TERRE HAUTE —
Residents of Woodgate may have scored a direct hit Wednesday night in their conflict with Cobblestone Crossing when they uncovered what they consider a conflict of interest on the Vigo County Area Plan Commission.
Charlie Williams, president of the Woodgate Homeowners Association, asked members of the Area Plan Commission at their monthly meeting whether any commission members were direct or indirect owners of Cobblestone Crossing, a residential and commercial development.
“I’m a shareholder, yes,” answered commission member Norman Froderman, who was seated with other commission members at the front of the large meeting room in the Vigo County Annex.
Froderman also admitted, when asked by Williams, that he made the “motion” at a March 2007 Area Plan Commission meeting to allow apartments to be erected on property originally planned for single-family homes or condominiums.
That 2007 meeting is at the heart of complaints from Woodgate residents. They claim that approximately 28 acres of land that had been zoned R-1, single family residential, suddenly became designated as R-3 Planned Unit Development, allowing the construction of apartments.
Such a change could have only legally been made by the Vigo County Commissioners, Woodgate residents argue.
“It never went in front of the county commissioners,” said Mike Poinsett, president of the homeowners association opposing the apartments. Therefore, about seven Cobblestone apartment buildings are being “illegally built,” he said.
Woodgate residents are angry that for months Cobblestone has been building two-story apartment buildings on land adjacent to their property lines. Original plans called for the Cobblestone development, which is on U.S. 41 South, to include single-family homes near the Woodgate neighborhood, which is a single-family residential neighborhood south of town.
Woodgate residents indicated they would be willing to take the matter to court, but asked members of the commission to help them force Cobblestone to build a wall between the apartments and their neighborhood.
Commission president, Fred Wilson, said it remains unclear what the commission can and can’t do. Nor is it perfectly clear that something illegal or otherwise improper took place.
“I don’t have all the answers for you,” Wilson told about 30 Woodgate residents in attendance. Because the matter is so complex, “maybe the best solution is to get a judge involved,” he said.
The Woodgate residents, and residents of nearby Viscaya Point, have been fighting the construction of apartments near their backyards for months. Meanwhile, about seven new apartment buildings have been under construction.
No one spoke on behalf of Cobblestone Crossing at Wednesday night’s meeting.
Froderman could not be reached for comment late Wednesday.
Reporter Arthur Foulkes can be reached at (812) 231-4232 or arthur.foulkes@tribstar.com.
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Official has stake in Cobblestone Crossing
Woodgate residents cry conflict of interest in protest
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