INDIANAPOLIS — A big hole has created a rift in a historic Indianapolis neighborhood.
Onyette Hamiter has lived in Martindale Brightwood for over 27 years. Over 18 months ago, a new neighbor purchased a previous state-owned lot next door.
What came next, Hamiter describes as a nightmare.
“It’s like somebody threw a bomb,” Hamiter explained.
The development had hit a road bump which had left the lot with a hole full of dirt, bricks, and trash.
“It's dangerous, and when the grass gets so high, it's dangerous for the kids," Hamiter said.
Eric Richardson bought the house with his husband to finally build their dream home.
“We want to have our dream house. We want to have that to our name and right now, they're doing everything they can in their power to prevent us from having that,” Richardson said.
Richardson claims the couple hit a road bump with the lot’s zoning, causing a massive delay in their construction.
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The city of Indianapolis confirmed these claims.
“(They did have) their drainage permit and that allowed them to move around the dirt on the property. However, they didn't apply for their zoning variance and because they didn't get their zoning variance, they in turn couldn't get their following permits,” explained Indianapolis Department of Business and Neighborhood Services spokesperson Dawn Olsen.
Richardson says he took precautions to help keep the area safe but goes on to claim those precautions were taken down without his knowledge.
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“We put up erosion fencing that we later found out was them, they were tampering with us to make more of a case against us developing this site," he said.
The Department of Business and Neighborhood Services says they will inspect the property over the coming days and file any violations that are found.
