The McCordsville town council approved an amendment to the Jacobi Farms PUD allowing a second developer to join the project at the council’s Aug. 13 meeting.
Birmingham, Ala.-based real estate company LMS has been working with Pulte, the original developer, since early this year, and the two companies agreed to split the original PUD into two separate developments — one for rental properties and one for homeowners. The initial PUD still had similar sections, but Pulte was initially the only developer for both sections.
Pulte’s first version of the Jacobi Farms project was initially proposed to the town and approved alongside in 2021, but no action has been taken on the property, which is still in use as farmland.
The new version of the PUD is slightly denser in the LMS portion of the property, with some of the townhouses increasing from two to three stories, and amenities such as an additional swimming pool and more park space were added so that both halves of the property had their own.
The Jacobi Farms development is important to the town’s expansion of the sewer system as McCordsville’s borders continue to expand to the east, according to council president Greg Brewer. The town annexed McCordsville Sports Park last year and committed to extend sewer to the area. The regional lift station built for the Jacobi Farms development would allow the sewer system to reach the park and let the town fulfill its obligations while recouping the over $2.2 million dollar cost of the sewer expansion.
Pulte expects the homes to cost $450,000 at the low end in total expenses with a sticker price of at least $300,000 while LMS said that they anticipate a one-bedroom rental with garage space to be a minimum of $1600 per month to rent.
John Price, the council’s representative to the plan commission, pushed back on the changes to the PUD, citing the increase in density, saying that the amount of people living in the LMS portion of the development went up from the initial PUD without a similar increase in green space for the development, but the rest of the council did not share his concerns as the amendment passed 4-1. The agreement to extend the county sewers to the development also passed 4-1, with Price voting no on the sewer agreement as well.
