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Council approves two Amcor PUD rezonings after lengthy neighborhood debate
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Summary
The council approved two Planned Unit Development rezoning ordinances (R2025-29 and R2025-30) allowing Amcor to consolidate and reconfigure existing parking lots; residents raised concerns about tree loss, heat-island effects, and whether existing lots were legally permitted; both ordinances passed 7'''''''''' 1.
The Evansville Common Council on Dec. 15 adopted two amended PUD rezonings for parcels used by Amcor (formerly Berry Global), approving Ordinances R2025-29 and R2025-30 after an extended public hearing and council discussion.
Cassie Virgen of the Area Plan Commission summarized staff findings, noting that the sites contain piecemeal parking installations dating back decades and that the applicant requested PUD zoning to consolidate multiple parking areas and permit specific development standards. APC recommended both rezonings (R2025-29 with a 5–1 APC vote and R2025-30 with 6 affirmative APC votes).
Project engineer Jim Morley Jr. described the proposals as parking-lot improvement programs: reconfigured circulation, off-street queuing and pickup zones, fencing with decorative columns, and additional landscaping. "Everything about the new product is better than the product that is legally there today," Morley said, and he noted the project would add interior landscape islands and dozens of perimeter trees (the two parcels together were described by APC staff as adding roughly 116 trees across both sites).
Neighborhood speakers pressed a different view: Jacobsville representatives and nearby residents questioned whether many existing paved areas ever had permits or were lawfully permitted, argued that consolidating lots reduces public-access parking and common open space, and warned of heat-island, stormwater and equity impacts in a low-income census tract. Ted O'Connell, a neighborhood representative, told council he could not find permits for many of the east-lot additions and urged closer scrutiny. Others urged consideration of parking garages or workforce housing instead of additional surface parking.
APC and applicant responses said the projects had been reviewed by site review and the city engineer and that Jacobsville Design Review had approved perimeter tree plantings; the applicant maintained the PUD process is more restrictive than a straight commercial rezoning because it fixes the allowable uses and design features on the record.
After deliberation, the council adopted R2025-29 and R2025-30 in separate roll-call votes, each passing 7–1. Councilors said the PUDs give the council and APC clearer contractualized design requirements (trees, islands and fences) that must be met before a certificate of occupancy is issued.
