As the town of Syracuse is landlocked as far as development goes, Syracuse Town Councilman Larry Siegel asked the Kosciusko County Commissioners Tuesday for a letter to the state legislature asking for the town to be able to annex land that isn’t contiguous to it.
Not wanting to make a quick decision and wanting more information on the matter, the commissioners tabled the request.
In making his request, Siegel, who has served on the town council for 23 years and on the Syracuse Redevelopment Commission until last year, said, “Syracuse is a town that’s basically landlocked. We have lakes to the east. Wetlands to the immediate south, to farmers to the west and Elkhart County to the north. We’re in a unique situation in Kosciusko County. We’re not the only town in Indiana that has the same problem. I like to say that I think unique situations sometimes require unique solutions.”
In 2022, District 4 state Rep. Ed Soliday was able to get a bill passed to allow a town to annex non-contiguous land for development using a highway as contiguous land, Siegel said. This year, House Bill 1472, by Rep. Greg Steuerwald, allows for Plainfield to annex non-contiguous land for housing using the highway as contiguous space. Siegel said HB 1472 “does have legs and is running through the House right now.”
He said Syracuse has had three housing developers walk away because of the town’s lack of buildable contiguous space to annex.
“We’re currently working through our second major annexation in Elkhart County,” Siegel said. “... Elkhart County’s happy to realize tax income.”
He estimated they’ve increased the assessed valuation in Elkhart County by around $100 million.
“It’s the only direction we can go right now because we don’t have contiguous space to annex,” Siegel said. “We have another project which is going to begin in April, which is in Elkhart County. And we’re in beginning talks with a very large development, which would have to be in Elkhart County. We’re in Kosciusko County. We really need the support of Kosciusko County to help build Kosciusko County. But the only direction we can grow right now is north, and that’s Elkhart County. We border on the Elkhart County line.”
He said Elkhart County has been very gracious and very willing to work with the town.
“I guess, what I’d like to ask for, is for the county commissioners to consider, allowing a bill much like ... House Bill 1472. Or we may even have an opportunity to tag onto 1472. It’s on its way through the House,” he said, noting he thinks it’s before the Ways and Means Committee now.
“So we still the opportunity, possibly, to get on 1472. Now, what we’ve been told is, we need some type of letter of support from the county commissioners. This is something we want to do. Do we want to fix this problem or do we not? Do we want to keep growing into Elkhart County? Our home county is Kosciusko, but we have to have some non-contiguous annexation,” he said.
Syracuse has public utilities that it can extend, but the only real benefit for the town to extend its utilities is if it would pick up the assessed valuation.
“Syracuse has a $60 million water plant, bought and paid for. The water rates only cover operations, they don’t pay for that asset. The state of Indiana will not allow us to charge fees to anybody out of town that we would extend sewer and water to,” Siegel said.
He said Syracuse is landlocked, but it has a huge potential to grow, if the county would let it.
“The schools lose students every year. There’s no place to build houses. We’ve had housing developers walk away because we have nowhere to build houses. There’s three of them that I’m aware of that have looked and said there’s nothing for them here, they can’t do it,” he continued. “How do we solve the housing crisis in Indiana if we get in our own way?”
Middle District Commissioner Cary Groninger asked Siegel what the timeline was on his request. Siegel said it was short, and they just needed letters of support from the commissioners, as well as the county council if possible.
“I just think there’s a lot to this, a lot of layers I need to peel back. To make some sort of recommendation today, without having a chance to really dig into it and look at it, I wouldn’t feel comfortable doing that today,” Groninger said.
Southern District Commissioner Bob Conley agreed, saying Tuesday’s request was the first he’s ever heard about it. He made a motion to table the request until they can have further discussion.
“I don’t want to put my name on something I know nothing about, I have done no research on, I don’t know what the upside and the downside is,” Conley said.
Northern District County Commissioner Sue Ann Mitchell said she was involved when “they tried to make things happen a year ago, and, Larry, you do have ground west of Syracuse. You’re not necessarily landlocked. There is land west of Syracuse that conceivably could be annexed. You just have not taken that particular step to try to annex it.”
Siegel said he’s talked to those property owners several times and they’re not willing to be annexed.
Mitchell said the county has a tax increment financing (TIF) district that goes all the way over to Syracuse’s west boundary, so that is another hurdle that would need to be fixed for the town to grow that way. Siegel said it first would have to be annexable and it has to be voluntary, but the property owners aren’t willing to be annexed.
“So what you’re actually asking me is to do what state Rep. David Abbott’s bill did last year: Run down the side of 13, bypassing many homes to get out to a different piece of ground,” she said.
Siegel said it didn’t have to be in that direction, to which Mitchell asked if that was the only piece of ground he was looking at. Siegel said he didn’t even want to comment on that because he and Mitchell have had those discussions.
“I’m just talking about Syracuse. We have no choice right now but to push into Elkhart County, that’s what we’re doing. You have to because we have no options in Kosciusko County,” Siegel stated.
Mitchell asked if the town board approved to try to get legislation passed by the state legislature to annex non-contiguous land. Siegel said the town board hasn’t changed their position since last year, but they didn’t take an official vote on it, though there’s consensus on it.
Mitchell seconded Conley’s motion to table it for further investigation.
Groninger told Siegel, “We want every community in Kosciusko County to succeed, and be successful, so this isn’t a vote that we don’t want to see Syracuse succeed, but I do think with coming in with a big ask like this, without some sort of warning and understanding all the things we’re talking about here, it’s a big ask. I think we need some time to gather information and see what’s out there.”
The motion to table the request was unanimously approved.