The Winfield Town Council has called legislation drafted by State Senator Rick Niemeyer, R-Lowell, a “perversion of the entire concept of home rule.”
Winfield officials, in a news release posted Monday on the town’s Facebook page, are challenging the proposed bill and asking residents to contact Niemeyer’s office to voice their concerns in regard to Senate Bill 274.
“The Winfield Town Council expresses serious concerns about efforts by Niemeyer to strip 400 acres of land out of Winfield so that a local developer can advance a plan to add 4,000 homes to the Winfield area without having to adhere to local planning guidance, rules, ordinances, and the normal process for controlled, responsible Development,” the release said. “Senate Bill 274, legislation drafted by Senator Niemeyer but not yet proposed, is intended to strip 400 acres of land from Winfield via deannexation to bypass our processes and avoid the usual steps of public hearings, public comment, and negotiation with the town of Winfield, which is charged to protect the interests of its residents.
“The developer, LBL Development, LLC, owns or controls approximately 400 acres in the southwest portion of Winfield and another 800-plus acres adjacent to Winfield, in unincorporated Lake County, and is looking to build approximately 4,000 homes in that area of Winfield.”
According to the specifics of Senate Bill 274, the law applies only to a town incorporated after 1990 and located in a county having a population of more than 400,000 and less than 700,000, of which Winfield is the only town in the state that fits the description.
Winfield Town Councilman David Anderson, R-at-large, said that a bill similar to Senate Bill 274 was introduced in the spring of 2025 by State Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso.
“The town of Winfield got it killed. Now, a year later, here we are again, this time with Rick Niemeyer,” Anderson said.
Anderson, who serves on the Winfield Plan Commission, said LBL Development in September of last year submitted to the town a request to have its 400 acres in the southwest portion of the town — roughly south of 121st Avenue and west of Gibson Street and southwest of the new Taft Middle School — rezoned into a Planned Development or PD.
After making the initial application, the developer’s representatives, including Chris Salatas and Steve Kil, met with town staff in a Technical Advisory Committee meeting, where a petitioner may receive initial feedback from a number of stakeholders, according to the Winfield town release. John Lotton, the developer of LBL, was not at the TAC meeting.
The petitioners received numerous items of feedback from the TAC about standards, expectations and practical considerations associated with the proposal, according to Winfield officials. According to town officials, a plan commission hearing was offered to the petitioners but representatives of the developer declined as they wanted to revise their submission and provide conceptual drawings.
On Jan. 8, Niemeyer’s draft of SB274 appeared online with language that would allow LBL Development to de-annex the parcel it owns even though LBL has not yet attended a public hearing or submitted conceptual plans. Winfield officials said it appears that Niemeyer proposed this legislation as a lifeline to a developer who is unwilling or unable to adhere to Winfield’s community standards, as well as the planning and zoning process in Winfield.
“We think this proposed bill is a perversion of the entire concept of “Home Rule” promulgated by the Indiana Legislature which provides that local municipalities, being closest and best connected with constituents, should be left to control the development and standards in their own communities, not Indianapolis,” Winfield officials stated.
“Not only does this proposed bill strip Winfield of its ability to effectively represent its residents in their efforts to control the development in their community, it also sets a dangerous precedent whereby any developer, anywhere in Indiana, can feel justified in going to Indianapolis to cut out local planning commissions, zoning boards, and local officials when they don’t like a community’s standards instead of working collaboratively,” the letter stated.
“We think it’s important our residents have a voice in what happens in their backyard and we implore the residents of Winfield, Winfield Township, and neighboring communities to contact Sen. Niemeyer to voice your concerns about this legislation and the consequences of massive development such as this occurring without appropriate local oversight and management,” Winfield officials said.
Neither Niemeyer nor Salatas, who is the director of Public Affairs for Lotton Development, returned requests for comment.
Five months ago, Niemeyer wasn’t quite so charitable to the developer as he was ready to meet Lotton in court over a different annexation: the unincorporated parcel in Hanover Township.
Niemeyer told the St. John Town Council at a packed September 10 public hearing that he wrote a law in 2014 allowing the Town of Lowell to annex a non-contiguous parcel — House Bill 1099 and cosponsored with Lonnie Randolph, D-East Chicago — because Lowell owned and operated an existing well field and wastewater treatment plant on which they wanted to make some updates. Last summer, St. John was attempting to annex 167 acres of land with a planned-use development on it at 12863 State Line Road after the town built a water treatment facility on it; once the facility was up and running, Lotton Development would build a 982-unit subdivision on the land.
In the Lowell case from 2014, the land wasn’t contiguous to the town border, so Niemeyer said he created the statute so the town “wouldn’t have to run to county all the time.”
“I want the people to know, and the council to know, that I was very adamant in making sure that nothing could be done off of these parcels because it was a big deal to let these municipalities do it, and I didn’t want to open up the state of Indiana where (bad actors) go out and grab a piece of property somewhere and think they have the zoning on that piece of property once they get that into their jurisdiction under a well field. It just can’t happen, the way I read it.”
If St. John decided to go through with it, Niemeyer said he wouldn’t let the action go unanswered.
“I don’t typically get involved in other towns’ business, but I worked with (Legislative Services Attorneys) to put (HB 1099) together. We’ll have to let the lawyers work it out,” Niemeyer told the Post-Tribune.
St. John in October voted to terminate the annexation plan.
Deborah Laverty and Michelle L. Quinn are freelance reporters for the Post-Tribune.