The McCordsville Plan Commission gave the Arbor Homes PUD, which is proposed to be annexed into the town, a favorable recommendation at its Oct. 15 meeting.
The proposed PUD would be the rezoning necessary as part of the town bringing the area into its borders after the town council held its first reading on the annexation ordinance at October's council meeting. With the recommendation process complete, both the PUD and the annexation will appear for potential final passage at next month's town council meeting.
As proposed, the PUD, located at county roads 500 North and 700 West, would contain a maximum of 326 homes spread over 120 acres and would include over 30 acres of open land including 7 acres of woodland, several playgrounds, a trail system, ponds with fountains and a pool. There will be two types of homes, one that is Arbor's usual product and another that is a more accessible ranch-style home, within the development. The homes themselves received approval from the town's Architectural Review Committee earlier this year.
Several nearby residents appeared at the meeting to speak about issues they had with the proposed development, around half of them returning from a week earlier when they appeared to speak against the annexation ordinance.
The residents' concerns included the density of the development, the conditions of the roads and traffic surrounding the development, especially CR 700 West, utilities in the area, corner lot sizes, sidewalks connecting to the rest of the town, and concerns about noise increasing from the nearby Indianapolis Regional Airport due to language in the PUD warning future homebuyers about the potential noise.
Density, traffic and roads were all concerns returning from the annexation hearing a week prior/ McCordsville Director of Planning and Building Ryan Crum confirmed that the underlying zoning of the PUD required the density to be lower than other surrounding developments, while Town Engineer Mark Witsman said that the town was looking at speed limits in that area, but noted that the speed limit would be a town council issue, not a plan commission issue. Dominic Dreyer, speaking on behalf of Arbor Homes, said that they were committed to making road improvements at the entrances to the neighborhood along the two county roads to alleviate traffic at those entrances.
Drainage, another complaint that was repeated across multiple remonstrators, was technically a county, not a town, issue since the area falls under the county's utility and drainage jurisdiction, but Arbor Homes Vice President Sean Downey said that the company has been in contact with the surrounding utilities.
Concerning corner lot sizes, Arbor Homes committed to making all northwest corner lots the max width of 65'.
Witsman and Crum noted on the airport issue that the Indianapolis Regional Airport was adopting a new master plan. The plan has options for future expansion which could ultimately increase the amount of noise produced by the airport. The town council has also received complaints in recent months about homebuyers not realizing that there would be noise issues in other developments. Crum, however, noted that doing anything more than the proposed PUD to notify homebuyers of noise concerns would need direction from the town council to ensure consistency.
Crum, alongside multiple members of the commission, also expressed concern with the trail through the wooded area being mulched rather than paved, noting that it would require constant, albeit less expensive, maintenance. Ultimately, the plan commission gave a favorable recommendation with "encouragement" for the town council to decrease area speed limits and provide guidance on noise issues and asked town staff to work with Arbor to change the PUD to leave the option open for an asphalt trail if one was viable to construct within the woods.
The PUD will appear before the town council in November for final approval.