WESTFIELD, Ind. -- Westfield residents packed city hall Tuesday night to weigh in on a proposed development that would add 1,000 homes and 423 apartments to their community.
The development would go up near the Wood Wind Golf Course at 161st Street and Towne Road.
The development has its detractors, including Leah Severson. She says the city's comprehensive plan doesn't mention anything like this development in the area.
"It calls for wide open spaces, greenery, nature … that's why moved to this part of town," Severson said. "That was the city's goal. Now, a developer with lots of money has got his face pressed up against the window like a kid at Christmas staring at our shining golf course and saying, 'I want that.' It's frustrating."
The preliminary plan, propose by the PulteGroup, spans from 166th Street on the north and 146th Street on the south, and from Shelbourne Road to just east of Towne Road on the west and east. It covers 731 acres – currently zoned agricultural and single-family rural.
Beth Armstrong has lived on her property in that area for 36 years. She has 55 acres with horses and some corn that she still farms. The proposed development has her and her neighbors upset.
"They moved out here because they want a piece of the country," Armstrong said. "And it's rapidly disappearing with reckless abandon. It doesn't make any sense."
Opponents of the proposal have already collected 700 signatures on a petition opposing it.
Tuesday night's public hearing was just the beginning phase for the project. More hearings were expected to come in the following months.
