NIPSCO is planning to move its Goshen operations center a couple miles south, despite opposition from its new neighbor.
NIPSCO’s senior director of real estate services, Tonya Stanley, says it’s landlocked at its Kercher Road site. Now, it’s planning to move to a site west of State Road 15 and north of County Road 142, in New Paris.
"We’ll have a main building consisting of office space and a warehouse," Stanley told the Elkhart County Commissioners on Monday. "This site will also have a fleet maintenance garage and two company vehicle garages to provide cover for a few of our electric and gas vehicles, so that they are ready to respond in an emergency, during inclement weather."
The site would also have outdoor storage space for utility poles and gas pipes.
But the new facility would leave Chupp’s Piano Service surrounded on three sides. Dennis Chupp said he expected the farmland around his home and business to eventually be replaced by office buildings, not an industrial facility.
"The current property on Kercher Road in Goshen, in my estimation, looks like a salvage yard," Chupp told the commissioners. "I’ve lived in the community for most of my life. NIPSCO has never had any motivation to upkeep that property."
He said the cost of relocating would be much more than the $800,000 to $900,000 NIPSCO was willing to offer for his land. "If I had accepted their offer, I would’ve had to borrow money to relocate my shop, and I would be homeless," Chupp said.
Chupp told the Elkhart County Commissioners Monday that he was worried about noise, light pollution and the impact on his property values.
Still, real estate broker Brad Hooley, who arranged the sale of the land to NIPSCO, said the sellers felt it was a better option than splitting it up for multiple businesses or keeping it agricultural. "You can have this site plan, or you can have a quarter million chickens," Hooley told the commissioners. "It’s kind of a no-brainer to me."
In the end, the commissioners approved NIPSCO’s rezoning request by a vote of two-to-one, after clarifying buffers and fencing around the site. Commissioner Suzanne Weirick noted that it would bring in over a million dollars a year in tax revenues to a local TIF district.
"There are several projects that could be helpful for New Paris specifically, as well as county-wide, including sidewalks to the elementary school, gateway improvements, local road redevelopment in New Paris," Weirick said.
Board President Brad Rogers cast the lone opposing vote.
