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Many have asked us why we pursue the 138-acre development of Canyon Cliffs in northeast Perry Township. The reasons are simple: We have been in the business of developing residential real estate primarily in Allen County for almost 40 years. We have developed more than 3,000 single-family residential lots. Simply put, our success suggests that we know and understand the residential housing market.
Perry Township is the fastest-growing township in Allen County, creating significant demand for all types of residential housing and, especially, high-end, low-density housing. The Coldwater Road corridor is well suited for this development.
Low-density residential development, if done correctly, can be environmentally friendly and help preserve pristine areas of our county. This land is well suited for the development we propose and which the market currently demands. Yes, we see an opportunity, but only for the justification of undertaking another quality residential housing development for Allen County.
We must exercise our opportunity prudently, as we do with every development. Canyon Cliffs does not deal in maybes. Our side of the ledger deals in facts, and those facts are that we have an environmentally sound, green, high-end, low-density single-family development that is a permitted use, by right, under the current A-3 Estates zoning district. We will not harm the Huntertown aquifer and, as proposed, we will help clean up Cedar Creek rather than allow existing pollution to occur.
Some in the area advocate no development should occur at all on this site, citing well-intentioned, but often incorrect, environmental concerns. With all respect, we believe we know a thing or two about the environment as we work in it day in and day out. Not only can residential housing be compatible with the goal of nature conservancy, but it can serve to enhance nearby conservation land with environmentally sound residential development. Canyon Cliffs, as proposed, will do exactly that.
Our requirement for the use of rain gardens, bioswales, the preservation of the existing wetland areas and, yes, the use of public sanitary sewers in lieu of septic systems all, collectively, set a new standard for residential development in Allen County. Low-density residential development, which is green and environmentally friendly, makes good economic sense and can be good for the community at large as well. The two are not mutually exclusive.
Our proposed 28 lots on 138 acres is not a “massive” development. Its 5-acres-per-lot density does not require a rezoning and is consistent with the Plan-it Allen comprehensive plan.
What is being overlooked is that other new housing is being, and has been, constructed in Perry Township north of Cedar Canyons Road and east of Coldwater Road, in the same general area of Canyon Cliffs. All of these new homes are on septic systems. The only difference is that Canyon Cliffs is planned, receives oversight by the Plan Commission and other county departments and proposes public sanitary sewers. Within that plan is a commitment to preserve almost 45 acres of land, much of which is designated wetlands.
Canyon Cliffs will be the exception, rather than the rule, with respect to disturbance of wetland areas associated with new development.
The restrictive covenant prohibiting sanitary sewer extension for new housing in northeast Perry Township, which is set to expire in 2015 unless otherwise lifted by the Plan Commission, has not stopped new residential housing. It has merely forced, until now, all new residential housing construction to utilize septic systems.
The Allen County Regional Water & Sewer District seeks to not only reverse the trend of using septic systems for new residential housing, but also to leverage new housing to provide meaningful septic system relief for existing homes. We support this initiative because sanitary sewer waste disposal is a more environmentally safe means of sewage disposal than septic systems.
Providing septic system relief to the entire Holmestead Acres neighborhood is just the first step in that initiative, but, and make no mistake, it has to be the first step if other steps are to occur. Whether the Plan Commission allows the district to move forward with its initiative, and leverage private development investment to achieve what otherwise cannot be achieved, will be the question asked when the decision is made on the restrictive covenant. If the answer is no, septic systems will continue to be the likely method of choice for new housing construction in northeast Perry Township.
All of this brings us to the Minor Plat Ordinance. Canyon Cliffs has met all of the standards and requirements of the ordinance. Planning staff, objectively, has, time and again, reiterated its belief that Canyon Cliffs conforms to the ordinance. Members of the study committee that formulated the ordinance believe Canyon Cliffs to be entirely consistent with the ordinance.
Good public policy, we believe, suggests the Plan Commission should exercise its ministerial obligations as required for all subdivision plats rather than read into the ordinance standards and requirements that simply are not there or, worse yet, treat this proposal as something akin to a rezoning request.
Canyon Cliffs is an environmentally sound development. It complies with the Minor Plat Ordinance. It is not a rezoning and should not be treated as one. It has received and stood the test of intense public scrutiny.
Should this particular piece of land be deprived of the same property rights as others are exercising in the nearby vicinity all because we wish to have new homes built in a planned development? No, of course not, and what we can assure the community is that Canyon Cliffs will be a development that will raise the bar in a way no other development has in our county.
We would not be the developers we are if we committed to anything less.
