Jason Miller, The News-Dispatch
UNION MILLS - With its highways and rail lines, as well as its proximity to Lake Michigan, La Porte County is on the minds of many looking to build an intermodal transportation hub.
And while many local residents don't want to give up their homesteads to developers, some property owners in the footprint of the planned facility can see their point.
"But until they can give me solid reasons why they can't build it at KOP (Kingsbury Ordnance Plant), I'm not selling," said a defiant Hugh Glasgow, a "specialty crop" farmer who lives on Ind. 39, south of U.S. 6. "There's thousands of acres in the industrial park right down the street and they want to go here. Explain that to me."
Glasgow, like many other farmers who may be displaced by the planned freight hub, has turned down real estate agents looking to give him exponentially more than market value for his farmland because he thinks the facility should be built at KOP.
Many residents say real estate agents Grubb-Ellis Cressy & Everett have been buying up land in the area for months, making way for the facility, which has been talked about for more than a year.
Glasgow said he knows farmers in the area who've been made offers of between $10,000 and $20,000 per acre. According to Bethany Stemmler with the La Porte County Assessor's office, La Porte County acreage currently appraises at $880 per acre when more than five acres exist.
Glasgow, who's owned his land since he was 18, said the money isn't worth giving up his land.
"It's about the farmland. It's not about me," he said. "People look at me and say: 'You rich son of a ..., just take the money.' It's not about that."
Kingsbury Ordnance Plant
Glasgow is pushing for the facility to be built in the abandoned Kingsbury Ordnance Plant, which sits just a mile or two east of his farm. Until he's convinced developers have looked into KOP and ruled it out with "good reason," he doesn't plan to sell.
He fears his land will be taken by eminent domain.
"It's just sitting there," he said.
The sprawling facility is hardly used and already has several rail lines running through it. And key to La Porte County, Glasgow said, is the fact the state-owned land is currently giving nothing back to the county through tax revenue.
La Porte County Auditor Teresa Shuter said KOP is tax exempt. Neither Shuter nor Stemmler would speculate on how much money an intermodal placed within KOP would bring in tax revenue, but both said the number would likely be substantial.
When asked Thursday if the matter has been brought up on a state level, State Rep. Tom Dermody, R-La Porte, said he's been kept in the dark.
"I've asked several times for information, but I've been kept out of the loop. I hear a lot of people have been," Dermody said. "They've been directly with farmers. My biggest concern is that the public is allowed to speak on this matter before everything is gone.
"As far as Kingsbury, I think it's the perfect example. I'd hope they'd try to use land that's already industrial. Hopefully it's being considered."
Chris Davey, with Grubb-Ellis, couldn't be reached for comment.
Setting a precedent
A precedent has been set for turning former military complexes into intermodal facilities. In Elwood, Ill., developers turned the former Joliet Arsenal into the CenterPoint Intermodal Center.
CenterPoint uses 625 acres for a BNSF Railroad facility and nearly 6.9 million square feet of warehouse space for companies such as Wal-Mart, Sanyo, Georgia Pacific and California Cartage.
That property was relatively unused when developers and officials began discussing plans for the intermodal, and Glasgow points to KOP as an ideal location for the same reasons.
"It's a wasteland," he said. "All that land sitting there not being used and not bringing the county any money. Why would you not want to use that?"
Glasgow and farmers like him hope to soon get an answer to that question.
"I've been dealing with this for a year and a half and it just gets harder," he said. "If they come to me and tell why they can't use it, then I'll give in. But until then, I'm not going anywhere."
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