SYRACUSE – Syracuse residents will be getting some new neighbors in the fall.
Syracuse Town Council voted Tuesday to accept annexation of land around Oakwood Inn, a request first filed in March by more than half of property owners near the 118-year-old retreat center. Council also approved the fiscal plan for maintaining the area discussed during a special meeting in June.
The annexation adds a sizable chunk of land along Lake Wawasee, bringing with it an estimated $127,000 in annual property tax revenue and 10 percent more roads to maintain and police. Initial improvements, the bulk being to sanitary sewers, will cost about $581,000, with the money split between property owners and proceeds from the sale of Oakwood Inn to Buckingham Companies.
Smaller improvements include new water meters to match the type used in Syracuse, $5,000 worth of new street lights, and another $5,600 for snowflake decorations in winter.
Buckingham, an Indianapolis real-estate company, purchased the lakeside inn for $3.7 million in April, according to an order from Kosciusko County Judge Duane Huffer. Ian Rolland, named receiver of the inn last June when Huffer removed the Oakwood Foundation board of directors, negotiated the purchase and signed onto annexation.
Closing on the purchase is expected to be reached within the 90-day period required to allow for remonstrance. Syracuse Attorney Mike Reed said with the level of support among the 100 Oakwood area residences, he doesn't expect any objections to be filed.
Plans for the inn, which was operated as a Christian retreat until forced by debt to close in 2008, include operating it on the Chautauqua model of adult educational and cultural programming. Rolland as well as Syracuse council member Larry Siegel are members of the planning committee for Chautauqua Wawasee.
Siegel praised the purchase and annexation as the largest economic and cultural development program for the town in 50 years. Rolland thanked council for their vote and said the annexation will be a good thing for both the town and its new residents.
“It's the culmination of a lot of work, commitment and thought given to a new Oakwood,” Rolland said Tuesday. “I think property owners and Syracuse both figured out it's a good proposition.”
The purchase by Buckingham will next go to the Kosciusko Board of Zoning Appeals. A potential stumbling block to overhaul of the inn, restrictive covenants on laughing, singing and dancing – established long ago but not much enforced lately – have already been lifted by order of Judge Huffer.
