Ellendale Farms sales office proposal withdrawn
By Carrie Napoleon Post-Tribune correspondent August 27, 2012 11:22PM
Updated: September 30, 2012 6:10AM
CROWN POINT — One national homebuilder will have to start from square one if it wants to construct an off-street parking lot, model home with a sales office and add free standing signage in the Ellendale Farms subdivision.
On Monday, a petition before the Board of Zoning Appeals to do just that was withdrawn by petitioner DHR Cambridge Homes Inc., part of D.R. Horton Homes.
The builder had wanted a variance to construct an approximately 3,000-square-foot model home that would serve as a sales office at the main entrance to Ellendale at 625 Lake St. along with an asphalt parking lot at 802 Mary Ellen Drive in the subdivision that is zoned R-1, residential.
Ellendale Farms residents were out in force to protest the plan, though they did not get the opportunity.
BZA president Dan Rohaley said since the petitioner withdrewn the proposal, it will have to file a new petition if it wants to move forward.
“They will have to start all over again,” Rohaley said.
That was welcome news to residents who said the proposal for what would essentially be a business did not suit their residential subdivision or fit with the covenants they agreed to when building there.
They also decried a lack of notice from the land developer who manages the property. While adjacent property owners were notified by certified letter of the intent to seek the variance as required by law, other subdivision residents said they, too, should have been informed.
“They failed to inform the rest of us,” Nellie Chidsey said. She learned about the public hearing after someone placed a flier at her home.
She said according to the subdivision’s covenants, spec homes are not allowed and neither are asphalt driveways. An asphalt parking lot flies in the face of that.
“It’s not a business area,” Chidsey said.
Nancy Garrison said she was concerned the plan would affect the property values of the homes already built in the subdivision. Curt Graves, director of community development, had said previously the builder intended to keep the sales office and parking lot there for three to four years.
“What they are proposing is against the covenants of Ellendale,” Garrison said.
