Hearing examiner recommends rezoning for Mann Road service station; Decatur Township leaders back project

The hearing examiner recommended approval on June 12, 2025 of petition 2025ZON052 to rezone 0.825 acres at 4446 Mann Road (Decatur Township) from C3 to C4 to permit an automobile fueling station and convenience store, subject to a suite of neighborhood commitments and traffic improvements.

Attorney David Gilman represented Dave and Sons Properties 2 and described a development with four pump islands and a 2,960-square-foot convenience store. Gilman said the owners had completed a traffic analysis that did not require widening Mann Road for level-of-service reasons but recommended dedicated left- and right-turn lanes at the site entrance; the petitioner committed to constructing a 12-foot left-turn lane and a 12-foot right-turn lane capable of stacking five cars, and pledged a multi-use trail along Mann Road frontage and a robust landscape plan coordinated with the neighborhood.

Patty Andrews, chair of the Decatur Township Civic Council land-use committee, said the civic council met three times with the petitioner and voted unanimously (17–0) to support the petition, noting the site has been vacant and that coordinated improvements could spur reinvestment in the commercial node. Councillor Joshua Veil provided a letter of support and the petitioner supplied additional neighborhood support letters.

Remonstrators raised safety, trash and foot-traffic concerns. Marcus Holloway, a nearby resident, said he feared the proposal would increase pedestrian and nighttime activity and add trash to the immediate area; Dilpreet Singh, a nearby convenience-store owner, referenced earlier local refusals for gas-station rezonings and expressed safety and nuisance concerns.

Staff noted a mixed history of C4 proposals on Mann Road and said prior approvals had not always resulted in implemented landscaping commitments; staff also suggested adjustment of the proposed entrance curb and asked that the petition's site-plan commitment be phrased to allow reasonable administrative changes without necessitating a formal commitment modification. The hearing examiner asked staff and petitioner to clarify that point and accepted an administrators-approval phrasing.

Weighing neighborhood support, traffic improvements paid by the petitioner, the added trail and enhanced landscaping, and after addressing the language of the site-plan commitment, the examiner recommended approval and placed the rezoning on the MDC docket for July 2, 2025. Final action will be taken by the Metropolitan Development Commission.