Students at St. John Emmanuel Lutheran School duct-tape Principal Axel Green to the gym wall Wednesday after they met a goal of raising $1,000 for the Lutheran Malaria Initiative, which supports disease control in Africa.FORT WAYNE – The Allen County commissioners Friday approved the last section in an industrial corridor on the county’s southwest side.
About four acres on the south side of the 12400 block of Lafayette Center Road, just south of General Motors and north of Vera Bradley, was rezoned from agriculture to industrial.
That area is predominantly industrial, but the property was not rezoned with the surrounding property because at the time it was divided by Zubrick Road.
When that road was realigned and straightened, there was “a leftover piece still zoned agriculture,” said Michelle Wood, senior planner for the Department of Planning Services.
There had been no remonstrance of the rezoning effort, Wood said.
The property, owned by Great Dane Realty LLC, cannot be developed until the Indiana Department of Transportation relinquishes control of the right of way to the commissioners, a process that is being resolved, Wood said.
The county owns the new alignment of Zubrick Road, she said.
In addition to Vera Bradley and GM, the area includes Silverado Industrial Park, home to One Resource Group.
The remaining land around Silverado Park is owned by Meadowbrook Farms, and the land farther west is owned by the Allen County Redevelopment Commission, Wood said.
In proximity to I-69 and railways for transportation, the area that was rezoned and the nearby industrial park is a prime target for industrial development, according to county economic development officials. Allen County owns more than 100 acres just south of the GM plant, commonly referred to as the Lafayette Center Corridor.
The commissioners are currently participating with Huntington County officials in a feasibility study on converting a stretch of road near GM – from Interstate 69 to Roanoke – into a thoroughfare for eastbound motorists on U.S. 24.
