HWC finds Danville industrial site largely buildable; pipelines and sewer will need coordination

Chris Ham, vice president of economic development for HWC Engineering, told the Danville Town Redevelopment Commission that a due‑diligence review of the airport‑area study site found "nothing here that definitively makes this area a development," and that most constraints can be mitigated through standard engineering and coordination.

Ham said water can be provided from two directions — Danville utilities from the west and a conservancy district line extending from the east, though the conservancy district’s jurisdiction ends near County Road 300 East. Gas lines and three‑phase electric exist on the site periphery and could be extended. The consulting team flagged the sanitary‑sewer system as the single most constraining utility that will require coordination with the town’s infrastructure plan.

On topography and natural resources, the consultants reported generally flat to rolling land with scattered, presumed wetlands that would need on‑the‑ground delineation for individual development parcels. They also noted a discrepancy between FEMA floodplain mapping and LIDAR‑based mapping from the county’s natural‑resources work; engineers will need to survey specific sites to determine regulated flood elevations.

Mapping and title searches identified two pipeline easements in the northwest study area. Ham said a Farm Bureau cooperative easement appeared in title records, while a pipeline running in the same corridor is shown on Buckeye’s website but was not confirmed in the title search; Buckeye easements in other parts of central Indiana can date to the 1930s. "Those easements create parcel areas where building footprints are obvious," Ham said, and narrowing corridor locations will be necessary before certain parcels are developed.

Ham also summarized preliminary market work, saying Central Indiana’s industrial leasing tightened after the 2022–23 speculative building wave and that current vacancy is low, supporting demand for build‑to‑suit and targeted industrial uses such as advanced and light manufacturing, logistics and agribusiness suppliers. He said a more detailed market report will be provided to the commission in the coming weeks.

Commissioners thanked HWC for assembling maps and cautioned that individual site issues — wetlands delineation, specific easement locations and any bridge or right‑of‑way complications — will still require parcel‑level engineering. The consultants recommended additional fieldwork and title work to narrow pipeline corridors and to confirm floodplain limits before recording final development footprints.