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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowI am a lifelong resident of Indianapolis. When I returned from my seven years with the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War, I settled in the Meridian Kessler area.
As our family grew, my wife and I chose to build our dream home along the White River and situated on a small lake inside the Indianapolis city limits in a community named Oxbow Estates. We have lived there for almost 19 years.
Our little community is like a large family. We help each other when the help is needed. We look after one another’s homes when we are away. Plus, we have the enjoyment of walking into Broad Ripple for dinner, a beer at a micro-brewery, dessert and/or entertainment.
But now, a proposed “monster apartment” development at The Willows threatens the safety and security of everyone in Oxbow Estates.
Despite a relatively low density of our neighborhood, we already have occasional horrid traffic jams in the afternoons as the ridiculous intersection at Winthrop and Broad Ripple Avenue (and the Monon path) backs up traffic beyond the entrance to Oxbow. To add 255 units with 400 bedrooms and 400 more cars will create enormous added traffic woes and will contribute eventually to traffic/pedestrian fatalities.
Broad Ripple has enough apartment buildings. Please preserve our neighborhood. I am also concerned for our security, as 400 new apartment residents will have full access to our yards, lake and neighborhood unless we construct imposing security walls and fences. Broad Ripple does not need more density.
I ask the builders of this proposed “monster” to please find somewhere else where the apartments are actually needed.
–Walter L. Brant
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The argument does not hold water. Apartments have proven not to cause traffic jams. Just look at the other apartment complexes in Broad Ripple which are currently 98% occupied. A recent traffic study completed for the new complex at the former BR Kroger site shows the new complex will have less traffic than the Kroger. The current traffic on Westfield is caused by people traveling through the area; not by area residents.