EDWARDSBURG — It's what everyone is talking about in this small village: A small sign along a busy road that says a casino is coming. That simple message has people worried about the future of their community.

Carol Vanraalte has tended the gardens at her Edwardsburg home for 15 years. She likes the small town character and was concerned when she saw the sign.

"I was very unhappy because you're talking about a lot more traffic and you’re talking about different kinds of people that don't live in the area and don't really have a connection to the area," she said.

She's not alone. People have been pulling off U.S. 12 to look at the sign and the crews hauling in dirt to fill the area.

But despite all the activity, Village President Jim Robinson says there's no reason for people to be concerned a casino will soon be in their community.

"They look for big acreage where they can get a lot of people in there and I don’t think it's big enough for a casino," said Robinson.

Developer Troy Treat admits the sign is a joke, designed to generate conversation about what is really going in on the land.

"We've got some retail, we've got a gas station coming in. We've got an over-55 (year-old) 'green' (apartment) complex," Treat said.

He has developed preliminary drawings for the apartments and hopes to take them to the Village Plan Commission in the next month.

"I need to look at the land and absorb what the next level will be. Once I can get that established, then I’ll know how the layout will be, how the configuration of the buildings will be," he said.

Despite concerns crews are filling in a wetland area, the state Department of Environmental Quality says the developer is doing nothing wrong. Treat is allowed to fill in about a third of the property. The state says the rest is protected.

The state did issue a violation because workers filled in a portion of the wetland they were not supposed to, but the state said Monday Treat has corrected the problem and they'll be out in the next few days to make sure the area is in compliance.