BMV announces closing of the West Lafayette branch

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Joe B. Hoage announced on Tuesday the agency will be moving forward with its plan to close down the West Lafayette Branch.

The last day of operation for the West Lafayette branch is set for Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022.

“I am thankful to everyone who attended the public hearing and engaged in conversation regarding this proposal. The decision to close the branch was not an easy one to make,” said Commissioner Hoage. “The West Lafayette branch has experienced a significant decline in transactions while the use of kiosks and myBMV by area residents has grown.”

On Oct. 28, Hoage and his team held a public hearing with residents of West Lafayette regarding the BMV’s proposed plan. At that meeting, Hoage explained that the BMV had conducted a five-year branch transaction analysis of the West Lafayette branch and had noticed that within those five years, the west side branch had seen a continuous drop in service, around a 21% decrease.

They found that in 2018, the West Lafayette branch had conducted around 84,000 transactions, but every subsequent year saw a significant drop in service.

In 2019, the branch’s transactions decreased to 74,000; the BMV did not count 2020 due to the pandemic’s disruption; in 2021 transactions dropped to 60,000; and currently, the West Lafayette branch has conducted around 51,000 transactions. If the decrease in service were to continue at that rate, the BMV expects this year’s numbers will be lower than previous years.

“That’s a big drop in our eyes,” Hoage said at the meeting. “That has gone down about 8 percent year over year.”

At this meeting, Hoage talked about potentially closing the West Lafayette Branch and replacing it with a kiosk. That hypothetical plan seems to be a reality now.

“The BMV will work closely with West Lafayette city officials to evaluate options to install a BMV Connect kiosk in the community. The kiosk offers more than a dozen of the most common transactions including registrations and driver’s license renewals,” reads the press release.

One major point of discussion that emerged at the meeting was how the closure of the BMV would negatively affect Purdue students looking to use the facility’s services, near the West Lafayette campus.

Many at the meeting highlighted how difficult it might be for students to get to the Lafayette branch via public transit and other means. People also highlighted the convoluted steps that many international students had to overcome to receive services at the Lafayette branch.

Hoage and his team addressed some of the concerns members of the community brought up during the meeting in the press release.

“In addition, the agency will work with Purdue University to ensure students are informed of required documentation and processes to complete their transactions,” reads the press release.

“The Lafayette branch is less than five miles from the West Lafayette branch and houses a BMV Connect kiosk. The agency expects to move its Lafayette branch later this year. The new location will offer additional customer service and testing stations, as well as kiosks. More information about this new location will be shared in the weeks ahead.”

At the October meeting, Hoage and his team also announced that the BMV was planning on creating a new “BMV connect center," which will offer Tippecanoe County Hoosiers a larger location and the option to visit the BMV branch any time of the day to complete routine transactions.

Local leaders tried to convince the BMV to keep the West Lafayette location open. Many argued that with the industries that are to come to the area, that would be an increase in population and in turn, a greater need for the West Lafayette branch.

At this month’s West Lafayette city council meeting, all nine members of the board sponsored a resolution, which called for maintaining the West Lafayette BMV.

Official documentation attributes West Lafayette's continuously growing population, especially with members that include international Purdue students and the elderly who may especially need the services of their local BMV.

"The city’s population features a large percentage of both retirees and foreign students who could benefit from in-person contact with the state bureaucracy," the resolution states. "...The state is now considering closing the local branch of the Bureau of Motor Vehicles (and) public sentiment in West Lafayette is uniformly opposed to this closure."

On Tuesday, West Lafayette City Council member Peter Bunder broke the news on Twitter, sharing a screenshot of the press release and adding, “Got to love our state government. Open to suggestions as to where they can stick their kiosk….”

Noe Padilla is a reporter for the Journal & Courier. Email him at Npadilla@jconline.com and follow him on Twitter at 1NoePadilla.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: BMV announces closing of the West Lafayette branch