Planning Committee, 8/14/18

Planning Committee held its regular August meeting on the 14th and it was one of the most well attended planning meetings in recent memory.

It was nearly standing room only, and that was after adding several rows of chairs to the rear of the chambers!

The major item on the agenda that had the residents attention was the proposed development near Kemper and Route 4 (and Smiley and Rose)… the 13.316 acre unified lot that has been tagged for a new housing development.

It has been nearly 25 years since there was a significant residential development in Springdale and this one is affiliated with the same developer and builders as the 2017 Citirama in Woodlawn.

I am in the process of getting the original submitted documents related to the meeting, but with all the interest in this I wanted to get this posted now (even though the pictures are currently low quality and several of the facts that follow are not confirmed).

The developer is looking to build a new ~52 single family development with homes in the 250k – 380k price range (lots around the 40k price point).  This development will offer a set of homes that differ in several ways from current homes in other neighborhood in Springdale (modern design, planned development with an HOA, while still allowing for a range of customization options that will vary by developer.)

Some sample from some of the best regional developers that have expressed interest in building in this new site:

With a varied streetscape:

A number of residents voiced concerns about the plans… some of the constant threads included concerns about incremental traffic, character of the neighborhood (home density / lot sizes), and impacts to local property values.  (Not to diminish the other concerns raised – just those were the most frequent.)

In the end the committee voted to continue the public hearing until the September meeting and not make a recommendation to City Council until more data can be gathered around these items.

Some key points that stuck with me from the discussions:

  • The parcels are currently zoned for residential low density homes and with more aggressive and less neighborhood friendly development plans the site could certainly support a similar number of homes without the requested PUD (though this would make it much more difficult for the city to approach the 23% green space the proposed plan offers)
  • While not common in Springdale it is very common in the rest of Hamilton County to use PUD or PUD like zoning for new residential developments like this (I believe the stat given was nearly 23 out of 25 on the most recent ones in the county used this type of multi-letter / PUD approach)
  • Kemper Road often has significant traffic congestion – though the City Engineer and the Developer do not expect the addition of ~50 homes to have a significant impact (construction traffic not withstanding)
  • The development could start with site development early in the new year and the entire development forecast for completion in 18-20 months.
  • There was no data available at the meeting on how developments like this affect surrounding home values.
  • Whatever the approach and development plan will be it must be done with the input of current Springdale residents to really be a success.  These developments can be a real spark to the community – and while change is often messy it is essential for communities to thrive.

I remain very positive around the development.  There are certainly a number of details around the plan that need to be worked through – and the process of Planning Committee –> City Council –> Planning Committee (final plan details) is setup to do that while still allowing input from the community.

More to come… in the meanwhile if you have any questions or feedback on this plan feel free to reach out.

 


What do you think?  Let your elected officials know!

email and phone numbers of all your City Council members are online – https://www.springdale.org/city-council/page/meet-your-city-council

and

City Administration as well –
https://www.springdale.org/mayor-clerk-council

or

Connect with your Neighbors –

https://www.facebook.com/groups/333111242219243


Related Links

Note – on July 31, 2023 Springdale released a new website and previous links were not maintained as well as many minutes and agendas offline.

Past Minutes and Agendas: https://www.springdale.org/meetings/recent
Upcoming meetings: https://www.springdale.org/meetings
Request Public Records: https://www.springdale.org/living-springdale/page/public-records-access

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *