Nearly 500 new homes will be built in Greenwood after the city gave developers the green light to start construction on two separate subdivisions.
The Greenwood Advisory Plan Commission last week unanimously approved two separate primary plat applications for residential neighborhoods on the west and southeast sides of the city.
One subdivision will include 239 single-family homes, zoned as residential medium, on land at the corner of Honey Creek and Smokey Row roads, behind Kroger on State Road 135. Dubbed Lone Pine Farms, the neighborhood proposal was originally approved by the commission in August, but needed to be amended to include fewer homes due to drainage issues, according to city documents.
The subdivision, by Texas-based D.R. Horton, will span about 45 acres, with roughly two-and-a-half houses per acre. Home prices have not been determined, but the minimum lot size will be about 7,000 square feet.
Several nearby residents with homes along Smokey Row Road attended the plan commission meeting March 8, voicing concerns about the traffic a new neighborhood would bring.
Mindy Wheeler lives in a home on Smokey Row, and said traffic already backs up at the Honey Creek intersection. She said she witnesses cars drive off the road frequently. She also said the road is not fit for more traffic because it is a two-lane county road with no shoulders or streetlights, and there are 10-inch drop-offs in some areas.
"I have lived in my home for just over two years and have witnessed more than 10 vehicles that have left the road and ended up in yards," Wheeler said.
Plans include adding right-of-way and turn lanes at entrances on Smokey Row Road, but the developer has no plans for future road improvements, according to city documents.
Cherie Wolfe, another nearby resident, wrote a letter to the plan commission and attended the meeting because she was concerned about how close her home on Smokey Row Road is to one of the planned entrances.
She said she was concerned about constant traffic driving by her house, and that her driveway would be difficult to pull out of because it will line up with the neighborhood entrance.
"I will be face to face with the people coming in and out of the subdivision," Wolfe said. "It is, I think, a bad situation. There is no reason that entrance can’t be put in between homes, instead of facing somebody’s home."
City engineer Daniel Johnston said aligning new roads with driveways across the street is a best practice for safety reasons.
That way, when two drivers are trying to turn left — one from the residential driveway and one from the subdivision entrance — the alignment of the two roads can be treated as a two-way intersection, allowing for drivers to yield and help prevent accidents, Johnston said.
Also, the plan commission approved a nearly 250-home subdivision on land at the northwest corner of Worthsville and Griffith roads.
Fishers-based Premier Land Company plans to build Grand Vista, which will include 175 single-family houses and 83 attached two-family duplexes on 152 acres.
The single-family houses will be zoned by the city as residential medium, which requires a minimum lot size of 7,700 square feet, according to city documents. The duplexes will have a minimum lot size of 5,400 square feet. Home prices have not been determined for those yet either.
The developer requested approval to rezone the land for this subdivision in December, and presented plans to the commission and Greenwood City Council then as well. For the rezone approval, the city council required the developer to amend its plans to prohibit the use of vinyl siding on the houses and duplexes.
