By JONATHAN SNYDER
Junk was the word of the day for the Wells County Area Plan Commission as they decided on seven total violations while approving a rezoning request involving Life Community Church on Thursday.
The Area Plan Commission gave a do-pass recommendation for a secondary parking lot used by Life Community Church to be reclassified from a residential to an industrial zone. The parking lot is adjacent to the railway that crosses West Cherry Street and West South Street, an industrial zone. Dan Dubach of Dubach Landscaping requested the change because of his desire for outdoor storage space to keep landscaping products and other equipment.
Dubach will need to have a screen wall built at the west border of the parcel due to the residential homes located there. APC Executive Director Mike Lautzenheiser stated that the property is underutilized. Dubach hopes that equipment will be on the property in the spring alongside a mulch pile his company can pull from.
“It fits the area well,” said APC member Josh Hunt, echoing the sentiments of his peers — Jarrod Hahn, Bill Horan, Geoff Lance, Melissa Woodworth, Jerome Markley, Tyson Brooks, Time Rohr and Issac Zent, who substituted for John Schuhmacher. Hunt also covered for Chandler Gerber’s absence.
Lautzenheiser then presented his end-of-the-year report for 2023. There were 30 violations in 2023, 19 of which were resolved. Lautzenheiser noticed a significant uptick in rezoning and variance requests while permits and new home startup numbers decreased. Sixty-two home projects broke ground in 2023 compared to the 110 that started in 2022. The 2023 figure remains the third-highest number of home startup projects since 2010.
Lautzenheiser also noted the completion of the housing study for the area, which will be presented in more detail in the coming months. However, Lautzenheiser indicated that most people are looking for low- to mid-sized family homes, which the market today does not offer at appetizing prices. Lautzenheiser further commented that the downtown pathways project has hit an estimated 30 percent completion as they strive toward a March 1 completion date.
The APC also viewed next year’s new plan of operations, which includes a focus on digital versions of plans and a push to take back physical storage space. Office staff and procedures will remain unchanged.
The violations heard by the APC on Thursday are as follows:
• A junk violation involving property on East 100 Street has been sent on to the APC’s attorney. The APC sent a letter to the owner in April and has not heard back since.
• A junk violation involving property in Uniondale has been given a 30-day continuance. Since the initial notification in August, the property has been sold, and work is underway to clean up the mess. Five vehicles were spotted on the property by Lance, four of which were driving away with junk in them.
• The APC turned over another junk violation involving a different Uniondale property next to the town hall and city park to the APC’s attorney. The paperwork for the breach began in August, but there has been no contact from the property owner. All mailing addresses going to the property have been canceled, and the P.O. Box is invalid, which Lautzenheiser described as a real bind for the APC due to the lack of contact.
• A junk violation involving property on South 200 East has been given a 90-day continuance due to the work done in the past few months. Lautzenheiser believes that the property owners are doing their best to clean up what he described as the “most extreme” case they heard Thursday.
• A junk violation for the property on West 400 South has been handed a 90-day continuance. A couple of vehicles still need to be cleared, which could take some time due to issues in obtaining the titles for those vehicles.
• A junk violation for property on State Road 1 has been given a 90-day continuance. The owners are currently taking some car parts and turning them into new creations. While the owner is waiting on parts to complete the projects, Lautzenheiser will visit the property so that the violating items are explained in detail.
• Additionally, the APC served a 30-day continuation for a setback violation on North Highland Avenue. The violation involves a shed shown on the official plat as 10 feet before the road. Still, a survey indicates that the shed is only five feet away. The owners are looking into getting another study performed on the property and will address any issues afterward.
jonathan@news-banner.com
