Developers of a new student apartment complex near campus will install a 6-foot metal fence and take other measures to shield a nearby neighborhood that had opposed the development, an attorney from the project said.
Campus Crest Communities was approved by the Metropolitan Board of Zoning and Appeals on Thursday night to build the complex after months of debate.
The $15 million complex will include 216 apartments on the north side of the city, along McGalliard Road. It is near Layne Crest neighborhood, which is located between West McGalliard Road and Northside Middle School, as well as the area between Scheumann Stadium and Oakwood Avenue.
Scott Shockley of DeFur Voran LLP, the attorney representing the company, said construction of Campus Crest Communities will begin this summer, and the complex should be open for the 2013-2014 school year.
Campus Crest Communities plans to build a "buffer zone" between the student apartments and the already existing Layne Crest neighborhood.
Residents of the area who oppose the construction project said the new complex would create and increase traffic and drainage issues.
Local politician Jim Arnold, who isn't a resident of Layne Crest, said he opposes the building of the complex and believes it will create more issues for that area.
"Since that stretch of McGalliard is already the busiest road in Muncie, why would you want to add more traffic to it?" Arnold said in a December interview.
Shockley said Campus Crest is complying with zoning regulations, and is aware of Layne Crest residents' concerns.
"From the start, the project had been designed to be as sensitive to the reasonable concerns of the neighbors as possible," Shockley said.
Shockley said the company plans on using landscape buffers, a six-foot-metal fence and lighting that projects down instead of sideways.
The project is estimated to create $300,000 in tax revenue for the city, but Shockley said the project would create approximately $212,000 in payroll for employees of the project.
Campus Crest is hoping to give many, if not all, of the available contracting jobs to local companies, Shockley said.
Critics of the complex believe building such a large housing unit will create the opportunity for more blight and empty properties around the city.
Adding such a large amount of residential properties to the area could also cause a decline in business of the many other apartment complexes in the city, Arnold said in December.
With university enrollment growing by about 300 students per year, Shockley said the apartments would not take away from the already existing properties near campus.
"It's been my experience that unless a house is terribly run down, all of those houses that are in proximity to campus, kids will want to rent them, for obvious reasons," he said.
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