Two new subdivisions in Greenwood took a step toward construction this week.
The Greenwood Advisory Plan Commission on Monday approved the rezoning for one subdivision, and the primary plat of another, potentially adding nearly 250 homes to the city.
The first subdivision, built by Miami, Florida-based Lennar Homes, is located on almost 44 acres of farmland near the intersection of Pushville Road and Emerson Avenue on Greenwood’s far south side. The currently unnamed neighborhood would be bordered to the west by railroad tracks and to the south by the city of Whiteland. City documents indicate it would feature about 80 single-family homes and 69 townhomes, according to city documents.
The subdivision is located within the Clark-Pleasant school district.
The commission voted unanimously to send the rezone to the Greenwood City Council with a favorable recommendation, with conditions. The land is currently zoned industrial, so Lennar requested to rezone the approximately 26 acres of the site to residential medium for the single-family homes, and about 17 acres of the site to residential attached for the townhomes.
As part of the recommendation, the commission required the developer to commit to building no more than 80 single-family homes and no more than 79 townhomes. Lennar will also be required to build a large buffer yard between the subdivision and the railroad tracks, along with building a trail near the railroad tracks for Greenwood’s park department, city documents said.
A traffic study will also be required to show how the development will affect nearby intersections — Pushville Road and U.S. 31, Pushville and Emerson Avenue, and Emerson and Worthsville Road — along with two planned entrances along Pushville and Emerson, according to city documents.
The price of the single-family homes would range from $300,000 to about $400,000. The townhomes would cost somewhere between the upper $200,000 to lower $300,000 range, said Brian Tuohy, an attorney representing Lennar.
The subdivision would have both one- and two-story homes, with the average lot size being around 9,500 square feet. The townhomes would be two stories, with an attached garage, and would be around 1,800 square feet, he said.
The lots would comply with city’s development standards, said Brian Tuohy, an attorney representing Lennar.
If approved, the subdivision would be located directly west of Elmwood Estates, another Lennar subdivision that is currently under construction. The Elmwood subdivision faced opposition from local residents when it came before the plan commission in December 2020 for approval.
Most of the concerns brought up during the 2020 meeting were from nearby residents concerned about drainage and the existing wildlife at the site. The developer and the city agreed to look into residents’ concerns at the time.
The rezone now goes before the city council for consideration in November.
Also on Monday, the plan commission approved the primary plat for Ridgetop, a 97-home subdivision to be built by Indianapolis-based Arbor Homes. When it is completed, the subdivision would have 97 homes located on 32 acres on the west side of Combs Road, south of County Line Road and east of Interstate 65, and would be within the boundaries of Clark-Pleasant schools.
The subdivision has been in the works since 2019, when the city council gave Arbor Homes the OK to build 94 homes. Initially, the developer wanted to build 120 homes, but had to scale down the neighborhood in 2019, after the city council said the homes would be too close together.
Construction of the development was delayed after the approval of the original plans due to the coronavirus pandemic, and in August, Arbor told the plan commission they were ready to proceed with changes.
Arbor requested increasing the number of homes by 3, to 97, after they discovered under Greenwood’s current development ordinance, they could add three more homes while meeting the city’s development standards. They also requested to change some of the previously agreed upon commitments.
The plan commission voted in favor of the changes and the city council approved them earlier this year.
