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Of the four rezoning and one right-of-way vacation requests forwarded to the Kosciusko County Commissioners Tuesday from the Area Plan Commission, only one came with a recommendation from the APC to deny.
The commissioners voted unanimously to accept all five of the APC’s recommendations, including the denial.
Area Plan Director Matt Sandy presented the petition from Lyle Faulkner to the commissioners. The Faulkners have a 39.77-acre tract of ground off CR 1100N, about a quarter mile west of Ind. 19, and want to rezone it from agricultural to agricultural II. Sandy said when the APC looked at the request, there was a “pretty lengthy” discussion.
“There were a few minimal limitations on it with some drainage, but I think the bigger factor was the Plan Commission looking at the comprehensive plan and what the goals and objectives were. In this case, a large development to this extent - recognizing that the county needs housing - but logical locations with sewer, water, whatnot to see growth,” Sandy said. “This was a parcel of ground that did not feel would fit into the comprehensive plan’s goals and objectives and would really be jumping out to almost fit the ... term for spot zoning in this case.”
After the APC’s review, he said the commission did pass on to the commissioners a unanimous recommendation not to rezone the tract of ground. The APC is a recommending body to the commissioners, who have final say on rezonings, rights-of-way vacations, etc.
Attorney Steve Snyder, representing the Faulkners, said the rezoning was a unique situation.
“Part of the handout I gave you was essentially the capsule, summary, of the housing study that had been put together by various groups - Community Foundation, Habitat, so on and so forth - and detailed - I gave the entire report to the Plan Commission so it’s in the record - but it detailed the housing needs in the county. And, I think we all can acknowledge that to meet those housing needs, we need vacant property,” Snyder said.
He said there are virtually no spots left within the corporate limits of municipalities where there can be a significant subdivision and meet the requirements of the subdivision control ordinance, whether it’s the county’s, the city of Warsaw’s or the town of Winona Lake’s.
“There’s no more land left. We’re going to be taking vacant land to provide the housing needs that we already know and have known for a long time that need to be met,” Snyder said.
Listening to Bloomberg Radio Tuesday on his drive to Warsaw, Snyder said the broadcast was about the need for new home construction in the next two years to catch up from the financial crisis of 2008.
“That’s how far behind we are. In the next two years, there would have to be 3.5 million new starts for housing to make up for the shortfall that exists right now,” he said. “The Community Foundation study documented that better on a localized basis for the county, but that’s a national situation. It’s been created by a lot of things, but essentially it started with the 2008 financial crisis and we’ve never recovered. At some point we have to decide that, yes, we’re going to provide that housing, at least in this county, and to do that we’re going to have to look at some situations that might not be the most attractive, but are still attractive.”
On the Faulkner property, Snyder said the owner is elderly and he would like to sell it for the highest and best price he can get so he can keep paying for his expenses as he gets older.
“But the second thing is, we’ve got A2 zoning right next door to it,” Snyder said, estimating that tract to be about 9 acres. “So we have 40 acres of what appears to be - based upon the technical committee’s analysis - prime development land, but it’s also prime farmland. We’re going to have to take some of that prime farmland at some point to provide additional housing in the county, whether it’s immediately adjacent to a municipality or more remotely located.”
He said Ag II lends itself perfectly for the Faulkner parcel because it has minimum acreage requirements of 1 acre. Wells and septics can serve well and that’s what would be there, 1-acre lots.
“Maybe by the time you got streets in, you might have the potential for 34 or 35 lots on a 39-acre tract, but each one of them would be a minimum of 1 acre, would provide more than adequate space for a septic system and a well, and then meets the housing needs of the community,” Snyder said. “We’re also in the northwest part of the county where the housing demand is a little different” as its in the Amish community where there’s often requests for two residences on one parcel.
Close to Ind. 19, “we have the ability of that main artery to handle traffic from this subdivision. We have soil types that are adequate, and we have space to adequately develop this for the purpose of meeting the housing needs that we know are going to come,” he said.
Those housing needs aren’t always going to be a 60-foot by 200-foot residential lot in a very dense subdivision. There are going to be people who need housing but also want more space. In the case of Ag II, families can have things like a goat for their child for 4-H.
“This is one of those unique situations that we can provide that type of housing in a generally agricultural district because of the provisions you made when you adopted the Ag II zoning classification. It’s a mix of residential in an agricultural area, and that’s exactly what we’re proposing here,” Snyder stated.
Sandy defended the comprehensive plan, saying it didn’t say “no development anywhere.” The APC recognizes that ground will have to come out of agricultural zoning for residential purposes, but in an orderly manner.
There were no remonstrators to the Faulkner petition.
Commissioner Bob Conley, who also sits on the APC, said the technical review committee looked at the petition intently, as did the APC. He said they felt the highest and best use in this area would be agriculture, and he made a motion to accept the APC’s 8-0 recommendation to not rezone the property. The motion passed 3-0.
Favorable recommendations from the APC accepted by the Kosciusko County Commissioners included:
• Vacating two older platted rights-of-way in Weimers Lakeview Park next to Hoke and Virginia Benefield’s home and rental home between EMS B42F Lane and EMS B42 Lane on Sawmill Lake in Leesburg.
There were no remonstrators against the vacation, but attorney Steve Snyder, Hoke and two others spoke in favor of the vacations.
• Rezoning ground from commercial to residential property on the west side of East Street and north of Crow Road in Turkey Creek Township, as requested by Roy and Gwendolyn Griffin. Sandy said the property is in the Wawasee area. There were no remonstrators.
• Rezoning 11.79 acres from an agricultural district to an agricultural II district along CR 1200S and CR 200W in Lake Township, as requested by Kenneth Light.
There were no remonstrators.
• Rezoning property from an agricultural to an agricultural II district on the north side of CR 1050N and west of Ind. 19 in Scott Township, as requested by Lamar and Vonda Mast.
There were no remonstrators.
