MORGAN COUNTY — After nearly three and a half hours of discussion and testimony from both the applicant and residents of Heartland Crossing in Camby, the Morgan County Plan Commission failed to come to an agreement of giving a favorable, unfavorable, or no recommendation to a request for rezoning the golf course to allow for 370 single family homes to be constructed on it.
The matter will return at the Dec. 8 meeting.
The failure to come to an agreement was the result of a technical rule that regulates if a motion passes or fails.
The rule, which many people on the commission were not familiar with, requires a MAJORITY of the commission members voting for or against a motion.
There are nine members on the plan commission. The rule requires five members voting for or against. The five-member rule holds true no matter how many members of the commission attend the meeting.
Monday night, only seven members attended the meeting. Member Dustin Frye and Joe Crone were absent.
The commission heard more than three hours of testimony from both the petitioners and remonstrators. At the end of the testimony, one of the golf course owners, Ron Overton, made a statement in which he asked the commission to continue the matter to give him time to talk to residents who live around the course. He wanted to address some of their concerns to see if they could come to an understanding.
That started a discussion among the commission members about tabling the matter until a future meeting.
Commission member Kenny Hale made a motion to table the request for 30 days until the December meeting. That motion failed due to a lack of a second.
Commission member Bill Rumbaugh made a motion to continue the matter until the March 2026 meeting. Hale seconded the motion. While it received a four-person majority of present votes, it did not receive the minimum needed to pass, which was five votes. Voting for the motion was Rumbaugh, Hale, Brian Patrick, and Michelle Jones. Voting against were Terry Brock, Melanie DePoy, and Jason Maxwell.
Patrick made a motion to continue the matter until the January meeting. Rumbaugh seconded the motion. It received a 4-3 vote, which was still not enough.
While the commission discussed their next step, county attorney Anne Cowgur asked them to pause for a moment. She checked their rules and then told the commission that under their rules, since the matter had not passed on two votes, it was automatically tabled until the next meeting.
After more discussion, Brock announced the matter would be on the Dec. 8 meeting agenda. He also complimented both the petitioners and the demonstrators for their actions during the hearing. He said both sides were well behaved during the hearing.
After he said that, one man got up and made a scene. Brock asked him to leave the meeting. He carried on for a minute before he left. He did attempt to return, but people barred him from entering.
Most people were very unhappy with the decision, and they said they would return for the December meeting.
Petitioner speaks
Jeff Banning, of Banning Engineering, spoke for about 45 minutes explaining the need to rezone the property. He gave a short history of the Heartland Crossing Development. He said some of the paperwork that created the development could not be found.
Banning said the owners had looked at several options and had three meetings with residents. The current proposal calls for around 70 acres to be used for the residential development, 80 acres to remain as a nine-hole golf course, 40 acres to be used as green space, and 10 acres to be used for a church.
He said the golf course is failing. It is not generating funds to keep it in operation. He said at this time, it pays around $8,000 to $10,000 a year in property taxes. Banning said 12 homes in the proposed development would pay that amount of property taxes.
Since the development was created in the mid 1990s, the golf course has had five owners. He asked the plan commission to give the request for rezoning a favorable recommendation.
He said the schools are losing students and need the additional families.
Remonstrators speak
An estimated 200 people filled the meeting room and also had to stand in the hallway for the meeting. Nearly all of them were against the request.
Around 50 people signed up to speak. Some people did decline to speak to the commission when their turn came.
A couple of people said they had offered the owners around $2.5 million for the golf course, and they had refused to sell it. They felt the owners, at a future date, planned to rezone the nine-hole golf course that remained for single-family homes. They said the golf industry is thriving, and the current owner is not operating it correctly.
Other speakers said they were concerned the fire department, which is already stretched thin, would have problems covering an additional 370 homes. There were concerns about law enforcement coverage, traffic problems, and the loss in home values due to the downsizing of the golf course.
There were people who felt the golf course was a part of the community, and its loss would hurt everyone.
Some also questioned where the Tri County Agreement was that set up the requirements for the Heartland Crossing development.
One person felt the project was a “bait and switch tactic.” They said it was like buying lakefront property, then having someone buy the lake, drain it, then construct homes on the resulting land.
Someone said the owners had paid $756,000 for the golf course in 2018. They said the church that planned to build on the property had purchased land 20 years ago to build on. The woman said they never built their church, but they continued to meet in the pastor’s home.
Owner speaks
After the remonstrators spoke, owner Ron Overton addressed the commission.
He admitted to purchasing the property in 2018 for $756,000. He said since then, he has put around $2 million into the business in an effort to bring it back into shape. He said it is a high-maintenance golf course.
He said Heartland Crossing is not a golf community, the residents do not go golfing on a regular basis. He said spendable income is not in Heartland Crossing.
Overton finished by asking the commission to continue the matter to give him time to meet again with the residents to discuss their concerns.
