Carmel City Council Set to Hear Beazer PUD on Nov. 20

As you may have heard, on October 17, a mere majority of the Carmel Plan Commission Members voted to send the Beazer PUD rezoning application with a favorable recommendation to the City Council for consideration. While disappointing, this was not unexpected and it was promising that several Plan Commission Members were opposed to the Beazer PUD application. Plan Commissioner Alan Potasnik voted against the Beazer application and remarked to the Commission that he has never seen such an outpouring of opposition to a rezoning request, and while Carmel may need empty nester housing, the proposed location is not the right place for such a development. Commissioner Potasnik’s comments and the accompanying “NO” vote of other Commissioners showed that our efforts are being heard. The Beazer PUD application is scheduled to go before the Carmel City Council for a public hearing on November 20, 2017 at 6PM at the Public Meeting Room at the School Administration Building, 5201 E. Main St. We need to keep up the momentum in voicing our concerns with the Beazer PUD and ask our City Council members to REJECT the current plan. Here is what we need to do: 1. Continue to promote this petition for new signatures – we have 1,300 signatures, and we need more. The petitioners are voters whose opinions matter to our elected City Council. 2. Contact our City Council and communicate to them your concerns about the Beazer PUD (these public servants spend time and energy serving our community and we ask that comments to the City Council be respectful; inflammatory or derogatory remarks are disregarded): a. Sue Finkam (Northeast District) (sfinkam@carmel.in.gov) b. Kevin “Woody” Rider (At-Large) (krider@carmel.in.gov ) c. Anthony (Tony) Green (Southwest District) (agreen@carmel.in.gov) d. Bruce Kimball (Central District) (bkimball@carmel.in.gov) e. Jeff Worrell (Southeast District) (jworrell@carmel.in.gov) f. Laura Campbell (Northwest District) (lcampbell@carmel.in.gov) g. Ron Carter (At-Large) (rcarter@carmel.in.gov) 3. Attend the City Council meeting on Nov. 20. A small group of residents leading opposition to the Beazer PUD development met with Mayor Brainard on October 26 to discuss our concerns. Mayor Brainard was gracious with his time and after listening to the group and seeing Beazer’s proposal, he expressed to the group genuine concerns over the type of product planned for the space under the PUD. Mayor Brainard encouraged the group to do similar individual meetings with the City Council members. We subsequently met with all 7 City Council members, who were also generous with their time and provided insightful feedback. These meetings have been positive and encouraging and we feel like the community in opposition to the Beazer PUD development is finally being heard, after we were restricted from active participation in the Plan Commission process. The subject that seems to resonate the most with our public representatives involves concern over the use of duplexes, as well as the monotony and overall design, look and feel of the proposed development. We heard similar worries during the Plan Commission process; one Commissioner compared the back of some of the homes to looking like “pole barns.” A key take away from the meetings with the City Council is that PUDs appear to be the wave of the future for city planning because it allows the City Council to control the type and quality of dwellings that are planned for a location. Thus, if this PUD request moves forward, we must insist that our City Council incorporate into the PUD that only single family, detached housing can be built on this land – NO duplexes. And, ideally we would like to see upgraded designs, reflective of the unique custom homes currently in the surrounding neighborhoods. In order for Beazer to make this space financially viable, it needs to squeeze 150+ housing units onto 59 acres (of which only about 60% of the land is actually capable of being developed due to utility easements, retention pond, topography, etc.). This higher density project has produced plans of a cookie-cutter-type development with duplexes, limited home designs and insufficient space for amenities that empty nesters look for in an age restricted community. We believe the proposed Beazer PUD development will mark a permanent and detrimental change to the surrounding communities and have a negative impact on home values. Thank you for your continued support and we’ll see you on November 20.