LAPEL — For this small Madison County town, adding land soon could become competitive.

Stuck against the Madison-Hamilton county line, Lapel only has room to grow to the north, east and south, with towns like Pendleton and Ingalls quickly filling in the unincorporated gaps to the south and east.

Add to that the prospect of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Airport relocating just to Lapel’s southeast under the Anderson flag, and the buffer zone around the town quickly is becoming crowded.

In the latest step in the turf wars, on July 10, the Lapel Town Council approved the annexation of two tracts of land adjacent to the city, one along Ind. 32 to the west of Lapel High School and another on the southeast edge of the town along County Road 300 South just east of Ind. 13.

The properties officially will be annexed after a 30-day period allowing for remonstrances from the public.

Although money is tight in the slowed economy, Lapel officials plan to use some of the annexed land to develop in the future.

“There’s no new development right now, but the town is poised to grow, and that is every intention of the Town Council,” Lapel Clerk-Treasurer Tom Tudor said.

Owners of an 82-acre tract on Ind. 32 expect to sell the land to developers, who plan a strip mall, said Dennis Molina, president of the town’s Planning Commission. There has been interest in putting in a hardware store and possibly a bank and liquor store, he said.

“They don’t have anyone actually committed on paper yet, but they have some people interested,” Molina said. “They’re close enough that they think they’ll be able to break ground by Thanksgiving. They feel like they are far enough along that they will sign.”

The other tract of land, co-owned by Phillip Boone and Glenn Boone Farms Inc., could be used for upscale housing if sold to developers, said Town Council President Gary Shuck. Boone said he didn’t have plans to sell it.

Another reason for the annexation of Boone’s property is to help stop Anderson’s stake in the area if an airport were relocated there. If the airport were placed southeast of Lapel, it would be considered part of the city of Anderson, even though it isn’t contiguous to city limits, Tudor said. From there, Anderson could start annexing properties touching the airport, making them unavailable for small towns in the area.

“It’s just an ever-expanding concentric circle,” he said.

Although both the recent annexations in Lapel were voluntary — the property owners asked to be incorporated into the town — Boone said he was approached by town officials first in their hopes of stopping the airport and Anderson’s stake in the area.

“They seemed to think it was going to help with everything,” Boone said. “They thought if they annexed more property in Lapel, it would help stop the airport from coming because we don’t want the airport.”

The annexation would not cause Boone to pay town property taxes for 10 years, adding no additional cost to him for being part of the town.

Many in the Lapel area have been opposed to the relocation of the airport, some because they didn’t like the way it was being proposed and others because they didn’t want to have an airport nearby or lose their land to it, Shuck said.

“I don’t want an airport here to take my home,” Boone said. “I’d lose my home, and I’d have to move.”

Discussion of the airport relocation has calmed down in recent weeks, Shuck said, but Lapel residents and town officials still are preparing to deal with the issue if interest resumes.

Besides preparing for a potential airport, the town is getting ready for an eventual upturn in the economy.

“We can start growing our commercial base,” Shuck said. “It will show other developers that we’re growing, we want to grow and we’re willing to work with developers to do that.

“Right now, the demand’s down because no one has any money. When things start to pick up again, we’ll be ahead of the curve a little bit. When things start to percolate a little better as far as the markets go, we’ll be there.”

Lapel has annexed several properties in the past two years in its mission to develop the small town. It has the disadvantage of being farther from Interstate 69 that other towns like Pendleton and Ingalls, but more properties belonging to the town makes it easier for developers to plan sites there.

“The developer knows what he has to go through,” Shuck said. “We better define exactly where Lapel is so they know who they have to deal with.”

All recent annexations in Lapel have been voluntary, and no one has opposed the most recent annexations, Molina said.

The town’s additions will not affect its tax base, as most has been retained as agricultural property, allowing the town to waive taxes for 10 years. If the land is rezoned and developed, it could add to the tax base.

In the meantime, Shuck and other Town Council members hope to continue adding land to Lapel’s limits, piece by piece, as the south side of the county continues to grow.

“We’ve got more annexations on the horizon,” Shuck said.

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Properties annexed into Lapel in the past two years include:

— 82 acres on Ind. 32 just west of Lapel High School

— 17 acres on the south side of County Road 300 South at Old Ind. 132

— 17.8 acres at Brookside Cemetery at county roads 950 West and 300 South

— 19.3 acres directly north of Brookside Cemetery on the east side of County Road 950 West

— 40.4 acres on the east side of County Road 950 West at County Road 300 South

— 21.5 acres on the north side of County Road 200 South between county roads 900 West and 925 West