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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowResidential builders Drees Homes and Epcon Communities presented plans to the Westfield City Council on Monday for three different developments in the city containing a total of 266 homes.
The mix of single-family and paired empty-nester houses were scheduled for further review by the Westfield Plan Commission on Oct. 5. The proposals could receive final approval as soon as Nov. 9.
Fort Mitchell, Kentucky-based Drees Homes is hoping to develop two of the neighborhoods, and Dublin, Ohio-based Epcon Communities is seeking to develop the third.
Randy McNutt, division president for Drees Homes in Indianapolis, said the proposed Belle Crest neighborhood would feature 84 dwelling units in 42 ranch-style buildings on a 20-acre parcel north of the 186th Street and Shady Nook Road intersection. McNutt said the attached homes are a new format for Drees it hasn’t used in Westfield. It has partially completed the construction of two similar neighborhoods in Brownsburg and Avon.
The homes are expected to run between $275,000 and $350,000, with an average home price in the low $300,000s. McNutt said the target customer for the format is primarily empty-nesters who aren’t interested in paying for million-dollar clubhouses, pools or other amenities, especially when they got a second home elsewhere. Many of the buyers will have second homes elsewhere in the country.
“There’s a segment of the population that just really doesn’t want to be a part of a larger, master-planned community,” McNutt said. “There’s a segment that wants something a little smaller, a little more quaint, a little quieter and just doesn’t want the activity that comes with a master-planned community.”
Carramore—another Drees project pitched by McNutt—would have 83 single-family homes on 40 acres on the west side of Horton Road, north of the Horton Road and East 199th Street intersection. Carramore would be nearly identical in design to Westfield’s Wilshire neighborhood, northwest of 156th Street and Spring Mill Road, immediately south of Shamrock Springs Elementary School.
The collection of ranch and two-story homes in Carramore is expected to have an average selling price of $430,000—slightly more than the average price of $400,000 in the Wilshire neighborhood.
Epcon Communities presented its plans for the Courtyards of Westfield. The 99 proposed homes would be targeted toward 55-and-over buyers and built on a 33-acre site at the southwest corner of East 151st Street and Towne Road.
Concept plans for the neighborhood show each home will range from 1,400 square feet to 4,100 square feet, with courtyards built between dwellings. The ranch-style houses will include at least a two-car attached garage, with some featuring room for three vehicles. Also included in Epcon’s plans is a clubhouse with a fitness center, a gathering room, restrooms, a heated pool and a pickle ball court.
Homes within the Courtyards of Westfield are expected to cost between $350,000 to $550,000, with an average cost in the high $400,000s. Epcon, which has several neighborhoods in the Indianapolis area, recently proposed a 169-home neighborhood near Carmel High School.
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Westfield should require all these cookie cutter neighborhoods to have several trees planted in each yard and in common areas. One of the worst parts.
Why have anything come to our city or surrounding cities?Our highways are full of trash and debris. You cannot even use the Emerngcy lanes. I went to Detroit yesterday and the the highways were so clean through the city every Direction.
Our Mayer is trying to destroy Indpls.
It’s really a shame that the majority of neighborhoods that keep popping up are all $300,000 and up. But I am glad we are offering affordable second homes to community members…