JEFFERSONVILLE — The city and a Clarksville developer are teaming up to bring an innovative subdivision with plenty of local park space to Jeffersonville.
Ellingsworth Commons, a project of Premier Homes, might feature 512 single-family homes for a variety of residents, as well as three lakes, a disc golf park, several pocket parks and a three-mile paved path for bicycles and pedestrians that will start at Vissing Park and wind around the 169-acre subdivision.
Premier Homes is currently constructing a similar green-space heavy subdivision in Georgetown, albeit a more rural one. The Jeffersonville subdivision will be bounded by Port Road, Stonelilly Drive and Middle Road with access to 10th Street from a realigned Herb Lewis Road. Most of the land being used for the subdivision formerly belonged to the late Tom and Janet Ellingsworth, who owned a dairy farm.
Around 26 percent of the subdivision is set to be comprised of green space, an undetermined amount of which will be owned by the Jeffersonville Parks Department and available for public use. Jeff Corbett, president of Premier Homes, will be donating the park land to the city.
Other possible green-space amenities for the subdivision include four shelter areas, public restrooms, a pavilion and two playgrounds. There will also be “numerous” other smaller loop trail options available in the development.
In exchange for all the extra green space, Ellingsworth Commons' housing lots will feature alleyways leading to the backs of homes for parking — a more downtown style of residence.
“It's what people want today,” said Corbett “…They want character.”
Nathan Pruitt, Jeffersonville's director of planning and zoning, said that Corbett's plans for the subdivision are unique, not just to Southern Indiana, but to the Louisville metropolitan area, as well.
“When you think of current market drives to high-amenity style developments where people are clamoring to move into, this is what that is,” he said. “And it's because of the green space amenities and the access to that as well as the development of basically a brand new trail system.”
Ellingsworth Commons is an alternative to a former plan of the city's to expand Vissing Park by 160 acres per a five-year plan for the parks system that identified a need for a large, centralized park. The city was originally considering using the Ellingsworth's land for the expansion, but Corbett had obtained a contract to buy the property a month or so before the city first discussed it.
Realizing what the city wanted to do, Corbett approached the parks authority with his surveyor, David Blankenbeker with Blankenbeker & Son, and asked how they could work together.
“We put our heads together and said, 'Well, how can we make it work so that we're not at odds,” Blankenbeker said. “How can we make it work that we're together on this and can make something great for the City of Jeff, but also something that works for the developer as well and the new residents?”
The result was Ellingsworth Commons, to which Vissing Park's pedestrian path, which is still being planned out, will connect.
Corbett and his team have already met with Jeffersonville Mayor Mike Moore, City Council President Lisa Gill, the planning and zoning department, the police and fire departments, the engineering department and the sewage department to discuss the development.
Moore said that he loves the idea for the subdivision.
“I think a partnership where you've got parks provided inside of a subdivision where residents can enjoy the safety of their homes, but also have a nice place to walk and play and even fish, I think it's a concept that's very popular right now,” he said.
Pruitt said that the development should also help with a predicted shortage of housing in Jeffersonville: the city is supposed to be short 2,000 housing units by 2027, according to a study that his department released last October.
The subdivision will also help with the parks authority's need for more lakes and more “passive,” or open space, which was outlined in the organization's master plan, said Matt Gullo, the director of landscape architecture and planning for Kovert Hawkings Architects.
Premier Homes still has to get permission from the city plan commission and council to convert the subdivision's zoning from residential to a planned development, however.
“This is not a by-right neighborhood,” Blankenbeker said.
The subdivision concept goes before the plan commission on Aug. 29, but even before that, Premier Homes will be gauging the public's interest and listening to feedback with an information session from 7 to 9 p.m. Aug. 16 at the Greater Clark County Schools administration building, 2112 Utica Sellersburg Road, Jeffersonville.
Ellingsworth Commons might also feature a boulevard running through the heart of the subdivision with dedicated pull-off parking spaces and a 45-foot area with green space and the multi-use path. A pool and club house are also planned for the subdivision.
Ellingsworth Commons' home prices will range from $180,000 to $400,000. Corbett wants the subdivision to be feasible for all types of families, including couples with no children, families and retired folks, Blankenbeker said.
“There will be a lot and house in here for you if you've got, you know, a moderate income or if you're going to spend half a million dollars on a house,” he said. “It will all available in this development.”