Living In Pike.com

The Midwest Sports organization has petitioned for a zoning change to permit eight additional volleyball courts, a swimming pool, four unlighted high school-sized soccer fields and four championship soccer fields on the former Crooked Creek Golf Course property.

They will present at the Pike Township Residents Association (PTRA) at the monthly meeting, Wednesday, April 14th, at 7:00 PM. The meeting is held at the Pike Township Government Center, 5665 Lafayette Road.

If you have concerns or are interested in learning about the details, please plan to attend the meeting. If you are unable to attend, you may contact Clint Fultz, PTRA’s Vice President for this area, clint@ptra.net or Susan Blair, President, susan@ptra.net .

Happy New Year to all,

I can’t believe another year has come and gone. Before the year ends, I wanted to take a moment to wish you all a happy holiday season and all the best for 2010. A lot has happened in 2009 in the city and in our neighborhoods. While not exhaustive and in no order, here are some of highlights.

Recycle your Christmas tree, gift boxes, electronics, including TVs under 27”, cardboard boxes, and Styrofoam Saturday, January 9, 2010, at Broad Ripple Park (1550 Broad Ripple Ave), Ellenberger Park (5301 E St Clair St), Garfield Park (2345 Pagoda Dr), and Krannert Park (605 S. High School Rd).

W 46th St from Raceway to Lafayette Rd was resurfaced and new signage was put up at Lafayette Rd to identify turn lanes.

Zionsville Rd was resurfaced north of 86th St, and, between 71st & 86th Sts, is being resurfaced along with adding curbs including green infrastructure cut outs to facilitate drainage.

The bridge on Lafayette Rd between 71st and 79th has been completely rebuilt with a bike lane to Eagle Creek Park.

Tree Plantings:
Parks, Pike Youth Soccer, Neighbors and other Community Volunteers planted trees and shrubs along the Greenways Trail at Geisse Soccer Complex in May, and another 96 trees and shrubs were planted throughout the property this fall.

Normandy Farms did a second planting of trees around the INDOT salt/transportation property on Lafayette Rd.

Traders Point received designation as a federal Historic Rural District.

Potholes and High Weeds and Grass processes underwent a Six Sigma evaluation to identify and implement efficiencies to provide decreased call to fill/cut times and provide better service. The number of steps to fill potholes was significantly reduced and now potholes are being repaired much more quickly than in the past, often within a day or two. High Weeds and Grass cut time decreased from 42 days in 2008 to 16 days in 2009. Over 9000 properties were mowed compared to less than 2200 in 2008. When city contractors mowed a property, the property was automatically reinspected and mowed if needed, resulting in over 2700 re-mows (2337 in 2008).

The Lafayette Square Area Coalition has been working to revitalize the Lafayette Square Area. A revised Area Land Use Plan will be submitted to the city for adoption in 2010. They also hosted their second annual International Parade and third annual Taste the Difference event, both of which highlight the many cultures of people living in the area. If you are interested in participating or volunteering, please visit www.lafayettesquareareacoalition.org.

Eagledale Neighborhood Association worked with Indianapolis Motor Speedway to clean up a section of Falcon Creek from Fredonia to Philips Ct. A couple transmissions, tires, shopping carts and more were pulled out, as well as much of the overgrowth cut back.

The Eagledale/Lafayette Square Area Weed & Seed is completing its second year, with funding scheduled for three more years. New chairs have been elected for the Steering, Weed, and Seed Committees, with a renewed commitment to engaging the community and encouraging participation in order to “weed” out negative activities and “seed” in positive alternatives. The first annual Peace Walk had over 100 participants with plans to grow it next year. There will be a bike safety rally and much more in 2010. Please come out and participate and support these efforts. Interested? Contact 979-3053.

Steering Committee Mtgs – 2nd Tuesdays at 6pm at the Eagle Branch Library, 3325 Lowry, just south of W 34th and east of Georgetown Rd.

Weed Mtgs – 3rd Thursdays at 6pm at the Eagle Branch Library

Seed Mtgs – 4th Wednesdays at 6pm at the Covenant Baptist Church, 3301 W 30th St., between Georgetown and Lafayette Rd.

In 2010,

W 38th St will be resurfaced and new sidewalks will be added on both sides of the street from I-465 to I-65. A public meeting will be held probably some time in March to share details.

Bike lanes will be added, for the most part on existing road surface, to Lafayette Rd from County Line in the North to the White River closer to downtown. The lanes should be in place late 2010 or early 2011.

The Eagledale Northwest Community Center will begin offering Golden Eagles activities for seniors (including tutoring students) at the Imagine Life Sciences West charter school a couple afternoons a week in 2010.

A new pedestrian trail will be added to Michigan Rd between W 86th and Township Line Rd.

As the Mayor notes, citizens are proud of their city, but they live in their neighborhoods. Thank you to all that you do to make your neighborhoods better places to live. I look forward to working with you in 2010!

I will be out of the office now until January 4th. I will respond to any questions or concerns when I return.

Mary E. Chalmers
Northwest Outer Region
Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services
Gregory A. Ballard, Mayor
2135 City-County Building
200 East Washington Street
Indianapolis, Indiana 46204
Office: (317) 327-5157
Fax: (317) 327-5424
mchalmer@indy.gov

The College Park theater has closed. After a 25 year run the AMC Loews College Park 14 movie theater says that they cannot compete with the Showplace 12 at Traders Point. It now sits empty.

I have it from a good source that the old Bob Evans restaurant at 9310 Michigan Road is about to become a Grand Traverse Pie Company. I drove by there yesterday and they have torn part of the building down.

We are about to have a new hotel in Intech Park. Hilton Hotels is going to open a full service Garden Inn mid September. It will have 122 rooms, Ballroom space for 180 people, a Great Americian Grill and rates will be between $89 to $199 a night.

My source also tells me that the old Galyans at Lafayette Road and Pike Plaza Road is going to become a Mexican Grocery. Kind of big don’t you think? The old Value City in the same center may become a nightclub.

And lastly…Jack In The Box will be opening their first restaurant in Indiana. My understanding is that it will be located at at 46th and Lafayette Road where the old Amaco gas station use to be. My guess is that there will be many more fast food restaurants opening in the area thanks to the new Wal Mart center across the street.

There are four 2009 triathlons scheduled in Eagle Creek Park: 6/20, 7/18, 8/22, 8/29. On these four Saturday mornings, around 8.15am, the police plan to close westbound West 56th Street between I-465 and the Eagle Creek Park entrance for up to an hour for the bicycle portion of the race.

Here we go again…71st Street and Westlane Road and Michigan Road.

You are cordially invited to attend a pre-construction public information
meeting for project # TS-10-008 regarding the intersection improvements
on Michigan Road and Westlane Road/71st Street.

This public meeting is scheduled for Thursday, May 21, 2009 from
6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. and will be held at the Greater New Hope Church
located at 3444 West 71st Street.

Public comments are welcome and encouraged.

Click here for Info Flyer.

Dunkin’ Donuts in Indianapolis wants to open the first 24 hour shop in Pike Township. The only thing stopping it at this point is the Metropolitan Development Commission. PTRA (Pike Township Residents Association) has already signed off and supported it at the last meeting, after some commitment changes. The original commitments required no 24 hour stores in the Eagle Creek Shops at 4930 Lafayette Road center and trash pick up only on Monday through Wednesday. PTRA agreed to allow this store to be open 24 hours and trash pick-up could be Monday through Friday.

The strip center was developed and built in the past 2 years and has had a hard time getting retailers to move in. Having a Dunkin’ Donuts there should help out. Another influence on the shopping center is the new WalMart, Garden Ridge and other developing retail just south of Eagle Creek Shops. These should draw new business to Eagle Creek Shops.

The Metropolitian Development Commission should vote on it next month.

This time we are looking at 208 new apartments. This new development was going to have 126 single family homes in addition to the apartments but guess what? There are no builders interested in building 126 homes at this location at this time.

The location? 7511 New Augusta Road. Just south of Eastbrook Elementary School and north of the Augusta Green neighborhood. Currently the property is home to Crooked Creek Golf Club and Midwest Softball.

Pike Township Schools bought the north 47 acres of the total 114. They would like to rebuild Eastbrook either just south of where it is now or further south on part of the 47 acres. Eventually they might build a new middle school on the remainder of the 47 acres sometime in the future. The other 67 acres would be for apartments and single family homes.

Since the apartments would be where some of the golf course is and since the single family homes would be where the some of the softball fields are there is talk that the softball fields may stay open another year or until they can find a single family home builder.

My take?…I am always leery about new apartments. The density of these apartments would be 10.96 units per acre on 18.981 acres. I have seen pictures of what the proposed buildings would look like. They remind me of Lakes of Georgetown at 62nd and Georgetown. I have several other grips. They will be adding 200 new cars of traffic to New Augusta Road just south of the school. I suppose you could argue that apartment residents could walk over to Georgetown Road and catch the bus. The entrance to the community is along side this monstrosity. A red trailer that has been sitting there for years. It would be much nicer if the developer bought this property (has been commercial use in the past – carpet warehouse) and turned the entrance into a park like setting (this property has been for sale). As a Realtor I like nice entrances to communities. This attracts buyers. My other big grip is that the high power lines go right through the middle of the community. For resale, this is horrible. Nobody likes to buy next to high power lines.

I don’t think this project will be stopped. I have attended several informational meetings on this project and the city seems to be OK with it. It will be interesting to see when a production builder will step up and be willing to build single family homes at this location.

Original Plot Plan – Click Here

Revised Plot Plan – Click Here

November 7th was a sad day for Pike Township Residents Association and myself. PTRA had asked me to do a presentation in front of the Metropolitan Development Commission to try and stop a new community from being built at the old YWCA location. I knew of many reasons why it was a bad idea and tried to express them to the commission. The southeast quadrant of Pike Township is very unstable in terms of property values and foreclosures. Until the area stabilizes you don’t want a new community in the area. Not only would it not help the surrounding communities but would likely depress the values of the new homes. Unfortunately the Commission only looks at “land use”. If there are houses all around the land, why not put houses there. It is very sad that the Commission takes a narrow view at zoning, but that is their charge. State statutes say that is the way they are suppose to judge it. I consider this a huge flaw in the zoning system.

There is one glimmer of hope…the zoning they received for the land allows for 75 homes OR the land can be used for religious use. There is a church that is interested in the property. They would use the existing YWCA building after fixing it up. Their plan includes neighborhood outreach, programs for children, daycare, and health center etc., something the area could really take advantage of. I am hoping that a deal can be made between the developer and the church. Otherwise I see a storm brewing.

Plot plan of the new development – Click Here

Commission presentation through Windows Media Player – Click Here Starts at 22:55

For a printable copy of the above Click Here