Photo provided A map of the proposed rezoning for a development in German Township involving commercial and residential projects.
A proposed combination development that would include multi-family apartments and commercial space could be coming to German Township.
The Bartholomew County Plan Commission on Wednesday began considering rezoning the property where the proposed development would be, but opted to continue the matter until May 14 so the applicant can commission a traffic study and iron-out more details about the development and how drivers will enter and exit the site.
The applicant, Tulsidas “Tony” Narsinghani, is seeking to rezone 31.59 acres on the south side of Tannehill Road and County Road 650N in order to turn most of the the southern two-thirds of the property into a multi-family residential development and the northern third for a commercial development. The property is about 400 feet west of U.S. 31.
The application encompasses three specific requests to rezone 8.5 acres on the northern portion of the site from Agriculture: General (AG) to Commercial: Regional (CR), 22.5 acres on the southern portion from AG to Residential: Multi-Family (RM) and a sliver of .59 acres on the southeast portion from RM to CR.
All final decisions on rezoning are made by the Bartholomew County commissioners.
Manish Narsinghani, who identified himself as the applicant’s son, was joined in the council chambers at Columbus City Hall by Joe Heck with Projects Plus, doing engineering and surveying consulting for the project, and Jeff Colvin, president of Colvin Builders, who gave commissioners a brief overview of what is planned at this point, although details were limited.
“The exact details of the type of apartments or type of commercial is not known at this point in time,” Colvin said. “What we’re proposing is market-rate apartments. (There) would not be subsidized apartments in this area. And the type of quality of the building would be of moderate to high quality of materials to build these apartments from. No vinyl siding or anything like that— it would probably be wood or brick siding.”
On the commercial end, Colvin mentioned the Narsinghani’s have been involved in developing “general retail-type strip centers,” particularly along 25th Street in Columbus.
“We’ve recently built for them two strip centers— one’s currently under construction, one we finished a couple of years ago— so something similar to that would seem to fit into this area,” according to Colvin.
The Narsinghanis own Tony’s Plaza, located near the intersection of 25th and California streets, and the property one block to the east at 1024 25th St., which used to be the site of A&W Root Beer and later Becker’s Drive-In.
Planning staff during the meeting said that, if and when the southern portion is rezoned, it could encompass a capacity of more than 500 units if developed at the maximum of 25 units per acre.
North of the project site are commercially zoned properties including Waffle House and Circle K.
Larae Apartments are to the east, single-family residential to the west and Heritage Height mobile home park spans the entire southern boundary.
The comprehensive plan identifies the area as a development district because of its availability to public sewer and water and easy access to high capacity roads. The Northern Gateway Plan, a component of the county’s comprehensive plan, recommends the area as commercial along Tannehill Road and residential due to its proximity to existing adjacent residential areas.
Planning staff in their report outlined a couple of “critical issues” for the area, one of which is the need for buffer yards because of the surrounding residential areas.
Another issue, mentioned by several commission members, is access to Tannehill Road because properties to the north and south “are candidates for future development,” according to the staff report.
“Regardless of the future uses for these properties, the access to U.S. 31 will be limited to either the Bear Lane intersection or to Tannehill Road,” the planning staff report reads. “Access will need to meet current separation requirements, however a coordinated effort should be made to provide a common intersection for properties on the north and south sides of Tannehill Road.”
“I will say that housing in that area is going to be needed, and needed fast,” observed Tony London, Bartholomew County commissioner and member of the county plan commission. “As a matter of fact, I anticipated something like this. This is a little sooner than I anticipated it. But with all the commercial growth that’s already taking place, and soon to take place, housing is going to be much, much needed in that area.”
INDOT recommended a traffic impact study be conducted to ensure that the intersections of U.S. 31 and Larae Avenue, County Road 650N and a new internal street extending through the site and U.S. 31 and County Road 650N could handle traffic safely and efficiently.
Planning Director Jeff Bergman told commission members that the best time to specify certain road improvements is during the rezoning process.
