By Anna Skinner
On Sept. 12, the Aurora Planned Unit Development at the southeast corner of U.S. 31 and Ind. 38 was introduced to the Westfield City Council nearly 10 years after it was originally approved.
In December of 2006, the Aurora PUD was proposed to encompass 317 acres in northern Westfield with commerce buildings, retail, apartment homes and attached single-family housing. Despite an unfavorable recommendation by the 2006 plan commission, the then-town council approved the project. Yet when the economy slowed, the petitioners delayed the project.
Ten years later, the plan was re-introduced to the city council with modernizations made to the proposal.
“(The updated proposal) expands greatly on the commerce park uses. We see that as the main focus,” Petitioner Chris White told the council. “There are a lot of businesses looking to be relocated from the downtown area of Westfield that seek a home. We have a lot of outside users looking at Westfield. With that, we have expanded greatly the commerce park uses, maintained the office look along (U.S.) 31, and maintained the shop areas. The apartment area has been eliminated, and attached housing has been greatly reduced. We are asking for detached single-family homes to be permitted use. We are asking for a reduction of housing units from 694 (in 2006) to 194 units.”
Although the proposal was only an introduction and a public hearing is scheduled for 7 p.m. Oct. 3 at city hall, 130 Penn St., in front of the advisory plan commission, councilors still had suggestions for White.
“I served on the plan commission in 2006, and the original plan did receive a negative recommendation from plan commission but did pass through council,” Councilor Cindy Spoljaric said. “This petition, it was beyond confusing to me. My hope would be you start from scratch using what we’ve got now in terms of how we manage our PUDs and not trying to revert things back to original given it is 10 years old. It would be my hope you would go through and work with staff to come to a new approach to the PUD, understanding the needs you have and current zoning you have and come about it in an updated manner.”
To view the agenda for the Oct. 3 APC meeting, visit westfield.in.gov.
