An auto auction is deciding whether it can scale back its plans for a new location on the former South Bend Motor Speedway site under pressure from environmental groups.
Ecologists and environmentalists adamantly oppose a rezoning sought by Illinois-based Insurance Auto Auctions Corp. to redevelop the former speedway into an auto auction. That’s because in addition to the old track, the State Road 2 site contains what’s perhaps St. Joseph County’s last big black oak savanna habitat.
Its unique sandy soils look more like the dunes around Lake Michigan, left from the glacier melt some 10 to 15,000 years ago. Botanists have cataloged over 85 species of native plants growing in that area.
The company needs the county council to rezone the site from residential to commercial to make the auction happen. But its attorney, Richard Nussbaum, told the county council Tuesday night that his client has heard the opposition loud and clear.
"One thing that's probably not going to happen is the project is not going to go through the way that it's set up right now," Nussbaum said. "We understand that. What might happen also, we might have to walk away from the project. Let us try to get our development downsized, let us try to maximize the protected area, and be very responsible in the way we develop this property."
Nussbaum said the company would take damaged vehicles to the site, store them, and sell them at auction without working on them at all. He said they’re trying to come up with a revised plan, preserving enough of the savanna to satisfy opponents but still leaving the project financially feasible, by the council’s next meeting Oct. 8.
