BY CHRISTINA M. SEILER, News Editor, The Rochester Sentinel
Indiana Renewable Fuels has made the rezoning of 430 acres near Tiosa official.
The limited liability corporation filed, on Thursday afternoon at 4 p.m. in the Fulton County Recorder's Office, the eight conditions of rezoning. The rezoning was effective Friday morning. Sunday was the deadline for filing the commitments, said Fulton County Plan Director Casi Cramer.
The land, south of Indiana 110 and between Old U.S. 31 and County Road 200 East, is now zoned industrial. It was formerly agricultural.
Whether Indiana Renewable Fuels will purchase or use the property is still up in the air. It is owned by: Michael Gelbaugh, Annabelle S. Hart, Ruth E. Gelbaugh, Glen O. Hart, Jeffrey B. Gelbaugh, Richard and Carrie Ranstead, Schwenk Farms, Gary and Anita McGee and Richard and Aletha Ranstead.
The owners, their designees or the Fulton County Plan Commission can request the rezoning be reversed if an ethanol plant is not built there.
Agricultural uses are still allowed in the industrial zone, Cramer said.
The eight commitments, or conditions for the rezoning, that were imposed by county commissioners and the plan board are:
• All lighting must face down.
• 100 feet of right-of-way for County Road 100 East road maintenance must be made available.
• An aquifer assessment must be completed to determine if the area can handle a 1.44- to 1.58-million-gallon-per-day draw of water for the plant.
• County zoning officials have the right to require, review and approve site plans for any business locating in the rezoned area.
• There is a limit of two common entrances in the rezoned area.
• Businesses in the rezoned area must be suitable for an agribusiness park.
• No excessive odor may be emitted beyond the plant boundaries.
• The commitments, and violations of them, are enforceable via the Fulton County zoning ordinance.
Indiana Renewable Fuels also has received rezoning of 250 acres of land southeast of Argos for its proposed 100-million-gallon-per-year ethanol plant.
That land is south of 17th Road, between Juniper Road on the west and Ironwood Road on the east, and adjacent to the Norfolk Southern rail yard.
Its proximity to the rail yard makes it the more desirable of the two sites, said Advanced Bioenergy President Revis Stephenson III earlier.
Advanced Bioenergy and Indiana Renewable Fuels merged in May 2006. In November, a merger of Advanced Bioenergy LLC, Minneapolis, and of Dakota Fuels Inc., of Aberdeen, S.D., was announced. It is to take effect some time during the first quarter of this year.
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