Driftwood Hills Neighborhood Association

Northside Topics Article

Feb 23, 2006

Posted 7:27 AM February 21, 2006
Residents say no to development
Group files lawsuit to keep store from moving in


Gretchen.Becker@Topics.com
February 23, 2006


Todd DeGroff (center), attorney for the Driftwood Hills Neighborhood Association, outlines the group's grievances against plans to construct a grocery store and townhomes at 86th Street and Haverstick Road. The residents filed a lawsuit Feb. 14 to challenge a rezoning decision by the City-County Council and Metropolitan Development Commission. -- James.Yee@Topics.com



WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP -- The homes in their northside Indianapolis neighborhood may not be worth millions but Linda Stempel and Karen Hamilton think they're priceless -- and worth protecting.

That's why the two women and their Driftwood Hills Neighborhood Association filed a lawsuit Feb. 14 against the Metropolitan Development Commission and the City-County Council to block the construction of a grocery store and townhomes at Haverstick Road and 86th Street.


"We want to preserve our lower and middle class neighborhoods," Stempel said. "Our houses have a lot of character. It's our own hidden treasure, and we want to keep it. We don't want commercial intrusion. We like the direction our neighborhood is going."

For a year, the neighborhood has been fighting plans from developer PK Capital to construct a 60,000-square-foot Whole Foods grocery store and 31 townhomes on the northeast corner of the intersection.

The Metropolitan Development Commission and the City-County Council approved a request to rezone the land for commercial use last month.

Stempel, one of the neighborhood association's co-presidents, and other neighbors would welcome residential development -- which is how the land was originally zoned. They think a regional grocery store would taint the area.

Stempel would shop at Whole Foods if it was located elsewhere in the city, she said, but she won't step inside the doors if it goes up in her neighborhood.

Hamilton, also a co-president, moved to Driftwood Hills with her family after they found the "perfect home" on Haverstick Road six years ago.

"I'm going to look at it (the store) out my front door," she said. "I am pleased and shocked at the steadfastness of this neighborhood. If we felt we lost fair and square, we would've left it at that."

The Driftwood and Nora area neighbors gathered in a resident's driveway Feb. 16 to explain the lawsuit filed in Marion County Environmental Court.

The resident, Todd DeGroff, is an attorney who will represent the neighbors in court. He said a case like this is unusual because it's usually developers who file lawsuits because land is not rezoned.

The residents are challenging the decision-making process followed by the commission and council to rezone the property. They say the decision violates the city's comprehensive master plan.

"This case is supposed to be about the facts, and let's talk about the law," DeGroff said. "The comprehensive plan may not be a law, but the state law that says how you do rezoning says 'shall' and 'must.'"

The lawsuit asks the court to reverse or re-evaluate the actions of the commission and council, DeGroff said. During the hearings, he said, the developer should have had to prove why the land should be rezoned. Officials instead asked residents why the property should not be rezoned, he said.

"We are not in this for the money," DeGroff said. "We are not opposed to Whole Foods. We just want it to be on the other side of Keystone (Avenue)."

The city has one month to respond to the lawsuit, said Kobi Wright, Indianapolis corporation counsel. If the developer gets funding and permits, construction could begin unless a judge orders a halt to the development. A court ruling is needed to overturn the rezoning.

If the rezoning is not overturned, DeGroff said, he plans to take the case to the Indiana Court of Appeals.

Call staff writer Gretchen Becker at (317) 444-5574.