By Annie Goeller, Daily Journal of Johnson County staff writer
A grocery store, a golf course, a few strip malls and more than 400 acres of land prime for future businesses are all that's been left untouched by governments annexing land along one of the county's busiest roads.
And now, two local governments are fighting to get those, too.
Along State Road 135 in White River Township, 85 percent of the land that fronts the highway has been annexed by either Greenwood, which includes businesses such as Meijer and Target, or Bargersville, which got a 158-acre site Clarian Health Partners purchased.
And the trend has repeated itself throughout the township, with 76 percent of commercial land going to Greenwood and 61 percent of industrial land going to Bargersville.
That's good news for taxpayers in those communities, since businesses often help make property taxes more affordable for local residents by sharing the burden.
But the continued loss of land that could be home to future businesses and large taxpayers is a concern to those who want to decide the future of the Center Grove area.
If officials and residents decided to incorporate the area, or make it into its own city or town, they would have few potential locations left for large businesses that could help take the property tax burden off homeowners.
But all hope is not lost, some said, since land that is farmed or used for green space one day could be rezoned for commercial or industrial businesses.
A city or town with mostly homes would have a higher tax rate than one with homes and businesses, a fiscal analyst said.
That's because homeowners are the ones who demand the most services such as police and fire protection and roads, meaning they cost the most. Businesses need some of those services, but not as much, fiscal analyst and Purdue University professor Larry DeBoer said.
So, if an area has businesses, that can help take some of the costs for the services off homeowners, he said.
For years, the land along State Road 135, one of the prime locations for businesses in the Center Grove area, has gone to Greenwood. Recently, Bargersville has started taking an interest in the land, too.
And local developers have said the land that's left along State Road 135 between Greenwood and Bargersville, which officials are fighting over now, is the next boom spot for businesses as development moves south.
The loss of the land hurts, people looking into the future of the Center Grove said. But they said there's still hope for business development in the area.
The general idea is that government units should have many different land uses, including commercial and industrial businesses, farmland and homes, said Forrest Mellott, a member of White River Citizens United.
"You have to use your land wisely," he said.
Typically, that means that local governments have multiple land uses, not just residential, he said.
That's not the case in the Center Grove area, where 85 percent of the residential land in the entire township is in the unincorporated area.
That much residential land wouldn't just be bad news if the Center Grove area became a city or town. That's also a concern for the county, Mellott said.
Residents in the unincorporated area receive most of their services, such as police protection and road repairs and maintenance, from the county.
County officials have to be concerned with how to afford those services without getting much money from businesses, especially as state-approved property tax caps kick in, limiting how much governments can collect in property taxes, he said.
But just because that's how the area looks now doesn't mean that the future can't change, another member of the citizens group, John Griffin, said.
Those numbers don't include land that is used for farming or green space that could be rezoned for commercial or industrial use, he said.
"That's the way it is today, but is that the way it's going to be in the next phase of planning?" Griffin said.
A future Center Grove town or city also would have all the land along State Road 37 and State Road 144, which has been mostly left untouched by other governments, Griffin said.
But that land isn't safe, either.
Officials in Bargersville are interested in it, too, especially along State Road 37.
"I think everybody should have an interest in that area," said Mike Shaver, a consultant to the town.
Greenwood Mayor Charles Henderson said the city had looked to that area, but not in detail.
The land between the city limits and State Road 37 includes a large number of existing residential properties and that annexation, if it were to happen, would be far in the future, Henderson said.
For years, officials have annexed prime commercial land along State Road 135, beginning at County Line Road and edging south.
What have mostly not been included in those annexations are the subdivisions full of homes and people that require services.
Governments are more interested in picking up the businesses because they can get more revenue from them than they can from homes, DeBoer said.
"When you get residential development, you don't get enough revenue to cover the costs, but when you get business development, it usually does," he said.
Some Center Grove residents had asked both Greenwood and Bargersville to put off annexation plans while the future of the unincorporated area is studied, but officials refused.
Most recently, the city had proposed a plan to annex land south of Stones Crossing Road, an area Bargersville officials also are after. Now the two are in court over the issue.
The town wants to annex land from Whiteland Road, which includes the land Clarian purchased, to Stones Crossing Road.
If those proposals went through, all the land fronting State Road 135 would be in a city or town, making it unavailable to a future Center Grove city or town.
Greenwood and Bargersville officials said they have a right to the land, which will help boost their tax base.
Bargersville officials want the land for two reasons: building the town's tax base and including the areas it serves with utilities.
In theory, businesses require fewer services than residents, Shaver said.
Businesses will be under a 3 percent cap when state property tax reform kicks in 2010, meaning they could pay three times more taxes than residents, he said.
But Bargersville also wants the land because it provides utilities to the businesses that are there or will come in the future. And without those utilities, the businesses would not have come, he said.
Greenwood has a similar thought, but officials there mainly want the land for its tax base, Henderson said.
"It is in the city's interest to annex as much of that commercial land as we can," he said.
Businesses boost the city's tax base, often reducing property taxes for homeowners.
The State Road 135 corridor is a huge boost in the business tax base for a government, especially since there potentially could be more value there than along U.S. 31 and Madison Avenue in Greenwood, Henderson said.
Any amount of business tax base is important to the Center Grove area, if it were to become a town or city, Henderson said.
Though Greenwood already has taken a huge chunk of the corridor, the remainder still could be helpful, he said.