Plan Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to the July 21st, 2026 meeting of the Carmel Plan Commission. Will you please join us in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance? Thank you very much. Mr. Secretary, will you please call the roll?

Jess Lawhead? Present. Jonathan Blake? Adam Campagna? Present. Jeff Hill?

Present.

Christine Zicola?

Present.

Sue Westermeyer? Present. Debbie Buckler? Present. Mark Adair? Present. Teresa Ayers?

Present. Thank you very much. We have a quorum. Next up on our agenda is approval of our June regular meeting minutes. Do I have a motion to approve?

Move to approve.

And a second? Second. Thank you very much. All those in favor of approving the June planned commission meeting minutes, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, they are approved. Thank you very much. Next up, communications bills, expenditures, and legal counsel report. I'll turn it over to our legal counsel, Sergi.

Nothing to report.

Thank you very much. Next up is reports, announcements, and department concerns. So I'll turn it over to Alexia, our department staff.

Thank you. Just a quick update from the last committee meeting. The Stella House Books and Cafe rebuild was approved with conditions. The 27-town subdivision primary plot development plan and ADLS was also approved with conditions. And the Hunter's Glen wall change was tabled to the next committee meeting, which is August 4th. And then one other item that we have is there is a need for rules of suspension in order to hear item five, which is the Connor Prairie Innovation District Development Plan. They made most of their notice on time. The letters were mailed correctly and the sign was placed correctly, but the notice in the paper was, I believe, a week late. So they still met the state requirements, but the plan commission rules require 21 days, so it would require a suspension of the rules to hear it.

Thank you. We'll go ahead and do that now. Do I have a motion to suspend the rules so that we can hear the Coroner Prairie petition?

I would move to suspend the rules as noted. Second.

Thank you very much for the motion and the second. All those in favor of suspending the rules of procedure to hear the Coroner Prairie docket this evening, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Hearing none, all right, we will hear them. They are last on our agenda this evening on the public hearing dockets. This now brings us to the public hearing portion of our meeting, and this evening we have four dockets. So I see a lot of new faces tonight, so I'm going to go over the rules of our procedure. So how it will work for each of the petition, the petitioner will have up to 15 minutes. to present their petition. After that, I will open it up to comments, and you can speak in favor or in opposition to the petition. Generally speaking, it's a 20 minute time frame, but we will be somewhat flexible to ensure that all voices are heard. After that, the petitioner will have an opportunity to provide rebuttal. They have a five minute rebuttal. Upon conclusion of the petitioner's rebuttal, we will turn it over to the department staff for their comments. And upon conclusion of the department staff, the public hearing portion is closed, but then I will open it up to deliberations from the plan commission. So with that, I'm going to read into the record our first public hearing. This is docket number PZ-2026-00115, primary plat, secondary plat, Skorkin Minor Subdivision. The applicant seeks minor subdivision plat approval to split one 5.74 acre parcel. into two residential lots. This site is located at 2525 West 141st Street and is zoned S1 residential. It's filed by Derek Snyder with Crossroad Engineers on behalf of the owner. So I will turn it over to the petitioner.

Got it. Thank you. And there we go. All right. Appreciate it. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Greg Ilko, not Derek Snyder, with Crossroad Engineers representing Lori and Ken Skorkin for the petition before you, the Skorkin Miner Subdivision. The property is located approximately 1,000 feet west of the roundabout of 141st and Town Road. Total acreage is just under six acres, about 5.7. The purpose of the application is to simply divide this into two, create a Two single-family lots the existing conditions are such that The Skorkins home is is on the west side of the property now the new property line will be Bisecting the existing five point seven four acres and then that'll retain a or create rather a new lot for sale No public improvements No, really no no improvements are proposed at this time at such time as a the lot is sold the developer comes in with a house plan they'll coordinate as necessary through the proper channels to get those approvals. Just a little bit more detail showing the aerial of the plat. Working with staff, we do show the necessary drainage utility easements about the perimeter of the property. We did commit to 15-foot tree preservation. strip about the east side of the property as well uh you can see on the west lot lot one uh the squarkin's existing home uh address of that is 2525 west 101st 141st and then uh the actual or the final document pretty straightforward just cleaned up this is what will be uh sent out for uh... execution recording the signature page will be but this is just uh... the two lots uh... lot one being two and a half acres and lot two being uh... the same just over two and a half acres uh... pretty straightforward uh... appreciate staff's comments and working through them and the uh... the recommendation of approval and with that i'll be happy to answer any questions thank you very much uh... by a show of hands is anybody here uh... would like to speak in favor or in opposition to this petition

Please come up to the mic, please, and introduce yourself and just state generally where you live. Please go up to the mic and please address your comments to the commission.

And please, please introduce yourself.

And we'll give you, hold on one second, one second please. We'll go ahead and give you three minutes. And just so everybody knows how it works, we have lights up here. So it's green and then it'll turn yellow. And as a warning in that red, it's wrap up your comments. So please go ahead.

Yes, so I'm Olguta Abuse. I own the property with my husband right behind the lot, the one that has like a little, quadrilateral shape. So I'm not, I just wanted to have some clarifying questions. There is a big stormwater drainage in my property and it collects water from a lot of the common area towards the street and at this time it sort of works but it is kind of critical if the land next to us will not have such a stormwater drainage so I just want to know if we're going to share the stormwater drainage in that particular area. So I understood something about 15 feet utility. So that may mean the same thing. I just don't know the concept. So I just want a clarification. OK. Thank you very much.

Did we get your name?

Olgut Abuse. I own the property at 14,000 Twin Lakes Circle West. Thank you very much. Petitioner, would you like to respond?

Yeah, certainly. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of information for you just because there are no land improvements proposed at this time. So what I can confirm is that existing drainage patterns and everything will continue. And I'm trying to see. I didn't see where she pointed. Was she down just due south of Lot 2? Which lot were you?

The funky corner lot?

Over here? This one right here? Yeah. Okay.

So the water drains somehow at this point. And if there was a big hill coming in into it, that would probably not work.

I see what you're saying.

What type of development will it be? So ideally, we should have a shared drain.

And could you please return to your seats? Thank you. If you could please address the drainage issue.

Certainly. What I can speak to on that point is that, well, one, I don't know how it's going to be developed, but it will be a single family residential subdivision or single family residential home. The details of that, the drainage plan of that, will all be submitted, reviewed, and approved at such time as it's known. And just with my experience with staff and working with engineering and planning, I know that they're not going to allow a negative impact to be created to an adjacent property owner. So not much answer, but that's the best I have at this time.

Thank you very much. I will turn it over to staff for the department report.

Thank you. For the record, Alexia Lopez with the Department of Community Services. So the petitioner seeks to subdivide this 5.74 acre parcel into two lots. The property is zoned S1 residential. The subdivision does meet the standards of the UDO. The existing home will remain on the western lot, which has well and septic. And the new lot will connect to sewer at such time as it develops. Each lot will have its own driveway. There is a 15-foot tree preservation easement that will be plotted along the east side of the subdivision, and right-of-way along 141st Street will be dedicated with this subdivision as well. A 10-foot walk, I think, has been constructed already along 141st Street there recently, so that path will connect now between from the east to the west. And the Department of Community Services has no other comments and would recommend that the Planning Commission votes to suspend its rules of procedure and vote on this vote to approve this item this evening. Thank you.

Thank you very much. I'll open up to comments from my fellow plan commissioners. Any questions or comments? I see none. So this complies, doing the lot split, it complies with the S-1 residential zoning. And even in the department report, they said this is best fit for the comp plan. So I have absolutely no objections for this.

So if there's no other questions or comments. Oh, yes, Debbie.

We do. So I need a motion to suspend our rules and procedures to vote on this one. I so move.

I'll second. I'll second.

Thank you very much. All those in favor of suspending our rules and procedures to vote on this this evening, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none. All right. We have suspended our rules and procedures. Do I have a motion? I move to approve. Turn your mic on.

Thanks. I would move to approve as submitted this evening.

With the, I'd say with the addition of drainage plan approval at time of build, that that's addressed.

Okay. Okay.

Thanks for the friendly amendment.

Thank you. So I have a motion to second. All those in favor of approving with the one condition added about working on the engineering drainage at the time when the house is brought forward, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Very none. All right. Well, congratulations. You are approved. Thank you very much. Thank you. We're going to move on to the second docket. And this is docket. There's two dockets combined for this next petition. It's docket number PZ-2026-00116, DP Amendment, Leopard Mortuaries Expansion, and docket number PZ-2026-00116. 00117 ADLS amendment, Leopard Mortuaries expansion. The applicant seeks site plan and design approval for a building addition and site improvements. The site is located at 900 North Range Line Road. It is zone B3 business within the Range Line Road overlay. It's filed by Brian Tuohy of Tuohy, Bailey and Moore on behalf of Leopard Mortuary and Crematory. So I will turn it over to the petitioner.

Yeah, technology and me are probably not a great compatible relationship. Good evening. My name is Brian Tuohy, a member of the Planning Commission. I represent Leopard Mortuaries in this petition. Thank you for hearing our case this evening. Here with me tonight is Bill Mingus and John Leopard from Leopard Mortuary, also Sean Curran from Curran Architecture. and Cindy Blackford from our office, who was nice enough to connect me up to this system here that may or may not work with me using it. Let's see here. That's why we brought the paper.

I will re-plug it in.

I just did.

This is fantastic, members of the Planning Commission. So, again, to start over, Brian Toohey, and we are requesting site and design approval for about a 2,950-square-foot addition onto the long-existing Leopard Mortuary at 900 North Range Line Road. So this exhibit here before you shows the site. As I think I mentioned, it's been a mortuary, we think, since the mid-1950s. To the north of the site is the food truck lot, and then there's a self-storage place. To the west, that would be to the left of that yellow line, is the traditions on the Monarch condominiums. To the south is a utility substation, Across the street is the Carmel Street Department, so an area of mortuary and then some other mixed uses, including some residential utility and municipal establishments. This shows the approximate 2,950 square foot addition. It would be on the east side of the property, and I'll show you what that'll look like in a minute. In addition to this addition, there will also be rather extensive landscaping, including some retaining walls, some rock gardens, some rain gardens, some bench and seating areas, because this room is a multi-purpose room for calling, celebrations of life, meetings, family gatherings, et cetera. The existing mortuary is not just big enough to serve their clientele. That's the reason for this addition. So this is a photograph looking from the south, looking north. That's the existing south end of the site. That will change, but this parking lot and these trees in this parking lot will not change, and we'll confirm that and make that part of our hearing this evening. This shows what the top elevation is what I just showed you in a photograph. So that's the south elevation of the existing mortuary. The bottom elevation shows the addition of a portico sheer at the front door and also the 2,950 plus or minus square foot addition. That's to the right of that mortuary. lower rendering. This elevation is looking southwest so I'm standing there on a range line road looking at the east end of the building southwest towards that parking lot. This elevation or this photograph is looking northwest again that's the east side of the existing mortuary where the addition and the rain garden and that landscaped area is going to go on that or go into that'll be in that foreground of that photograph. So this depicts what the east side of the site looks like now. Those photographs I just showed you is the top rendering. And then the bottom rendering is the rendering depicting the portico sheer I mentioned that goes on the south side and the addition of the 2,950, almost 3,000 square feet on the east side of the site. So this is what it will look like. When it's completed, that's the addition onto the east side of the site. On the left of that photograph is the Port of Cashier. The entrance doesn't change, but this addition shows what it will look like when completed. And then that area in the foreground in front of that addition is the landscaped area. This shows some of the landscaping features, including the rain garden, a bench area, retaining wall, extensive landscaping and planning between the addition and the street line of Range Line Road. In summary, for the site's property record card, it looks like this building was built in the 1950s. If this body so approves this, it will allow for an expansion of a long-existing building with substantial new landscaping. It'll certainly improve the streetscape along North Rangeline Road there. This will be a substantial investment, somewhere between $1.5 million and $2 million, and it will modernize an aging building. The BZA, we needed four variances because of its location in an overlay zone in Carmel. The Rangeline overlay zone in the BZA granted all four of those variances. I think I've sent out about 50 notices. I've heard from one person When I described what they were doing, they said that sounded like a great idea. Other than that, I've not heard from anybody else. We greatly appreciate working with Alexia and her team and staff at the staff. They have, I think, three comments. One that we would agree that, confirm that we'll design an ADA-compliant sidewalk from the street sidewalk along Rangeland Road up to the building. We'll do that. We haven't quite figured out how to do that. There's a great elevation, but we'll work with the ADA-compliant person at Carmel and get that figured out. The second condition was to confirm that the trees in the staff report, it said southeast corner of the site, but I think it meant the southwest corner of the site, that they would stay in place, and we are. We're not touching those trees. And the Last condition was lighting. Ah, thank you very much. That we would not be adding lighting to the site, and the only lighting we would be adding would be under that portico shear, and we'll confirm that those lighting, whatever we add into there, will meet the Carmel lighting standards. So with that, we would try to answer any questions you might have, and thank you again for hearing our case this evening.

Thank you very much. By a show of hands, is there anybody here who would like to speak in favor or in opposition to this petition? Seeing none, I will turn it over to Alexia for the department staff report.

Thank you. For the record, Alexia Lopez with Department of Community Services. As petitioners stated, this will be approximately 2,900 square foot addition added to the east side of the existing building. And there will also be a new landscaped reflection area and rain garden to the east of the addition that will also help with some of the stormwater for the site. They're adding a covered vehicular drop-off drive at the main entrance on the south facade. As was mentioned, ADA standards do require an accessible route be provided from the public street up into the building. That was one of our comments that we had. And the petitioner stated they're willing to work with us on that. I've talked with our ADA coordinator. And he seems to think there is a way that we can make that happen. The existing building is a one-story brick building with white siding and the gables. And the addition will also have a pitched roof and brick siding with a stone base. The drop-off canopy will have brick columns and a flat roof. We believe the addition complements the existing building. through the materials, the height and roof slope while reflecting a more maybe modern slash commercial aesthetic for the building. Some of the new landscaping to the east of the addition will include shade trees, ornamental trees, ornamental grasses, perennials and ground covers. They are not proposing any signage changes with this addition. However, if they were to change some signage, that would require an ADLS amendment. just to let you know, and a sign permit for that. Some sustainability features that they've incorporated include native and drought-tolerant plants, as well as some of those new shade trees. The petitioner, I believe, addressed our outstanding comments. Yes, I was referring to the southwest corner, thank you, and not the southeast. So that tree will be remaining kind of to the west of where the drop-off canopy is. And they said they're not changing any of the lighting on the site. and that they agreed they'll work with us on that sidewalk connection from the path along range line up to the building. So we would be comfortable this evening with the plan commission voting to suspend the rules of procedure and vote to approve this item contingent upon or conditioned upon that ADA access. And you'll remember we kind of had something similar with another project recently, the Stella House books, to have them have an ADA access as well.

That's all I have. Thank you. Great. Thank you very much. I will now open up to fellow plan commissioners. Any questions or comments? Yes, Jeff.

Thanks. Bear with me. I had a note or two here somewhere. I think what I've heard, and I guess, Brian, if you can answer, if there's others on the team, but you're expanding a little bit additional building footprint There's been, I'll say, a renewed focus on drainage and whatnot. Is there detention on site? Are you able to handle the drainage without detention facilities? Is that fair to say? Thank you.

Let me introduce Sean Curran, our architect. I think he's better equipped to answer that.

Thank you. Sean Curran, Curran Architecture, Office at 5745 Lawton Loop, East Drive, Indianapolis. Yes, our civil engineer, Landworks Engineering, is working on the site design and have accommodated through the extensive landscaping that we're adding to the front to be able to, through rain gardens and plantings, to be able to accommodate the additional landscape. Great.

Thanks. Landscaping looks great, by the way. One other thing I noticed, and maybe it's more of a clarification type question, when I was looking at this on the GIS, we just had kind of an I'll say an odd or jagged property line, a long-range line, but then I look at your exhibits. Is there a right-of-way dedication to clean that up and make it a nice straight line, or is there something else going on there? Do you all know? And here's why I ask is when I look at GIS, it seems like there's a portion of the existing trail, sidewalk, ADA ramp that is, say, public infrastructure that appears to be on private property. I just didn't know if there's something that needs to be cleaned up as well.

I don't know the answer to that question, but I do agree with you. There's a couple of unusual lines in the outline of this site, including one to the north running back to the west. There's kind of a triangular piece. And my only guess is this was probably surveyed and platted now 70 years ago. And there's probably some conflict in the right of way. We're certainly not going to make a claim for adverse possession of your trail or anything like that along Rangeland Road.

Fair to say you'd be willing to dedicate or meet the thoroughfare plan or work with DOCS? I'm sure we will. And clean that up if we need to?

Yes, sir.

OK. OK. Adam. Do you anticipate a scenario with the expansion of having any challenges related to parking? I know it's expansion of space. I don't know if you're over-parked currently.

I think that shows this site's pretty well parked. And so I asked that question of the Leopard operators, and they said, no, they thought there was plenty of parking in that area. We're only adding about 3,000 feet. And so I don't want to say it's over-parked, but it's amply parked, let's say it that way.

Any other questions or comments? Debbie? If we want to make a motion this evening, we need to suspend our roles of procedure first.

Okay. First, my comment is I find it just interesting that you describe the interest as the drop-off zone for a mortuary. Sorry. I just found that interesting. And with that comment, yes, and we want to make sure their last ride is a smooth one so that paving is good. So with that, I move that we suspend the rules so that we can vote on this tonight.

Second.

Thank you very much for the motion. The second. All those in favor of suspending our rules of procedure to vote on this item tonight, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, the rules are suspended. Do I have a motion?

I move adoption as presented, subject to addressing all of the outstanding issues that the staff has.

Second again.

All right. All right. All those in favor of approving this docket, Subject to finalizing any project docs. Comments with the staff? Please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none. Congratulations. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay, up next is the next docket is docket number PZ-2026-00118 PUD, Hampstead PUD. The applicant seeks PD rezone approval to allow a new subdivision with 36 lots. The site is located at 1850 West Main Street. It is zoned S1 Residential, filed by Rick Lawrence of Nelson and Frankenberger on behalf of Christopher Scott Holmes. And I will turn it over to the petitioner.

Thank you and good evening, members of the Planning Commission. Please turn here. Thank you and good evening. My name is John Dabasiewicz. I'm a land use professional with the law firm of Nelson and Frankenberger. We represent the applicant, Christopher Scott Homes. On behalf of Christopher Scott Homes here this evening is Chris Carnell and Lori Wheeler, as well as Rick Lawrence, an attorney with our office and other members of our development team. As indicated, Christopher Scott Homes is seeking approval of the Hampstead PUD to permit development of a small for sale neighborhood, including single family detached residences, with anticipated sales prices between $1.5 and $2 million. The real estate is identified here on this aerial photograph. It's also included behind two of the informational brochures that we submitted prior to this evening's meeting. It's an in-ville site located on the north side of 131st Street, West of Dumbarton Road, and consists of approximately nine acres. The real estate is zoned S1 residential and is an infill site that is surrounded on all sides by other existing single-family residential and subdivision common areas. The subject site includes two existing homes and a stream which generally runs along the north perimeter of the site. Development of a single-family home neighborhood represents a contextually appropriate addition to the surrounding area. The exhibit now on display is a color concept plan for the community. It's also included behind tab three of the informational submittal. As indicated, the plan is to develop a for sale detached single family community on the real estate. Access to the real estate will be provided at two locations from 131st Street via public streets. Internal streets organize the homes along two primary corridors, which enhance visual connectivity from the north and south and to the east and west. Pedestrian friendly sidewalks and internal home positioning, including landscaping, create a connection between the public realm along the streets and the private living spaces in front of and beside homes. Rear access to garages via alleys also create a low traffic walkable environment along the internal streets. All the homes within the development would be served off of alleys. The two roundabouts identified here and here at the primary entrances into the neighborhood, provide visual character and slow traffic. The scale of the community is intentional. Similar pockets of more dense single family exist nearby and the development is designed to compliment and enhance the established pattern of single family residential prevalent in this area of Carmel. The design balances density with meaningful green space, internal street spacing, pedestrian oriented design, and an appropriate building scale. Open space and amenities are illustrated here. The first exhibit on the left represents the area where the stream corridor exists and the area here that I'm identifying. And along that area, both areas enhance the visual character of the community and provide opportunities for community interaction, including gazebo spaces, with seating geared towards passive uses of those open space areas. This area here is bordered by 131st Street to the south, the easternmost entrance, and is forward of the two dwellings that you see positioned to the north of that open space. The open space enhances, open space rather, and water features create visual relief and again are similar in scale to unique pockets of common area in developments which surround the site. Character illustrations of the single family homes are shown here and on the following few slides. The home product has been thoughtfully planned with a high quality modern contemporary architectural design. Elegant and refined exteriors will compliment the elevation and level of finish on the interiors. The first slide here exemplifies the elegance and refinement of those exterior designs. The goal is to provide an ultra luxury low maintenance community that currently does not exist in Carmel better serve the needs of a specific segment of the population. The inclusion of three and four bedroom options, elevator access, rooftop terraces, and three or four car garages ensures a diverse range of housing options. Long time Carmel residents seeking to right size without leaving the community will be provided a luxury option, including adequate garage space, walkable environments, and modern layouts. This exhibit on display currently is off the westernmost entrance off 131st Street looking north into the property. This is an image looking generally north and west on the interior north-south street. As noted, the homes are all detached single-family dwellings and will range between $1.5 million and $2 million in price range. An additional evening view labeled safety and ambiance. It's intended that the site be intentionally lighted and landscaped at a pedestrian level to provide illumination of that street frontage rather than using street lights along those two frontages. This high quality design and materials will enhance the surrounding property owners values. Compatibility has been central design And it's architecturally consistent with Carmel standards. Hampstead as designed is intended to compliment and elevate the surrounding area. This image on display here is an image of the typical side yard treatment between homes. As we get to committee, we'll talk in more detail about that and how the positioning of these public and private outdoor spaces interact with one another along the sides of homes. Couple additional perspective renderings. And then lastly, with regard to the home design, when we had our neighborhood meeting a couple weeks ago, there were questions about the positioning of rooftop outdoor spaces. The image on the left-hand side is of the front of the dwellings. It's a two-story element to the front. The rooftop living space is on the top of the second story, and that third story is only focused to the interior of the site. So if you go back and look at the site plan, you'll see that the position of the homes is all such that any type of outdoor rooftop living space is oriented internal to the site rather than being oriented to the outward position to the common areas and adjacent residents. The other image here on the right-hand side shows the back side. of the potential homes. Again, single-story element, two-story element, and that third story. So it's stair steps from the perimeter of the site internal with single-story, the two-story element, and then the three-story element. Beyond that, again, the only outdoor rooftop space is internal to the site wrapped by the other elements of the homes. Regarding the Carmel Comprehensive Plan, the real estate is an infill site. and presents an opportunity for development that expands housing options, enhances walkability, and protects single-family neighborhoods. The city staff have identified additional policies and objectives of the comprehensive plan that support the request. From a planning and land use perspective, the development promotes walkability and connectivity through pedestrian-friendly streetscapes, well-designed common open spaces, and direct access to the existing trail network. Its proximity to retail services and dining establishments within walking distance further reinforces a lifestyle-oriented environment that reduces reliance on vehicular trips and supports sustainable development goals. Additionally, the planned low maintenance element of the proposed neighborhood provides an important missing middle housing type that offers ownership opportunities with reduced maintenance. Collectively, the design elements of Hampstead contribute to a strong sense of place and create an attractive, functional, and enduring residential environment. The proposed rezone will facilitate a development pattern that is compatible with the surrounding area, responsive to market demand, and aligned with broader community planning objectives, ultimately enhancing the overall quality of life for area residents. In conclusion, our team had a neighborhood meeting a couple of weeks ago at the Rich Approximately 35 residents attended that meeting and offered questions and comments regarding the request. Additionally, we've been provided by staff the comments that have been received by the Planning Commission from the public. We've reviewed the staff report. After the meeting this evening, we'll continue to work with staff on addressing their comments as well as the public comments that we've received up to this point in writing and the comments that we received this evening from the public as well as the Planning Commission's comments. The applicant anticipates returning to the plan commission on September 1st, not at your August committee meeting, but on September 1st at the earliest. That additional time is going to allow us to give thoughtful consideration to all the comments that we received from the public, the plan commission and staff, and then come back to the plan commission for additional dialogue and discussion regarding adjustments that have been made to the plan. With that, I'll conclude. We'd be glad to address questions of the plan commission either now or at the conclusion of your public hearing. Thank you.

Thank you very much. By a show of hands, how many people here would like to speak either in favor or in opposition to this petition? Okay, great. Then what we're going to do is we'll permit three minutes for each person. And what I'd like is for someone to start, and then whoever is going to speak next, if we could have a line that starts so that when one is finished, the next one can go. And the timer will be on those lights. So it'll be green to start. You'll get the warning at yellow. When it's red, wrap up your comments, please. And please introduce yourself and generally where you live. I don't need addresses, but just generally. before you start speaking. So thank you very much and go ahead, you may start. The floor is yours.

Thank you so much for giving us the opportunity. My name is Priya Gangwani. The address is important because I do live in 13126 Dumbarton Street which is the first house and this PUD is going to be right behind my house. Carmel spent years creating a comprehensive plan, a vision for thoughtful growth that protects the established neighborhoods, preserves natural features, prioritizes pedestrian safety, and ensures that the new development is compatible with the surrounding community. The comprehensive plan also calls for the development that respects the character and scale of the existing neighborhoods and preserves natural features whenever possible. Yet this proposal places 36 homes in just nine acres while removing mature trees that provide privacy, reduce noise, and serve as an important buffer between neighborhoods. This is not compatible with the surrounding community. Tonight, I respectfully ask, why are we setting aside that vision to accommodate one developer's proposal? As a parent of an 80-year-old son, pedestrian safety and neighborhood connectivity matter deeply to me. Our children walk. and bike through the village of West Clay. This proposal increases traffic while limiting connectivity. Not having a left turn into the new community when driving east on Main Street will push drivers onto our neighborhood and onto Dumbarton Street to make U-turns, creating unnecessary risk for children and families. And for those who cannot complete a U-turn and come into our neighborhood, ours being the first house, we'll use my driveway to turn and make a U-turn, which already happens. And 36 homes means at least 72 more cars, not to add the Amazon trucks, the delivery trucks, the utility trucks to add on to the amount of traffic onto Main Street. The comprehensive plan exists to guide development decisions and protect the interests of the entire community not to be set aside whenever a proposal does not fit. If we ignore that vision today, what confidence do residents have that it will guide any future decisions? I respectfully ask you to uphold the principles of the comprehensive plan, protect the character and safety of our neighborhood, and vote no on this proposal as is. Thank you. Thank you very much.

All right. So our role as a procedure, if you could please hold your applause, this will take a long time. So up next, please. Please introduce yourself. Yes.

My name is Craig Price. I also live in the Dumbarton section of the village of West Clay. There are 92 homes on 56 acres in the Dumbarton subdivision. That means that there's about 1.6 homes per acre. There are 36 proposed homes on nine acres in the Hampstead PUD, which gives you four homes per acre. So that's nearly 2 and 1 half times the density of the Dumbarton area adjacent to it. My discussion today is primarily on the traffic side of things. There are three exits from the Dumbarton neighborhood out of that neighborhood. One is the main exit. One is the Fairmont to Broad to Main exit. and one is an exit to 136th Street from Spotswood. About half of the traffic of that neighborhood, in my estimation, it's not a traffic analysis, goes through the main Dumbarton Street exit. I would guess that the other half goes through the other two exits. So with half of the Dumbarton homes using the exit, that's 46 homes. the Hampstead PUD would add 36 homes to exit on that portion of Main Street. So that's a 78% increase in turning traffic onto Main Street, approximately double the traffic. During the rush hour periods, morning and night, it can take several minutes to get across traffic to turn eastbound off of Dumbarton or westbound off of Horse Ferry. There's other periods during the day when it also happens, but it's a very congested area. We've often thought that eventually a roundabout or a stoplight would be required at that intersection. It's quite busy. The Hampstead traffic merely adds to that. And the other key factor, and it's not a minor factor, is all the Hampstead traffic is westbound only. So every entry or exit from Hampstead will require a U-turn at some point. There are six possible U-turn positions along Main Street. The Haverford and Frontage Road turn, the Broad Street intersection, and the Town Road roundabout. Going the other direction, you have the Dumbarton-Horstary intersection, you have the Cherburn gated community turnaround, and then you have the Ditch roundabout. I guarantee you, regardless of whatever traffic laws there may be, people will use the nearest turnaround. They will turn around at either Haverford, Frontage Road, or at Broad Street. And they will turn around at, most likely, the Dumbarton Horse Ferry. And as Priya mentioned before me, because of the density of traffic, it's quite likely that you will not do, is that a three minute? That was three minutes. Okay, I'm about done.

Yes, you finish your thought, please.

You likely will not do a turnaround on Main Street. You will turn into Dumbarton and then have to turn around the median there, which means going into somebody's driveway to get that turnaround. So, in conclusion, we are not against development of a Hampstead PUD. We are against the density of the Hampstead PUD. The PUD to modify S1 zoning in this area should provide a balance of density, green space, paths, setbacks, et cetera, to match the quality of life that we currently have. The village of West Clay did that. The Hampstead PUD does not do that. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Up next, if you could please introduce yourself.

Thank you. I'll be very quick. My name is Tim Levandusky. My wife and I own a property. seven acres, small farm directly across the street from what would be the main entrance of this PUD. I just want to reemphasize the comments that these people have already made is also my concern. Traffic is horrible. There's many mornings where it takes me five, six minutes to pull out of my driveway for just the traffic that's going in the one direction east towards town. More traffic obviously is going to be horrible. The other concern that I have is that at the meeting that we had a couple weeks ago, we were informed that they had a plan and it was presented to us as this is the plan that we have to submit to the council because it's already been a done deal, and yet a lot of concerns were the walkability and open spaces, and tonight they presented two new parks that were added to the plan that was not submitted to us originally, and it seems to me that they are now trying to make things more presentable so that we are more agreeable with things that weren't originally presented to us. The area is too small for that many houses. They don't look like any of the houses in the neighborhood, and it's just going to be a complete mess. That's all I have to say.

Thank you very much.

Good evening. My name is Jeremy Dinek. I live at 13205 Dumbarton Street, immediately adjacent to this site. And tonight I want to speak on what seems like a hot button issue, which is stormwater and drainage. I don't have to allege anything tonight. The department report for this hearing states that the proposed pond sits at the highest elevation of the site, very close to an existing home, and that the engineering department has concerns the pond is not big enough. So it's the wrong place, the wrong size, in the city's own words. Water obeys gravity. A pond at the top of the hill does not catch the hill's water. When it overwhelms, that overflow follows the land down towards Elliott Creek and the homes around it. We are entitled to see where that water goes before any favorable action. The filed planned unit development ordinance makes this worse. Its entire stormwater section is one sentence about planting native vegetation on the pond banks. No capacity commitment. no release rates, and no downstream analysis. The same ordinance that locks in 80% lot coverage, nearly the entire site becomes rooftop, driveway, street, and alley, yet it only offers 15% common area against the 25% the city's unified development ordinance requires. And it counts the floodplain and the ponds itself towards that 15%. So less ground to absorb water, more water to manage, and a pond the city already says is too small. Carmel is already paying for drainage decisions made decades ago. On June 3rd, dozens of residents filled the library describing years of flooding, and your council president responded by proposing a $20 million rebuild funded by raising every household's stormwater fee. Earlier this year, this council declined the restoracy over similar unanswered stormwater questions. The lesson's simple. Answer the water questions before approval, or the city argues about who pays for it decades later. So we asked this commission to send this to committee with clear direction, a full drainage report stamped and signed by a licensed Indiana engineer who puts their license behind it, showing how fast water leaves the site today and how fast it would leave after construction as well as through a hundred year storm. A pond relocated and resized to work with the topography, with its 100-year water level and its distance from the neighboring home stated on the record. The overflow path mapped, the discharge to Elliott Creek analyzed, because Elliott Creek is a regulated drain under the Hamilton County Drainage Board, so any outlet requires county permit and board approval on top of city review. Open space of the true 25% and a funded perpetual maintenance plan. If 36 homes at 80% coverage can't meet these requirements on nine acres, then the number of homes must shrink, not our margin of safety. The city's own engineers do not believe this plan and neither should the commission. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

Good evening. My name is Heidi Snyder and I live at 1813 Halifax Street. My backyard directly borders the proposed Hampstead development site with Elliott Creek separating my property from the development. So thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. I know many people here will be discussing traffic density, zoning, and the compatibility of this development, so I would like to focus on something that I experience every single day, the natural environment that exists behind my home. My family purchased our home. One of the things we love most about the mature wooded corridor along Elliott Creek Over time, we have come to appreciate that this isn't simply vacant land. It is a functioning natural habitat that provides privacy, protects the creek, and supports an incredible variety of wildlife. We have wildlife cameras in our backyard And throughout the year, we documented deer, coyotes, beavers, rabbits, ducks, muskrats, raccoons, opossums, bats, fishers, and many other species moving throughout this corridor. Seeing these animals has given us a real appreciation for how important this wooded area is as a wildlife corridor. I am also very concerned about Elliott Creek itself. Since living here, we have observed high water during significant rain events. Replacing natural grounds with roads, rooftops, sidewalks, and driveways changes how water moves across the landscape. Beyond flooding, I am concerned about the long-term water quality from fertilizers, pesticides, and road salt that can eventually find their way into the creek and affect the wildlife that depends on it. I understand that Carmel will continue to grow, and I support responsible growth, but I also believe that we have a responsibility to preserve the natural features that make our community special whenever that is possible. Once mature trees are removed and a natural wildlife corridor is fragmented, those resources cannot simply be reenacted or recreated. It takes decades, often generations, for mature woodland and the ecosystem it supports to recover if it truly ever can. I respectfully ask the Commission to carefully consider whether this proposal provides adequate protection for Elliott Creek, the mature wooded courier, and the wildlife habitat that already exists today. If the Commission ultimately approves this development, I hope meaningful conditions are included to preserve mature trees wherever possible, protect the creek, and maintain substantial natural buffers between this development and the existing neighborhood. Thank you for your time, your service to our community, and for considering not only the future residents of this development, but also the natural environment and the families who already call this area home. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Hi, my name is Amity Sundama and I live at 13140 Dumbarton Street in the village of West Clay and our backyard directly borders the Hampstead site. Tonight I'm going to talk about compatibility at the edges. We are raising our young daughter here and today we look out on open space in a single home. Under this plan, three homes up to 35 feet tall with rooftop terraces would rise directly behind our rear property line. This is not a gradual transition, it is an abrupt edge between two very different patterns of development. My concern is that this plan fails where it matters most, where it meets the homes already there. The comprehensive plan calls for development that is compatible with existing neighborhoods, and that compatibility begins at the property line. On July 19, the petitioner's own attorney confirmed in writing that no minimum setback is required and that alleys and access roads would be 2 to 3 feet from some property lines and the nearest homes about 10 feet away. Carmel's own standards call for a much deeper buffer as development intensifies next to existing homes. While this development is labeled as single-family, it has the density and intensity of multifamily homes. If treated as multifamily, this project would warrant a 25-foot buffer yard that is landscaped. There is also no transition in scale. The comprehensive plan sets a two and a half story maximum here, yet these homes rise three stories to the perimeter, and there is little green space to soften that transition. For a development sold as a lifestyle, I do not see a pool, a playground, or a clubhouse. That open space belongs at the perimeter where it becomes the buffer. This impacts existing homes on its west, south, and east boundaries. A real buffer protects all of those neighbors and preserves mature trees like the Halifax tree line that had already screened them. These standards exist to protect the neighbors who are already here. For most families, a home is their largest investment. And Indiana law asks that you consider the conservation of property values. An alley or an entry a few feet from a property line or a home with a home looming above it protects neither property values nor privacy. And I would like to address the comment that the rooftop terraces wouldn't look over the property. From what I understand, the way that the three behind our homes are positioned, they could still overlook our properties. So we ask you first to deny the petition as filed. If not denied, we would ask for written conditions of approval, including a 25-foot buffer yard C along every edge abutting existing homes with mature trees preserved where possible, a step down to two and a half stories at the edges and the required open spaces at the perimeter, and no rooftop terraces on any homes that back onto existing yards. On paper, this is a line on a site plan for our family, and for every family boarding this site can say the same. I ask that you protect the neighbors who already call this community home. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Good evening. My name is Perry McCarty. I live on Haverford Street. And realizing it or not, Haverford is going to be the first turnaround for everybody in this community They're going to take the shortest route possible. They won't go down to Town Road, which is almost a mile away. They'll take Haverford, and Haverford is a frontage road to Main Street. And so I have six grandkids who play there all the time in my yard. And an errant soccer ball hit into the street with all these cars that are now going to access Haverford so they can make a U-turn to get eastward on Main Street. There's no practical exit. from this neighborhood to go east onto Main Street. So they're forced to go west, and like it or not, most of them are gonna go on Haverford. That's the first right turn they can make, and then the first U-turn that they can make. Right now, I wait four or five minutes sometimes just to get on Main Street going east. Now imagine if we're backed up on Haverford to make that U-turn or left turn ourselves it makes it that much more hazardous. So I would be against all this. I mean, at least, at a minimum, you'd put in a roundabout across from this neighborhood to alleviate the traffic concerns.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Good evening. My name is Julie Standish. And I've lived in the Dunbarton section of the village of West Cali for over 20 years. Tonight I want to speak about the intensity and density of this proposed development. But first, I owe you all an apology. I need to correct something that I wrote in my original letter to the commission. When I initially reviewed the site plan, my old eyes thought that all these were attached townhomes. Upon further review, I noticed there's a slight space between the buildings. So they are detached homes. So I just wanted to correct that for the record. But that doesn't change the fundamental issue that's before us today. What's proposed is currently zoned S-1, which is intended for low density residential zoning. My understanding that if we followed the S-1 zoning laws, that that would only support seven to nine homes in this section. And even that estimate is on the generous side because that's not looking at the actual net developable acreage in that area. The amount of land that can truly be developed is smaller, which makes the proposed density an even greater departure from the zoning district that was intended. This isn't a minor increase in density, it's a dramatic increase in both density and intensity. They mentioned ad lib here a little bit. They mentioned that this is compatible with what's in the area. That's 100% not true. All of the homes in this area are on half acre or more lots. So I'm concerned about that attempt to, it's being presented as a planned unit development And a PUD is supposed to provide something exceptional, something different, a creative design, meaningful open space, unique amenities, a public benefit that justifies the flexible underlying zoning. But I don't see that here. This appears to be straightforward residential development seeking far greater density than the S-1 was intended to permit. Carmel has earned its reputation because of its expectations and development and existing neighborhoods, and they follow thoughtful planning. I respectfully ask that the commission do the same here today and deny the proposal as currently proposed. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Hi, my name is Karen Corby. I live at 1828 West Main Street, immediately adjacent to the proposed development. More in my letter talks about this proposed plan would turn my home into a traffic island, have a road right next to it, Main Street, a road and an alleyway, removing all the trees surrounding of my backyard. I am here to oppose the Hampstead PUD as filed, but also offer a constructive alternative. Carmel, Indiana, one of the best places to live in America, which for 30 years has proudly held the Tree City USA designation, which they should, when brought to their attention, help its residents mitigate the removal of the site's mature perimeter trees, a wildlife habitat, and a natural buffer yard to this development. The row of 50-foot eastern pines situated just across the northern border of my property which is the southern border of the belly of the property, has been there for decades. It serves as home to deer, fox, hawks, and they are irreplaceable. Pivoting to the reason the Hampstead calls for the removal of these amazing perimeter trees, the insertion of an extreme amount of concrete to supply their desired density. This PUD, as filed, strays so far away from the comprehensive plan that minor changes to its layout won't solve it. So imagine a complete redesign in favor of the site's current topography and neighboring residents. First, a roundabout at Main Street and Dumbarton is long overdue, but only somewhat addresses the traffic flaws in the area. Therefore, reduce the density significantly that can be supported by a single access point, Bishop's Way, which is at the west, located as far as possible from the Dumbarton Street intersection to more safely meter main street traffic. Utilize a central 30-foot roadway leading to a 100-foot diameter cul-de-sac that comfortably complies with municipal fire truck turnaround standards. Face the rears of all the structures, including the driveways and garages, inward toward the Central Road, eliminating the need for the sprawling alleyways. Face the architectural fronts of the homes outward toward the wetlands in Elliott Creek, connected by walking paths in pedestrian-only green space. Freeing up the spatial footprint allows for the stormwater detention pond to be moved to the lowest point which I understand is the southwest side at the 1818 Main Street parcel and double its size to mitigate flooding. Step structures down to two stories matching the intensity of the surrounding neighborhood I urge you to recommend responsible, pedestrian-centric site design. By strictly enforcing Carmel's comprehensive plan, you keep the character of our neighborhood and provide the protections my private property deserves. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Hi, my name is Amy Davis. I live on Halifax Street. My property is bordering adjacent to the proposed HAMSA development. I appreciate everyone's concerns they brought up. My husband and I share the same. We have two young daughters. We are often going, walking around the neighborhood, walking along Main Street, looking at the goats that are nearby with our neighbor here. Thank you for having those goats nearby. One of the things that I just wanted to put into perspective was the very dense part that they're proposing to new neighborhood entrances. So going east to west, we have Dumbarton. Then we currently have five driveways. and then Haverford. So it's going to go entrance on Dumbarton, entrance to the new neighborhood on Hampstead, three driveways, and then another entrance to Hampstead, and then Haverford. That is all within less than .2 miles. That is a very small amount of land to be able to have all of those entrances. We asked in the meeting a few weeks ago if there was a traffic impact study. There had not been one done. They said it wasn't the right step in the process. We would definitely urge that to be done. And we also wrote a letter in conjunction with a few of my neighbors that outlines more of the points. But thank you for letting us have our comments here. And we definitely believe that this proposal needs to be amended at a minimum. We are for responsible development, but don't believe that this meets responsible development. So thank you.

Thank you very much. And we have one last one.

Hello. My name is Jennifer Hillman. I'm the executive director of the Village West Clay. So I'm here on behalf of the residents and the board. First of all, thank you for your service. And we appreciate the time to be here this evening to discuss this development. The Village of West Clay is a master planned community that was started by Tom Houston and George Sweet over 25 years ago, and it's thriving today. I believe you've received more than 25 letters of concern in the report of all of the hard work that the residents did in their research with the concerns on density, lack of open spaces, not meeting a 25% minimum common area, limited buffering with probable encroachment on the privacy of the current residents, lack of preservation of wetlands, trees, and proper drainage control, including an incorrect pond size and location. We also have, of course, safety concerns regarding to the increased traffic. Could I get the camera? Hal, do you have that? Thank you. So I just kind of wanted to show some images of what's currently in the Village of West Clay. We talked about the density, the open spaces. There are 170 acres of common area and open space in the Village of West Clay, including 45 park areas, 25 ponds, three pools and clubhouses, 10 playgrounds, and miles of trails. There are special touches. such as 18 shelters or pergolas, 12 fountains, and the Focal Point Meeting House. The architecture in the Village of Clay is not modern. It is based on historically seen homes in Indiana from the late 1800s to pre-1940. This includes home styles such as Clairefsman, Italian Renaissance, Victorians, Colonial Revival, and Neoclassical. As many of the residents have said, we do not disagree that quality development is something that we appreciate in Carmel. However, we ask that the Plan Development Commission requires the development to be consistent with the adjacent neighborhood. We know that a neighborhood with fewer homes, larger lots, and similar character can still exist with the same profit. And as we are limited on time, I would ask that anyone that didn't get to speak today but is here from the village of West Clay and does have a concern to raise their hand. Thank you for your time.

Thank you very much. Petitioner, would you like to respond, offer rebuttal comments?

First, as I indicated after this evening's meeting, we'll take the comments that we received from the public this evening as well as the plan commissions and return back on September 5th with adjustments to the plan and addressing those comments and concerns. There were several comments regarding stormwater management. At this phase of the process, the public may be unfamiliar with, it's the zoning phase of the process. The plan commission reviewed earlier this evening a subdivision plat and that's when drainage and drainage calculations and other items are provided to the Planning Commission. So provided that the council would approve the zoning for any request on this real estate, we would be back to the Planning Commission after an advertised public hearing and notice would be sent out to neighbors where specific information regarding drainage, all those requirements of the surveyor's office as well as the city engineer would be followed in the preparation of those plans and then they would be available for review. That's a standard that's applicable to all development of the real estate regardless of the type and style of development that would be developed on the parcel of real estate. So I want the public to rest assured any development that would occur in the future on this real estate would have to go through the same rigid review process regarding stormwater management detention that every other development within the city is required to go through. One of the other comments was made regarding proximity to homes within the development. We've got the site plan here juxtaposition with the aerial There are two homes within the Village of West Clay that are directly adjacent to and abutting this real estate. The other homes within the Village of West Clay are separated by Project Open Space along the rear of the lots here, along Dumbarton, along the south edge of the lots that are here. And this pond, the amenity facility, and other open space is between this site and and other lots within the visualized play. That offers between 150 feet and 300 feet of separation between the proposed homes and the location of the homes on adjacent parcels. We'll bring an exhibit to committee that illustrates that and provides specific dimensions so the Planning Commission can see that. I mention that because those separations don't really afford an opportunity for privacy to be diminished with a home that's of the same size regarding height as adjacent homes. But again, I want to go into that more in detail at the committee level. One of the regarding traffic, there would be a proposed full cut onto Main Street for this location of the access into the site right here. So Dumbarton is over here to the east, a right in, right out cut onto Main Street, and then a full access point here. There was a lot of comments offered to the Planning Commission about the need for turnarounds, so anybody who wanted to take and go east on Main Street would exit out of the neighborhood at this location and be afforded a full access point so you could turn left. They as well as other residents within the community would have to wait for oncoming traffic of course to exit out and turn left, but there wouldn't be the need for any type of turnaround movement for traffic because there would be a full access driveway cut for the street into the site at that little particular location. Regarding density, we acknowledge that the Village of West Clay is a very unique neighborhood, and it includes areas of development that are varied from commercial to multi-family, to town homes, to single family lots that are as small as 3,000 square foot on 30 foot wide lots. That exists within the Village of West Clay today and the size of those lots we don't believe affects adjacent much larger homes in terms of property values at that parcel of real estate. That's the connection that we are making with regard to development in the area. It's clear that while I would question whether or not the adjacent lots to this site are half acre in size. They're typically about 15,000 square feet, which is roughly a third of an acre. These lots that are proposed for this development are smaller lots. Smaller lots aren't indicative of property values. There are lots of neighborhoods within Carmel's community where there are adjacent neighborhoods that exist. Many areas of the Village of West Clay, when developed, were developed adjacent to existing estate lots. Those existing estate lots had very large homes on them with 5, 10, 15 acres in size, where alleys were developed, and those alleys had the same proximity to the shared property line as what's being proposed within Hampstead. Although we weren't adjacent to common areas, they were adjacent to other individual property owners' homes and lots. We'll bring a couple of examples to committee to share. regarding that issue of proximity of the alley spaces. The last thing I wanted to touch on, and again, there are many other comments and concerns that were mentioned that we'll take into consideration. The park spaces that you see on the plan on the left, that being here and here on the plan, The image that I put up on the screen was just a blow-up of that. These aren't spaces that were added between our last neighborhood meeting and this evening. These are spaces that we did a better job of communicating the essence of because we had received comments from the public about open space, and we wanted to be clear with the Planning Commission about the intent Christopher Scott Holmes has with regard to open spaces. Again, very receptive to the Planning Commission's comments as well as the public's, and we'll work diligently before we return to you on September 1st.

Thank you very much. I will turn it over to Alexia for the department staff comments.

Thank you. For the record, Alexia Lopez with Department of Community Services. Real quick, I just wanted to kind of go through what the process is for this for anybody that's unfamiliar. So this is a rezone to a PUD, Planned Unit Development. And so what happens first is we have this public hearing. The Planning Commission hears the proposal as well as any public comments. Once the public hearing and subsequent, there's usually committee meetings after this have been held, then the Planning Commission will make a recommendation to the City Council. And the Planning Commission can vote to send it with a favorable recommendation, an unfavorable recommendation, or no recommendation. And then if the rezone, it would be heard by the City Council. And if it's approved, the developer would come back for a primary plot approval to ensure compliance with the PUD. So moving on, one of the things that we do look at with any rezone is the comprehensive plan for the city. Some of the policies and goals in the comp plan call for such things as a variety of housing types, a mixture of land uses, also safe walking and biking, preservation of mature trees, and green building practices. It also guides development to protect single family neighborhoods from dissimilar adjacent uses with respect to scale of buildings, lighting, noise, and other incompatible impacts. Under the development pattern section in the comp plan, this area is classified as West neighborhoods, which are typically suburban living style, suburban style of living on large subdivided lots. Characteristics may include lots from 1 8th to 5 plus acres, building coverage between 25% to 50%, two and a half stories, front yards, gardens, porches, stoops. And then some uses include residential, educational, and park uses. To go through, I don't want to reiterate too much of the development of what you've already heard. To save some time, they are proposing a maximum of 36 dwellings. Two access points will be provided, which is a minimum that we require when there's over, I think, 14 or 15 lots, that you need to have two access points. Homes will front on the interior streets with alleys behind for garage access, so that then creates kind of a nice streetscape along there. Sidewalks and street trees are proposed on both sides of most streets. The internal streets will be public, built to city standards. They're proposing 15% common area. Stormwater drainage is proposed to be accommodated in a pond along the main entrance. And they are proposing 10 foot front yard setbacks, five foot, and I think zero on one side for side yards, 20 foot and 15 feet for rear yards, depending if there's a third car garage, and 80% lot coverage is proposed. The character imagery shows more of a modern style architecture with flat roofs, but a heavy use of masonry on the front and attractive streetscapes with garages located in the back. All homes per the PUD will have 80% masonry on the first and second floors of the front facade. A minimum of three masonry colors will be used across the development. But there is not an ADLS approval required for these homes. Sometimes we'll see that with PUDs. I think usually it's when they're attached or multifamily, not necessarily single family. We usually don't review the ADLS for a single family neighborhood. Ten shade trees will be required per acre of common area, and two trees and foundation plantings are required per dwelling in the front yard. We have received, I think up to this point, 54 letters from members of the public, and we have forwarded all of those to the Planning Commission as well to review. You've heard a lot of those occurring comments this evening regarding neighborhood character. disruption, density, traffic, stormwater drainage, lack of buffering. We also had several outstanding comments in the department report. Those were not necessarily all of our comments. I didn't want to list everything, but some of them that we'd like to see some work done on are requiring sidewalks on both sides of all interior streets, increasing the open space to 25%, which is what is normally required in the UDO, revising the pond location and addressing the sizing concerns, shifting the entrance streets so that they're not as close to the adjacent property lines. We have several architecture comments. I think they kind of address the outdoor living space on the rooftop, so there will be some, but it sounds like it's going to be on the fronts of the buildings, so not necessarily on the rears, which back up to the surrounding properties.

We would like to talk more about what the interior side elevations look like of those buildings, the buildings.

We'd like to see what the open space concept plan would look like now to see how they're meeting the minimum requirements, adding some more amenities for the neighborhood, and then looking at the site plan, updating the concept plan to reflect, just make sure we're reflecting the correct layout for where the sidewalk's going to be versus the street trees, and then addressing tree preservation for the development. So there's a lot of, I think, items to still work through and discuss. We did recommend that this be continued, forwarded to the Planning Commission Committee meeting for September 1st. Instead of normally it would go to the next one would be in August, but that would mean their packet is due Friday, and I don't know that that would give them enough time to address everything. So we would recommend you forward it to the September 1st committee meeting. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Before I open it up to everybody's questions and comments, to kind of continue on your process explanation, this body is a land use body, and when these rezones come through, we have, I think our job is twofold. One is we do send a recommendation to the city council on the project, whether it's favorable or unfavorable. I suppose we could take no recommendation, but I frown on that. We like to send them with a recommendation, but we also try to make the project as good as it possibly can be before we send it on to the city council because we don't know which way they're going to vote. So just letting you know that this is slated to go to committee and that is part of our typical process. So with that sort of big picture, I'll open up to questions, comments from everybody who would like to go first. Sue.

I really don't know where to start here, except I'm very surprised this made it this far with all the things that still need to be discussed and reviewed. But I'm not going to repeat everything Lexi said so well. But I do want to see a traffic study, period. There's just too much concern. You say tonight there's an in-out on the western end. I mean, that's new to people, I believe. let's get an official standing on traffic looking. And I also want to see a detailed streetscape to see how the roads are, the sidewalks, the trees. I also want to know what trees you're going to be removing, especially along Elliott Creek and along the neighbors, because there are incredible trees there, and I know something's got to come down. Certainly need public safety approval, but if there's a two-way in and out, I think you can get that done. And I'll let other people talk. Councilor Ayers.

I absolutely agree with everything you said. And I am concerned about the lighting and the noise for all of these neighbors. So traffic, lighting, and noise is a huge concern for me.

Thank you. Debbie? You have a lot? OK, go ahead.

So I'll preface my remarks saying that I think the design is beautiful, but not in this location.

This is a business meeting.

I'm sorry. We want to applaud. But I really do mean that. It's a gorgeous looking property. It's just like you're taking a grid and placing it in a curved area, it looks out of place to me. So I did some homework, which I will not read. But I did contact the executive director of the Homeowners Association. And I asked for information and insight. learned that all the realtors that sell in the village of West Clay have waiting lists for people who want to buy existing properties in there. Average homes stay on the market about four days, and most sell above the asking price. And I think that's important to understand that we're not talking about an area that needs to be elevated. We're talking about one of the most desirable places to live in Carmel. So in addition to, at the time before this meeting, I read 40, I think 44 letters. So I've got a few more to read. I also learned that a 25 year history has been written of village of West Clay and I read 23 page summary of that. And I did, I asked for that and it was interesting because I think these decisions, oh, you have a copy of it, thank you. I think, I think these decisions need to be made in the context of what was originally envisioned and what the continuing vision is. And there's lots written in the history about what the original vision was for the neighborhood, including the style of architecture and the flow of the community, which I won't read through all of that. But one of the key to... That was an unincorporated area when it was first developed, by the way. And key... As you might imagine, when it was first developed, virtually no one from the public was in favor of it. But after much work and coming up with a design that was pleasing to the people who lived nearby, the tables turned and there were more people showing up in favor of the project than against it. And it had everything to do with the design, layout, and architecture that was being proposed. And I just think that's important to remember. the executive director of the HOA said that they have presented ideas with different density and design that would generate the same or more ROI for that same piece of property. I've got to try to read my own writing, so I apologize here for a second. And that if they could come to a design that would be compatible with the existing neighborhoods, they would welcome adding it to the existing Village of West Clay PUD and the Homeowners Association. The ultra-modern design, as I said, is very striking. I think it would look beautiful somewhere else, and there are a number of places that I can think of in Carmel where it would be a perfect place to put that design. But I think the character of the neighborhood should be taken into consideration, and so as it's presented now, I would not be in favor of the way that it's been presented and would hope that you would go back to the drawing board. And I'm not going to go through all of the other concerns that have been mentioned because I think they're worthwhile to take into consideration.

Thank you.

As sure as I could do that.

Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Jess?

John, just curious. After the neighborhood meeting, have there been any changes or are there any plan changes to the overall plan?

Our plan was to solicit feedback from the Planning Commission. So then we'd have in place comments from the public, from staff, and from the Planning Commission to take into consideration before we start making adjustments and plan modifications. While it's not customary, but in this case we received final comments from planning staff two days before our brochures were due and after our notice was already mailed regarding the neighborhood meeting. Typically those are received a little earlier. AND IF WE HAD HAD THOSE COMMENTS EARLIER, I'M NOT SAYING THAT SIGNIFICANT MODIFICATIONS WOULD HAVE BEEN MADE, BUT WE WANTED TO SOLICIT FEEDBACK FROM EVERYONE FIRST. SO WE STARTED TO TAKE OFF THE PROCESS AND COME BACK TO THE PLAN COMMISSION WITH ADJUSTMENTS THAT SATISFY TO THE EXTENT POSSIBLE BY THE APPLICANT YOUR COMMENTS AND CONCERNS. SO THIS IS HOW THE PROCESS WORKS AND WE'RE PREPARED TO ROLL UP OUR SLEEVES AND ADDRESS as many of the comments as we can to the satisfaction of the Planning Commission.

Thank you. And then are there any roundabouts planned at all in that area now? No.

Not that I know of.

Okay. Yeah, I think I share the sentiment that density and design I think are questionable at this site, but certainly thank you.

Thanks, Jess. Anybody else? Adam?

I'll be very quick. I echo a lot of my fellow commissioners' comments. I would say at this point I'm lukewarm on this concept. The one thing that stood out to me as I was looking through the plan was how will people park in this area? It would be great to see some sort of outline of what parking could look like for the neighborhood in addition to the traffic study. Those are my comments.

Thank you.

Jeff?

Yeah, thanks. I think I've heard a lot of, I had some notes. I've heard a lot of them already stated, so I won't be repetitive. But big picture wise, I think two years ago when the village of West Clay came to this area and it was something very different than what was there. There's certainly some very dense areas, obviously adjacent to the Dumbarton neighborhood. It's a little bit different feel. So I guess I encourage you to continue to work on density and meshing the neighborhoods together if we assume for a moment that this goes forward. If it doesn't, it doesn't. From a density that creates traffic standpoint, I'm personally less concerned than maybe some of the other commissioners, but certainly we can explore that. Definitely want to make sure we take care of drainage because I know that's been, I guess, a hot topic or just important on many other projects. We want to make sure We explore that as we go forward and in the future, of course, if this project steps forward. One thing worth mentioning is I did hear from engineering. I think certainly it's not programmed or funded or is a project ready to build, but I think there are other roundabouts planned on Main Street at Dumbarton and Treaty Line, maybe if I remember right, but certainly don't hold me to that. Maybe the council will fund projects like that someday. Maybe they won't. So don't put all our eggs in one basket on that front. I guess I've mentioned kind of a few big picture things maybe. But to Adam's point, if this step forward, a few things I think of are the buildings seem really close to one another, whether it's 36 or 33 or 39 or 27. Residences, I guess just look at whether there's ways to continue to improve The site amenities whether the parks whether there's ways to reconfigure things as you try to push this forward John The renderings you provided they certainly look like a really really nice product the price point is is very high so I'm sure there they would be nice residential properties and Not saying the folks that live near there have to like them, but they look very nice in what you provided the information. Maybe to Adam's point, down in the weeds, but the roundabouts that are internal to the neighborhood, I guess if you can bring information that shows that if the moving truck is delivering a new resident there, let's make sure we can get them in and out. And then the Driveways that approach the garages does a car fit between the third car garage and the street I guess you can tell me now or you can show us later. There's just something I noticed from a small potato standpoint Let's see I Guess that's about all I got right now. So look forward to hearing more from you John. Thank you

I will add my comments, which are somewhat repetitive. So as far as the density, this does not fit within this area. This density level is more typical of what we see in our urban core in downtown Carmel and maybe R4, R5, not in S1. So, and it's not just the density, it's generally speaking up here in the plan commission, we really haven't been huge supporters of plans that just try to fit the most amount of units on a parcel as possible. One of the really nice things about Carmel, as you know, John, because you do a lot of these petitions, you know, our neighborhoods incorporate green space. They have tree preservation areas. If there's wetlands, we protect them. So I just really think more thought to planning the neighborhood needs to be given to have tree preservation areas. The 25% open space is, in my mind, that's the minimum. If there's beautiful trees, let's preserve them. Have the street-lined trees. You need to have the buffer between the neighborhoods. So in my mind, it's going to be a significant reworking of this project, at least for my vote. And I know you brought up townhomes, and I know you've listened to me as I sit on the Housing Commission. I've said this often, but the one type of missing middle that we have a lot of in Carmel are townhomes. So I'm not looking at this and seeing this is something else that new that we're offering because we do have a lot of townhomes in Carmel. They do look really nice, but I want to see those architectural standards spelled out into the PUD. So that is really clear. Because if it's not spelled out there, we can look at all these beautiful pictures and they look great. But if it's not in the text of beauty, there's no guarantee that that's what we're going to get. So I know there's a lot of work. I know there's a lot of engineering comments on the site that need to be worked through. I'm not an engineer. But as I walk through, it does seem like there might be some wetlands on there. I don't know why the pond is put where it is. So I would like to have a really good conversation about the engineering, the site constraints as well. So in my mind, there's just quite a bit of work that needs to be done, because this does not really fit within the surroundings. And I don't think, I'm not sold that this is a great spot for townhomes either, right there on Main Street. So those are my thoughts. Anybody else have any other final questions or comments? No? OK, then do I have a motion?

I would move we send this item to our full committee at their meeting on September 1st. Second.

Thank you very much. All those in favor of sending this petition to the committee on September, not the August one, but in September, please say aye. Aye. All right, we will see you at committee. Thank you very much. Everybody here who doesn't want to stay for the last petition, you're welcome to leave. You don't have to stay, but we do have one more docket. And so I'm going to read it into the, thank you all for coming. We really appreciate it. And so I'm going to read in the next docket. It is docket number PZ-2026-00121, DP, Conner Prairie Innovation District Development Plan. All right, I guess I'm going to give everybody a few minutes. We'll take a five minute break.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, we're going to resume our meeting after that quick recess. All right, so we are going on to our last petition of the evening. And this is docket number PZ-2026-00121DP, Conner Prairie Innovation District Development Plan. The applicant seeks site plan approval for a portion of the Conner Prairie development along River Road. The site is located at 14547 River Road. It is zoned Conner Prairie Innovation District PUD. filed by Sabin Nosfam of MKSK Studios on behalf of Connor Prairie Foundation, Inc. And so I will turn it over to the petitioner, whoever would like to present.

I'm surprised we don't have a sign for that yet. How do we not have a sign there for that? Press here. Ken Alexander, representing Conner Prairie Museum, here to present what we have before you today. And I have my design team with me as well to answer questions. What we brought forward today is we're prepared to give a full presentation, but I think a lot of the information, many of you were on the planning commission last time we were here about two and a half, three years ago. There hasn't been a lot of change. See, that's just... You want to give the presentation? You might be a better job. I submitted it. No, it should... Okay. I will stop touching things. Okay, so we brought this forward many years ago to look at a PUD on how Connor Prairie would like to develop and create a new experience for the museum over on their property southeast of River Road and 146th. What we brought forward today is really the next step in that design iteration. We're not here to talk about buildings, other activities, anything vertical. We know there's a whole ADLS process that we'll have to go through with those opportunities when they come. But it's really, we've been working with the Carmel Clay Parks to get the trail put in and there's left some of the earth moving and things that need to get done in order for that to be cleaned up and have full access to the residents of Carmel to the trail. That's one piece of it, but there's also a building for Eli Lilly, his farm office, that was on our property that we'd like to relocate and renovate. And when I say renovate, refurbish it back to its original architecture. So I'm prepared to go through the whole presentation, if you'd like me to. Several of you are new, but I am in the essence of time, if you would like. We've been working with staff, and they've been very supportive. We've been working through the TAG comments that have come in, and we continue to move that forward. So I will leave that up to the commission.

Please feel free to give your presentation.

OK. I think we already kind of established where the project is located. The opportunity for two different zones. One is more of a commercial zone south of the southern part of the project. And you can see my mouse kind of separated pretty much right here. And the northern half being more focused towards the food, farm, and energy experience development that Conner Prairie is looking to establish. The area in front that's Highlighted in red is our current development phase that we're bringing forward. Right off the bat, it's the entry drive that comes in the roundabout and the storm pond that's there that was used to get fill dirt so that the caramel could raise the grades to put the trail in. So that's one piece of it. And then it's the two commercial plots that are there on the just north of that internal roundabout. And then the food, farm, and energy, we've included two buildings in this as a pad ready, but those projects are currently in a fundraising. We are not engaged with an architect at this time, and we're not moving forward with those. We don't see that happening for several years. But we wanted just to incorporate that in there because of the need to relocate the Lilly Farm Office to its future home, which is about 150 feet south of its existing location. This is a blow-up of that area. As you can see, we've called up the future ADLS submissions that we would have to come forward with. As you know, we've met all the recommendations for landscaping, buffers, and things of that nature. The timeline of what we've done, we've had many meetings, and we will continue to meet and support one of the items as moving forward the HOA across the street, and just to make sure that the two off-site locations for landscaping and buffering would be accommodated. And so this is just a list of just the open houses. We had, I think, a pretty good attendance. David, how many people did we have? Between 20 and 25. Between 20 and 25 people came to our open house to review the project. And I think most of the comments there were you know, there's no nothing uncommon It's a concern of traffic and things of that nature But most people were very positive about the and very appreciative the trail that exists there now that many of them were already enjoying The plans as submitted the development plan is that isn't there it's a complete has all the survey or everything that we need to move this forward we've broken out a different aspects of open space as well as our parking, which I know, Jeff, you'd mentioned your last concern about how that is. None of this parking is intended to move forward as part of this development. This would be tied to a building that would go vertical that would require parking. We just want to finish that front entry and basically gate it off. But this is in there just so that you understand that we're trying to maintain the parking requirements that were established during the PD process. ANF did the traffic study, as we mentioned, and I know many others were interested in that. At the time, it had no significant impact on the traffic, and we feel that that's still consistent today when I talk to ANF. This is a pedestrian area, showing the pedestrian zones walking. As you can see, there's a minor sidewalk. This is the Lillie Farm Office that we want to relocate. It's currently located where the cursor is. You can see that. Good. So just to move that down and then have the parking that was removed because of the trail that came through by Carmel Parks. In addition, having that sidewalk in and then the areas down to the south, we would want to finish this area to cut across where the trail crosses the road so that we would never have to take that out of service during future construction work. So lighting compliance with dark sky lighting was one of the big requirements of the PED. We're still staying consistent with that. These are not intended to be The exact fixtures that we're looking at are representative right now. We're still looking for branding aspects that we would go forward with, and we'd have to go through an ADLSA approval anyways.

Yeah, please speak up here at the microphone. Thank you. So everybody at home can hear you.

I'm Rick Espy. I'm with MKSK Landscape Architects and Planners. The lighting that's proposed for the site meets the PUD requirements. There's no fixture taller than 25 feet, which is what is one of the requirements of the PUD. The previous slide looked at the photometrics of the site. So everything in red is some of the illuminated areas. The areas that you see in blue have no illumination. So again, anything that's coming off of our property is already down to zero, which is one of the requirements of the PUD. This is the planting plan. The full drawings that we have, I think there were 94 pages in the actual development plan that we submitted. This area is covered by six individual slides that we can highlight if you would like to. But everything that we've got in the planting plan meets the natural. It's a conservation campus. And so we want to make sure that we're using native plant material throughout everything that we're doing. Too small to see, we realize that. This is the planting plan or the plant species. But just in short, I think I can short circuit that a little bit. What you see here is three zones that we have planted. The yellow zone is zone one. This is a late successional zone for the plant material. As you move to the north, you go into zone two, which is a mid-successional zone of planting. And then as you look at the buffers in the pink areas, that is a pioneer zone. So this is something that we're following into all of our planting designs. Without getting into a lot of detail of everything, you can see here some of the trees that are predicted for those zones, everything from oak, maple, hickory, which are common in those conservation areas for the planting. The buffer developments around the site, again, as per PUD, we've got a 50-foot buffer along River Road. We've got a 50-foot buffer along 146. We've got a 100-foot buffer along White River Parkway. All the PUD, it spells out how many trees per 100 linear feet we need in all those areas, and we're following that in all of our planting designs. Just west of River Road, where the entrance to the legacy HOAs are, another piece of the PUD is that we agreed to plant eight trees or 10 trees and 20 shrubs on each side of that development. Here you can see a planting plan for those trees that are going to be happening on the west side of River Road. All the other lines that you see kind of floating through, there's a lot of utilities in this area, and we're going to have to look out for where all the utility buffers are and things like that when we do this placement. But we also agreed to meet with the HOAs when we're actually going to plant those trees, so they're out there and they're approving what we're doing. Stormwater and drainage on the site, again, it's all going to be everything north of the entry building that you see here. The celebration of innovation building that you see up in the area A is going to be an underground storage system for that area. Everything south of that building is overland flow. And so we're picking it up in two drainage soils, one that runs along the east side, one that runs along the west side. All the parking lots are flowing All the parking is flowing into the swales and bioswales that then direct it down to those two swales that lead down to the wet pond at the bottom of the page that you see. As the water flows over that plant material, it cleans out heavy metals and things like that to make sure that we're doing everything from a conservation standpoint in our wetlands. So again, this is going back to the current development plan. It's about 22 acres of that total 250-acre PUD that was originally approved 22 acres of that. And you'll see the two future ADLSs, one to the north for the museum experience and one to the south where we have that pads for the small retail buildings that we have. Happy to answer any questions that anybody might have.

Thank you very much. By a show of hands, would anybody here like to speak in favor or in opposition? All right. Please come up to the microphone and... Please go on. Yep. Anybody else? Just, okay. Then if you could just stand in line next to him, that'd be great. We'll give you three minutes. And as in before, the lights will go green, yellow, and red when you need to wrap up your comments. So please introduce yourself and just state generally where you live. And the mic's currently on. If the red light, so now you turn it off. So if you turn the button, there. It's on. Thank you.

My name is Steve Boffman. I'm a 7209 Delmont Drive. I look across River Road and I will see this project. And I've been watching it. So I wasn't able to go to the open house last week with Ken's presentation because I was traveling on business. But I do have some comments regarding the traffic, which was discussed. And I have two different night videos of traffic that has been backed up past Cherry Creek Drive, which is the roundabout here. So the traffic study was approved for this program, and it failed because traffic backs up during rush hour past Cherry Creek, and I can see it all the way down River Road. southbound. So anyway, that was a failure. But I would like to make a comment. I don't know if Mr. Alexander can answer this after I'm done, but there's a two-story mound of dirt that was moved during the construction phase of the Carmel Parks path. Why is there a two-story path? Are you planning on changing the grade of the program? in any way that will raise it so it will be not within the original plan of the grade. I would like to suggest that this 50-foot buffer that is mentioned for the landscaping, that they plant it now to give it a chance to mature before it will be developed so that you'll have less complaints from us. This is the last rural area in Carmel. And you're turning it into a commercial property, supposedly a museum. But hey, it's commercial. Come on. So we're residents that have to look at a commercial area. We don't want to see your parking lots. So Those are some questions I have. I'd appreciate Mr. Alexander commenting on my questions. And thanks for your time.

Thank you very much. Up next, please.

Hi, guys. My name is John Triggle, and I live right on the circle. I'm the last house, so it's kind of a big impact for our home. That was my main question is, couldn't we get the trees planted now? Because at least that'll give them a chance to mature a little bit before you start more serious construction. And during construction, I don't know if there's any way you can work on this, but the amount of dust that comes across as overwhelming when they're grading. I don't see there's any issue. And then I had a question about everything was graded about three, no, about six months ago, and you got all the relief and put the paths in. And now it's sort of all just grown wild. I was wondering if, why you didn't plant more grass or prepare it more. It's just all just brush. So that's another question. And then the traffic, too. I don't know how that's going to work, because the traffic every evening backs up all the way to the elementary school. which is about a quarter of a mile, half a mile down. So it's a long backup. The traffic was never like that two years ago, but I don't know what's happened with all the bridge over 146, but a lot of traffic is coming north now on River Road. So that would be something to look at. Do you have any ideas of when everything is constructed? what kind of visitation you're hoping for?

When all the comments are done, they'll come up and hopefully address all these.

Yeah, so that would be a question, too, is how many people will be visiting seasonally. So at least we understand what we're going to expect as a residence there. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Anybody else would like to make any comments? No? Oh, wait. Hold on. There's more. One more.

And please introduce yourself.

Hi, I'm Christy Dempster. So I live in Haverstig, but we back up to River Road. And so just to reiterate another risk around the traffic, with the addition of the new trailhead, there's a significant greater number of bikers and pedestrians. So when we think about, it's annoying with the traffic, but there's also a greater people risk as we're trying to be more biker, pedestrian friendly.

Thank you very much. Would you like to respond to answer some of the questions?

I'll be happy to. I'll do my best. If I miss one of the questions, feel free to blurt them out. I tried to. First off, I think the number one question is, I'm just going to address it chronologically. The development plan that you see in front of you today is the intent so that we can go and do the landscaping buffers in these areas. And that it will release. We cannot physically go out and contract work right now to do this right as it is. until we get through a development plan approval process. So that's what this process is. We're hoping to get that addressed, and you'll see the areas getting planted as we go vertical. Obviously, we have utility work and things like that that we'll have to do on the road, but we don't want to do anything that's going to impact the landscape buffer, but we'll get the work done along the edges so that we can move forward. Does that mean I'm going to go and do the buffer on 146? No. That's years away from when that would be going forward on the White River when we go to develop on the other side. So that was number one. The second one I think was kind of interesting, and it kind of goes in with the amount of dirt and the dust and the grading. I just want to be very clear. When we were approached to donate land for the trail project, Connor Prairie was willing to work with Carmel Clay Parks to address that. And we had to change our process internally, what we were going to do, and re-engineer the site so that they could put this trail in. In addition to that, there was areas that had to be filled up to six to eight feet in areas that they needed dirt. All the grading that was done out there was actually done by Carmel Clay Parks. It was not Connor Prairie doing the work. They move things around to try and mimic what we are doing in the future. But one of the comments, I believe, is also getting the erosion control planted. And I'm working with Carmel Clay Parks to address that. What they don't finish as part of their erosion control, we will come back and do. So I just want to be very clear that that's something that's very important to us. And we want to be good stewards of the community environment as well. That's a big part of what this project is. The mound of dirt. That's topsoil that was kind of removed when they did a ditch. That is intended to be moved as soon as we get approval to where it needs to go. But it's not going to be building up a sledding hill or anything like that. I know where you're talking about it. It's roughly about right there, if I'm not mistaken. And it's got erosion control blankets around it right now, but The idea is once we get to this approval process, then we can start moving some of the dirt on our hand. But that was left over by Carmel. I will say not Carmel, City of Carmel, but Carmel Parks when they went through and did the work. So hopefully that answers part of that question. Timing on the projects. I'm not avoiding traffic, I'm just going to address it last. Okay. The timing on the projects is really defined. We are a non-profit and our efforts to fundraise for activity for the northern half of this campus, which we call Food, Farm, and Energy Experience. That will be done through fundraising and other aspects. As far as the commercial ventures, right now there's two buildings that are shown here that could be restaurants. We are not engaged with anyone currently. We met with someone that showed some interest, but that has gone quiet. They thought our architectural standards were too restrictive. So we're not moving forward with those projects unless we have a partner that's willing to come and live by the PUD that has very strict standards on that. So we don't have a timeline on any of those commercial opportunities. So I can't really address that because we're not engaged with anyone right now. Traffic. I guess what I would just say with traffic is existing traffic flow and the impacts on the closures and things that are going on all around the city certainly have impact. We have not added anything to the existing traffic. The study is saying, will our project have a negative impact on the existing conditions of the traffic? And so it's not going to change. So if something is maybe not working as you would like or what we would all like, but it doesn't impact what we did not impact it, that would mean that we're not responsible for fixing it. I think that's accurate. I would lean to your street department, but the A&F engineering traffic study stated that we would have negligible impact on any traffic on River Road. As far as the counts on attendance, I believe that was shared during the PUD, but I'll be happy to go and dig those up. But I believe all the counts were all shared at that point in time. Did I get all the questions answered?

I think you probably did. Thank you very much. I'm going to turn it over to Alexia for staff comments.

Thank you. For the record, Alexia Lopez with the Department of Community Services. In reviewing this, the proposed site plan does follow the concept plan that was shown in the PUD. There are five proposed buildings with this space, so this is not the development plan for the whole of Connor Prairie. It's just a small section. The main vehicular entrance will be from the roundabout at River Road and Cherry Creek Boulevard. Parking is accommodated through two main large surface parking lots. And there's also lawn area shown for overflow parking. They are showing about 300 parking spaces with 23, I think, they're bus parking spaces. They were extra long spaces. And 213 would be required for the PUD. Stormwater drainage will be accommodated through underground detention, pond, and bioswales. The Carmel Clay Parks and Recreation has designed and is installing the path project. It runs along the White River and then meanders through the site and then runs along River Road up to 146th Street. Sidewalks and crosswalks will connect visitors through the parking areas to the main buildings. Short-term bike parking locations are required at a rate of one space per 20 automobile spaces, and those have been shown on the site plan. The architectural plans for the buildings will be submitted later through ADLS, so that will have to come back for you to see those. So this is just for kind of the site improvements at this time. The required buffer yards and buffer landscaping plans have been provided. Those were stated in the department report as well, that they're meeting those widths that were spelled out in the PUD. Some buffer yards will be installed by Connor Prairie, and some will be installed by the Carmel Clay Parks with their path project. Tree preservation has been shown on the DP as well as for the larger site for Connor Prairie for that owned land. Parking lot plantings are provided. As they stated, the lighting will meet dark sky friendly goals. Parking lot lights are shown at 24 feet tall. PD allows 25 feet tall. They're also showing pedestrian bollard lights that will be three feet tall. But the final light fixture designs will be submitted with the ADLS again so that we can look at the design of those The proposed signage plan, we don't have enough information at this time to make sure that it meets the UDO requirements. So we are recommending that we review that and approve it with the ADLS. They had originally showed some kind of locations on their site plan, but the way they classify signage versus the UDO, and we don't have the building designs yet, I think we need to review all that with the ADLS. They're showing some sustainability features through trees for preservation, native plantings, the rain gardens and bioswales to help slow and improve water quality. And we didn't really have any other outstanding comments on this. They do need to still address remaining comments in project docs and engineering comments. But if there aren't any other, after you've all discussed it, if there are any other questions, we would recommend that you vote to suspend the rules of procedure and approve it at the site. THIS ITEM THIS EVENING, CONDITIONED ON FINALIZING THOSE COMMENTS IN PROJECT X. THANK YOU. NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

FELLOW COMMISSIONERS, ANY QUESTIONS, COMMENTS?

COUNCILOR ARRES. NEW SPEAKER A COUPLE OF QUICK COMMENTS. I KNOW COUNCILOR MNAR COULD NOT BE HERE TONIGHT, BUT I DID TALK TO HER EARLIER AND SHE DID WANT ME TO LET YOU KNOW IF YOU DO HAVE ANY QUESTIONS, I CAN GIVE YOU HER CONTACT INFORMATION. YOU CAN REACH OUT TO HER DIRECTLY AS CONCERNS. or any concerns and questions. Also regarding the pedestrian question and concerns, I'm wondering if there would be an opportunity to put a raised crosswalk in that area so I could talk to engineering and my other counselors to see if there's an opportunity there for that.

Thank you, counselors. Anybody else with questions or comments? Yes, Debbie.

This is a 20,000-foot question. Since it's been a while since we've dealt with this project, it's still affiliated with the Smithsonian?

Yeah, Conner Prairie is an affiliate museum with the Smithsonian. So yeah, it is and will continue to be a Smithsonian Institute.

Okay, well, I just hadn't heard the name mentioned, and I just wanted to make sure nothing had happened since we last had this a couple of years ago.

My apologies to anyone in Conner Prairie that's listening.

That's all right. And are river rafts still on the table for connecting the Fishers area of Conner Prairie with this area?

There is a desire, and I believe in a future phase, we would have a dock and an area that we could have that opportunity.

And just a final, don't spend a lot of time answering this, just kind of a yes or no. I remember when this came. Was it two years ago? Three? I just remembered that one of the suggestions was working with the Neighborhood Association across on the west side about maybe doing some plantings on that side of the road. And I just wondered if anything had ever materialized with that.

Well, that was part of the, if I'm not mistaken, part of the PD approval process was that we agreed that we would do that during the development phase. Okay.

Well, I just want to make sure I understood that correctly. Thank you. You don't need to go into detail.

That's all right. I just want to show this is what we're showing right there. And so, but this is not intended to be the final document. This would be something that we would be bringing forward to the HOA, sitting down with them and making sure that this is meeting their expectations.

Okay.

Thank you. Jeff? Ken, will we get a chance to see this amazing sledding hill that you're talking about?

This is a new addition I haven't heard of before. I would not want to take away from park opportunities to have a sledding hill of their own on the west, on the east side.

All right, Jeff. And I was going to chime in and say, appreciate some of the info you responded with. I was wondering if there was a, I'll say ongoing work with grading trail construction that I guess precipitated an erosion control question, but it sounds like you guys are on that. Appreciate your comments related to making sure you take care of the site, be good environmental stewards of what's going on with the activity there. So thank you for that. I guess I do appreciate the conversation and the piece about potential for raised crosswalk as far as continuing to help pedestrians and the non-vehicle users. So look forward to that partnership, I hope. And then if there's traffic questions or whatever, I get it that you haven't got your project really too far along there yet. So if there's traffic scenarios, certainly there's activity with raised crosswalks on Hazel Dell. There's 146th Street things going on, clear path things that have just changed traffic all over the place. So Curious if that is an issue that is ongoing, but hopefully we can continue to work with you on what the right traffic solutions are adjacent to your site and in this area.

I believe on the plan we call out for a traffic beacon at this roundabout, which is at the entry, so there would be the blinking light that people could get across. I wasn't sure if what was being referred to as far as the race, I was down closer to the park entrance, parking lot and where people are going to be accessing. That's obviously not something that is on our property, but that's what my impression of that response was, if I could be mistaken. Are we willing to look at raised crosswalks in this area? I think we'd be happy to kind of address that, but it would be something that we just want to make sure that it's within the support of Carmel.

Great, thanks. Thank you for working with Carmel Parks on that trail. I walked it the other day, and it's really fantastic. It's a great amenity for our city. So thank you for donating that land and allowing that trail to go in. It's fantastic. And it sounds like, staff, please confirm, it sounds like this is meeting the terms of the PUD. So thank you for that. I really appreciate that. And that was, you know, I know people don't remember, but getting that PUD took a really, really long time, both at the Planning Commission and at the City Council level. It was a long, long time. So any other questions, or do I have a motion? And if we're voting on it tonight, we have to suspend our rules.

I move we suspend the rules so we can act on this tonight. And do I have a second?

Second.

Thank you, Jess.

All those in favor of suspending our rules of procedure to act on this petition tonight, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, rules are suspended. Do I have a motion?

I move to approve this item this evening, conditioning on finalizing everything in Project DOCS.

Second. Thank you for the motion to second. All those in favor of approving this docket with the condition of finalizing all outstanding comments in Project DOCS, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Hearing none. Congratulations. This is posed. Thank you for bringing a great project to our city. So we have no old business, no new business. So we are adjourned. Thank you all.

Now to play.