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The vacation in the unincorporated area of Wooster was brought back to the Kosciusko County Area Planning Commission meeting on Wednesday.
This vacation was tabled at the January meeting because of a neighbor of the Zorn property possibly ending up being landlocked after the vacation, and that the petitioners were not present for the meeting.
The vacation would include an east-west running alleyway, two north-south alleyways, one north-south right-of-way, and a platted right-of-way on the south end of the property.
“What we mainly continued it for was the home that sits to the east,” Matt Sandy, Area Plan Commission director, said. “Right now, their access to their home is along the railroad right-of-way, unless they are able to have access to the southern portion of the vacation by Center Street.”
Chris McCrea, with John Kempel and Associates Land Survey, was there to answer questions from the commission on behalf of the Zorn Trust, who were the petitioners in this vacation.
“The biggest question is,” said Sandy, “that southeast corner, is it still a part of this or are they OK with it being left unvacated?”
“I believe they are OK either way,” stated McCrea. “I understand the biggest concern was about the railroad trying to vacate the driveway, and I’ve done some research. My uncle used to work for CSX … and he’d never close a private driveway without the consent of the owner.”
When asked about the southeast lot, a member of the Zorn Trust stated that they did not absolutely have the back lot. Sandy explained to the committee that leaving off the south part of the vacation would need to be redone for that homeowner to be able to enter and exit their property, but would allow for them to still access it.
“Is it a written policy that the railroad won’t close off this right-of-way, or is this just something you heard?” asked Commission member Joe Irwin.
“When I did contact the guy from the railroad, they said they won’t put out a written policy because they don’t know what’s going to happen,” said McCrea.
“So you can’t guarantee this,” Irwin said.
McCrea stated that the research that he did had shown a lot of closures of rights-of-way would cause danger to the train or the train cars.
Local attorney Steve Snyder came on behalf of William Hutchinson, who would be the homeowner being affected. Snyder asked on behalf of his client that the alleyway that runs from Van Ness Road to Hutchinson’s property remain open.
Snyder stated that it was not quite as easy as McCrea made it sound to the commission, and the last thing they want to do is try and challenge the CSX Railway to secure an easement.
“That’s been touted as a proposed high-speed rail line from Columbus, Ohio, to Chicago. It’s a 100-foot right-of-way ... and whoever is operating that high-speed rail line will want the entirety of that 100-foot right-of-way,” Snyder said. “There’s no way my client can rely on that gravel road that’s on the railroad right-of-way for continued access.”
Snyder stated that there is no way to know what is being proposed, and that the main road and the alley need to stay open so Hutchinson can get into his property. Snyder showed the commission on a map that there are also wetlands that will make it complicated to make a road because of the regulations with whatever state institution claims jurisdiction.
“You indicated that the bottom access point would be highly problematic because of wetlands?” asked APC President Lee Harman. “What gives you confidence that the other access point would be any better?”
“It appears that the wetlands stop just at the south edge of that south part of the alley,” Snyder said. “It also has a better soil base, and isn’t as swampy.”
“Your client would have no problem leaving that south section open, and they can vacate the rest?” asked APC member Bob Conley. “I used to farm down there, and I can’t imagine anyone being able to afford to put a road through it. It’s so swampy.”
“Vacation of the north-south alleys are not a problem. It's the vacation of the east-west alley, vacation of the south street, or any portion of it that creates the problem,” said Snyder. “If we can’t put a road in the south, the remaining option is to the east-west alley.”
Matt Goodnight, commission member, said that Hutchinson was at the meeting last month, stating that Hutchinson said in the meeting minutes that if they vacated everything, he would be against it. Snyder retorted that Hutchinson has a large property that he needs access to, and that they were unsure of which access they would need if the railroad takes back the easement.
“That final 100 feet on Center Street, could that be removed from your petition?” asked Goodnight. “Because Steve’s number one concern is closing access to their property, which we don’t want to happen.”
The Zorn Trust representative was fine with having that be dropped off of their petition.
This vacation was approved in a 6-1 vote and will not include the southern portion of the vacation in the petition.
In other business, Scott Langohr from the Langushire Farm petitioned to rezone 4.2 acres from an Agricultural District to an Agricultural 2 District. This property, located off of Ind. 13 in Washington Township, will allow for Langohr’s daughter to build a home.
Langohr told the commission that the 4.2 acres of land that are split off from the full 34.11 acres would be used for his daughter. He also told the commission that this was property he and his brother inherited from their father and wanted to make sure that they had all the correct paperwork done before going through with the build.
Irwin asked why if this was a part of the full 34 acres did they need permission to rezone that one area, to which Kevin McSherry, vice president of the commission, stated that changing the 4.2 acres to an Agriculture 2 District would help Langohr’s daughter have ownership over that portion of the property. This was approved.
Both requests will be before the county commissioners at their meeting at 9 a.m. Feb. 24 in the Old Courthouse.
