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City releases Homeplace small-area plan draft schedule; residents press for more outreach
Summary
The city’s planner reported progress on the Homeplace sub-area plan, said a draft is expected in April, and described outreach including ambassadors and surveys. Several residents said outreach has not reached all households and urged further door-to-door engagement.
Adrienne Keeling, a planner with the Department of Community Services, gave an update on the Homeplace small-area plan at the Homeplace Advisory Board’s February 2025 meeting and encouraged residents to review project materials online.
Keeling said the city launched the Homeplace sub-area process in summer 2024 to follow up on the Carmel comprehensive plan adopted in 2022 and that the effort has moved from the Explore and Test phases into drafting. “We started this project last summer... We finished up the test phase of the process, and we are now into the drafting of the plan process,” she said, and added that staff are targeting an event and release of a draft in April.
The project website (www.thisishomeplace.com) includes survey results and open‑house materials; Keeling said the city received about 300 responses to the first survey and nearly 300 to the second, with more than half of the second-survey respondents new to the project — a result she credited to community ambassadors who knocked doors and attended events.
Keeling described concurrent efforts to support the Greater Homeplace Neighborhood Association and to explore forming a business-district organization near 106th Street and College to help attract tenants and activate the commercial strip. She also said staff are developing a short video storytelling project focused on Homeplace and that the sub-area plan would be drafted for eventual amendment into Carmel’s comprehensive plan.
Several residents questioned the reach of outreach efforts. April Morrow said she had not received door-to-door contact and that many neighbors along the Cornell/106th–College stretch were unaware of the project despite door hangers and postcards. Keeling acknowledged the concern and said the city would continue outreach: “We can never reach too many people. So, we'll — we'll keep — I've marked this area, as a note, and we'll — we'll keep at it.”
Other attendees asked about neighborhood character and density. A board member asked whether one-acre lot patterns in Homeplace — a legacy of older septic and sewage requirements — factored into plan recommendations. Keeling said the planning team has taken existing development patterns into account and that the plan will consider how new construction could be consistent with current scale: “Part of the purpose of this plan is to be prepared if someone wants to build a new house, how that takes place, whether it's on an existing lot or a new lot that might be created.”
Keeling invited residents to sign up for updates and a volunteer interest form on the project website and noted staff had engaged community ambassadors, held an open house and two surveys. She said the drafting phase continues and that staff will post the draft and host a public event in the spring.
