Letter #8 Dee & David Fox
Butler, Bric
From:Dee Fox <dasfox2009@gmail.com>
Sent:Thursday, April 18, 2024 2:05 PM
To:Butler, Bric
Subject:Feedback on Carmel Housing Task Force Meeting #2
Follow Up Flag:Follow up
Flag Status:Flagged
To Bric:
Please add this email (below) to the Carmel Housing Task Force online site for Public Correspondence.
Thank you,
Dave and Dee Fox
Carmel
To the Carmel Housing Task Force:
Please read our thoughts below regarding the second meeting of the Carmel Housing Task Force, which
was held 3/21/24.
In the presentation charts shown by Chris Pryor, 73.6% of surveyed Hamilton County residents said that
their preferred housing type is a single-family detached home. This was a very interesting result, given
that approximately 70% of the housing units in Carmel are currently single-family detached homes. (See
the Eco Northwest presentation from the first Task Force meeting.) By these metrics, it would be
reasonable to conclude that Carmel actually has the right proportion of single-family housing, and that
going forward, about 3/4 of new housing units constructed in Carmel should also be single-family homes
in order to maintain that proportion. We are just trying to show that different conclusions can be reached
from looking at the same set of survey data.
All this being said, it has appeared from the start that the Housing Task Force will recommend that more
"Missing Middle" housing should be constructed in Carmel. If so, a key issue will be where that housing
should go. If additional duplexes, quads, and townhouses are encouraged and built on land currently
zoned for those purposes, or within existing commercial/mixed-use areas, then we expect that Carmel
residents will generally support this effort.
However, at the 3/21/24 Task Force meeting, there were some discussions about the possibility of
changing the residential zoning to enable much more "Missing Middle" housing to be constructed. If the
City attempts to change the zoning to allow/encourage "Missing Middle" housing to be built on
undeveloped parcels currently zoned as single-family (detached) residential, then there will likely be
strong public opposition to this. And if the City attempts to change the zoning to allow/encourage
"Missing Middle" housing to be built within existing single-family neighborhoods, then there will almost
certainly be very strong opposition to this by a large number of homeowners throughout Carmel.
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Consider the undesirable scenario where a change in the residential zoning could enable investors and
developers to straightforwardly purchase and tear down individual homes within established single-
family neighborhoods, and to then replace those homes with doubles, quads, or townhouses at a much
higher density. We expect that the resulting disruption and intrusion would be unacceptable to most
homeowners in those neighborhoods. Furthermore, this practice would likely result in many older more-
affordable homes being replaced by new higher-priced luxury units.
Carmel's single-family homeowners have chosen their homes and surroundings based (in part) on
trusting that the long-established residential zoning standards and requirements would be
upheld. Please do not recommend changing our current residential zoning. Instead, we request that the
Task Force recommends other more-desirable and less-intrusive options for enabling the construction of
additional "Missing Middle" housing, while still preserving the integrity of Carmel's existing single-family
(detached) residential areas.
Thank you for your consideration.
Dave and Dee Fox
Carmel
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