Vanderburgh commissioners to vote on rezoning for disputed Love’s Travel Stop
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Vanderburgh County Commissioners are scheduled to vote today on a request to rezone agricultural land near I-69 and State Road 57 in northern Vanderburgh County for a new Love’s Travel Stops location.
Last month, the Area Plan Commission voted 7- 3 with one abstention to recommend that the commissioners deny the request. Steve Bohleber, an attorney for neighboring resident Mary Joyce Willis, told Inside INdiana Business the location isn’t the right fit for this type of development.
“It’s farmland, it’s residences. Maybe it’s a nature preserve in the making. It’s just not a place that these neighbors want to see a 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week, 365-days-a-year busy truck stop,” he said.
The commissioners’ vote, expected at today’s meeting at 3 p.m. Central Time, will determine if Love’s moves forward with developing more than 30 acres of land currently owned by the Indiana University Foundation.
“Sometimes differing interests bump, and somebody has to make the decision, and that’s what the county commissioners are there for,” Bohleber said. “We just hope that they’ll listen to their longtime constituents and look at the implications of this operation on a way of life that is slipping through our fingers, particularly now, in this age of environmental consciousness.”
Neighbors who live near the intersection claim safety and quality of life issues as reasons for opposition. Neil Woods, who owns 850 acres in the area, said the development would be a dramatic departure for the area.
“All of a sudden, instead of walking out their back door and seeing this beautiful field and trees, [residents] will walk out their back door and smell trucks idling, hear brakes screeching and engines idling, have trash blowing into their yard. It would substantially change their quality of life,” he said.
‘It’s the site selection’
Caitlin Jensen, Love’s corporate communications manager, explained why the company selected the area of I-69 and S.R. 57 for a travel stop.
“Love’s chooses locations on highway corridors that are known to be highly trafficked by our customers and underserved by our current locations. This location off I-69 will allow customers to get the services they need while traveling this stretch of the country and get back on the road quickly,” she said.
Jensen said Love’s is a family-owned and -operated business that understands the importance of community.
“Because of this, we’re excited about the possibility of joining Evansville and bringing the positive things a new Love’s adds when it opens a location, including economic impact, jobs and community giving initiatives. We’ll continue to partner with the community and elected officials to answer questions and provide information throughout the entire process,” she said.
Bohleber said Love’s intentions are not the issue; it’s the site selection in a delicate area with historic residential features.
“One policy statement [in Love’s staff field report] was that they should strive to exclude incompatible uses from residential neighborhoods that would alter the character or would not primarily serve the neighborhood. And our comment was, a 24/7, 365-day truck stop is certainly going to alter the neighborhood, and it’s not primarily going to serve the neighborhood,” he said.
Woods said subdivisions have been moving into the area over the last 20 years, but the impact of those developments differs from Love’s proposal.
“Housing developments don’t have 400 trucks sitting there idling in the evenings. They don’t create this cloud of diesel pollution above them. Housing developments also won’t have this runoff in traffic. And housing developments are quiet in the evenings,” he said.
Safety, sounds and scenery
A petition on change.org in opposition to rezoning the property at I-69 and S.R. 57 for Love’s commercial use cites traffic impact as the main objection.
“It’s a very difficult turn to get off of I-69 onto the access road that they propose, which is Old S.R. 57, almost a u-turn to get off,” said Bohleber. “Their solution is to put a stoplight at this busy intersection that’s going to generate 400 trucks by their estimation each day, plus all sorts of other motoring activities. It seems to be a dangerous intersection that they’re creating. It’s got its problems already.”
Jensen said Love’s performed a traffic study and presented proposed intersection updates to INDOT for approval. Based on resident feedback, the company plans to add turning lanes.
Noise is another concern for neighbors. Bohleber said anyone who’s ever been to a truck stop can attest to the commotion.
“Many of [the drivers] stay overnight, sleeping in their trucks. Sometimes, their trucks are idling. Sometimes, they have guests. It’s a disruptive influence for my client, and I’m sure for others in the neighborhood,” he said.
Jensen said Love’s recognizes the potential noise associated with idling trucks and implements tools to minimize noise to surrounding communities when possible.
“If Love’s moves forward with a location in Evansville, we plan to implement berms, vegetation and fences to help mitigate potential noise,” she said.
Perhaps the residents’ biggest complaint is the proposed travel stop destroying the scenery.
“The Love’s acquisition would be to [my client’s] south, east and north—boxing her in on three sides. It will basically isolate her from the wide open spaces and beauty that she and her late husband developed over 62 years of living there. She just doesn’t want to lose that,” said Bohleber.
Woods said his organization, Woods Heritage and Conservation Lands, has acquired land near the intersection for conservation over the past few years.
“We have bought all the other ground at the intersection to purposely prevent development,” he said. “Our long-term goal is to make the land a nature preserve. We have already built miles of trails, bridges and drainage culverts.”
Next steps
Woods, who spoke at the APC meeting, said he was glad to see the room filled with his neighbors taking a stand against Love’s rezoning petition.
“The neighbors are fired up because there have been proposals for many bad developments out there, and [the Love’s Travel Stop project] has finally caught the attention of the neighborhood,” he said. “It was the catalyst to get them to realize the neighborhood is going to change. But you can either sit back and watch it happen, or you can go out and actively help mold what the neighborhood becomes.”
Jensen said Love’s respects the plan commission’s decision.
“[We] will include [the plan commission’s feedback] in the plan presented to the county commissioners,” she said. “We’re hopeful the county commissioners will vote in favor of Love’s and the benefits a location adds to a community.”
Bohleber is optimistic on behalf of his client, saying he believes the county commissioners are reasonable people and trusts their judgment. If Love’s petition is denied, Jensen said the company will consider the feedback and decide next steps at that time. If Love’s petition is approved, Woods said the neighbors’ next move may be to the polls.
“At that point, the discussion will be, who should we vote for? How do we vote for county commissioners who do care about what is happening around them? I feel pretty confident that the current county commissioners do care. But if they approve this, they have poked the beehive too many times,” he said. “We support development. We like seeing our hometown grow. We just want it to grow in the right way.”
None of the Vanderburgh County Commissioners responded to requests for comment from Inside INdiana Business.