Jeffersonville OKs 418 single-family homes and apartment units

Attorney John Kraft and Mayor Mike Moore, who recently traded jabs over a proposed development along Charlestown-Jeffersonville Pike and Woehrle Road, came together over a 108-home subdivision along Charlestown Pike that Kraft presented and of which Moore approved.

“We don’t usually agree, but when he agrees with me, he’s usually right,” Moore said. 

The subdivision was among 418 single-family homes and apartment units in three developments approved by the plan commission on Tuesday night. Along with the Charlestown Pike development, a downtown apartment project and an extension of Autumn Ridge Apartments were given an OK by the board.

Several plan commission members, as well as Moore, acknowledged an intense need for places to live in Jeffersonville. The mayor also came to the meeting in support of the downtown apartment development, which will involve a Texas-based firm, Waypoint Residential, buying land from the city’s redevelopment commission.

“This brings in true Class A housing at a time when our city is busting at the seams with new business,” Moore said. “We need to concentrate on high-end housing as well as other housing.”

The project will bring two buildings and 214 luxury apartments to a former American Legion property near Big Four Station. Waypoint Residential hopes to close on the land and bring construction by the end of December.

Last year, when the redevelopment commission approved a letter of intent from Waypoint, the company was interested in buying the property for $775,000. Today, the developer is still conducting market research to determine how much the apartments will cost for residents. At the meeting, Jeffersonville’s Planning and Zoning Director Nathan Pruitt convinced Waypoint to look into improving TARC stops near the proposed building as well.

The development that Kraft represented, made up of only single-family homes ranging in price from $210,000 to $300,000, was brought to the plan commission by J.T. Development, a partnership between two prominent Southern Indiana developers: Jim Johns and Don Thieneman.

The continuation of Autumn Ridge, located off of 10th Street near Vissing Park, will add 96 more units to the complex with five three-story buildings. Due to building costs, the new units will be slightly more expensive than the development’s current apartments, which cost $750 a month for a two-bedroom, but the owner has not determined how much the new units will cost.

Another potential housing development was addressed at the meeting as well. The commission passed along a favorable recommendation for the rezoning of a development for seniors along Charlestown Pike near Interstate 265.

All in all, there were “lots” of housing developments on Tuesday’s agenda, said Pruitt. But maybe not enough.

“It’s certainly helping, but it’s not getting us to where we need to be,” Pruitt said. “We need to triple this.”

With new jobs coming to the city every year because of River Ridge Commerce Center, Jeffersonville is predicted to be short 2,000 housing units by 2027.

Pruitt would like to see more diversity in housing costs and types.

“We kind of saw both sides of that tonight,” Pruitt said, referencing the mix of single and multi-family developments. 

The Autumn Ridge development was opposed at Tuesday’s meeting by some neighbors who took issue with the buildings’ three stories encroaching on their privacy, but with some uncertainty about whether the property’s slope would allow the developer to build as many stories as planned, the apartment complex was approved by both the plan commission and the Board of Zoning Appeals.

RIVER RIDGE OFFICE BUILDING

A development plan for a 150,800-square foot office building in River Ridge adjacent to American Fuji Seal was tabled at Tuesday’s meeting.

Project documents filed by America Place with the planning and zoning department show a three-story building with a cafeteria and an outdoor dining place.

In other news:

• Aulbach Pence, LLC, plans to build another structure on Jefferson Centre Way near Meijer where its previous building burnt down several years ago. This one will be an office.

• A new dentist office owned by Dr. Sara Denzinger-Rowe is planned for 4100 Woehrle Road. It will be called Sunshine Family Dental.