Developer’s plan for 430-plus homes in rural Zionsville faces opposition

Plans for The Reserve at Union Woodlands call for up to 284 single-family houses. (Image courtesy town of Zionsville)

Zionsville-based Pittman Partners Inc. is seeking to build a 147-acre residential and commercial development with more than 430 new homes in rural, northern Zionsville. But the plan is facing opposition from nearby residents and Indianapolis Executive Airport officials over safety concerns, infrastructure and the development’s fit into the Boone County town’s character.

Plans for The Reserve at Union Woodlands call for up to 284 single-family houses, 150 town houses and 20,000 square feet of retail space east of Michigan Road/U.S. 421 and south of East County Road 200 South.

If the project receives approval from the town, Pittman Partners hopes to break ground on the project in the fourth quarter of this year, CEO Steve Pittman told IBJ. The Reserve at Union Woodlands would cost about $250 million to develop and take up to seven years to build.

“There’s a definite demand in Zionsville,” Pittman said. “The growth corridor, in my mind, is going to be Michigan Road. There’s been a lack of utilities in those areas for years, and now there are three different utility players up there between [Zionsville-based TriCo Regional Sewer Utility, Indianapolis-based Citizens Energy Group and Fishers-based Hamilton Southeastern Utilities] providing sewer and water services. That’s kind of the catalyst for development to happen.”

The property Pittman Partners wants to develop is bounded to the north by single-family houses, to the east by the Union Woodlands subdivision that is being developed by the central Indiana office of Miami-based Lennar Homes, to the south by the Countrywood subdivision and to the west by large-lot single-family houses and agricultural land. The Indianapolis Executive Airport is about a mile northeast of the site.

The Reserve at Union Woodlands would feature five different “use blocks.” From west to east, there would be commercial buildings and town houses in the Michigan Road Use Block; a natural setting in the Tree Preservation & Wildlife Use Block; single-family houses in the Center Common Use Block and the Traditional Neighborhood Use Block; and large single-family houses costing upwards of $1 million in the Estate Residential Use Block.

A 48-acre public park with two or three pickleball courts, a playground, a trail system and a restroom facility would also be built on the east side of the development.

Making changes

Pittman Partners is asking the town to rezone the property from Rural General Agriculture to The Reserve at Union Woodlands Planned Unit Development.

Zionsville town planning staff forwarded the rezoning request for The Reserve at Union Woodlands to the Zionsville Plan Commission with a negative recommendation due to concerns about incompatibility with the town’s comprehensive plan, proximity to the Indianapolis Executive Airport runway and the density of the project.

After about three hours of discussion on Tuesday night, Plan Commission members voted 7-0 to continue discussion at their meeting on March 17. Pittman Partners will discuss the project with town officials and residents and make adjustments to the development plan.

After members vote, the Plan Commission will forward the project to the Zionsville Town Council with either a favorable or unfavorable recommendation. The council will review the plan for The Reserve at Union Woodlands and vote to approve or reject Pittman Partners’ rezoning request.

In 2021, Lennar Homes sought to build a 119-acre development with 278 houses at the site, which members of the Zionsville Town Council rejected.

Some Plan Commission members said they struggle with the density of The Reserve at Union Woodlands project, which would have 2.94 housing units per acre. Others said that a development will eventually be built at the proposed project site, and that it will need to fit the town’s character when it happens.

“This type of thing is going to happen,” Plan Commission member Kendrick Davis said. “So now we have to figure out how do we make that work but also make all of those things work for Zionsville and [have] it be uniquely Zionsville.”

Pittman Partners initially submitted a rezoning request for The Reserve at Union Woodlands last summer. The project was scheduled to be discussed at the Zionsville Plan Commission’s meeting in September, but it was delayed for four months as the developer met with neighbors, Indianapolis Executive Airport authorities and the Zionsville Parks Board.

The initial plan called for 250 single-family houses, 84 town houses and 350 apartments. Pittman Partners also proposed a $4 million Zionsville Sports Park with four baseball and softball fields and eight pickleball courts. The sports park was scrapped because the airport might someday expand its runway from 7,001 feet to 7,700 feet, putting the park in the runway protection zone.

Facing opposition

More than a dozen people spoke against The Reserve at Union Woodlands at Tuesday night’s Plan Commission meeting, including Zionsville residents and Hamilton County Airport Authority Board President Bill Frye, Indianapolis Executive Airport Director Sam Sachs and Jet Access Executive Vice President Sean White.

More than 10,000 business flights operate in and out of Indianapolis Executive Airport annually, making the airport the fourth-busiest non-towered general aviation airport for business traffic in the United States, according to the Federal Aviation Administration’s traffic flow management system counts. A $15.2 million project completed in 2023 extended the airport’s runway from 5,500 feet to 7,001 feet.

Sachs told Plan Commission members that The Reserve at Union Woodlands property would be in an area with a significant amount of aircraft noise where pilots are flying about 1,000 feet above the ground as they prepare to make a landing at Indianapolis Executive Airport.

“Our concern is really on a safety point,” Sachs told Plan Commission members. “We just want to make sure that people on the ground have a safe place to be, and putting a bunch of homes and families directly under a vulnerable part of aircraft flight, in our opinion, is not a safe option.”

Residents who spoke discussed their concerns about the impact of the project on area infrastructure, property values and the rural character of the area. An area group with 320 members called Save Rural Zionsville has come out against the plan, and more than 500 people have signed a petition calling on the town to reject Pittman Partners’ request to rezone the property.

In recent years, development has moved north along Michigan Road into areas that are historically rural. Most recently, Westfield-based Henke Development Group received approval last year to develop Bradley Ridge, a $700 million project on 350 acres with 290 single-family houses west of Michigan Road between East County Road 100 South and East C.R. 200 S.

“This petition would dramatically reshape and densify this area of Zionsville, eliminating its rural character and leading to safety issues, infrastructure concerns and a myriad of other issues,” Christy Wright told Plan Commission members.

Other residents expressed concerns about the rate at which Zionsville is growing and the effect of adding higher-density housing that could potentially be more affordable than what is currently found in the Boone County town where the average price of a single-family house is nearly $658,000, according to Redfin.

“Zionsville is the Rolls-Royce of small towns,” Julia Schultz told Plan Commission members. “In my opinion, if you want to live here, you’re welcome to earn it. In the meantime, there are plenty of affordable options nearby and no one is stopping anyone from earning their way. People don’t have a right to live here just because they want to any more than they have the right to expect us to provide affordable housing.”

Some residents also told Plan Commission members that they are worried about the effect sewer construction would have on their properties.

“There is currently no sewer infrastructure for this proposed development,” Teresa Borman said. “While TriCo may have some plans for a sewer, the proposed sewer route from TriCo utilities would require eminent domain against several properties and severe hardship would be imposed if this route goes forward.”

Pittman Properties is currently developing The Farm, a mixed-use project on 48 acres in Zionsville at the southwest corner of the intersection of Michigan Road and Sycamore Street. Despite the opposition on display Tuesday night, Steve Pittman said he remains optimistic that The Reserve at Union Woodlands has a path forward.

“If you were an outsider watching that, you might think that as a developer, you’d be discouraged by it, and I didn’t really come away feeling like that,” he said. “We’re having some meaningful dialogue here, and we’re looking at some things. And I think if the plan was so horrible, they wouldn’t have asked me to do those things.”