In the eyes of many at a rezoning hearing late last month, the developers from locally based Mann Properties were bad guys.
They wanted to build homes and a retail center
on 71 mostly wooded acres north of Crown Hill Cemetery. So when the Metropolitan Development Commission denied Mann’s request,
the crowd erupted in applause.
Debate over a developer’s plan to buy 71 acres of woods and wetlands on Crown Hill Cemetery’s northern edge for a retail-and-residential
project will come to a head this week when the Metropolitan Development Commission votes on the proposal.
World War II could have been fought seven times over since Ralph Reed and sons first tried to build Mallard Lake Landfill
outside of Anderson. The Reeds’ dream of big cash from trash has
upset hundreds of residents in subdivision-dotted fields since the family asked Madison County to rezone their 254-acre farm
in the 1970s.
Now that Mann Properties LLC has won the bidding war for 70 acres of land on the northern end of Crown Hill Cemetery, the rezoning debate begins.
