By DAVE SCHULTZ
Members of the Wells County Area Plan Commission had a lot on their plates Thursday night, sorting through issues connected to a 168-lot housing subdivision in Ossian and the planned improvements to Bluffton’s Lancaster Park.
The APC members also approved a development plan for a parking lot at the former Prospect United Methodist Church on Wells County Road 900N.
The subdivision will be at the northwest corner of Ind. 1/Jefferson Street and Davis Road and it actually required two separate votes by the APC — a rezoning request from B-3 (business) to R-1 (residential).
The rezoning request is necessary for full approval of the development plan because the subdivision includes the four acres in the to-be-rezoned parcel.
Therefore, the APC’s approval of the complete subdivision requires the Ossian Town Council to go along with the APC’s rezoning recommendation. All 11 members of the APC supported that recommendation.
After that vote was taken, the men presenting the subdivision for approval to the APC — Brett Miller of MLS Engineering and Kevan Biggs of Biggs Inc. — explained the particulars to the commission members.
The main entrance will be at the intersection of Jefferson and Davis, and Miller said a traffic study told the Indiana Department of Transportation that there was not a need for a traffic light at the intersection. Instead, it appears that deceleration lanes will be put on Ind. 1.
Traffic control was one of the concerns brought to the APC by nearby residence, with drainage and sewer service among the others.
The 11 APC members present Thursday — Harry Baumgartner Jr., Tyson Brooks, Chandler Gerber, Jarrod Hahn, Bill Horan, Kiera Lance, Jerome Markley, Tim Rohr, John Schuhmacher, Paul Miller, and Melissa Woodworth — all gave their approval to the primary development plan for the subdivision. Miller was at the meeting as the Poneto representative; Becky Stone-Smith, the town’s primary member on the APC, was not able to be present Thursday night.
The name for the new subdivision is yet to be determined.
The plans for Lancaster Park were presented by Mark Reinhard of Engineering Services and Brandy Fiechter, superintendent of the Bluffton Parks and Recreation Department. They also were approved on an 11-0 vote.
The park will have a half-mile trail around it which will connect to the extension of the Interurban Trail. Reinhard said it will have “a lot of active and passive uses.”
“We’re really excited to get it started,” Fiechter said.
The building that formerly housed the Prospect United Methodist Church, 705W-900N, The church held its last service on June 30, 2021. Joel Hoehn of the Bluffton-based surveying firm of Stoody and Associates was on hand to present plans for a 58-vehicle parking lot.
The request was approved on the condition that a driveway permit be obtained from the Wells County Highway Department.
daves@news-banner.com
