Lennar Homes receives OK for Carmel development after big changes

Lennar Homes of Indiana plans to build 50 single-family houses at the intersection of West 146th Street and Towne Road in Carmel. (Map courtesy city of Carmel)

Lennar Homes of Indiana received approval Monday night for a residential development plan in Carmel that underwent major changes over the past several months in response to concerns from residents.

Members of the Carmel City Council voted 9-0 to approve the Towne 146 Planned Unit Development on about 16 acres at the southeast corner of West 146th Street and Towne Road.

The development will have 50 single-family houses that will be priced starting at about $650,000 and have bedrooms and full bathrooms on the first floors. That was a change from an earlier plan that called for 29 single-family houses and 58 two-story town houses.

Some of the residences will be one-story ranch houses, while others will have two floors.

Residents and Carmel City Council members disapproved of the original density of the project and the inclusion of town houses.

On Monday, Councilor Matthew Snyder said he had never seen a developer come up with a plan, listen to feedback and change the plan as drastically as Lennar did during the course of the approval process, which took nearly 11 months.

“What it proves to me, and I think to this council, is that things can always be improved,” he said. “You need a developer willing to try hard enough, and a council and representatives of the people willing to push hard enough.”

Councilor Jeff Worrell said the Lennar development will provide a single-family housing type in Carmel that will appeal to older residents who are looking to move out of their larger homes, which will become available to younger families. He said the town houses in the previous plan were “not serving a purpose.”

“Where we are now is we are in a situation where we have a project that is encouraging churn,” he said. “And what I mean by that is that is there is now a place for empty-nesters to go, come out of their home at Brookshire or Spring Mill Ponds, or any of the places that all my friends— because I’m old—live in and want to get out.”

Lennar Homes of Indiana, a division of Miami-based Lennar Corp., was the busiest homebuilder in the Indianapolis area in 2023, according to IBJ research, with 2,120 permit filings.