A full first Monday of the month edition
Stacked houses for the city councils and county commissioners.
Support for this edition comes from YWCA Greater Lafayette, presenting “She Speaks, She Sings, She Soars” Dec. 9 as part of the Linda Cohen Trailblazer Series. The event, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. at Westminster Village, features Claire Eagle, executive director of the Tippecanoe County Historical Association; Audrey Johnson, founder of Of Thee I Sing: American Heritage Through Song; and author Melissa Fraterrigo, whose recent memoir is “The Perils of Girlhood.” For tickets and more information, go to ywcalafayette.org/cohenseries.
Support for Based in Lafayette also comes from Purdue Convocations, presenting the Cyber Monday Sale! Our Biggest Sale of the Year ENDS TODAY! Save 30% on most shows this season, including Jim Brickman: The Gift of Christmas, Kinky Boots, STOMP, Dungeons & Dragons: The Twenty-Sided Tavern, Mrs. Doubtfire, Beetlejuice, Menopause the Musical 2: Cruising Through ‘The Change’ and more! Tickets make great gifts—SHOP NOW!
A FULL FIRST MONDAY OF THE MONTH EDITION
The first Monday of the month typically is a scene. This one is a bit extra.
For the Tippecanoe County commissioners
Tippecanoe County commissioners will consider a pair of rezoning requests, including a controversial one for the former West Lafayette Golf and Country Club and another that would set up a site for a new IU Health Arnett hospital north of West Lafayette.
Here were highlights from Area Plan Commission hearings Nov. 19.
At the West Lafayette Golf and Country Club: The owners of the West Lafayette Golf and Country Club, closed and vacant since the end of the 2024 season, say the ground won’t be a golf course, again, and a residential use that could accommodate 309 lots on 66 acres is the next best use for the site along U.S. 52 and County Road 300 West.
Neighbors pushed back at the APC meeting, saying a residential subdivision of that size would add to existing flooding issues and pose traffic dangers on surrounding roads. Neighbors left steaming, after the Area Plan Commission recommended rezoning the property from agricultural use to R1B/high-density single family residential use. The vote was 10-6, enough to send the recommendation to Tippecanoe County commissioners for a final decision.
In letters to golfers in early 2025, the Day family, owners of the golf course for the past 11 seasons, said that the number of the country club’s supporters was “too small for the numbers to work.” Ryan Munden, an attorney representing the Days during the rezoning request, told APC members that the family bought the former Elks Country Club property with an agreement to maintain it as a golf course through 2020. He said the family did, eventually putting it up for sale in August 2024 after operating the club at a loss for years.
Munden said lining up residential zoning would help market the property or set it up for the current owners to redevelop the land. He said returning it to a golf course use wasn’t an option.
The APC staff had recommended denial of the rezoning, largely on questions about drainage on the property and, in particular, how that would affect the two entrances designed in a suggested subdivision site plan leading to County Road 300 West and U.S. 52.
Residents living nearby raised similar concerns, recalling past high-water events, including times when emergency access across Indian Creek had to be built to get people in and out of the neighboring Capilano neighborhood.
Munden said the owners understood the questions about flooding and traffic. He contended that the next steps, after zoning, in the county’s regulation process would include traffic studies and proof that drainage could be handled before a subdivision could be built.
IU Health Arnett’s West Lafayette hospital plan: The APC gave a unanimous recommendation for rezoning needed for a $127 million IU Health Arnett hospital at Yeager Road and County Road 500 North.
IU Health Arnett’s hospital would vie to be the first hospital to open near West Lafayette, if things go as planned at the 21 acres. The hospital would include an emergency department, 12 inpatient beds, four operating rooms, imaging facilities and labs. IU Health officials, who operate IU Health Arnett hospital on the east side of Lafayette, said the West Lafayette hospital staff would include 211 full-time jobs, including those for 69 nurses and 29 physicians.
Art Vasquez, president of IU Health’s West Region, called the new hospital “the next step in our long-standing promise to grow as the community grows and to meet the needs of families who call this region home.’
If zoning is approved, construction is expected to start in 2026. Vasquez told BiL earlier in the year that IU Health was aiming to take the first patients in mid-2028.
The rezoning request comes as Fort Wayne-based Parkview Health eyes rezoning, likely in January, of a 26-acre site about a mile south along Yeager Road for a $200 million hospital with 40 in-patient beds and a 24-hour emergency department. (See: “Parkview Health: Ready for competition in West Lafayette’s ‘hospital desert,’” BiL, Nov. 14)
What’s next: The county commissioners meet at 10 a.m. Monday, Dec. 1, at the County Office Building, 20 N. Third St. in Lafayette.
At West Lafayette
Among the things heading to the West Lafayette City Council …
The fate of Chauncey Annex: A final vote on a rezoning request that could clear the way for a proposed 15-story development on the State Street hill a few blocks from Purdue’s campus – a project already facing a skeptical West Lafayette City Council – was delayed at the council’s November meeting. Developers with Austin, Texas-based LV Collective asked the council for another month before considering the Chauncey Annex plan to give them time to iron out details of what would be a first-of-its-kind provision for a student-oriented project near campus to set aside 22 of the 290 units to be labeled as affordable housing. A proposal laid out by developers includes indexing rents in 22 studio apartments in Chauncey Annex to federal Housing and Urban Development standards. While rent prices haven’t been announced at the proposed high-rise at the northeast corner of State Street and Chauncey Avenue, Andree Sahakian, senior development manager with LV Collective, told BiL the aim was to have the studios at $1,268 a month, compared to $2,068 a month for similar units in West Lafayette’s Village area, a few blocks from campus. Chauncey Annex would include a maximum of 828 beds and 5,550-square-feet of ground-floor commercial space on a footprint of 0.8 acres. The Area Plan Commission on Oct. 15 voted 11-4 to send the project to the West Lafayette City Council with a recommendation to approve the planned development zoning. But two of those no votes came from Larry Leverenz and Kathy Parker, the city council’s two representatives on the APC. At the time, they indicated they weren’t comfortable with the project’s height and with parking that covered about 17% of the beds available to rent. There also were questions about whether West Lafayette had hit a saturation point for the market in that area, given projects recently finished, those under construction and others in the pipeline.
Downzoning request tied to SK hynix arrives: A downzoning request for 125 acres in the Purdue Research Park – a promise from Purdue Research Foundation that played a role in the controversial rezoning of neighboring property in West Lafayette for a $3.87 billion SK hynix advanced chip packaging facility – lands before the city council Monday. The rezoning request followed a promise in May by Purdue Research Foundation in the hectic hours ahead a West Lafayette City Council vote on a preferred site for the SK hynix semiconductor facility. PRF’s request to rezone the land north of Kalberer Road and west of Yeager Road from industrial to office/research uses essentially softens the intensity of uses on that property. PRF and SK hynix officials in May offered the downzoning on what has been labeled as “Site A,” contingent on the West Lafayette City Council voting for an industrial zoning request on the opposite side of Yeager Road for the South Korean company’s plans for a 340,000-square-foot R&D and advanced chip packaging facility to assemble microchips into high-bandwidth memory for a burgeoning AI market. The city council voted 6-3 for that rezoning of what came to be known as “Site B,” following weeks of debate and hours of public comment from neighbors who protested the location of the semiconductor facility near residential subdivisions. Since then, neighbors have criticized PRF’s move, calling into question why the city council would have accepted it. The promise also has been part of the contentions laid out in a pair of resident-driven lawsuits against the city, PRF, the Area Plan Commission and SK hynix, under consideration in Tippecanoe Circuit Court.
Apartment complex on South River Road: The APC gave West Lafayette-based Tomish Developers LLC a unanimous recommendation on a rezoning request for 1.44 acres for a planned development called Alta Vida, along South River Road, between Williams and Wood streets. The project, up for a final vote Monday, is proposed with a maximum of 187 units and up to 482 beds, a 205-space parking garage and an option to include up to 5,890 square feet of commercial and retail space on the ground level fronting South River Road. The plan would replace two apartment buildings with 42 units, according to an APC report.
New Chauncey Neighborhood land use plan: The city council will consider asking the Area Plan Commission to lead an update to a New Chauncey plan developed in 2013. The land use plan includes block-by-block guides and recommendations for what sort of development is suited for a neighborhood that continues to wrestle with a mix of single-family housing, rental properties and commercial interests. For more:
What’s next: The West Lafayette City Council will meet at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 1, at city hall, 222 N. Chauncey Ave.
At Lafayette City Council
The Lafayette City Council also will consider a pair of rezoning requests, including one for a $430 million development.
Sustainea’s $430 million plans in Lafayette: The Area Plan Commission gave a unanimous recommendation Nov. 19 to Primient to rezone 47 acres along Brady Lane, on the grounds of the corn-processing plant, to make way for Sustainea, a company planning to put $430 million into a facility that produces a plant-based alternative for the plastic bottle and textile markets. Operations located next to the Primient corn-processing facility – the former Tate & Lyle south plant along Sagamore Parkway South – would start in 2028. Earlier this year, company officials told the Lafayette Redevelopment Commission that the project, first announced in October 2024, is expected to eventually create 191 jobs, with 95 of those initially. The project is “co-located” with Primient to produce a renewable, plant-based alternative to petroleum-based monoethylene glycol used in textiles and food packaging. The city council already has approved property tax abatements tied to the project.
Expansion plans for Martha Local Bar: The owners of Martha Local Bar, 522 S. Fourth St. in Lafayette, are asking to rezone two lots to allow an expansion of the restaurant and bar to accommodate a new dance floor and other renovations. The APC gave a unanimous recommendation in favor.
Gas station regulations, an update already: After passing a set of new zoning regulations that restrict construction of new gas stations in Lafayette, the city asked the APC to help clarify some of the language dealing with those included as accessory components of larger developments. During the Nov. 19 APC meeting, Lafayette City Attorney Jacque Chosnek said the city intended to allow gas stations built in conjunction with larger projects but wanted to make that clear in the ordinance approved earlier this year. Chosnek said the provision dealt only with gas stations built at the same time as the larger development. The city council will consider whether to weave that update into the new codes.
The West Lafayette City Council and Tippecanoe County commissioners will consider the changes, too.
Tax abatement for LAMMCO: Lafayette Materials Management Co. (LAMMCO) is requesting a seven-year tax abatement on a $650,000 expansion to its facilities near the corner of Erie and Cincinnati streets. According to its application, the company plans to put a 120-by-46-foot addition on its facility to increase manufacturing space and allow the expansion of its commercial furniture business to expand into surrounding states. The company says the plan is to add 10 to 15 employees to its staff of 23, according to the application.
What’s next: The Lafayette City Council will meet at 6 p.m. Monday, Dec. 1, at city hall, 20 N. Sixth St.
BUILDING BiL HOLIDAY PLAYLIST: WHAT’S ON YOURS?
Through Christmas, BiL will curate three songs a day from readers. The assignment isn’t necessarily about the best or most iconic songs of the season. Just songs that you’d want in the mix and why they belong. Enjoy.
Candice Kissinger
Grandmother, retired scientist, retired educator. My list goes beyond the works of these men from France, the Ukraine and Finland, but this selection is definitely my top three for the season.
“Pat a Pan,” Mannheim Steamroller – A Burgundian French carol written by Bernard de la Monnoye in 1720. It was in fact a song about a little drummer boy and his friend who played a flute to serenade the Christ child, but not at all like the contemporary “Little Drummer Boy” song (which raises blood pressure and induces nervous tics). This is my baking music, which plays in the kitchen as I chop nuts and knead dough for Yule Kake, a family tradition from Norwegian ancestors.
“Lt. Kije Suite: Op 60 Troika,” Sergei Prokofiev – Nothing says “sleigh ride” better than this! You can almost feel the snow fly up into your face and freeze onto your eyebrows as you are towed behind horses racing across a crystalline landscape. Even though I have (sadly) never taken such a ride, it resonates with my Canadian origins.
“Karelia Suite, Op. 11, Intermezzo,” Jean Sibelius – Hard to explain why this in on my holiday playlist, but it just seems fun and festive. As far as I know, it had nothing to do with Christmas when written by Sibelius to support a youth fundraiser in Finland.
Your turn
What three songs are going into your holiday/seasonal playlist this year? If you’re game share, here’s all we need:
Three songs and the artists.
One or two sentences about why you chose each one – could be a memory or a short history or review about why that track belongs in your mix and why you’d recommend it to others.
A little bit about you to let readers know who’s making the picks.
Send to: davebangert1@gmail.com
Thanks, again, for support from YWCA Greater Lafayette, presenting “She Speaks, She Sings, She Soars” Dec. 9 as part of the Linda Cohen Trailblazer Series. For tickets and more information, go to ywcalafayette.org/cohenseries.
Thanks, also, for support from Purdue Convocations, presenting the Cyber Monday Sale! Save 30% on most shows this season, including Jim Brickman: The Gift of Christmas, Kinky Boots, STOMP, Dungeons & Dragons: The Twenty-Sided Tavern, Mrs. Doubtfire, Beetlejuice, Menopause the Musical 2: Cruising Through ‘The Change’ and more! Tickets make great gifts — SHOP NOW!
Thank you for supporting Based in Lafayette, an independent, local reporting project. Free and full-ride subscription options are ready for you here.
Tips, story ideas? I’m at davebangert1@gmail.com.
BiL has its hands full trying to keep up with Area Plan Rezone requests, let alone everything else going on. Good luck Dave Bangert.