PIMENTO, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV)– When Vicki Scheid first heard about a proposal to rezone 40 acres of land near her property in southern Vigo County, she was concerned.
“It’s a great neighborhood,” she said. “And I just can’t imagine putting anything industrial in that and changing it.”
Scheid is one of several residents who spoke out at a Vigo County rezoning meeting Tuesday, where a vote was scheduled to take place on rezoning the land.
LFM Quality Laboratories is looking to place a facility where they can conduct testing on animals in the area. Lindy Miller, the company’s president and co-owner, purchased the land and is petitioning to have it rezoned from agriculture to an industrial area.
Elonne Davis, the owner of Wabash Valley Hydraulics which is located near the property in question, said it would affect what she called a “quiet neighborhood.”
“That is my big concern. He can do whatever he wants to once it’s changed to M-1,” she said. “I know that’s light industrial, but he can move pigs in there, he can move cattle in there, he can do whatever he wants.”
Scheid questioned whether there were other places the business would be better suited.
“I don’t want the property rezoned because I want it to go to the industrial park,” she said. “The industrial park is three to four miles away and it makes no sense that you would not put that property there. They said they don’t want it there but, if they don’t want it why would we want it?”
Scheid added she was concerned about what could happen down the road on the property.
“I don’t want foreign investors coming in and purchasing that and then it going to wherever, and that is what I feel is happening here,” she said.
Miller was at the meeting, and requested the vote be tabled so he could educate people on what he wants to do with the land. The rezoning was given a favorable recommendation by the area planning commission earlier this month.
He addressed concerns raised at the meeting by saying he has not received complaints at his current location.
“We are a family,” he said. “Most of these people are across the highway from us so they really haven’t been our neighbors, on our property.”
WTWO reached out to Miller’s lawyer for further comment, and is awaiting a response. The vote is now scheduled to happen at the rezoning meeting in November.
