By DAVE SCHULTZ
Changes could soon be coming to the Wells County Subdivision Control and the Wells County Zoning ordinances.
It’s been a while since the documents, which provide guidelines and directions for planning and zoning in the county, have been revised. There’s not much in the proposed changes that could be considered major, but on the other hand, there are 24 of them.
“The goal of today is to go through them and introduce them,” said Mike Lautzenheiser, the executive director of the Wells County Area Plan Commission. The 11 APC members got their first look at the proposed changes at Thursday night’s regular meeting of the commission.
The changes will be reviewed in greater detail at the APC’s Dec. 7 meeting.
Should the APC members agree with the changes, they will send them on to the government agencies that are represented in the APC membership — Uniondale, Poneto, Ossian, Bluffton, Vera Cruz. Zanesville, and Wells County — for their approval.
Among the proposed changes:
• The removal of any mention of “communication towers.” Indiana counties no longer have control of the towers. Lautzenheiser said he believes that control of communication towers is now in the hands of the Federal Aviation Administration.
• Approval of ponds will now be a staff review.
• Reports of violations must be signed. They will no longer be accepted orally or anonymously.
• Day care facilities will be allowed on all three business zonings, not just B-1 and B-2.
• The definition of “junk” in the ordinance will be clarified. “There are a few things that have been spelled out a little more,” Lautzenheiser said. Also, if a vehicle or a dilapidated structure can be covered, such as with a tarp, it would prevent a citation as junk.
• The review of a request for a minor subdivision would be reviewed to the APC’s Plat Committee. That means that the creation of a minor subdivision approved Thursday night by the full APC could have been the last one that is reviewed that way.
• Connectivity requirements in multi-parcel subdivisions have been simplified.
“You have a lot of information here to digest,” APC President Jerome Markley told his fellow members. “Obviously, don’t throw these away.”
In other business before the APC Thursday:
• Two items pertaining to property at 1703 Western Ave. were approved on 11-0 votes. The first was to create a 3.49-acre division from a minor subdivision, and the second was to approve a development plan for a Frito Lay warehouse and cold storage building on the property. The Sarah J. Reed Trust submitted both requests and Colby King, an engineer with FPBH Inc. in Mount Vernon, Ind., presented the development plan for the warehouse.
• A rezoning request from Troxel Equipment Co. involving property at 5031E-100N in Lancaster Township was withdrawn.
• Lautzenheiser noted that a public hearing on the Paddlefish solar energy project could be held in March 2024.
• The board approved its calendar for 2024. APC meetings will be held on the first Thursday of each month except for July and October, when the meetings will be held on the second Thursday. The July change avoids a conflict with the July 4 holiday and the October change involves a conference that Lautzenheiser will be attending.
All 11 members of the APC were in attendance — Markley, Harry Baumgartner Jr., Tyson Brooks, Chandler Gerber, Jarrod Hahn, Bill Horan, Kiera Lance, Tim Rohr, John Schuhmacher, Becky Stone-Smith, and Melissa Woodworth.
daves@news-banner.com
