JEFFERSONVILLE — The Jefferson Township Zoning board met Monday night to discuss the rezoning of some township property currently under sales contract from the Janes Family Partnership (JFP).
Two parcels — 96.5 acres owned by the Janes Family Partnership, and 23.85 acres owned by Larry and Virginia Maxel — are situated in Jefferson Township and under contract for sale. These acres are currently zoned regional-commerce (known as commercial) and the buyers are requesting a rezoning to straight industrial.
Branen Weade was in attendance to represent the sellers and the contract for sale. Attorney David Robinson represented the buyer. Carl Nelson is the executive vice president of acquisitions and development of Active Infrastructure. Nelson is involved in site selection and commercial real estate development. Also in attendance were Jim and Mary Paisley, owners of an adjacent property.
The zoning board listened to comments from the attendees during the discussion on the proposed rezoning and asked questions. Robinson noted that this proposed property development would bring approximately $15 million in tax revenue to the county and Jeffersonville area, which includes approximately $2.5 million to the township.
It was noted that there is a sewer plant at the rear of the property owned by JFP, which also borders the Travel Center of America property on U.S. 35. The fireworks store is located at the rear of the Maxel property. The board said the availability of water and sewer connections would come later in the planning process.
Nelson told the board that the development would be for a data center with highly compensated employees, no trucks in and out of the property, with minimal impact on the surrounding area such as loud noises or high impact lighting. The data center would include many computers and servers in the buildings, items and projects that serve streaming services and buy online services, and computers that control home lighting and other features. He said, “It’s like keeping your Netflix services up and running.” Nelson said there are many data centers in Columbus and Marysville.
The project site is serviced by AES Ohio, and Nelson stated this is a priority site for AES for power purposes. Nelson presented a conceptual layout plan to the board and attendees, which showed where the proposed electric substation would be built on the site. There would also be a new storm water management pond located on the property. The plat shows six single-story buildings, 200,000 square feet per building, with set-back lines. Prior to construction, Nelson said they will do a new survey to comply with all boundaries and set-back requirements.
Robinson said it is a “good use of land and they want to be a good neighbor.” The site would be secured by a fence. Tree planting around the facility to mask the buildings from view is a possibility. The plan is architected to conceal the site from view, engineered with the latest sound attenuation techniques and designed to minimize water usage.
The site would be a mega-watt power site and use water for cooling, and could reuse the water resources, instead of air cooling sources with large chillers on the ground.
When the question of tax abatements was brought up, Nelson responded that this is not about tax breaks, it’s about power (AES electric provided). The developer is not looking for tax breaks from the township for locating on this proposed site. “We want to focus on land and electric power, not tax abatements,” Nelson said. “It will be good revenue for the county and the township for this project to go forward.”
The 65.280 acres of land adjacent to the 96.5 acres is also owned by the JFP, however, it is located in the Village of Octa, pursuant to the plat, and is zoned agricultural. That 65.280 acres is also within the planned project, however, the developer will need to present the same plan to the Village of Octa on Aug. 6 at 11 a.m. at the Evelyn Pentzer meeting room for a zoning change to industrial. Greg McCune from the Fayette County Zoning Department was in attendance and is contracted by the Village of Octa for zoning issues, due to the village being small and not having its own zoning board. He will discuss the issue with Octa officials and make his recommendations.
Robinson concluded with the facts surrounding growth in the Fayette County area, and that this site is destined for development under this contract or another contract within the next few years. It would be advantageous to rezone the property now, he said.
The zoning board then went into executive session to discuss the rezoning issue.
