LAFAYETTE – The folks behind “Keep Dayton Small,” on the losing end again, aren’t going away.
Or so they said Wednesday night, when a 110-home subdivision plan they contend is the first step toward ruining the small-town feel of Dayton, population 1,550, was good enough to win a 12-1 rezoning recommendation from Tippecanoe County’s Area Plan Commission.
“We’ll fight it again at the Dayton (Town Council’s) rezone meeting (in March), back at Area Plan for the subdivision approval meeting, at the drainage board – we’re not giving up,” said Cindy Marsh, one of the leaders – or instigators, depending on where you stand in the town – of “Keep Dayton Small.”
“People here are more determined than ever,” Marsh said.
Wednesday night, in the County Office Building in downtown Lafayette, became the latest scene of a town severely split.
Dayton’s situation has been brewing for nearly two years.
Red-and-white signs, pleaded to “Keep Dayton Small,” started popping up in early 2017 in protest of the proposed annexation of nearly 55 acres along Dayton Road, just south of Dayton United Methodist Church. The town council – over the lone objections of council member Ron Koehler, who happens to be Marsh’s husband – was approved in July 2017.
That cleared the way for a tract called Baker Farms, where M&C Development proposed the subdivision of $300,000 to $400,000 homes.