Evansville Planning Commission approves Final Land Dividers Agreement for Westfield Meadows--What it all means for Evansville

The Evansville Planning Commission met on Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2005 and approved the final land dividers agreement for Westfield Meadows. The final documents presented reflected the complicated and difficult engineering, legal, and political work that has been done over the past two years.

That first meeting two years ago was contentious with unhappy Westside honeowners facing water problems and not wanting more problems for anyone. The developer was told that any vision for Westfield Meadows must look at the the larger water management system for the area for not just NOW but for 20 years ahead. That was a difficult thing to do, but that is precisely what was presented in final form last night.

Much of the preliminary work has been in Public Works meetings chaired by Bill Hammann, going over the checklists that were developed as a result of Smart Growth input. Some items of interest are:

---There will be three retention ponds in the total development, which makes it the most complicated engineering watershed project ever for Evansville.
----The most important retention pond will be constructed FIRST, before any home is built, and it will have a positive effect on all of the Westside in water handling.
----Each and every lot will have the elevation listed on the deed. The exact nature of the future development for the neighbors, such as duplexes will be shown to each buyer prior to purchase--full disclosure.
----Westfield Meadows will mark the end of Evansville for a long time to come----It will be the end of the capacity for Well Pump #6. Thus...
----The land designated for "future school site" needs to be renamed---it is in high water area and not available to sewer. Someone needs to tell the school. I guess it is The Observer. The site dream needs to be modified.
----The Westfield Meadows is a phased project that complies with the objectives of the Smart Growth Plan and the identified 27% growth rate the community seeks. The total number of units in this project is 158.
----Some of the homes may be no basement. It may be zero or 10, but the final number will be up to the engineers. The specifications for the decision making process have been agreed on.


If any who attended the meeting have anything to add, use the comment line, or email me at woulfe98@yahoo.com

What all this means for Evansville?

Hopefully this will be a homerun. A wonderful engineering story. A wonderful diverse development. Hopefully, also, the process of checklists will have prevented some of the problems of the past and result in a high quality development that all can be proud of.