Cornerstone Companies has withdrawn plans for a 200-acre Pike Township project

Cornerstone Companies and GCG Investments have withdrawn a petition to rezone 200 acres of land in northwest Indianapolis from residential to commercial for a massive mixed-use development after neighbors expressed “a significant amount of opposition” to the project, the company announced Thursday.

“Given that it has always been our philosophy to work with the local community towards a project welcomed by the majority of stakeholders, we have elected not to move forward with the West 86th Street project and will withdraw our zoning position from the Indianapolis City Council,” Cornerstone Companies said in a statement to IndyStar.

Indianapolis development: Why neighbors oppose $500M ‘gut punch’ development in Pike Township

The rezoning request was approved by the Metropolitan Development Commission Aug. 16, but never came before the City-County Council. Cornerstone is based in Indianapolis and GCG Investments is based in Johnson County.

The 200 acres located north of 79th Street, south of 86th Street, east of Conarroe Road and west of I-465 is former farmland. Original plans for the $500 million development, dubbed The Crossing at Trader’s Point, would have included a hotel, apartments and townhomes, retail, medical facilities, life sciences research and office space.

The plans also previously included senior living, but that was eliminated in a revised plan developers presented to the city’s Metropolitan Development Commission in August. That plan also included almost 64 acres of additional green space, park space and a preservation area that would have served as a buffer between the neighborhood and the development.

Traders Point residents expressed concerns about the size of the facility and the increased traffic stress it would cause on already busy roads such as 86th Street. Concerns also arose around the environmental impact of a property such as this, much of which is wooded, with old trees and a sizeable wildlife population. A portion of the land that would have been developed under this plan is zoned “environmentally sensitive” on the city’s interactive land use mapping tool, PlanIndy. 

Some neighbors also said they believed there was not sufficient demand for the retail and commercial aspect of the Crossing. Many area residents supported houses over commercial development.

Four neighboring residents filed a lawsuit against Indianapolis claiming they had not received written notice of city rezoning hearings related to the development even though they lived within the boundaries that would have required the city to notify them.

Contact Claire Rafford at 317-617-3402 or email crafford@gannett.com.