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Henke Development Group LLC—the company behind some of the largest residential, recreational and commercial developments in Hamilton and Boone counties—is planning a 181-acre residential development on the rural north side of Zionsville that would feature single-family houses, retail space and a campus for a nonprofit that serves adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Under the plan, Maple Lane Club of Bradley Ridge would have up to 360 houses at the northeast corner of U.S. 421 and East County Road 200 South. The proposed property is just east of Zionsville-based Henke Development’s Bradley Ridge, a 350-acre nature-focused development that received approval from town officials last year.
Also near the Maple Lane Club site is agricultural land to the north and east, Indianapolis Executive Airport farther to the east and the former Hopwood Cellars Winery vineyard and residential lots to the south.
Henke Development is asking the town of Zionsville to rezone the property from rural general agriculture to the Maple Lane Club of Bradley Ridge Planned Unit Development.
“We believe Maple Lane Club of Zionsville will be an excellent project for this corridor of Zionsville and the community at large, and it will shine a spotlight not only on this neighborhood, but the inclusivity and the thoughtfulness of Zionsville’s leaders and its residents,” Kyle Resetarits, a lawyer with the Indianapolis office of global law firm Dentons, told Zionsville Plan Commission members on Monday night.
The current plan for Maple Lane Club calls for six different “use blocks,” or sections:
- Founders Grove at the northeast corner would have up to 159 single-family houses on lots no smaller than 10,800 square feet.
- Heritage Hill on the west side of the development along U.S. 421 would have up to 97 single-family houses on lots with a minimum size of 8,700 square feet.
- Pinegate would be split into two areas on the south and east sides of the site with up to 80 single-family houses on lots of at least 6,600 square feet.
- The Community Amenity Area in the center of the development would have recreational and agricultural uses with no residences permitted.
- Watch Us Farm, a Zionsville-based nonprofit that provides employment and job training for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, would have a 25-acre campus on the southeast portion of the site with up to 24 residences, a vocational training building, greenhouses, gardens, orchards, an event barn, an animal barn and pasture, walking paths, pumpkin patches and athletic fields.
- Maple Lane Commons would be at the southwest and northwest corners of the site with neighborhood commercial, retail and office space. The plan allows for single-family housing, but each individual house built in Maple Lane Commons would replace one from either Founders Grove, Heritage Hill or Pinegate.
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Information on the square footage and pricing of houses throughout the development was not available.
Betsy Henke Garfield, who directs development, finances and acquisitions for Henke Development, said she and her family began talking with Watch Us Farm founders David and Janice Agarwal about six years ago about finding space for the nonprofit at one of their future developments. Watch Us Farm currently has a 7,000-square-foot greenhouse at 9906 E. County Road 200 South.
“It is something that is unequivocally very special to not only our company, but that we believe will be such an important mark in real estate development, not only here in Zionsville, but nationwide,” Henke Garfield told Plan Commission members.
Henke Development originally filed plans with the town for Maple Lane Club on June 30. Resetarits said the original proposal called for 425 housing units. The developer removed town houses from its plan and lowered the maximum height of buildings in Maple Lane Commons from 50 feet to 35 feet and in Watch Us Farm from 45 feet to 35 feet.
Zionsville Senior Planner Roger Kilmer told Plan Commission members that town planning staff does not support the current proposal for Maple Lane Club due to the project’s proposed density of 1.98 houses per acre and the Indianapolis Executive Airport’s plan for the area, which calls for “campus-style housing.” Comparatively, Henke Development’s plan for Bradley Ridge across U.S. 421 calls for 0.82 houses per acre, or 282 total residential units.
After about 90 minutes of discussion on Monday night, members of the Zionsville Plan Commission voted unanimously to continue discussion about the project at its next meeting on Oct. 20. If the Plan Commission issues a recommendation, the project will move to the Zionsville town Council for final approval.
Plan Commission members generally expressed support for Maple Lane Club, but they said there are several problems with the planned unit development document that need to be resolved before they can vote on a recommendation.
“Density when you have quality development doesn’t matter as much as getting the design right,” Plan Commission member Brad Johnson said. “So, if we can get the design right, I personally don’t care if the number climbs a little bit, as long as we’re preserving the ground that needs to be preserved.”
About a dozen community members spoke in a public hearing session with most expressing favor for the plan for Watch Us Farm’s campus. Some residents expressed concern about the impact of Maple Lane Club on the area’s rural character and of increased traffic.
Maple Lane Club of Bradley Ridge would be Henke Development’s fourth major residential project in Zionsville.
Holliday Farms is a 600-acre golf community west of Michigan Road, between Willow Road and 146th Street in Zionsville. The overall project is expected to be completed over the next decade with eight planned neighborhoods and a Pete Dye-designed golf course that opened in June 2021.
Construction began in 2022 on the 321-acre Promontory of Zionsville, which will include 80 single-family homes ranging in cost from $1.5 million to $4 million. A 35-acre lake will be the focal point of the project, which also will include equestrian fields, stables, walking paths and open space.
Last year, the development firm received approval to build the $700 million Bradley Ridge, a 350-acre project that will have 290 single-family houses priced from about $700,000 to more than $3 million, along with a clubhouse and trails.
Henke is also known for developing Grand Park Sports Campus, The Bridgewater Club and The Club at Chatham Hills.
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Henke is working hard to get this approved before Zionsvilles new comprehensive plan is in place. That plan discourages new large residential housing projects in favor of commercial development due to the imbalance in the tax base. Henke developments have contributed to that imbalance over the last 10 yrs.. It will be interesting to see how the planning commission votes on this. I”m not optimistic they will say no. Henke seems to get what it wants most of the time.