WL council finalizes Levee Plaza development project

All is set to go for developer Landmark Properties' planned seven-story, 12,000-square-foot apartment complex at the corner of Brown Street and River Road.

The West Lafayette City Council unanimously passed an ordinance on Monday to vacate portions of Brown Street, allowing construction to begin this year.

Nearby Howard Avenue will be completely relocated, while Brown Street will only partially close, according to the ordinance.

The development will include two seven-story buildings with over 500 apartments and a public park.

Condemning H.B. 1383

The council also unanimously passed a resolution condemning the proposed Indiana House Bill 1383, which council members Iris O’Donnell Bellisario and Kathy Parker argue would put Indiana’s natural environment at risk.

H.B. 1383 would reduce wetlands from “Class III” status to “Class II” status, which according to the resolution would remove a permit requirement for developers to build in the state’s wetland areas.

The resolution focuses on the environmental impacts that the destruction of wetlands will have, most notably the naturally occurring storm infrastructure that wetlands provide.

“H.B. 1383 threatens Indiana’s most valuable wetlands and the ecosystem services they provide Hoosier taxpayers,” it reads.

Proposed PRF annexation

Jeremy Slater, vice president of capital projects and facilities for Purdue Research Foundation, presented a request for the voluntary annexation of land into West Lafayette.

In the proposal, PRF’s Purdue Research Park, near Airport Road, would be annexed into the city. The research foundation is already the owner of the land that would be annexed.

“Roughly 90%, plus or minus, of Purdue Research Park are within West Lafayette limits,” Slater said.

Slater said the purpose of the annexation is for organization, citing issues that have come from the fact that its land is under two jurisdictions.