BDO LLC wants to bring a gas station, restaurant and mixed-use building to the southeast corner of Mt. Comfort Road and CR 500N in Hancock County. A representative for the company said the layout will likely change to accommodate the preservation of a house in the northwest corner of the property.
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HANCOCK COUNTY – A property owner now hopes to draw commercial developments to a Mt. Comfort Corridor intersection, a change officials welcome after balking at a pitch for semitrailer parking there earlier this year.
BDO LLC is asking the county to rezone a little over 5 acres at the southeast corner of Mt. Comfort Road and CR 500N from its current institutional zoning designation to a commercial one. The company is registered to Ajaypratap Singh with an address shared by the site of the requested rezone.
BDO wants to develop the property for a gas station, fast food or traditional restaurant, and a commercial/office building with the potential for apartments above the businesses.
The property currently contains a vacant house, a few dilapidated outbuildings and undeveloped land.
Earlier this year, BDO petitioned the Hancock County Area Plan Commission for a rezone of the site to an industrial designation to accommodate semitrailer parking on a short-term basis before shifting to more commercial developments as demand permitted. The plan commission voted unanimously to give that request an unfavorable recommendation, however, with some members indicating they’d be more amenable to skipping the semis and heading straight for the eventual commercial objective.
That prompted BDO to come back to the plan commission with a request along those lines, said Silvia Miller, a lawyer representing the company.
“I think that as things continue to develop and you have this expansion of businesses in Hancock County … having a gas station and commercial building can increase the development in this area,” Miller said.
BDO intends to keep the house on the property and use it as an office. The structure’s historical status prevented the county from acquiring and razing it for a traffic circle planned at Mt. Comfort Road and CR 500N, forcing the placement of the circle to shift.
The plan commission voted unanimously to send BDO’s latest request to the Hancock County Board of Commissioners with a favorable recommendation, on the conditions that a final concept plan be subject to review and that uses be limited to a gas station, restaurant and mixed-use structure.
“He’s (Singh) got a good spot, and if he substantially sticks to what he’s presented to us, I think he’ll get a favorable result from the board of commissioners,” said Bill Spalding, a plan commission member and member of the board of commissioners.
Fellow plan commission member Byron Holden agreed.
“It’s got to be better than a truck parking lot,” he said.
