Greenwood residents who live east of Interstate 65 spoke out about two proposed residential projects during an Advisory Plan Commission meeting Monday.
Noah Crenshaw | Daily Journal
The Greenwood Advisory Plan Commission issued both favorable and unfavorable recommendations for two proposed residential projects during a nearly two-hour meeting on Monday.
For the first project, the commission voted 5-3, with member John Shell absent, to issue a favorable recommendation for Carmel-based Pulte Home Indiana’s proposal to build a 55-and-up age-restricted single-family home development on about 185.97 acres east of Five Points Road and a half-mile south of County Line Road. The planned unit development, or PUD, would be a Del Webb active adult community of up to 519 homes to be built over the course of five phases, city documents show.
Commission members Josh King and Trent Pohlar, along with city council member Ron Bates, voted against the favorable recommendation.
The second project is a 17-building market-rate apartment complex that Indianapolis-based Buckingham Companies is proposing to be built on 50 acres of land on the northwest corner of Main Street and Five Points Road. The complex would have 578 units to be built in two phases, with the first phase expected to be near completion in February 2026, said Eric Prime, an attorney representing the current land owner, Robison CRF LLC, and Buckingham Companies.
The plan commission gave the apartment proposal an unfavorable recommendation in a 6-2 vote. Michael Probst and city engineer Mark St. Johns voted against the unfavorable recommendation.
Both developments came before the commission as rezoning proposals. For the PUD, the land is currently zoned agricultural and would need to be rezoned as PUD. For the apartment complex, the land is currently zoned residential medium, or RM, and the developer is asking for it to be rezoned for multi-family housing, city documents show.
With both recommendations issued, both proposals will be before the city council for final action at their Sept. 7 meeting.
Senior homes get favorable vote
Residents who live in the area have concerns about the proposals, and several spoke out during public hearing portions of the meeting.
Gary Miller, who was representing the East of I-65 Property Owner’s Association, told the commission that his group believes the Pulte Home development fails to meet the city’s criteria for residential medium zoning. The homeowners are also concerned this development would set a low standard for future developments, Miller said.
“We understand that development is coming,” he said. “… So the question is what pattern do we want to set for future development? We do not think that this is the correct pattern because quite honestly, the lots are too small.”
John Peterson, another member of the association, told the commission he would like to see a higher-quality development that is a better fit with the surrounding area. He asked members of the audience to raise their hands if they opposed the proposal. More than 20 people in the audience raised their hands.
Greenwood resident John Hakes expressed concerns about drainage in the area. He fears it could get worse with more development. He’s already had to pay out of his own pocket due to fix drainage issues due to a ditch on farmland owned by his family, and if runoff from the development connects to that ditch, there will be more issues, he said.
David Compton, vice president of land acquisition for Pulte, later told the commission that the drainage ponds at the site will capture the development’s water and water from surrounding properties. Pulte also plans to drain the property through an easement to the north of the property, he said, which would not impact Hakes’ property.
Additionally, the city’s stormwater standards require developers to reduce the discharge rates below the current level for the property and prohibit a developer from discharging their property’s drainage onto someone else’s land, said Mark St. Johns, city engineer.
Apartments deemed unfavorable
Residents also spoke out against the Buckingham apartment complex proposal. The East of I-65 association opposes the proposal outright, expressing concern about traffic in the area. The development would have 1,000 parking spaces, which Miller infers could lead to 1,000 cars more being traveling on Main Street.
“If you’ve gone west on Main Street mid-afternoon, you know that another 1,000 cars are not needed. This is inappropriate,” Miller said.
Miller also said the city shouldn’t leapfrog from single-family homes to apartments and was concerned about the effect an apartment complex would have on property values.
Prime, who was representing the developer, told the commission that zoning was designed as a template and sometimes it needed to be changed. There is a need for this type of development in the city, he said.
“Greenwood has a very, very high demand for this type of rental unit for folks who can’t afford single-family homes, or maybe are in a living situation where they don’t want a single-family home,” Prime said.
Greenwood resident Dale Renck also expressed concerns about traffic in the area and the developer’s plans for a tree line on the property. Renck, who used to do construction and engineering work, said the developer should not remove the natural tree line, to help control drainage and for the aesthetic for the area, he said. Prime later said that the developer intends to maintain the tree line.
Mo Pinney, another Greenwood resident, was the only person to speak out in favor of the complex during the public hearing. Penny, a real estate broker and former director of the MIBOR Realtor association, said that Buckingham is a good company and the development would be a positive addition to the city.
“If apartments are going to come in, Buckingham would be a good choice to do it,” Pinney said.
He did have one concern though: the current infrastructure in the area. The city should address infrastructure in the area first before allowing apartments to be built, Penny said.
In terms of infrastructure, tax incremental financing, or TIF, dollars could help pay for infrastructure in the area. The area is expected to be added into one of the city’s tax incremental financing districts, Prime said.
Earlier on Monday, Prime said that the commission had completed a traffic study for the area, which recommended improvements to the site’s entrances and changes to the timing of the I-65 on-ramp and the Main Street and Graham Road traffic signals.
The city recommended the developer reconstruct both Five Points Road and Main Street near the development, including adding acceleration and deceleration lanes, along with a right turn lane and passing blister, St. Johns said.
Prime also addressed concerns regarding the effect the complex would have on public safety. Buckingham conducts stringent background checks, and the higher-rent rates will likely yield a low number of calls to the complex, Prime said.
“The higher rent rates have a direct correlation with how many police and fire runs, and certainly police runs,” he said.
