you’re here,” Huddlestun said.
He said he hoped to have some good news coming out of the meeting.
Angelita Soriano, a spokesperson for the No Data Center group, asked Huddlestun to provide residents with an independent health impact study of the future site of the Amazon data center planned at 61st Avenue and Colorado Street.
“If the project truly won’t affect the health and environment, then it shouldn’t be hard to prove it,” Soriano said.
Soriano also said she made four separate requests to city officials in regards to non-disclosure agreements signed concerning the data center.
She took an informal poll of the city council, including the mayor and Hobart Clerk-Treasurer Deborah Longer, and all affirmed, with the exception of City Councilwoman Lisa Winstead, D-4th, that they had signed the agreement.
City Councilman Dan Waldrop, D-at-large, said he had signed the agreement which he said is “routine in a project like this.”
Huddlestun told Soriano that no one has tried to be secretive and all state and federal laws will be applied when it comes to the environment and other health concerns.
“Nobody is skirting anything,” Huddlestun said.
He said he finds the future data center so safe that he advised his brother-in-law and his family, including two young children, to go forward with plans to buy a home across from the data center.
“They moved in across the street,” Huddlestun said.
Deborah Laverty is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.