Springhill Residents Show Up In Force To Plan Commission Meeting To Remonstrate Against Development
June 15, 2021 at 1:18 p.m.
Springhill Residents Show Up In Force To Plan Commission Meeting To Remonstrate Against Development
By David [email protected]
By the time the meeting concluded, the petition by Skyline Builders for a preliminary plat of a 48-lot “affordable” residential development called Springfield Subdivision on Springhill Road was tabled by the Plan Commission for at least four to eight weeks for more information.
The hearing on the petition began with a disclosure by city attorney Scott Reust. He said as the city attorney for Warsaw, he’s also a partner at Rockhill Pinnick law firm and over the years, the firm represented Skyline Builders. He said he’s never personally represented anyone from Skyline Builders and, as far as this development project goes, no one from the firm is involved with it. After he said he didn’t believe it was a conflict, attorney Joann Kolbe, who was representing the Springhill Addition residents and lives out there, too, disagreed and said she believed it was “problematic.”
In his comments on the petition, City Planner Justin Taylor said Skyline Builders was petitioning to subdivide 14.9 acres into 48 lots with an average lot size of 0.31 acres.
“The proposed stormwater management method and the proposed connection to the city sewer system have been reviewed and approved by the city engineer (James Emans). And, again, this is just the preliminary phase of the project so there is not a lot of detail, but it appears to be sufficient from the city engineer’s standpoint,” Taylor said.
Emergency services have reviewed access leading back to the proposed subdivision and have no issues with accessing either the existing Springhill development or the proposed Springfield development, Taylor continued. If future issues arise related to traffic safety, he said they can be brought before the Traffic Commission and reviewed at that time.
“The proposed lots meet the development standards for a subdivision within an R-1 zoning district,” Taylor said. District 5 Common Councilwoman Diane Quance, who sits on the Plan Commission and represents most of the area, along with Councilman Jeff Grose, asked Taylor to read the standards.
Taylor said there’s an 8,700-square-foot minimum lot size; setbacks are 25 feet for the front, 25 for the rear and 7 feet for the side yards; with a maximum lot coverage of 45%.
“Since the proposed subdivision meets or exceeds all the requirements set forth by the city’s municipal code, I recommend that you grant approval for the preliminary plat for the Springfield subdivision,” Taylor said.
Skyline Builders owner Tim Merchant was the only person who publicly spoke in favor of the petition.
“For the most part, I think, obviously, not everybody’s in agreement with what we want to do. I guess we’ve been in meetings with the city for quite a few years now and there’s been a lot of discussion for affordable housing, and we were part of Tuscany on the other side of town, which is similar lots, and it went very well. They sold out in a matter of a couple of years. Similar lot sizes. … The houses we’ve sold in the last year, I think, are in the $245,000 to $325,000 range,” Merchant said.
While Skyline Builders hasn’t “gotten through to say exactly what we’re going to do here, but it’s a similar set up,” he said. Merchant said in the last year, Springhill homes have sold in the range of $228,000 to $310,000.
“We’ve been doing this a while, 25 years. We do a lot of big houses. We do custom houses, not a lot, but in the millions. But the area, that’s not what Warsaw wants or needs, it seems, and everybody knows that orthopedics, that’s what they’re screaming for. That’s what we designed to put in here,” Merchant said.
Fifteen years ago, he said they used to develop half-acre lots, but “there’s a lot of big builders that come from out of town and we have to compete with them and that’s what the price range is now.” He said it doesn’t work financially to put 24 lots in there instead of 48 with city sewers, sidewalks and other amenities.
“As you know, all the lumber and everything else has gone up immensely lately, so it’s difficult just to get a house that’s affordable, much less increasing lot sizes,” Merchant said. “We’ve built nice houses over the years and that’s our goal.”
Kolbe then spoke for the remonstrators. “I think you can see that we’re out in force because we have concerns, not only that are emotional about the aesthetic values that we associate with our neighborhood and the health of the lake, but we have real concerns that we’ve spent as much time as we could in the two weeks or so that we’ve had notice of the development to sit down and go through these things.”
She said they’ve focused their attention on the city’s comprehensive plan. The goals of that plan, she said, “have been recognized and codified within Appendix A, which is the ordinance for the subdivisions.”
As for the developer, Skyline Builders, Kolbe said everyone agreed that they do great work. “It’s clearly not personal. Two, we all recognize that Warsaw needs affordable housing. Three, we all support Warsaw, want it to grow. We all have invested in Warsaw and its comprehensive plan. And that’s where we’re coming from. We are not fighting the economic growth or the desire for Warsaw to develop. We just believe that this is not the appropriate spot for this development to be located,” she said.
She then talked about the area called Beyers’ Rise. “That 15-acre parcel was ultimately sold to at least two owners … Mr. Grossnickle and his wife and the Levin family purchased that property, along with a couple of other Springhill owners, for the purpose of preserving that, protecting that from being built.”
The property stayed in the family until the present time, Kolbe said, and now there is one owner, Bruce Grossnickle. “He apparently has elected to sign a contract subject to approval of the plat to have this developed,” she said.
As for the topography of the land, she said the elevation of Beyers’ Rise is at least 30 feet higher than all of the properties below that. She said their engineer gave a “desktop opinion … that this is not sufficient for water detention area in lot A of the plan. The absence of an easement on the side of the plan, that I believe is lots 1 through 18. Swales that appear on the northwest side, and perhaps swales on the east side, we don’t know.”
There are 76 homes in Springhill. Springfield would have 48 homes, creating a 67% increase in the homes that will be using the one entrance into the neighborhood. She said that will increase traffic “significantly.” She said the infrastructure will not be able to handle that. She also expressed a concern about the aesthetics in the neighborhood and the effect the development would have on Pike Lake.
Holly Campbell, a Springhill resident, presented to the Plan Commission over 100 letters in opposition to the development. She said they’re just not from residents of Springhill, but also other Warsaw residents “who support our opposition because they know the neighborhood is a legendary neighborhood and they are definitely in support of us.” She later talked about the increased traffic the development would bring and the diminished walkability of the neighborhood.
Pike Lake Association President Scott Parker, who also is a certified environmental auditor, said the Association is concerned with the protection of the lake. The lake receives approximately 23,500 acres of runoff; Winona Lake only gets 800 acres of runoff as a comparison. “We’re trying to work as residents of the lake as a whole to restore” it, he said.
After the meeting was closed to the public, Reust said, “Some of these studies that they’re asking for, the city engineer looked at some of the preliminary numbers and was satisfied preliminarily that it could happen. That it could work. I think you’re stuck with, currently, if you check the boxes of the ordinances at this point, that it is likely to be approved preliminarily until there’s more study. … The real battle is at the final approval process when everyone’s had opportunities to have battles with the engineers.”
Jeremy Skinner, Warsaw community and economic development coordinator, said when the final plat goes before the Plan Commission, it will be a public meeting and everyone is allowed to come, but the Plan Commission does not have to allow the public to participate in a hearing format. Kolbe said that concerns them. Skinner repeated they could allow the public to participate, they just don’t have to.
Taylor reported there was a traffic count done in 2019 for Springhill Road through Michiana Area Council of Governments. It showed that there were 518 daily vehicles traveling in that area.
Resident Dan Hepner said if the development goes through, he would gain four new neighbors. He was concerned about the runoff of water onto his lot and the increased traffic with the development. “Springhill Road is marginally able to handle the traffic it has now,” he said.
After the meeting was closed to the public again, Emans said, “I am an engineer and I am a water engineer. And I have had preliminary discussions on this site. The developer’s engineer has in his plan a concept they’re using called a retention basin. The retention basin doesn’t have a positive outflow. It doesn’t have a pipe that drains directly out. The intent will probably have some type of underdrain under that basin, which would act as a water quality feature. It’s called best management practice.”
Emans said there won’t be any direct runoff. If there’s any runoff, it’s filtered. “Look at the soils out here. The site is very conducive to a retention basin system.” He said he wasn’t concerned about the volume of water that would come off the development because of the soils, the intent to use the retention basin and “we don’t have the infrastructure of a direct pipe to the lake available to this developer.”
Quance asked Emans if there was any runoff into Deeds Creek. Emans said because of the contours of the site, it would not push water to Deeds Creek.
Plan Commission member Jim Gast said he didn’t think the development was a good fit and the 48 lots were not aesthetically compatible.
Skinner pointed out that the Plan Commission does not and can not dictate the cost of a house. “There’s plenty of court cases to prove you don’t go down that road,” he said, noting that the R-1 zoning district is what it is and the lot sizes are what they are. The lot sizes are compatible with an R-1 zoning district.
Grose expressed concerns that the preliminary plat didn’t indicate any public space, no street designs were evident, about future development in the area and storm water runoff. He said more information was needed and made a motion to table the petition, with Quance providing the second, and the motion was approved. Reust told Plan Commission Tom Allen that a time table was needed and Allen said another meeting would be had on the petition in four to eight weeks and all the neighbors would be notified.
By the time the meeting concluded, the petition by Skyline Builders for a preliminary plat of a 48-lot “affordable” residential development called Springfield Subdivision on Springhill Road was tabled by the Plan Commission for at least four to eight weeks for more information.
The hearing on the petition began with a disclosure by city attorney Scott Reust. He said as the city attorney for Warsaw, he’s also a partner at Rockhill Pinnick law firm and over the years, the firm represented Skyline Builders. He said he’s never personally represented anyone from Skyline Builders and, as far as this development project goes, no one from the firm is involved with it. After he said he didn’t believe it was a conflict, attorney Joann Kolbe, who was representing the Springhill Addition residents and lives out there, too, disagreed and said she believed it was “problematic.”
In his comments on the petition, City Planner Justin Taylor said Skyline Builders was petitioning to subdivide 14.9 acres into 48 lots with an average lot size of 0.31 acres.
“The proposed stormwater management method and the proposed connection to the city sewer system have been reviewed and approved by the city engineer (James Emans). And, again, this is just the preliminary phase of the project so there is not a lot of detail, but it appears to be sufficient from the city engineer’s standpoint,” Taylor said.
Emergency services have reviewed access leading back to the proposed subdivision and have no issues with accessing either the existing Springhill development or the proposed Springfield development, Taylor continued. If future issues arise related to traffic safety, he said they can be brought before the Traffic Commission and reviewed at that time.
“The proposed lots meet the development standards for a subdivision within an R-1 zoning district,” Taylor said. District 5 Common Councilwoman Diane Quance, who sits on the Plan Commission and represents most of the area, along with Councilman Jeff Grose, asked Taylor to read the standards.
Taylor said there’s an 8,700-square-foot minimum lot size; setbacks are 25 feet for the front, 25 for the rear and 7 feet for the side yards; with a maximum lot coverage of 45%.
“Since the proposed subdivision meets or exceeds all the requirements set forth by the city’s municipal code, I recommend that you grant approval for the preliminary plat for the Springfield subdivision,” Taylor said.
Skyline Builders owner Tim Merchant was the only person who publicly spoke in favor of the petition.
“For the most part, I think, obviously, not everybody’s in agreement with what we want to do. I guess we’ve been in meetings with the city for quite a few years now and there’s been a lot of discussion for affordable housing, and we were part of Tuscany on the other side of town, which is similar lots, and it went very well. They sold out in a matter of a couple of years. Similar lot sizes. … The houses we’ve sold in the last year, I think, are in the $245,000 to $325,000 range,” Merchant said.
While Skyline Builders hasn’t “gotten through to say exactly what we’re going to do here, but it’s a similar set up,” he said. Merchant said in the last year, Springhill homes have sold in the range of $228,000 to $310,000.
“We’ve been doing this a while, 25 years. We do a lot of big houses. We do custom houses, not a lot, but in the millions. But the area, that’s not what Warsaw wants or needs, it seems, and everybody knows that orthopedics, that’s what they’re screaming for. That’s what we designed to put in here,” Merchant said.
Fifteen years ago, he said they used to develop half-acre lots, but “there’s a lot of big builders that come from out of town and we have to compete with them and that’s what the price range is now.” He said it doesn’t work financially to put 24 lots in there instead of 48 with city sewers, sidewalks and other amenities.
“As you know, all the lumber and everything else has gone up immensely lately, so it’s difficult just to get a house that’s affordable, much less increasing lot sizes,” Merchant said. “We’ve built nice houses over the years and that’s our goal.”
Kolbe then spoke for the remonstrators. “I think you can see that we’re out in force because we have concerns, not only that are emotional about the aesthetic values that we associate with our neighborhood and the health of the lake, but we have real concerns that we’ve spent as much time as we could in the two weeks or so that we’ve had notice of the development to sit down and go through these things.”
She said they’ve focused their attention on the city’s comprehensive plan. The goals of that plan, she said, “have been recognized and codified within Appendix A, which is the ordinance for the subdivisions.”
As for the developer, Skyline Builders, Kolbe said everyone agreed that they do great work. “It’s clearly not personal. Two, we all recognize that Warsaw needs affordable housing. Three, we all support Warsaw, want it to grow. We all have invested in Warsaw and its comprehensive plan. And that’s where we’re coming from. We are not fighting the economic growth or the desire for Warsaw to develop. We just believe that this is not the appropriate spot for this development to be located,” she said.
She then talked about the area called Beyers’ Rise. “That 15-acre parcel was ultimately sold to at least two owners … Mr. Grossnickle and his wife and the Levin family purchased that property, along with a couple of other Springhill owners, for the purpose of preserving that, protecting that from being built.”
The property stayed in the family until the present time, Kolbe said, and now there is one owner, Bruce Grossnickle. “He apparently has elected to sign a contract subject to approval of the plat to have this developed,” she said.
As for the topography of the land, she said the elevation of Beyers’ Rise is at least 30 feet higher than all of the properties below that. She said their engineer gave a “desktop opinion … that this is not sufficient for water detention area in lot A of the plan. The absence of an easement on the side of the plan, that I believe is lots 1 through 18. Swales that appear on the northwest side, and perhaps swales on the east side, we don’t know.”
There are 76 homes in Springhill. Springfield would have 48 homes, creating a 67% increase in the homes that will be using the one entrance into the neighborhood. She said that will increase traffic “significantly.” She said the infrastructure will not be able to handle that. She also expressed a concern about the aesthetics in the neighborhood and the effect the development would have on Pike Lake.
Holly Campbell, a Springhill resident, presented to the Plan Commission over 100 letters in opposition to the development. She said they’re just not from residents of Springhill, but also other Warsaw residents “who support our opposition because they know the neighborhood is a legendary neighborhood and they are definitely in support of us.” She later talked about the increased traffic the development would bring and the diminished walkability of the neighborhood.
Pike Lake Association President Scott Parker, who also is a certified environmental auditor, said the Association is concerned with the protection of the lake. The lake receives approximately 23,500 acres of runoff; Winona Lake only gets 800 acres of runoff as a comparison. “We’re trying to work as residents of the lake as a whole to restore” it, he said.
After the meeting was closed to the public, Reust said, “Some of these studies that they’re asking for, the city engineer looked at some of the preliminary numbers and was satisfied preliminarily that it could happen. That it could work. I think you’re stuck with, currently, if you check the boxes of the ordinances at this point, that it is likely to be approved preliminarily until there’s more study. … The real battle is at the final approval process when everyone’s had opportunities to have battles with the engineers.”
Jeremy Skinner, Warsaw community and economic development coordinator, said when the final plat goes before the Plan Commission, it will be a public meeting and everyone is allowed to come, but the Plan Commission does not have to allow the public to participate in a hearing format. Kolbe said that concerns them. Skinner repeated they could allow the public to participate, they just don’t have to.
Taylor reported there was a traffic count done in 2019 for Springhill Road through Michiana Area Council of Governments. It showed that there were 518 daily vehicles traveling in that area.
Resident Dan Hepner said if the development goes through, he would gain four new neighbors. He was concerned about the runoff of water onto his lot and the increased traffic with the development. “Springhill Road is marginally able to handle the traffic it has now,” he said.
After the meeting was closed to the public again, Emans said, “I am an engineer and I am a water engineer. And I have had preliminary discussions on this site. The developer’s engineer has in his plan a concept they’re using called a retention basin. The retention basin doesn’t have a positive outflow. It doesn’t have a pipe that drains directly out. The intent will probably have some type of underdrain under that basin, which would act as a water quality feature. It’s called best management practice.”
Emans said there won’t be any direct runoff. If there’s any runoff, it’s filtered. “Look at the soils out here. The site is very conducive to a retention basin system.” He said he wasn’t concerned about the volume of water that would come off the development because of the soils, the intent to use the retention basin and “we don’t have the infrastructure of a direct pipe to the lake available to this developer.”
Quance asked Emans if there was any runoff into Deeds Creek. Emans said because of the contours of the site, it would not push water to Deeds Creek.
Plan Commission member Jim Gast said he didn’t think the development was a good fit and the 48 lots were not aesthetically compatible.
Skinner pointed out that the Plan Commission does not and can not dictate the cost of a house. “There’s plenty of court cases to prove you don’t go down that road,” he said, noting that the R-1 zoning district is what it is and the lot sizes are what they are. The lot sizes are compatible with an R-1 zoning district.
Grose expressed concerns that the preliminary plat didn’t indicate any public space, no street designs were evident, about future development in the area and storm water runoff. He said more information was needed and made a motion to table the petition, with Quance providing the second, and the motion was approved. Reust told Plan Commission Tom Allen that a time table was needed and Allen said another meeting would be had on the petition in four to eight weeks and all the neighbors would be notified.
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