Business owners along US 31 will be forced to move with construction. They say it’s unfair.
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Scott and Amanda Wilson’s nine-year-old daughter is planning to take over the family business one day.
The Wilson Farm Market has lived beside U.S. 31 in Arcadia for three generations since 1968. However, that won’t be true for the next one. The Wilsons will soon lose their business’ location in December 2024 due to the road construction on U.S. 31.
Fighting with with the Indiana Department of Transportation has been a rite of passage in his family, Scott Wilson said. He said now it’s his turn to take the torch.
“This was here before INDOT existed,” he said.
Several members of the rural community in northern Hamilton County have been staunch opponents to a project meant to improve safety along U.S. 31. Business owners feel their operations are being unfairly forced off the corridor, while they and other community members feel the project poses public safety risks.
Starting in 2019, INDOT said in a statement that the U.S. 31 Limited Access Project strives to reduce wrecks along the corridor, which was shown to be needed after a 2018-2020 traffic study. The agency said the data showed about 11 crashes per mile per year.
Several groups have also lobbied for the corridor from South Bend to Indianapolis to be streamlined for faster travel times, safety benefits and economic development.
The project stretches from S.R. 38 to 286th Street, spanning about 7.5 miles. Two interchanges are currently under construction at 236th and 276th Streets. Other work on overpasses and cul-de-sacs will begin in the latter part of 2024, INDOT said in the statement.
Specifically for the 236th Street interchange, INDOT reported eminent domain caused 20 houses and one commercial property to vacate. In total, the project will affect 38 parcels, of which 14 went through condemnation, which is the process when an agreement is not found and usually heads to court.
INDOT said it is working with local businesses to finalize real estate acquisitions, and direct communication has been made with home and business owners who are affected.
According to the study and outreach initiative ProPEL31’s website, public meetings for the U.S. 31 South project were conducted on Dec. 8, 2022, and June 14 and 15. Nine other community education events have been scheduled, with three coming up in September and four in October. Those events will take place along the south’s construction from 276th Street to just south of Eel River in Miami County in Tipton, Kokomo and Peru.
Business owners: Not fair and not needed
Local business owners and patrons have expressed their contempt for requiring businesses to move. Those owners say they feel shut out of the decision-making, and that the project isn’t necessary.
The property Wilson’s family owns is split by U.S. 31 but will be further severed by the expanded highway. The road project has led to the land where the business stands being seized through eminent domain as well as Wilson’s aunt’s house ending up landlocked. What the state is doing, he said, feels like it’s putting them out of business.
“It’s no big deal for the state to take a business when they just are buying real property,” he said. “They’re not buying the business, even though they’re putting me out.”
Scott Wilson is critical of the state’s use of eminent domain and says it will likely have an adverse effect on his business.
It’s going to be hard to close the doors on the last day, Wilson said. They’ve grown tremendously since he took over from his parents who retired in 2019 — about a 40% increase. Their annual revenue is in the seven figures, he said, and they employ about 38 people.
INDOT said it determines real estate offers using fair market value as stated in state and federal guidelines. According to those manuals, an appraiser would evaluate the property to which the owner can accompany and compare the plot with recent land value and other nearby sales. Guidelines state an appraiser must ignore the future potential a public project could have on a property’s value.
Wilson’s lawyers are working on an appraisal, but he said the value is up in the air. Since eminent domain evaluates just property value, he said the shock his business will experience in the move won’t be compensated. What would make it fairer, he said, is if the state paid the value of the business as well.
“We’re going to get absolutely murdered,” he said. “I don’t come out of this thing remotely whole.”
Indiana Golf Car owner Joel Peters said his newly owned business will likely have to find a new location. The business has been on the corner of 266th Street and U.S. 31 for almost as long as Peters has worked there: 22 years. An overpass is planned for the intersection, and he would stay if his road had a cul-de-sac.
“I’m not happy about it. I’d like to stay here,” he said. “I’m a new business owner here, taking over, so I would like to keep my expenses down as low as possible as I get started.”
Peters knew this was a problem he was going to inherit. He’s owned the business since last October after the previous owners retired and sold it to him. The impending eminent domain and road construction were both reasons they got out of the business now, he said.
Indiana Golf Car will have to move out sometime in the next year or two, or as Peters says “whenever they kick us out.” He said he doesn’t have an exact date yet.
The state will help him find a new location and compensate the move, Peters said. No amounts have been discussed yet, but he hasn’t heard anything since the initial letter. Peters doesn’t own the land his business resides on, unlike the Wilson Farm Market. The rent is fair, but he said where they land next is a scary thought.
All of it, Peters said, is too much money, time and human sacrifice to cut out stoplights. Both he and Wilson said they don’t know anyone locally who is happy about the project.
“I just don’t think it’s necessary to spend all this money, buy all these people out of these houses just so somebody can get from South Bend to Indianapolis faster,” Peters said. “It just baffles my mind they would spend that kind of money to do that.”
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The sign reading “Politicians eminent domain is not freedom” is seen by drivers along U.S. 31. The market is the subject of demolition for an INDOT project later this year. (Cate Charron / Inside INdiana Business)
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Cars are parked outside Wilson Farm Market in Arcadia. (Cate Charron / Inside INdiana Business)
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A fridge sits just inside the Wilson Farm Market entrance. It was the base of what has become a beloved local market. (Cate Charron / Inside INdiana Business)
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The intersection of U.S. 31 and 256th Street will soon be no more as INDOT plans construction to fast-track traffic from Indianapolis to South Bend. (Cate Charron / Inside INdiana Business)
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The offerings of Wilson Farm Market are locally sourced from all over the state with everything from morels to fried chicken and candy. (Cate Charron / Inside INdiana Business)
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The Wilson Farm Market has similar offering to a grocery store, but its nearly entirely locally sourced. (Cate Charron / Inside INdiana Business)
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The owners of Wilson Farm Market has made various attempts to explain why an intersection should be placed closer and their concerns with the project. (Cate Charron / Inside INdiana Business)
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The Wilson Farm Market off U.S. 31 is heavily trafficked and has been a local staple for three generations. (Cate Charron / Inside INdiana Business)
Peters mentions a customer, Vernon Thompson, whose house has sat vacant since the state bought it earlier this year. He described how Thompson and his wife put so much work into the house when they lived there. It’s not right to see the disrepair it’s fallen into, he said, but assumes it’ll just be bulldozed eventually.
Thompson, 84, said he’s happy about the price the state bought his house for but not much else. He hates driving past his old place, so he tries to avoid it.
He and his wife had lived at the property right on US 31 for 32 years until the state closed the sale earlier this year. They had planned to live out their lives in that house. However, with the state’s offer being $75,000 more than what he’d list it for and the cost of paying movers, he has no complaints. He said he didn’t have much of a choice, though, and feels the project isn’t necessary.
“It’s a shame, but they call it progress,” he said. “It wasn’t necessary, but they did it anyway.”
Safety concerns now and in the future
If Peters hears tire squeals and a crash outside in his office, he said he just picks up the phone and dials 911. He doesn’t need to look. He said he understands the project is meant to make the road safer, but the opposite is happening in the meantime.
Peters, the Wilsons and other community members have expressed concerns online and in public meetings about how the project is causing more accidents in the interim but also that it could delay emergency response times when roads are dead-ended and traffic is funneled.
INDOT said it has worked with local authorities throughout the project, including Jackson Township Fire, Cicero Fire, Sheridan Fire Department, Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office, Hamilton County Emergency Management and the Indiana State Police.
Through these relationships, INDOT said they have worked to reduce any impacts on response times, and their feedback was used when choosing overpass locations and cul-de-sac structures. The median will also place turnabouts.
Jackson Township Fire and the Hamilton County Highway Department did not respond to requests for comment from Inside INdiana Business.
Derek Arrowood, superintendent of the Hamilton Heights School Corp., said the school district has no concerns regarding slowed emergency response times as a result of the 31 construction.
He stresses his district’s neutrality on the topic. The partnership with INDOT and local officials has been tremendous, Arrowood said, and they’ve met multiple times to share updates.
“State Route 31 up here is so much more dangerous in the short term while they’re doing the work,” he said. “But that work going to take several years to complete.”
He points to eliminated stoplights causing major problems with traffic flow and local vehicles getting on and off local roads. He said he’s seen cars wait for 10 to 15 minutes to turn right, cars taking their chances hanging in the median to turn left and the trailers leaving his business put in dangerous positions.
The pileup of wrecks makes him more worried about emergency response times. He said the extra miles caused by the elimination of some local intersections are going to cost precious time. He recounts accidents he’s seen and 13 minutes felt like two hours after he called for an ambulance.
The Wilsons said they believe a that large portion of the county will be underserved when it comes to EMS response.
Surviving the move
Compounded with inflation and interest rates, the business owners said they are worried about the cost of moving, maintaining their customer base and where they will end up. Like most places, land in the county is on the up, with Hamilton County being especially pricey. With empty plots instead of businesses, they are worried customers may assume they closed instead of moved.
“An unfortunate possibility is we don’t reopen,” Wilson said “And that is terrible, absolutely atrocious, not something I want to happen, but certainly in the realm of possibilities.”
Without a number, Wilson said it’s hard to move forward. He doesn’t know if the state payout will be a sum they can retire on or one month’s rent at the new place. He does know he can build this business up again somewhere else to be successful, but keeping afloat during the move is the caveat.
“It’s the reality of surviving because, obviously, a new business is not going to start off making money,” he said. “And if the compensation here is so little, then you have no safety net.”
Their plans change from day to day on what they think will be best for their family and the business. He and his wife don’t know if they will move into town or find another plot of land. The most likely scenario, they said, is rebuilding across 31 since Wilson’s dad owns the land.
Indiana Golf Car owner Joel Peters says the move will be tough and he still doesn’t understand why it’s needed.
It’s going to be a major inconvenience, Peters said. Elderly people aren’t as savvy with GPS and their phones, so their dollars and patronage are lost in the shuffle. He’s worried they won’t find a location as well-placed as they are now. Even then, wherever he ends up, he said that rent will likely put a dent in their bottom line. He’s not sure he’ll be able to afford both land and the cost to build on it.
He anticipates it will take months to relocate. At any time, about 200 to 250 carts are at their location.
“That’s a lot of golf carts to move just to stay in business somewhere,” he said.
Wilsons’ customers recognize the owners and keep asking them what will happen next. Their customers are their community, they said, and it’s a sense of community that isn’t seen much anymore. It’s something they, their employees and their customers don’t want to lose.
“It’s a little bit like times of old. You really feel a sense of responsibility to your community, to your fellow man,” he said. “We are kind of out here on our own.”
Wilson Farm Market sponsors baseball and football teams and the Fourth of July fireworks show. They feed public responders for free and run fundraisers. Wilson said some of his employees are so close they might as well change their last name to Wilson, noting they let one employee stay with them for six months till she got on her feet. Another employee, they said they will figure out how to care for her when she gets older instead of letting her go into a nursing home. When an accident happens on the road outside, he said they don’t just call the police; they are out on the road helping out those involved until EMS arrives.
A Change.org petition started by Wilson to keep the intersection at 256th Street open has nearly 1,500 signatures. A few hundred people have expressed their appreciation and desire for Wilson’s to stay in business online.
Wilson’s goal is to raise enough hell so this won’t happen again to someone else. He said he won’t bend his morals for a payout and wants to be an example of change.
“If I help any other family businesses after me raising cane, then I felt like I’ve succeeded,” he said. “I cannot sacrifice what is right. I just can’t do it.”