LAPEL — For this small Madison County town, adding land soon could become competitive.

Stuck against the Madison-Hamilton county line, Lapel only has room to grow to the north, east and south, with towns like Pendleton and Ingalls quickly filling in the unincorporated gaps to the south and east.

Add to that the prospect of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Airport relocating just to Lapel’s southeast under the Anderson flag, and the buffer zone around the town quickly is becoming crowded.

In the latest step in the turf wars, on July 10, the Lapel Town Council approved the annexation of two tracts of land adjacent to the city, one along Ind. 32 to the west of Lapel High School and another on the southeast edge of the town along County Road 300 South just east of Ind. 13.

The properties officially will be annexed after a 30-day period allowing for remonstrances from the public.

Although money is tight in the slowed economy, Lapel officials plan to use some of the annexed land to develop in the future.

“There’s no new development right now, but the town is poised to grow, and that is every intention of the Town Council,” Lapel Clerk-Treasurer Tom Tudor said.

Owners of an 82-acre tract on Ind. 32 expect to sell the land to developers, who plan a strip mall, said Dennis Molina, president of the town’s Planning Commission. There has been interest in putting in a hardware store and possibly a bank and liquor store, he said.

“They don’t have anyone actually committed on paper yet, but they have some people interested,” Molina said. “They’re close enough that they think they’ll be able to break ground by Thanksgiving. They feel like they are far enough along that they will sign.”

The other tract of land, co-owned by Phillip Boone and Glenn Boone Farms Inc., could be used for upscale housing if sold to developers, said Town Council President Gary Shuck. Boone said he didn’t have plans to sell it.

Another reason for the annexation of Boone’s property is to help stop Anderson’s stake in the area if an airport were relocated there. If the airport were placed southeast of Lapel, it would be considered part of the city of Anderson, even though it isn’t contiguous to city limits, Tudor said. From there, Anderson could start annexing properties touching the airport, making them unavailable for small towns in the area.

“It’s just an ever-expanding concentric circle,” he said.

Although both the recent annexations in Lapel were voluntary — the property owners asked to be incorporated into the town — Boone said he was approached by town officials first in their hopes of stopping the airport and Anderson’s stake in the area.

“They seemed to think it was going to help with everything,” Boone said. “They thought if they annexed more property in Lapel, it would help stop the airport from coming because we don’t want the airport.”

The annexation would not cause Boone to pay town property taxes for 10 years, adding no additional cost to him for being part of the town.