Zoning in Howard County, Indiana: Kokomo's Farmland Annexation for Industrial Growth

The trigger: StarPlus Energy's EV-battery buildout needs supplier land

StarPlus Energy, the joint venture between Stellantis and Samsung SDI building lithium-ion battery plants in Kokomo, has committed well over $5 billion combined across two facilities -- reporting describes a second plant with an additional $3.2 billion investment and thousands of new jobs, with the first facility's production underway and the second targeted for construction around 2028. That scale of investment has created real pressure for nearby industrial-zoned land to house the EV-supplier companies that typically cluster around a battery plant of this size, and the City of Kokomo responded by looking outward, into unincorporated Howard County farmland, for space.

The annexation: roughly 746 to 750 acres, voluntary, in early 2026

On February 23, 2026, following a public hearing, the Kokomo Common Council approved a resolution and fiscal plan to annex nearly 750 acres of Howard County farmland. The council held a first reading on March 9, 2026 of an ordinance to rezone the land for High Intensity Industrial/Heavy Manufacturing use, and later that March approved both the annexation and rezoning ordinances together, with one council member casting a dissenting vote. All of the affected landowners requested the annexation voluntarily, including the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, which owns more than 220 acres of the site, alongside a private developer purchasing more than 400 additional acres and Samsung SDI itself.

Notably, no specific end-user or tenant has been publicly identified for the newly annexed and rezoned acreage -- the project has been presented publicly as future industrial-park space intended to attract EV suppliers rather than a single confirmed building or company. That ambiguity drew resident concern during the public process, with some questioning whether the High Intensity Industrial zoning designation could eventually accommodate a large data center rather than the automotive-supplier use being promoted.

What this means for a land buyer near the annexed area

If you own or are considering land adjacent to the newly annexed 746-acre tract, confirm current zoning status directly with the Kokomo-Howard County Plan Commission -- the parcel's own zoning didn't necessarily change, but its neighbor's did, and heavy manufacturing zoning next door can mean different traffic, noise, lighting, and buffer expectations than a comparable parcel elsewhere in the county's agricultural areas. Because no specific tenant has been publicly named, it's also worth asking the city directly whether any development plan, site plan, or building permit has since been filed for the site, since that will tell you far more about the actual likely use than the zoning designation alone.

For land elsewhere in Howard County, well away from Kokomo's growth edge, this annexation doesn't change anything about the county's ordinary residential or agricultural zoning process -- it's a targeted, employer-driven industrial expansion rather than a countywide policy shift.