The Elkhart County Commissioners, amid complaints from some in the audience, allowed a rezoning for plans to build a new RV inspection facility on rural land near the RV/MH Hall of Fame.
This story by Aimee Ambrose originally appeared in The Goshen News.
The commissioners approved the zoning request Monday, following about an hour and a half of discussion on the issue. Among the speakers, 15 voiced their oppositions, while a couple others expressed support.
Chris Marbach, of Elkhart-based engineering firm Marbach, Brady & Weaver Inc., argued for rezoning about 70 acres of land along C.R. 6, east of C.R. 19, from agricultural to a heavy business district with a general unit development plan attached to it.
Marbach presented initial details of the proposed project, saying Wixom, Michigan-based Schonsheck Inc. is leading the development of the site. When complete, plans call for another company — the name was not disclosed — to take ownership and open an inspection facility for RVs.
RV manufacturers would bring new products to the business to have them undergo quality control inspections before they’re shipped to customers, he said.
“This future owner wants to make sure that when he delivers a product out to someone else, there aren’t any bugs left in it,” Marbach said.
About 40 employees would work at the site on a single daytime shift, with potential for a maximum of 80 workers at full operation. Most of the work would be done inside the building, he said.
Marbach expected approximately 37 units would be delivered to and from the facility per day by pickup trucks. He emphasized tractor-trailers would not be used and there would be no manufacturing.
With the deliveries plus employees going to and leaving from work, he estimated approximately 156 vehicles would make trips in and out of the facility per day for most of each week, which would be about a 4 percent increase in daily traffic on C.R. 6, he said.
The site would also have the capacity to store 1,200 vehicles, but he pointed out that’s not an amount that would travel in the area each day.