Construction on a massive development expected to add up to 4,250 homes to Bloomington’s southwest side may start as soon as next year.
That’s according to developer Travis Vencel, who last week got the Bloomington City Council’s approval for a rezone of a nearly 140-acre site north of RCA Community Park.
Vencel is with Carmel-based Sullivan Development. He is co-developing the project, known as Summit District, with Tyler Ridge of Muncie-based Ridge Group.
Vencel said the first step toward completing the project is working out the specific design details.
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“It’s great to be through the first stage, which is the rezoning process,” Vencel said. “It really doesn’t mean moving dirt; it really means we now get to actually design the construction drawings for the roads, the streets and neighborhoods that will come with that.”
After that comes permitting with the state, the city and the county. Vencel said this could take nine-to-twelve months.
Summit District will include five neighborhoods: Denali Woods, Everest Center, Sandia Place, Shasta Meadow and Whitney Glen.
Vencel said Shasta Meadow, on the site’s far west side, will be developed first and could take three to four years to complete.
He said he expects construction to start next year. Development on Denali Woods, on the site’s far south side, will start about the same time and also take three to four years to complete, according to Vencel.
Vencel estimates these two neighborhoods, which he described as the least dense, will have a combined 1,000 residential units once complete.
“Shasta Meadow and Denali Woods are almost completely residential,” he said. “There’s a slight use of some auxiliary uses that might go with residential. Schools, for instance, are allowed — but really, we think those will be primarily our residential base.”
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The project is expected to take a total of 10-to-12 years to develop. As it advances, the developers will need the Bloomington Plan Commission’s approval for plans for each of the five neighborhoods, according to Vencel.
“We would anticipate that we would do that several times,” he said. “We might come back four or five times for each one of the neighborhoods doing final plan approval at the plan commission level.”
The developers would only need the city council’s approval for any changes to the ordinance it passed outlining stipulations for the project.
