Kosciusko County Area Plan Commission approved a Tax Increment Finance district for Milford Wednesday.
Commission members also approved a nearby road vacation for a potential agriculture facility.
The commission determined that the planned use for the TIF district, recently annexed acreage to the north, is consistent with the heavy industrial zoning of the land.
Milford Town Council will announce a public hearing and may approve the TIF district before the end of the year.
The TIF district will fund infrastructure development in the annexed area at CR 1300N and Ind. 15, making the site easier for a potential buyer to move in. Commissioners and representatives from the town and Redevelopment Commission noted the land is ideally suited for development.
Dan Brown, president of the Milford Redevelopment Commission, noted this has been an 18-month effort and that the site has been identified by the Indiana Economic Development Corporation as one of a few “mega sites” in the state, desirable to businesses because of its proximity to road and rail.
“It seems like a good fit,” Area Plan Director Dan Richards told the commission. “The table has been set for that area to develop industrially.”
The road vacation that the plan commission will recommend to the county commissioners at their Nov. 20 meeting is sections of CR 1350 and Old 15, north of the planned TIF district and south of the Elkhart County border.
An Ohio-based agriculture co-op is eyeing the land for a grain storage and marketing facility, the commission heard. The road vacation would allow a rail loop to be built on the property.
The land is zoned agricultural and a request may be made to rezone it to heavy industrial, they also heard.
They expressed no objection to the road vacations themselves – commission chair Charles Haffner observing that CR 1350 is a gravel road that is “nonexistent to almost 100 percent of people unless they want to dump something” – but agreed their recommendation may change if the Milford town, fire department or other agency objects to the closures.
And commissioners heard from Richards about a zoning violation at Candlewood Estates southeast of Warsaw, when sale of a parcel of land by the landowner voided the original plan he submitted 12 years ago.
The county recently issued a stop work order when a contractor began building an oversized accessory building on the land without first building a house.
Commission members agreed not to lift the stop order, and expressed an interest in getting answers from the landowner at a future hearing.
