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  • Meeting: Area residents Rick Wheeler, Mike Poinsett and Kathrynn Myers look at drawings for the Cobblestone Crossing project Friday afternoon.

    MET 051812 WOODGATE.jpg

  • Posted: Rick Wheeler shows the sign he's using to mark his property near the Cobblestone complex.

    MET 051812 POSTED SIGN.jpg

  • Paper: This paper announces the Cobblestone Crossing project.

    MET 051812 CROSSING PAPER.jpg

  • All hands: Several area residents look at a Cobblestone Crossings rendering during a meeting last week.

    MET 051812 ALL HANDS.jpg

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May 23, 2012

Woodgate residents considering legal action

Neighborhood homeowners concerned by nearby apartment construction

Howard Greninger The Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE — Residents came in force Tuesday to try to compel the Vigo County Board of Commissioners to change how a development is progressing near Woodgate subdivisions in southern Vigo County.

The main complaint was that new apartments under construction at Cobblestone Crossing along U.S. 41 South are, in objectors’ views, too close to existing homes. Residents claim an original development plan called for upscale residential homes to be built near Woodgate East and South, with apartments out toward U.S. 41, interspersed with condominiums.

More than 50 residents attended the commissioners’ weekly public meeting at the Vigo County Annex, at First and Oak streets.

After a 21⁄2-hour discussion, the lone resolution was that residents would have to seek legal action to ask a court to make a temporary injunction to halt development, then seek a permanent injunction.

“Vigo County Commissioners do not have the authority to unilaterally issue an injunction of some sort or anything like that to prevent the expansion of Cobblestone Crossing,” said County Attorney Michael Wright.

Cobblestone Crossing in 2008 sought and was given approval for the Vigo County Area Plan Commission to reclassify a portion of its property from R-1, single-family homes, to R2M, which is multifamily dwellings or apartments.

The entire property is part of a Planned Unit Development, or PUD, zoning classification which lists several different developments such as apartments, homes and condos.

“At this time, Cobblestone Crossing is not in any objective violation of the terms of the ordinance adopted in 2008,” Wright said. “If you as landowners of close proximity to Cobblestone feel that you need to do something in addition through the court system ... the commissioners are not in the position nor do they have the authority to stop the development as it is currently proceeding,” Wright said.

Seeking an attorney is exactly the next step for homeowners, said Woodgate homeowner Mike Poinsett after the meeting with commissioners. Homeowners will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday at Honey Creek Middle School cafeteria.

“We are looking at getting an attorney on retainer,” Poinsett said. “We think a PUD only allows for minor changes, not like what has been done.”

Poinsett said his concern is the northwest portion of the property, where two-story apartment construction is now under way, just 25 feet from his property. That section is not part of the area reclassified in 2008, he said.

Cobblestone obtained building permits on May 15 and May 17 to build seven buildings on 18.03 acres in the northwest corner of the property, county records show.

Darren Maher, assistant director of the Vigo County Area Planning Department, said the northwestern section was reclassified to R2M in January 2005. The county gave notice then, as it did in 2008, with a newspaper legal advertisement and a display sign on the property, he said. In 2008, the county also sent out 13 letters to adjoining landowners for a reclassification, he said.

The Cobblestone Crossing development was originally approved in 2004 as a PUD, listing commercial, residential, apartments, condos and a church as part of the development. The PUD can be developed entirely as residential or entirely as apartments or a combination, Maher said.

“That is what a PUD does, allows flexibility to develop, as long as it is among whatever was listing when first approved,” Maher said.

Residents say on a moral standpoint, developers should stay with what was presented — upscale single family homes near the existing neighborhoods.

Woodgate homeowner Joel Harbaugh, who has lived in his home since 1997, said he has “to chase people out of my yard” since the development of 60-foot tall two-story apartments. “I can’t sit on my back patio without having eight [apartment] balcony and patios in full view of my back yard and into my home,” he said.

Harbaugh said he cannot allow his daughters to play in a backyard swingset as he is not sure who lives next door. He said he is putting up privacy trees. “It is an abhorrent situation that we have found ourselves in. Eventually I will have my privacy back, but I do not have safety. The amount of traffic through my yard and recreational areas at Cobblestone, it is disturbing,” he said.

Harbaugh asked if the county could stop the project through eminent domain. Wright said that applies to public projects, such as the 641 bypass. Harbaugh asked whether the county would have any leverage were the apartments receiving federal housing money. Wright said he would research that issue.

Stacy Gough, a homeowner in Viscaya Point, said Cobblestone has planted only 10 trees along a berm that was to provide a barrier to the development. Darlene Vaeth, a Woodgate homeowner, said she visited 101 homes and collected 93 signatures, part of more than 300 signatures on a petition to have construction of additional apartments halted.

Vaeth said people have begun to walk across her property, and beer bottles have been scattered along a nearby tree line. Vaeth said she wants Cobblestone to “keep the integrity of the community,” and construct single-family homes near both Woodgate neighborhoods.

Woodgate homeowner Ken Polky said apartments are needed “as most people today can’t afford a home,” but said the development is not following original plans.

Gary Gottardi said he added 1,200 square feet onto his Woodgate home in 2000 and likes the neighborhood; however, the tall apartments now block sunsets and even cellular telephone reception. He voiced concern of vandalism.

Woodgate homeowner Kathryn Myers said the county should expand its notification process. In answer, Commissioner President Mike Ciolli said the county now puts up all notices about rezonings on the county’s website for the Area Planning Department.

John Wilson, a homeowner in Woodgate, suggested a list be presented to Cobblestone Crossing. “It is not too late to intervene. They are just moving dirt around. We can reach out to the homeowners and develop a laundry list of what can help mitigate things that will happen.

“I think that should have been the obligation of Cobblestone Crossing to do that,” he said.

Commissioners said they would ask the company to meet with them and consider the list.

Commissioner Judith Anderson said the issue is not apartments, “but the conduct of people and the responsibility of people.

“They [Cobblestone] obviously have no rules and they have [no] condo association and rules that when people live and move into an apartment, here is what you live by. You don’t string a line out and hang your underwear over there,” she said.

“Those apartments, and I agree I would rather see a condo, but those apartments are there. People are living there. It is the rules and the conduct of the people” which should change, Anderson said.

Telephone calls were left at the office of Cobblestone Crossing seeking comment as well as on cellular telephone of a Cobblestone representative.

Reporter Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com.

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