Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

During the LaGrange City Council work session on Tuesday morning, the city discussed a recommendation from the Board of Planning and Zoning Appeals to approve a request to rezone five parcels on Tom Hall Parkway from Activity Center Mixed Use (AC-MX) to Activity Center Mixed Use (AC-MX).

The purpose of rezoning the parcels to designations of the same name is to remove conditions contained within a development agreement dating back to Dec. 20, 2013, as well as conditions attached to a conditional rezoning approved on Feb. 23, 2016.

The approximately 170-acre properties in question are currently owned by SEI LaGrange LLC doing business as Selig Enterprises. The applicant has requested that the parcels located immediately adjacent to Tom Hall Parkway be rezoned to remove the conditions.

City Planner Mark Kostial said all of the conditions are thoroughly covered in the current Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) and in some cases, it’s more restrictive.

The other and potentially primary reason behind the request to rezone these properties is a master plan that is tied to the 2016 legislation that specifically dictates where both commercial and residential development can be placed on the parcels.

Kostial said the final component of the request is to amend the character area map contained within the city’s comprehensive plan, specifically on another Selig site located south of Interstate 85. The separate property already has a zoning designation of general industrial and agribusiness, but it has a character area designation within the city’s comprehensive plan as Activity Center.

The request would not apply to any properties immediately adjacent to Great Wolf Lodge.

Kostial said the change should be considered because the current development and land use strategies do not align with the comprehensive plan.

Tax Allocation District #6 (TAD) has already been approved for the second site, which has plans for a development called the LaGrange Logistics Center. The development would provide warehousing and commercial space for manufacturing and other industries in the area.

“This is really just clean up,” Kostial said.

The comprehensive plan was last updated prior to the adoption of the UDO in February 2021. The new UDO wasn’t adopted until June later that year.

“The UDO requires that your character area map and your zoning map, marry up. That was not an expressed requirement in the previous code,” said City Attorney Jeff Todd.

The change would only modify the Selig property and not other nearby parcels with different owners, Kostial said.