Area Plan Commission members to review Wells County Vision 2035
By DAVE SCHULTZ
Wells County Vision 2035, a revision of the county’s comprehensive plan, will be reviewed by Area Plan Commission members for discussion at their April meeting and will be up for a formal public hearing during their May meeting.
Vision 2035 covers several topics that are of significance as to how Wells County will use its land, develop its infrastructure, and grow its population over the next several years. As the name implies, it will be the middle of the next decade before the plan is given another overhaul.
In the meantime, what the APC members are considering is a document that will provide guideposts in several areas — land use, transportation, infrastructure, quality of life, and dealing with natural disasters.
The most recent revision also includes a section on coordinating Wells County’s recommendations with Markle, which is not within the jurisdiction of the Wells County’s APC. Markle, which is located part in Huntington County and part in Wells County, chose to go with Huntington County’s agency for planning and zoning several years ago because Huntington County had a plan for building inspection while Wells County did not.
The plan, said Michael Lautzenheiser Jr., the executive director of the APC, “is not a law, but a resolution.” It should be something that individual jurisdictions within the county “pay some degree of attention to,” to use Lautzenheiser’s description.
The 10 members of the APC present Thursday night — Harry Baumgartner Jr., Tyson Brooks, Cory Elzey, Jarrod Hahn, Bill Horan, Josh Hunt, Jerome Markley, Tim Rohr, John Schuhmacher, and Melissa Woodworth (Becky Stone-Smith was absent) — had varying degrees of praise for the 118-page document which Lautzenheiser described as 95 percent complete — lacking only a section on county roads and bridges.
The county’s comprehensive plan was on track to be discussed piece by piece until COVID-19 limited public attendance at APC meetings. That delayed the conversations that Lautzenheiser felt were necessary to make it an inclusive document. As the coronavirus pandemic ebbed, the comprehensive plan was updated — what had been Wells County Vision 2030 is now Vision 2035.
There were a few members of the public present Thursday night and one of them, Ben Herman, sparked a conversation about plans for solar energy. He questioned the potential for solar energy units in the county, and APC members replied that a survey showed strong support for it among county residents.
A map included in the document showed population density, and Herman wondered if the area in green — the less-populous parts of the county — were thereby considered as prime locations for commercial solar operations. Lautzenheiser said that wasn’t necessarily the case, but putting them in an area of less-dense population would follow best practices. APC members noted, however, that solar energy panels would require a zoning overlay, which would require a formal rezoning petition. The fate of that petition would be decided by the county commissioners or the council members of the county’s various incorporated municipalities.
APC members agreed to take two weeks, until March 18, to submit recommendations for changes to the document. Those proposed changes will be reviewed again by the APC members at their April 7 meeting and then be part of a public hearing May 5.
The APC also reviewed five violations of the county’s zoning and land use ordinance and approved a manner for remote participation by APC members.
daves@news-banner.com
