Columbus City Council finalized the annexation and rezoning of about 107 acres on the city’s west side in a marathon three-hour meeting on Tuesday night.
A developer, Chase Point Capital LLC, is planning one portion of the site to have about 250 single-family homes, with most in the $300,000 to $400,000 range and a few as high as $600,000. On a smaller portion of the site, the developer is building some type of multi-family component, such as townhomes, roughly 131 of them. Chase Point has referred it as a cluster-type development, where homes are clustered but there is a significant amount of open space.
Council members looked to balance concerns on behalf of the neighbors already living in the rural area who came out to the meeting in numbers to express their opposition, with the reality that the city is in need of additional housing stock, outlined by 2024’s housing study that showed a need for 3,600 units by 2035, spread across all price points.
Those interested can watch the matter discussed on the city’s public video stream of the meeting, beginning at the 7-minute mark and lasting until about 2:47:00.
City officials have said repeatedly in the past year or so that there is a dwindling amount of space where housing can actually be built because of flood concerns, necessitating the annexation of areas outside the current city limits.
Chase Point asked to annex into the city and rezone land at the northeast corner of State Road 46 West and County Road 500W in Harrison Township. The annexation area is made up of five parcels Chase Point is under agreement to purchase from three private property owners.
Represented during the meeting by Jack and Tom Laskey, along with Indianapolis-attorney Tim Ochs, Chase Point asked to rezone about 98 acres from Agriculture: Preferred (AP) to Residential: Single-Family 4 (RS4) and just under 9 acres from AP to Residential: Multi-Family (RM).
Council members approved the ordinance on second reading establishing the annexation and rezoning 7-1 and 5-3 respectively. The first reading of both was approved on June 17.
Councilman Jerone Wood, D-District 3, voted against the annexation. He and councilmen Chris Bartels, R-District 1, and Jay Foyst, R-District 6, were the no votes on the rezoning.
Council members also had to consider a fiscal plan as part of the annexation, required by state law. It showed their would be no additional cost to provide municipal services to the area. However, the city’s department of public works indicated that while they are able to provide services on the outset of the development, they would require additional resources within their budget once residential units are constructed.
That was approved 8-0. Council Vice President Grace Kestler, D-at-large, abstained on all three matters because she said she has family with property near the subject site.
The annexation and rezoning area has frontage on Country Road 500W, State Road 46 and a future street right-of-way at Belmont Drive.
Topography on the site varies widely, with elevations ranging from 630 feet near Wolf Creek to more than 680 feet on the eastern and southern portions of the property. Significant portions of the site are also heavily wooded. The area has property that is within the floodway, 100-year floodway fringe and 500-year floodway fringe, according to city documents
Also of note is that BCSC’s new west side elementary school — Maple Grove — will be just about a half-mile south of the subject property.
During the plan commission’s May 14 meeting, favorable recommendations were forwarded to the city council by 11-0 and 9-2 votes respectively, with Commissioner Dennis Baute and Bartels, who is the city council liaison to the plan commission, voting against the latter.
The finalized annexation and rezoning comes with seven commitments — five that were added during the plan commission process, one tacked on during the first reading on June 17 and another added after conversation on Tuesday.
The commitments include that the RM area include a buffer made up of a mix of evergreen and shade trees and be developed at a maximum of 15 units per acre at no more than two stories. The RM portion allows for a density up to 25 units per acre, or a max of 218 units. Chase Point first agreed to a maximum of 20 units per acre, or 175 units, before settling on 15 units per acre after further deliberation.
In addition, no development can happen on the proposed RM portion until access is provided to 500W and Belmont Drive. It also included a commitment that improvements specified by City Engineer Andrew Beckort be done to the intersection of County Road 500W and State Road 46.
Regarding the RS4 portion, a commitment states that a maximum of 300 homes are allowed in the 97 acre site, where only 85 acres are developable. In theory, it could hold more than 500 units, according to the planning department, but Chase Point representatives said 250 homes would be more likely.
Also specified is that Chase Point update a 2022 traffic study of Belmont Drive that incorporates their development and the new BCSC elementary.
The update to the Belmont Drive traffic study is also to analyze if a traffic signal is needed at the road’s intersection at State Road 46. Ochs said they would be willing to put forth $26,280 to pay for an update to a traffic study on Belmont Drive. The traffic study could take anywhere between three months to a year, according to Ochs.
Beckort said during the plan commission meeting in May that, with the new school, Belmont Drive is likely to meet at least one of the considerations required by INDOT to receive warrants to put a stoplight in, but funding would be the question.
Eric Frey, the city’s executive director of administration, said last month that the city, BCSC and the developer have agreed to put up the money for the stoplight, which Beckort previously said would cost somewhere between $300,000 and $400,000.
“Cities either grow or they die. And if you all look at your own housing study, it suggests that housing is desperately needed,” Ochs said. “… This is something that happens when you grow. The questions is: do you grow in a thoughtful manner? And we think that that’s what this project does.”
During public comment, neighbors near the proposed development expressed concern about the impact on traffic in the area, particularly on 500W and State Road 46, which they said is already an issue, potential flooding, impact on wildlife in the area and their own property values.
Some wondered why the development had to be built near them and advocated for it to be elsewhere, to which council members said they have no say over given the property was purchased by the developer from their own neighbors. Others were displeased with a perceived encroachment of the city on the intrinsic value of rural life, along with the potential price points of homes included in the development.
Most of the 14 people who came up during public comment over 40 minutes spoke in opposition. Neighbors also gathered and submitted to the plan commission and city council nearly 150 signatures from neighbors within a half-mile radius symbolizing their resistance to the project.
After running through some specifics of what the traffic study would involve, Councilor Elaine Hilber, D-District 2, took a moment to address some of the heightened emotions on behalf of neighbors attending the meeting and unfounded accusations some made about the motivations of the council.
“I think for a lot of people here, this might be the first time that you’ve come to an annexation or rezoning request, but the council, we hear these pretty often,” Hilber said. “… We’re not benefiting from this— I just wanted to address that, because I’ve seen that a lot on social media. This is a landowner coming to council to request a change, right? And we also have neighbors, and we are trying to find a compromise between the two. We are the ones that are trying to help resolve the conflict here.”
Bartels wished for an additional commitment last meeting that restricted density on the RM portion, and proposed one Tuesday to restrict it at 8 units per acre, or a total of nearly 70 units.
“In that area, in my mind, I’m looking at county ag then becoming city RM, high-density, approximately 20 doors per acre,” Bartels said. “That’s a big swing in my eyes.”
As this happened, Chase Point representatives whispered amongst each other about what to do, with Ochs then describing the extent of such a restriction to the council as “problematic” before ultimately landing on the 15 units per acre as a compromise.
The motion to add the 8 unit per acre commitment on the RM portion failed 8-1, with Bartels the lone member voting in favor. Then Hilber made a motion to add the 15 unit per acre commitment, with additional tree screening specifications. That was approved 5-3, with Bartels, Wood and Foyst voting against.
Chase Point representatives said they plan to focus on the RS4 portion first, and flesh out details about the RM section later on. If everything progresses smoothly, the developer said they would break ground in 2026 and start bringing lots online in 2027, 2028 and 2029.
