Several Greenwood homeowners are asking the city to reject two separate proposals that would bring more than 250 new homes to the city’s west side.
Indianapolis-based Arbor Homes wants to annex about 100 acres of farmland to build two separate subdivisions at Honey Creek Road and County Road 125 West. But area homeowners and residents say it won’t fit the aesthetic of the area along the Pleasant Township and White River Township line.
The developer’s plans call for 185 retirement homes on one 60-acre property along County Road 125 West, just south of the Timber Valley subdivision and Pleasant Crossing Elementary; and 77 single-family homes on the other 39-acre property at 3481 S. Honey Creek Road, less than a mile north of Tracy Road, according to city documents. Both subdivisions would be part of Pleasant Township in the Clark-Pleasant school district.
The Greenwood Advisory Plan Commission on Monday held a public hearing on the proposed annexations. Several area homeowners and residents attended the virtual meeting to rally against the developer’s plans. They met in a single location together to watch the meeting, and five people in the room were chosen to speak on behalf of the rest of the residents.
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After almost an hour of public comments, the nine-member board voted to send unfavorable recommendations for both projects to the Greenwood City Council, which will ultimately decide the fate of the projects. The commission voted 8-1 against the single-family subdivision, and voted unanimously against the retirement homes.
Two of the top arguments included Greenwood’s need for more high-end executive housing, and more homes means more traffic on Honey Creek Road.
Rick Campbell, an area homeowner, said Greenwood does not need to saturate the area with more single-family homes in concentrated neighborhoods—neighborhoods with three or four homes per acre. The city should save the land for high-end developments, and not necessarily just single-family developments, he said.
"There are a lot of people who would like to live here, and they don’t just look at the school systems. The impact it will have in this area, I believe, will be negative," Campbell said. "Develop property in our area that people want to live in."
Many homeowners who attended the meeting shared Campbell’s sentiments, adding that they worried the proposed subdivision would not fit with the surrounding area’s aesthetic. Nearby neighborhoods—Timber Valley and Cobblestone—include large, high-end homes with full brick exteriors, and there are several large homes outside the subdivisions near Honey Creek that sit on at least an acre or more of land.
Linda Sargent, another area homeowner, was concerned the new homes would have mostly vinyl siding, which would not fit in with other homes in the area, she said. She spoke on behalf of the room full of homeowners who attended the meeting.
Sargent told commissioners Greenwood is in a position to build homes on that land that could be marketed to company executives, especially with Cummins planning to build a 100,000-square-foot information technology and digital hub in the city.
"They are going to need proper housing; they are going to need executive housing … not more vinyl homes," Sargent said.
Eric Prime, an attorney representing Arbor Homes, said there may be a need for more high-end homes in Greenwood, but because these properties are in the Clark-Pleasant school district, it may be difficult to sell those higher-priced homes. The price of homes in Clark-Pleasant schools averages about $225,000, and the proposed Arbor Homes would likely sell for around $360,000, he said.
Arbor Homes, such as those in the Cherry Tree Walk subdivision, range in price from $213,990 to $248,990, much lower than the suggested $360,000 price point.
"We did the research and said that area would not support (high-priced homes)," Prime said. "Even us going in at $360,000 is considered a risk."
Nearby residents were also concerned new homes would increase traffic on an already congested road. Most roads in the surrounding area are narrow, two-lane country roads.
"It’s a two-lane country road, if we add, at a minimum, 500 to 600 more cars, this road cannot handle this traffic," Sargent said.
This isn’t the first time area homeowners and residents have rallied against a proposed annexation of the same properties. In 2018, Lennar Homes, a Miami, Florida-based developer, wanted to build as many as 222 single-family homes ranging from $290,000 to $375,000 on the same 100 acres of land between Honey Creek Road and County Road 125 West.
That annexation was shot down by the city council after residents argued against the proposed subdivision for similar reasons, including home price, lot size, drainage and increased traffic on narrow, two-lane roads.
The Greenwood City Council will consider these two new annexations at one of its upcoming meetings in July.
