Tension comes as commissioners vote against rezoning for rodeos, concerts

LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Tensions were high at this month’s Tippecanoe County Commissioners' meeting.

Commissioners unanimously voted against the rezoning of a 25.3 acres parcel of land, owner Benito Muñoz planned on using it as a venue to host rodeos and concerts this summer.

The meeting room was filled with people, attendees seemingly split on the idea of rezoning Muñoz’s property, located at the northeast corner of CR 1300 S and CR 400 E in Lauramie Township.

Muñoz filed a request with the commissioners in hopes of rezoning his property from an AA-Select Agricultural Zone to an A-Agricultural Zone, which would allow him to apply for an exception to host events on his property.

Last summer, Muñoz hosted several rodeos and concerts on his property, which under an AA-zoning was not permitted. Muñoz was under the assumption that this was permitted on the property as the previous owners were known to host horse shows and rodeos on the property, he said.

After these events, many of the neighbors near the property would complain to the county regarding the volume of the music which would play late into the night on a Sunday night as well as the ill-suited situations regarding parking and roads.

These issues were mentioned during last month’s Area Plan Commission meeting.

“I’ll note here, and I think that this is kind of an important thing, is that this request is strictly for the rezoning. Mr. Muñoz operates a rodeo and concert event center on his property, and if this rezoning is approved, that will pave the way for him to apply for a special exception to allow specifically for that particular use on his property,” said David Hittle, the executive director of the Area Plan Commission.

Hittle also mentioned that although the APC staff recommended approval of the zoning change, the APC board members were inconclusive on the decision.

“Again, at this point, we’re completely agnostic to the idea of the rodeo concert center. We’ll review that and make our recommendation if it’s filed to the BZA (Board of Zoning Appeals) at that time. But with regards to this rezoning, it’s relatively simple. It does meet the comprehensive plan, this area is actually probably better suited for A than AA, because historically it’s been used as a horse farm. It has not been in crop production for at least half a century. ”

Although the decision regarding the zoning was meant to be separate from the exception that Muñoz would file if approved, the discourse of the meeting was fixated on the eventual use of the property.

Muñoz and his supporters were first to speak on the issues and preemptively spoke about issues relating to the exception request, knowing that it would be the focus of the opposition's discourse.

“I’m here to do something good for Lafayette and bring another business to Lafayette,” said Muñoz.

“I believe we trying to change from double-A to one A, we’re trying to have cultural events here in Lafayette. I’m not just talking about Hispanic cultural events. I’m talking about bringing everybody, not just Mexicans and Americans. I want to bring all the cultural events to Lafayette.”

For this summer’s event, Muñoz had already invested $100,000 in the preproduction of the event. Muñoz noted how he was willing to compromise with his neighbors and alter the event dates to fall on a Saturday rather than a Sunday, as well as ending the concerts at 10 p.m. to fall in line with the noise ordinance in the area.

Muñoz also asked for the exception just for this year, until he’s able to move his rodeo/concert business to Frankfort, where he’s currently negotiating a deal for a venue starting next year.

The request fell on deaf ears.

Diana Garcia, one of Muñoz’s neighbors, wanted to address some comments that she heard at last month’s APC meeting, which she referred to as “Karen comments.”

“A person stood up here and said, without even attending the events, that there were a lot of bad people at these events,” said Garcia.

“That it was going to be traumatizing to my neighborhood, the street that I live on because some people of color were listening to Spanish music, dancing, eating tacos, and riding horses half a mile from where we live.”

Several of Muñoz’s other neighbors spoke in opposition.

Another neighbor, Jim Luttrell, highlighted several concerns in regard to the quiet nature of the area.

“I live across the road from this property, just a little bit to the north. I built my house out there a little over thirty years ago because I wanted to live in an area that had peace and quiet. Away from traffic and these people are trying to change all that,” said Luttrell.

Luttrell highlighted how several traffic-related issues emerged at these events last summer, as well as how many of the roads of Indiana 28 were gravel roads and not suited for the traffic that came to the event.

Ted Springer, another neighbor, echoed Luttrell's desire to keep the area a quiet neighborhood.

“I’ve lived there for about 20 years and we’ve co-existed with the Foxton farms and we’ve never ever heard any music from Foxton farms until last year. That community is a small, quiet, peaceful place to live. That’s why we moved there. We welcomed Mr. Muñoz as a neighbor but not as a producer of concerts,” said Springer.

“Your ideas are good, you’re just in the wrong place.”

Finally, Matt Bowers spoke about his mixed feeling regarding the rezoning.

“I actually support his goals and ambitions to bring concerts to the area,” said Bowers. “We only have one disagreement and that is the concerts.”

Bowers wanted to reassure Muñoz and his supporters that his concern about the noise was purely about the noise and not racially motivated.

“I have two biracial sons and I adopted a child at two days old from foster care. I am not racist. I have no issues,” he said.

“I grew up a big Van Halen fan. And if they could raise Eddie Van Halen from the dead and bring him out for a concert, it wouldn’t matter. I don’t want Van Halen in my backyard.”

When it was time to vote on the matter, although the APC recommended the approval of the zoning change, the commissioners ultimately decided to vote against the change as a way to nip the issue before it went to the BZA for an appeal.

The commissioners noted that their reasoning for their vote against the rezoning was largely due to the inadequate roads and infrastructure out in the county to host such events.

They also noted that many of the residents purposely moved away from the noise associated with the city.

Lastly, they noted that this wasn’t their first-time dealing with issues caused by Muñoz’s event and that this was the second site where issues arose.

“Quite honestly it was a little frustrating that now we’re at a second site, and I wish he had taken time to ask questions prior to purchasing a second site and it wouldn’t have gotten that far,” said Tom Murtaugh.

After the meeting, many of Muñoz's supporters left and shared their frustration regarding the situation with one another.

“When he applied for it (the rezoning), it had staff approval and they said it. This is not even for the rodeos yet, because he has to go to a special. This was just a rezoning. This had nothing to do with everything else and they couldn’t even do that,” said Diana Garcia.

“To me, they had no reason to deny the rezoning part of it. I mean they’re denying him the right to do anything else with his property. And that’s not what this was about.”

Murtaugh wanted to reassure the Muñoz family and their supporters that ethnicity did not have an influence on the commission's dismissal of the rezoning effort.

“In this day and age, that topic comes up in a lot of things we face,” he said.

“I want to assure the Muñoz family and their supporters that in this particular case it had nothing to do with that. It was previous complaints in regard to the events and these events he’s had at this particular location. Believe me. On Monday after the event, we knew it happened.”

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: Commissioners vote against the rezoning for rodeos, concerts