According to development documents, preliminary plans have a density ratio of 3.4 units per acre and include nearly 12 acres of park land and open space. In addition, there will be water retention ponds, up to five pocket parks that will include benches and pet waste stations, a larger park with a tot lot playground and mulched walking trails.
Reed said he hopes to complete the annexation process in the next few months as well as revising the preliminary site plan and map. He said the annexation agreement is under review by Franklin Twp. and Warren County officials.
“We hope to break ground in 2023 and this will be done in five phases and doing one phase a year,” Reed said. “The total number of homes may come down due to the utility easements.”
The preliminary site plan map that was originally submitted to the city of Franklin already needs to be revised and resubmitted as some of the planned homes will need to be relocated or eliminated due to an easement for a natural gas transmission line.
As the developer, Reed’s firm will be investing about $10 million into creating the infrastructure for the home builders to construct the houses. The company has had success with development projects in the past with the Sawyers Mill project in Middletown that is located in the Franklin school district.
“This is a great opportunity,” Reed said. “We want to bring a new community to Franklin and support the growth and direction the city is going.”
Councilman Michael Aldridge, in his Economic Development Committee report, said the proposed Arbor Homes would have 12 distinct products that will have ranch-style and two-story homes, he said.
“This is pretty exciting stuff for Franklin,” Aldridge said. “We want to work with them on larger home offerings.”
He said the lot sizes would be 50, 55 and 60 feet wide by 120 feet deep.
Aldridge said the homes for the ranch-style homes would range from 1,210 to 1,801 square feet, and would have three bedrooms and two to three bathrooms. He said the two-story homes would range in size from 1,967 to 3,200 square feet, and would have three to five bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms.
The price point for these homes will range from $250,000 to $350,000 depending on the style of the home and other options the homebuyer might want, Aldridge said. Once the project is completely built out, it could add another 1,200 residents to Franklin, he said.
Councilwoman Debbie Fouts said there won’t be any “cookie-cutter” homes in this development as there are a lot of plan options.
City Manager Jonathan Westendorf said after the land has been annexed into the city, the proposal will be considered by the city Planning Commission.
“We are moving quickly to keep this moving forward,” Westendorf said.
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