Photo provided
The zoning designations for the proposed Spring Hill Lake subdivision.
City officials have agreed to revise a subdivision plat on the west side in the Tipton Lakes area to add 10 building lots to a previously-approved, yet undeveloped site.
Columbus Plan Commission members unanimously approved the major subdivision preliminary plat revision for Spring Hill Lake, located at the northwest corner of the intersection of Tipton Lakes Boulevard and Goeller Boulevard.
During public comment, community members and neighbors who spoke expressed opposition to the revision, saying they were concerned with the impact of the development on wildlife nearby and noise pollution because of construction.
The revision means there will be a total of 149 lots in Spring Hill Lake. More specifically, the extra lots are for an undeveloped portion of the subdivision on the west side of Tipton Lakes Boulevard at its intersection with Alcorn Drive. The initial plat had 20 lots on that portion, and the approved request increases it to 30.
The original preliminary plat for Spring Hill Lakes was approved in 2007 by the plan commission, with 139 lots and a common area for a pond. Final plat approvals were completed over three sections between 2012 and 2014, but the subject property that was the focus of the plat revision hasn’t been developed.
The applicant, Beacon Builders, said they sought to add the 10 lots in part because of cost considerations. Bill Evans, land development manager for Beacon, told plan commission members that “there’s a little bit of difference in pricing and those types of things to make this work” since the subject portion was allotted 20 lots more than 10 years ago. Evans said that the additional lots will lower lot prices.
Home prices in Spring Hill Lake range from $380,000 to $600,000, with most closing between $415,000 and $430,000, Evans said.
“We want to maintain about the same lot prices and the same home costs that we’re currently at in that neighborhood,” he told the plan commission.
Beacon has been building in Columbus since 2010, recently in Windstar Woods and Horizon West, according to Evans.
The subject site is surrounded on all four sides by single-family residential and zoned Residential: Single-Family 2 (RS2). Planning staff in their report said the proposed lots meet all the minimum lot width and area requirements of the RS2 district.
Beacon Builders representatives said the average lot size for the 30 lots will be 11,945 square-feet. The existing portion of Spring Hill Lakes to the west of the pond in the subdivision has an average lot size of 15,246 square feet.
Andres Nieto, an associate planner for the city, listed off average lot sizes of surrounding developments: Heron Cove at 10,019 square feet, Oakbrook subdivision at 13,306 square feet, and the Westbrook neighborhood at an average lot size of 14,375 square feet.
There was a previous request in 2018 to rezone the subject property to Residential: Two-Family (RT) and the nearby common area for the pond to Residential: Single-Family 3 (RS3). That was given a favorable recommendation by the plan commission in July 2018 but denied by city council members the next month.
A proposed revision to the plat associated with the rezoning was continued by the plan commission in August 2018 and later withdrawn when the rezoning failed. That revision would have doubled the number of lots on the undeveloped portion from 20 to 40 and was intended to accommodate duplexes for residents aged 55 and older, according to city documents.
The developer still would need to get the final plat approved by planning staff, but Evans said they plan to start building homes on the site during the summer of next year. Beacon representatives said they expect the homes to go fast because of the new Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. elementary school being built nearby.
The motion to approve also came with a number of asks on behalf of planning staff to revise various minor details on plat sheets.
