GOSHEN — Zoning changes for a $15 million Love’s Travel Stop development just south of the U.S. 20 Bypass on Goshen’s northwest side received initial approval Thursday by the Elkhart County Plan Commission.
The property is a 46.64 acre parcel located on the southwest corner of the intersection of U.S. 20 and C.R. 17, just north of the Elkhart County Ivy Tech Community College campus located at 22531 C.R. 18, Goshen.
Phase 1
According to Chad Bruner, real estate project manager with Love’s Travel Stops, Phase 1 of the proposal involves the development of a new fueling station and convenience store, tire sales shop, travel center and restaurant on approximately 16.87 acres. A new public street providing access to the site from C.R. 17 is also proposed just to the south of the development. The road will cross the property in an east-west direction.
Construction of the proposed development is planned to start in the spring of 2017 and take between seven and 10 months to complete.
Phase 2
During Phase 2 of the project, Bruner indicated that Love’s intends to create nine limited manufacturing lots ranging between 1.028 and 5.792 acres just to the south of the proposed public street.
The plan for this area involves future commercial developments, such as a hotel, self-storage facility and light manufacturing/warehousing uses, he said.
As part of the overall project, Love’s will connect with existing city of Elkhart water and sewer lines in the area to extend utilities along the proposed public street, which will then service both the DPUD and future GPUD developments. Projected cost of the water extension is $146,704, while projected cost of the sewer extension is $82,045.
“I quite frankly wasn’t that excited about seeing this, that kind of activity, but it looks like a good plan for the property,” said commissioner Roger Miller in voicing his support for the proposal.
The remaining commissioners agreed, and a motion to forward the requested zoning changes on to the Elkhart County Board of Commissioners with a favorable recommendation was approved unanimously.
The zoning changes made were changing from General Planned Unit Development Business-3 to Detailed Planned Unit Development B-3 (Phase 1) and General Planned Unit Development Manufacturing-1 (Phase 2) to be known as Love’s Elkhart-DPUD.