Fighting Noblesville City Hall

Neighbors object to $250 million backyard development

According to Noblesville Economic Development Director Andrew Murray during a recent council meeting, a quarter billion dollars in new development is coming to the shore of Morse Reservoir at East 206th Street and Hague Road. The City of Noblesville and development firm LOR Corporation call it “Morse Village.”

Several residents in an existing neighborhood call it something far less pleasant.

Deb Thompson, Bill and Jamie Ross, Frank Kerwin, and his daughter Kim spoke to The Reporter about their concerns over this project. They all live on the west side of Hague Road, directly north of the West Pointe portion of the Morse Village project. These residents’ concerns include privacy, quality of life, property values, and wildlife including – but not limited to – a bald eagle nest.

On Monday, Nov. 18, at 6 p.m. the Noblesville Plan Commission will hold a public hearing at City Hall Council Chambers, 16 South 10th Street, Noblesville. Several residents and an attorney from Paganelli Law Firm will be present to argue against this development plan, which has been two years in the making, but which residents told The Reporter they first heard about through the most recent Noblesville State of the City presentation in September, and were only notified in writing via U.S. Mail delivered on Nov. 1.

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Noblesville’s Side

Noblesville Economic Development Director Andrew Murray and Adam Hill from LOR Corporation presented the plan to the Noblesville Common Council on Oct. 15. You can watch the full presentation online at tinyurl.com/bdum3z8m.

A summary of the plan is also available online at tinyurl.com/MorseVillagePlan.

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Paganelli Law Firm helped Hamilton County Neighborhood Preservation Group win a court decision to reverse a Noblesville Board of Zoning Appeals decision to allow a gravel pit in their neighborhood.

Jamie Ross told The Reporter she was shocked to learn the details of the planned development.

“There’s going to be the shopping area and I don’t know if it’s apartments or townhomes, but I thought that was over there [on the east side of Hague Road],” Ross said. “I didn’t realize that they were trying to squeeze all this in a very tight area that we have behind us.”

That immediately raised a privacy concern for the Rosses.

“They’ve talked about these units being three and four stories high with rooftop access and balconies,” Ross said.

The Rosses and others expressed concerns over tall structures being built just beyond their backyards, where there is now an open field, then trees, then Morse Reservoir. They said they worried about people in these new homes being able to look directly into their living rooms, most of which were originally built with large glass windows and doors for the very view of nature they are about to lose.

“We’ve lived here about eight years,” Jamie Ross said. “When you look out there, it’s just trees and wildlife. I get fox and coyote. I’ve seen an eight-point buck. I can show you pictures of the bald eagles right behind my fence line. This summer, we had a family of deer, a mom and three doe. And it just … it kind of breaks my heart. I mean, this is why you move to Noblesville.”

Kim Kerwin said she was also surprised by this development because she thought the land was not able to be developed due to existing regulations.

“I guess we never thought this would happen either because I was understanding a lot of that is protected wetland,” Kerwin said.

“This is one of the last pieces of land that has not been developed,” Jamie Ross said. “So if you then take that, seeing how the reservoir is so built up over the years, where do you replace [those wetlands]? What do you do about the heron, the egret, the blue jay, the bluebird, the owls? I mean, and those are just the birds.”

Among the birds they are concerned about are the bald eagles nesting in a small stand of trees in an otherwise open field on the east side of Hague Road.

This is addressed in a City Council presentation by LOR Corporation, a link to which is available in this article. LOR is planning to leave a 330-foot buffer zone around the eagles’ nest and make that area into a park called Eagle Park Preserve.

The Rosses, Kerwins, and Thompsons said they do not believe 330 feet is enough. According to them, a representative from U.S. Fish and Wildlife said the undeveloped radius should be 330 to 660 feet. Considering the trails that are planned to be built within the new park and closer to the nest than the edge of even the lesser 330-foot radius, these residents do not believe the eagles will stay.

There was a plan for a different development in this same area in a previous administration, but it failed.

“What it’s currently zoned as is single-family,” Jamie Ross said. “However, we didn’t think they could develop because the back half is on a floodplain. It’s protected wetlands. And when I went to develop in 2017, they shot everything down on the basis of the protected wetlands.”

Now, people these residents are reaching out to say they thought it was already too late to do anything when the mailed notices arrived.

“When I was going out to get these petitions signed, people were saying to me, ‘well, this is already a done deal and we can’t do anything about it,’” Bill Ross said. “And that’s because of the way the mayor spoke in the interviews that he gave. One of the biggest obstacles that I have been facing is people assume it’s already a done deal and that the zoning has happened.”

Jamie Ross said she feels the current administration is more concerned with serving potential future residents instead of the current ones.

“You’re looking past people that live here that are your residents,” Ross said. “We’re supposed to be your constituents. And you are overlooking us for maybe what could be, what might be, what may be. I mean, it just feels like a slap in the face. And quite frankly, it will have me rethinking the next time I go place a ballot who I’m voting for – mayor, city council – because this is a disgrace.”

 

Everyone who spoke to this newspaper said they love Noblesville. They chose to live in Noblesville over options in Carmel and Fishers because of the peaceful small-town feeling and the proximity to nature.

“We moved here 12 years ago,” Frank Kerwin said. “We lived 17 years in Fishers and we were getting tired of everything with all the new construction going on. We also looked at Carmel. We came out to Noblesville, and we just loved it. It wasn’t Fishers and it wasn’t Carmel. And we loved downtown Noblesville at that time.”

Everyone present said they agreed that it felt like they were losing their hometown.

“I mean, this is my hometown and it just hurts me to see,” Jamie Ross said. “There’s so many people that get enjoyment from birdwatching and watching the eagles. In the posts that people do on social media, the photographers have done an amazing job. It’s just like you’re taking this little slice of nature heaven and you’re obliterating it is pretty much what’s going to happen. I don’t know what else to say. It’s heartbreaking. I never thought as a little girl, I’d have eagles in my backyard, but now that I do, I don’t want them to go.”