The Ellettsville Plan Commission rejected a petition from Quality Realty & Development to build apartments bordering the Litten Estates subdivision at its July 7 meeting. All members of the commission were present, except for Don Calvert.
Since first coming before the commission in April, and after a neighborhood meeting with Litten Estates residents, Ellettsville Planning Director Kevin Tollotty noted the developers had made the following changes: The total number of units was reduced from 72 to 68, an on-site management and maintenance office was added, an emergency vehicle access using an existing driveway connected to State Road 46 was established, pine trees and other buffering were added to the property’s perimeter, and several small green spaces were added inside the property.
“We tried to address the addressable items that were given to us at the last meeting,” said engineer Phil Tapp. “There were some comments that we just can’t address.”
The 68 units consist of 41 two-bedroom units and 27 one-bedroom units, well below the plan initially approved for the location in 2004, according to Tapp.
“We had a mixed-use project down here,” he said. “We had 49 single-family lots, 31 duplexes and 54 three-bedroom apartments. Total of 134 units. That’s 53 bedrooms less than what we anticipated out there when we first did this.”
In response to concerns about traffic presented to the developers in April, traffic was observed for four days between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. and again between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. Tapp said it “correlated quite well to the Institute of Transportation Engineers numbers.”
Commission President Terry Baker asked if traffic counts included people going through the housing addition.
Tapp said they were focused on vehicles entering and exiting Raymond Run.
“That’s probably why there’s not heavier traffic out there,” Baker said. “I think, probably, a lot of people go through the editions because they do not want to go out on (State Road) 46.”
Commission member Brian Mobley added that traffic counts would not be representative right now because school is not in session.
Other concerns voiced by commission members included children’s safety, accessibility for the disabled, light pollution from vehicle headlights affecting nearby homes, and the area’s compatibility with the adjacent Litten Estates subdivision, as well as the Town of Ellettsville’s comprehensive plan. But Bill Beggs, the developer’s attorney, said those things should not matter to the commission.
“There’s nothing in the rules that says children can’t live in Ellettsville,” he told commission members. “There’s nothing in there that says rent amounts or rent levels are the plan commission’s province in terms of what your code says.”
Beggs referred to the staff recommendation, which was for approval of the development plan because it met the minimum standards required by the town.
“Just because something complies with the rules, that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea,” said Litten Estates resident Amanda Henry.
Many of the concerns Litten Estates residents brought to the April commission meeting were repeated. Most said they were not against commercial development in the area but did not want apartments with this density near their homes. They worried about the effects it would have on the value of their properties, and they questioned if the apartments were truly compatible with the neighborhood, as did commission member David Drake.
He motioned that the commission deny the plan, citing an incompatibility between the density of the apartments and the surrounding single-family residential homes, as well as issues with the area’s topography and the proposed development due to its elevation compared to the land around it. The motion passed unanimously.
Town Attorney Darla Brown said the next step for the commission was to write a formal findings of fact supporting the decision.
A request for a waiver from Development Group Network for its 78-lot Centennial Park subdivision was continued to the next plan commission meeting when company representatives decided to explore other options.
The waiver would have allowed the company to begin developing the land north of Centennial Drive before it met the town’s requirement for at least two entry and exit points for emergency vehicles.
“When (this development) was approved, there was one off Ribbon Lane to the west and off of Centennial Drive to the south,” Tollotty said. “Since the preliminary was approved, there has been some litigation and the access they thought they had off of Centennial Drive is currently not valid.”
With Ribbon Lane as the only entrance and exit, traffic from the Centennial Park subdivision would empty out through the Woodgate subdivision.
Wendy Poppy, president of the Woodgate Homeowners Association, expressed a number of concerns on behalf of that neighborhood. Traffic was chief among them.
“Especially with Arlington Road being closed and also Acuff Road access to Highway 37 to the north being shut off, we have had a significant increase in traffic,” she told the commission.
In addition, she said, Woodgate’s roads were maintained by the county and would suffer from construction vehicles and trash trucks traveling into the new subdivision as it is developed. There was also concern regarding a shared drainage area that could lead to water control issues. Several other residents echoed her concerns.
In the end, the petitioners decided to explore other options available to them that would not require a waiver.
Elsewhere in the meeting, the plan commission unanimously approved a development plan for the Franklin Storage Facility at the 6800 block of N. Starnes Road.
The facility would include 150 10-foot-by-20-foot units, 56 10-foot-by-15-foot units, and 38 10-foot-by-10-foot units for 244 units in total.
The next meeting of the Ellettsville Plan Commission is scheduled for Aug. 4 at 6 p.m. in the Ellettsville Fire Department conference and training room at 5080 W. State Road 46.
Originally published in Ellettsville Journal, 2016. Republished here for archival and portfolio purposes.