Time after time, the Kosciusko County Area Plan Commission hears that agricultural land in the county needs to be protected.

Wednesday, the board heard three petitions to rezone ground from agricultural to residential. Two were approved, but the third was denied because it was in an area zoned agricultural.

On rezonings, the plan commission is only a recommending body to the Kosciusko County Commissioners, who have final say on all rezonings. The commissioners will hear all three rezonings at 9:30 a.m. in the county courthouse, Warsaw, Dec. 14.

The petition that the plan commission will recommend the commissioners deny belonged to Stanley Custer. Custer wanted to rezone property on the south side of Bowser Road, zero feet east of CR 375E in Van Buren Township, from agricultural to residential.

"My grandson wants to develop some land, so I thought this was a good location," said Custer. He said the homes would be "pretty good" ones.

No other residences are in the area, commission member Don Arms noticed. "There's nothing for miles," said Kelly Easterday, also a board member.

Several remonstrators were against Custer's petition because a subdivision in the area wouldn't match the surrounding agricultural uses and the intersection of CR 375E and Bowser Road is dangerous. Drainage concerns also were discussed.

Charlie Haffner, commission vice chairman, said the petition, "goes against everything we try to promote."

The ground is in the middle of a farming area and most of the property is poorly drained. Haffner said he saw no reason to approve it and made a motion to recommend to the commissioners that the petition be denied. Easterday seconded the motion and the board unanimously approved the denial.

Another Stan had better luck with his rezoning petition.

Stan Arnolt's petition to rezone ground from agricultural to residential was approved. The property is on the east side of Packerton Road and 600 feet south of Pierceton Road in Wayne Township.

Dan Widaman, representing Arnolt, said Arnolt already had 20 acres in the area and bought 15 more to make a subdivision with approximately 38 lots. He said he doesn't know if the subdivision will be hooked on to Winona Lake's sewer, as now they have no intentions of doing that and are planning to go with septic systems.

The third petition for a rezoning was from Matt and Jane Schori, who want to rezone property on the east side of CR 175E in Wayne Township from ag to residential.

Matt Schori told the commission he just wants to divide his property and build a new house on one lot for himself and sell the rest of it.

There were no remonstrators.

In other business, the plan commission:

• Denied Donald Stamper's petition for a preliminary plat approval for a residential replat on a lot. The property is on the east side of CR 825E and 466 feet north of CR 1250N in Turkey Creek Township. The petition was continued from two months ago and no representatives of the Stampers were present at Wednesday's meeting.

• Approved Delmar and Elva Prater's petition for a portion of a subdivision to be vacated. The portion requested is lots 12-19 and 36-44 in Caldwell Lake Addition. The property is on Caldwell Lake Road in Clay Township.

Elva Prater said she wanted to vacate the lots to "put it back into acres and hopefully the taxes will go down."

Members of the plan commission are Kevin McSherry, Don Arms, chairman Vic Virgil, vice chairman Charlie Haffner, Norm Lovell, Dick Kemper, Kelly Easterday, Larry Coplen and Hal Strong. They meet at 1 p.m. on the first Wednesday of every month in the Justice Building meeting room. [[In-content Ad]]