Students could soon have a strip full of restaurants and shops within walking distance of the campus on University Parkway, if a rezoning ordinance is passed by the Vanderburgh County Commissioners.
The area plan commission recommended the 200 areas of property at the northwest corner of University Parkway and the Lloyd Expressway be rezoned, and the commissioners will vote on it May 8.
Gene and Jeanne Pfeiffer, who own the land, said they want to turn the land into a “town square” concept, somewhat like what Carmel, Ind., has.
But many aren’t too fond of this idea, including the University of Southern Indiana.
Finance and Administration Vice President Mark Rozewski has been the figurehead for the university, speaking out against the rezoning unless a master plan is configured.
“USI is one of the only universities in Indiana that was master planned from its conception, and the results are breathtakingly obvious,” Rozewski said at the April 11 meeting. “We see great opportunity with Vanderburgh County to develop a master plan for the area of the West Side around the university, so that the whole is much greater than the sum of its parts.”
Rozewski said USI offered to co-fund the master plan, host the planning meetings on campus and endorse the resulting recommended development.
But Krista Lockyear, the attorney for the Pfeiffer’s said the couple has waited long enough.
Some Vanderburgh County citizens even formed a group, Growing Responsibly on University Parkway, to try to pressure the commissioners into reconsidering recommending the rezoning.
A member of GROUP Michael Lockard said a master plan should be formed before the commissioners pass a recommendation to rezone.
“We know that there’s going to be development around University Parkway, and I feel this wholeheartedly, there needs to be a master plan for the whole corridor because we’ve seen in the past a lot of mistakes in Vanderburgh County, and we’ve ended up spending 10s of millions of dollars going back and fixing those mistakes,” Lockard said.
He said the development may be good for the community, but only if it’s planned out first.
“We feel we take the same position that USI is taking,” Lockard said. “We understand that development is going to happen out there. We understand that and economically it will be a good thing for the community, but what we’re asking is that before they do the first parcel of land, that they actually plan it out.”
It may not matter who opposes the rezoning if the commissioners vote to pass it in May.
Commissioner President Marsha Abell said she supports the rezoning, and rebuked USI in a letter read at the area plan commission for opposing it so vigorously.
“USI is a state university and University Parkway is not a glorified driveway for the university,” Abell wrote in the letter that was read into record at the April 11 meeting of the Area Plan Commission. “The Vanderburgh County Board of Commissioners does not attempt to interfere with issues at the university and we are not pleased with the university attempting to lead a charge against development in the county.”
County Commissioner Stephen Melcher said he doesn’t have a stance on the rezoning because he’s still doing research.
“At this time our attorneys said that we shouldn’t be talking about it because we can taint the system,” Melcher said. “If we say something and do something else, then we are misrepresenting ourselves.”