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WINONA LAKE - Winona Lake Board of Zoning Appeals approved Monday a use variance for a property to be classified as commercial in a multi-family zone.
Judy Ness, 50 Kings Highway, is planning on building a carpet and home furnishings show room and warehouse.
Attorney Steve Snyder, on behalf of Ness, said he thought the history of the parcel was useful when dealing with a use variance.
The town’s use ordinance goes back to 1966 and things have changed since then, including the state statute governing use variances, he said.
In 1925, the plat was recorded in Kosciusko County. There was already a building listed on that plat, which was an arcade.
Snyder argued the plot was a nonconforming use plot, which predated zoning law through state law or through the town council. “We’re dealing with a very unique property that was obviously built around the arcade” and built to serve areas adjacent to it.
He brought up the size of the plat, as it has gotten smaller over the years due to usage. The street outside the property used to be 35 feet wide and is now 40 feet wide.
Board member Jill Serbousek said she thought the board was fine with the use variance, but there were other concerns.
Discussion was brought up about how much semi traffic was going to be at the property. There will be semi traffic two or three times a week to the building. Snyder said semis will have one way in and one way out and semis will pull behind the building to offload. He didn’t think the proposed building could be moved to the west of the property due to semis needing room to get around.
Board member Greg Winn said, based on the information he had, he didn’t think it was possible to have semi traffic in the area and not have traffic get congested.
Serbousek said the board still needed building setbacks.
Snyder said he understood what the board was asking. However, they were still in the planning stages for the property. Snyder said they just needed to know if the use variance was approved so they could move forward with the project plans. The final plans couldn’t be given to the board until the use variance was approved. The final plans are going to be submitted to Building Commissioner Gene Seiman. If Seiman says he needs to know if a semi can navigate that corner, than a traffic engineering study will be done.
Town engineer Aaron Carl said the plans also have to go through the Winona Lake Plan Commission.
In other business, the board approved:
• Israel Carr to continue renting 503 Robson Road as a triplex.
• David Byers to rent out 112 Boys City Drive as a single rental.
• Janet Stumbo to rent out 106 Boys City Drive as a single rental instead of the requested duplex. Once the duplex is built out and more parking spaces are acquired, approval to rent out the property as a duplex can be applied for again.
• Joel Downs to rent out 1305 Sunday Lane as a single rental as long as the lot across the street is used as parking and Seiman approves the property during his inspection.
