Winfield Opposes Bill to Circumvent Local Planning and Help Developer

January 12, 2026

For Immediate Release

Re: Senate Bill 274 – Sen. Niemeyer Proposes Deannexation of Land to Benefit Developer.

The Winfield Town Council expresses serious concerns about efforts by Senator Rick Niemeyer (R-06) 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.

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+ adjacent to Winfield, in unincorporated Lake County, and is looking to build approximately 4,000 homes in that area of Winfield. 

In September of 2025, LBL Development made a submittal to the Town to have its 400 acres re-zoned into a Planned Development (“PD”). After making the initial application, the developer met with Town staff in a Technical Advisory Committee (“TAC”) meeting, which is a meeting where a petitioner may receive initial feedback from a number of stakeholders including the Town staff, Lake County government agencies, Winfield Police Department, NIPSCO, and others on their thoughts, comments, or concerns about the proposed project. The petitioner received numerous items of feedback from the TAC about standards, expectations, and practical considerations associated with the proposal.

After a TAC meeting, a petitioner would normally take the feedback received and then be offered a hearing in front of the Winfield Planning Commission where the petitioner would be asked to provide conceptual plans to outline roughly what the developer is hoping to build and begin the process of obtaining more specific feedback on their project from the Planning Commission. In this case, the hearing was offered after the TAC meeting but declined by the developer as they wanted to re-work their submittal and provide conceptual drawings for the Planning Commission to review.

On January 8, 2026, Sen. Niemeyer’s draft of SB274 appeared online proposing language that will deannex the land owned by LBL Development, despite the fact that the petitioner has not yet attended a public hearing or otherwise demonstrated its intent to continue to move its application through Winfield’s process with Town Staff by submitting conceptual plans. In other words, Sen. Niemeyer proposed this legislation as a lifeline to a developer who appears unwilling or unable to adhere to Winfield’s community standards, as well as the developmental standards and 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. In this case, we have received an application and offered feedback to the developer through the normal process, but instead of continuing dialogue with us and approval through the standard processes our residents expect, the developer sought to circumvent the process entirely by legislation, undermining the point of planned development, local boards, and community-based planning.

Not only does this proposed bill strip Winfield of it’s 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.

Winfield is a fast-growing community and is no stranger to development, but its residents have standards and the Town Council is directed with guiding and enforcing those standards so that when development inevitably happens, it happens in a way that is welcoming and consistent with the wishes of our residents, not hostile and merely consistent with the desires of a particular developer.

We think it’s important our residents have a voice in what happens in their back yard 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. Please reach out to him at (317)-232-9489 or s6 [at] iga.in.gov (s6[at]iga[dot]in[dot]gov).

Winfield Town Council