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’Busco approves senior apartment plans |
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Saturday, May 09 2009 |
By Chris Meyers
Staff writer
The construction of apartments for senior citizens took another step forward Thursday night as the Churubusco Plan Commission voted to approve the plans for Blue River Senior Apartments’ next venture.
Commission members voted unanimously in favor of the project, after being satisfied that drainage would not be a problem, which was their biggest concern and that of two nearby residents.
“We don’t want to make it any worse, and we could make it better,” said Brent Martin, the architect for the project.
The apartment complex will be on the northwest corner of the intersection of county Road 900 East and Clingerman Avenue in the low area of a field prone to flooding.
Filling the low area, digging a retention pond and installing a new drain tile are some of the steps being taken to contain the water as much as possible.
Martin said more land will be removed for the pond than will be brought in for fill where the building will be.
He also said the high water mark from heavy rain in March was used when determining how large the pond should be and how much fill should be used.
The Town of Churubusco is getting ready to start a project that aims to improve drainage from the area where the apartments will be built to the town’s wastewater treatment plant.
The apartment’s project will move forward faster than the town’s though, which means any immediate improvements to the land for the apartments will be up to the developer.
Aside from drainage, commission members were assured the number of proposed parking spots would be enough for residents and visitors.
Twenty-four spots are planned for the 22-unit complex, which doesn’t meet the town’s ordinance for two spots per unit, but with so few residents having cars at Blue River’s Columbia City apartments, a similar ratio of parking spots to residents has not been a problem.
“To my knowledge, there’s never been any sort of parking problem or complaint,” said Dave Sewell, executive director of the Columbia City-Whitley County Joint Planning and Building Department.
Bill Overdeer, vice chair of Blue River’s board, agreed and said only about a third of residents at Columbia City’s apartments have cars.
Per the commission’s request, a sidewalk will form an L along county Road 900 East and Clingerman Avenue. If the town repairs a section of sidewalk along Clingerman Avenue it would create a foot route to town.
Both Overdeer and Roger Bernhart of the Churubusco United Methodist Church said they are excited to see the project started.
“Something of this nature has been a long-term goal of the church,” Bernhart said.
The apartments will be built on land owned by the UMC, which has also agreed to help with drainage in any way possible.
Martin said the groundbreaking should be this fall with 10 months planned for construction. Applications are being taken at the Columbia City apartments’ office.
“I think Churubusco and the people who live here would like to see this,” Overdeer said of the apartments.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, May 12 2009 )
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