By KEVIN NEVERS
The Chesterton
Advisory Plan Commission agreed to continue to next month its public hearing
on a proposed planned unit development (PUD) which has occasioned strongly
worded concerns among residents of the Westchester South subdivision and
Richter Street.
But two planners
made it clear at their meeting Thursday night that they too are troubled by
some aspects of the PUD as it’s been presented.
Planners voted
unanimously to continue the public hearing at the request of John Nekus’
attorney, Greg Babcock, who told the commission that Nekus has reached out
to the residents of Primrose Circle whose rear yards would back onto the PUD.
When asked whether those discussions have prompted Nekus to make changes to
the PUD, Babcock said that they have. “Some removal of units. Less dense.”
Babcock also said
that Nekus is working to reconfigure lots on the west edge of the PUD to
make the rear yards larger and thereby increase the buffer between the PUD
and Westchester South. “There will be the tree plantings that were already
there but there will also be more back yard,” he said.
Those changes are
not yet reflected in the drawings, however, so Babcock requested the
continuance. All new documents must be submitted to the Plan Commission by
Feb. 4, in advance of the next meeting, 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 21.
Meanwhile, planner
Jim Kowalski came into Thursday’s meeting
loaded for bear--with six pages of notes on the PUD--and made no bones about
his disappointment in the delay. “I’m telling you to
be prepared next month,” he told Babcock. “These people have taken off work
to be here. So I’m telling you, be prepared next month.”
Planner Sharon
Darnell, for her part, expressed her dissatisfaction with the placement of
the PUD’s secondary access/egress point: on Richter Street, immediately east
of the intersection with South Second Street. “You’re dumping all the
traffic onto Richter in a neighborhood,” she said. “I want that to go on the
record.”
Planner Jeff Trout,
on the other hand, read into the record a portion of a letter submitted to
the commission by Jim Jeselnick, who remonstrated at length against the PUD
at the public hearing on Dec. 20. Jeselnick has since had second thoughts,
after meeting “privately” with Nekus, and
now believes that his previous concerns--about density, drainage, and the
number of variances--were without merit. “In summary,
I should have made more of an attempt to discuss this project with Mr. Nekus
and other town officials before taking them to task,” Jeselnick concluded
his letter. “I feel that this is exactly the type of project that would go
well in the open space that has been vacant for a long time.”
Springdale PUD
In other business,
planners voted unanimously to continue to their next meeting a public
hearing on the primary plat for the Springdale PUD, located south of 1050N
immediately west of the Abercrombie Woods subdivision.
That PUD would
consist of 48 R-1 units located to the east--that is, bordering the west
edge of Abercrombie Woods--23 R-2 units located in the center of the
development, and then 8.41 acres of commercial on the far west side.
One person
remonstrated against the primary plat, Patrick Sobados, who lives on the
west end of Abercrombie Woods with a view of the farm field which would
become Springdale. “That field floods like crazy,” Sobados told planners.
“That’s my main concern. The drainage on the property. I’ve run through
three sump pumps in my home in 18 months.”
Double Hotel
Project
Planners also voted
unanimously to continue to their next meeting consideration of secondary
plat for the double hotel project at Coffee Creek Center, located
immediately north of the Culver’s restaurant.
The two hotels--a
Fairfield Inn & Suites and Holiday Inn Express--are being developed by
Amerilodge Group of Bloomfield Hills, Mich. The Fairfield will feature 87
rooms in three stories; the Holiday Inn, 90 rooms in four stories.
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