ANDERSON, Ind. —
A slice of Shadyside Memorial Park should be rezoned for industrial use, the Anderson Plan Commission recommended Tuesday, as the city attempts to transfer about 0.6 acres to neighboring Prairie Farms dairy.
Commission members voted 6-2 to send the proposal to the City Council with a recommendation to change the zoning to one that would match that of Prairie Farms. The dairy wants the land to expand its refrigerated storage space, and officials have said doing so is imperative to saving its 158 jobs and potentially adding more.
The Anderson Parks Board previously voted to sell the property, part of which is used as a wintertime sled hill on Shadyside’s southwestern edge. Prairie Farms will have to be the successful public bidder to purchase the land.
The proposal to shift public land into private hands has generated controversy, and Tuesday was no exception.
Former Circuit Court Judge Fredrick R. Spencer said the park had twice been dedicated to veterans and argued that relocating the sled hill as Prairie Farms has pledged would mean losing trees.
“The crown jewel of the Anderson Parks Department is to be desecrated to store cottage cheese, sour cream and chocolate milk?” Spencer asked.
City officials bristled at the characterization and said plans for the new sled hill have been designed so that no old trees in the park would be cut. Development Director Michael Widing said any tree cut would be replaced by three.
Local attorney Montague Oliver urged commissioners to at least delay a vote until concerns could be addressed. He, too, said the park was dedicated to veterans. “We’re going to sweep them aside,” Oliver said.
Two commissioners said they took offense to Oliver’s comments. Commission President Deborah Nelson said her father was a veteran and his name is on a brick in the veterans commons at Shadyside. “He would want people to have jobs here,” Nelson said.
Widing said that when Shadyside became city property that it was deeded to the city, not the parks department, and the deed said nothing of the park being dedicated to veterans. Those dedication ceremonies came after the park had been established.
Prairie Farms plant manager Harry Carter has said that acquiring the Shadyside land is the only cost-effective way to continue production at the Anderson dairy. Acquiring other available adjacent land would mean a cost-prohibitive reconfiguring of the plant’s production lines, he told the city park board last month.
He said because of the lack of cold space in the plant, refrigerated tractor-trailers have been used to store finished products “24 hours a day, seven days a week” at an annual cost of $750,000.
Contact Dave Stafford: 648-4250, dave.stafford@heraldbulletin.com
What’s next?
- The rezoning proposal is scheduled to come before the Anderson City Council at its next meeting, Thursday, Aug. 12, at 7 p.m. in Council Chambers of the Anderson City Building.
