More than 10 years after a subdivision was planned for a Center Grove intersection, the empty lot soon will be the home of a new assisted living facility.
But residents who live in a house directly east of the property are not pleased with the plans. Todd and Kim Johnson voiced their concerns to city officials earlier this month, worried about lighting from the facility and an increase in heavier traffic on Demaree Road from trucks making deliveries every day, the couple said.
The current owner of the property, Cobblestone Greenwood, has owned the 10-acre lot near Demaree and Honey Creek roads since 2004. The original plan called for a subdivision, but those plans were put on hold when the housing market stalled during the recession, said Samuel Hudson, of Cobblestone Greenwood.
Two years ago, Hudson and members of Cobblestone Greenwood were on the verge of completing the sale of the property to a developer who wanted to build a 134-unit assisted living complex. Developers made it about three-quarters of the way through the planning process when they abandoned the project, just before submitting their final site plans that would have allowed them to begin building, Greenwood planning director Bill Peeples said. The plans were halted due to funding issues, Peeples said.
Now, a new developer is planning to build an almost identical assisted living facility on the property, Peeples said.
Todd Johnson wasn’t aware the 10 acres next to his property would be anything other than a subdivision, Johnson said.
“I was told it would be residential with certain sized lots. I was ready for homes to go in there,” Johnson said. “Commercial lighting all night long — those are things we’ll now) be subject to.”
Kim Johnson’s concerns are based on the increase in traffic on an already narrow Demaree Road and the impact the heavier delivery trucks will have as they come and go, Kim Johnson said.
But Hudson disagrees. While delivery trucks will come and go from the facility, a subdivision would have actually created more traffic in the area, Hudson said. Most of the residents at the facility don’t drive cars, so the property will generate far less traffic than residential homes would, Hudson said.
The property’s zoning allows an assisted living facility, so nothing more needs to be done in order for the developer to file plans to build on the site. The city is waiting on the developer’s final site plans, which will include the square footage of the facility, how many units it will have and other specific details of the design, such as landscaping and lighting, Peeples said.
Once the final site plans are filed, the developers could begin construction as soon as this fall, Peeples said.
