Warsaw City Council decides Monday on Meijer's request to rezone 41.65 acres to special commercial (C5) to build a store at 900 Husky Trail, along Patterson Road. The request was tabled for the second time in May.

The Warsaw Plan Commission unanimously recommended April 10 that the council deny the petition.

Meijer's attorney, Steve Snyder, said he indicated to the city council that Meijer didn't want to come back to the council until June 19 with a revision of the original plan.

He said the delay would allow them enough time "to make the modifications" requested by the city council at April's meeting.

Modifications included a revised traffic study and a less intense site plan.

The traffic study, conducted by Ted Andrews, representative for Woolpert, Indianapolis, and hired by Meijer, was presented at the April 10 plan commission meeting.

City council members Joe Thallemer and Jeff Grose voiced concerns at April's meeting regarding the size of the proposed business.

Thallemer also is the Warsaw plan commission president and Grose is a plan commission member.

"It's not a Meijer store," Grose said in April. "It's a complex."

Both Thallemer and Grose asked that Meijer "go back to the drawing board and present something not as intensive."

That's exactly what Meijer and Snyder plan to do Monday.

For the past two months, Snyder has been working with Meijer on the requested revisions.

"This has been a long, drawn- out process," Snyder said.

Specifically, he said they looked at establishing additional buffers on the east and north sides of the property and eliminating outlots to minimize the size of the business.

He said the buffer zones on the east and north sides of the property have been modified and an additional buffer zone has been "created down toward Normandy Lane." That way, Snyder said, the people living on the south side will have some blockage from the proposed business.

Snyder said a list of covenants has been created for the outlets and the traffic study has been revised to include seasonal traffic, "which actually isn't a concern out there."

He also said another traffic study was conducted for the Meijer store alone and one was done that includes the proposed outlots.

Snyder said the revised traffic study shows "what road modifications would be required to handle the traffic" from the Meijer store. He said the only traffic study that results in moving Patterson Road and Husky Trail is the one "with the full build-out, including the outlots."

"We also had a landscape architect put together reasonable renderings," Snyder said. "We've been real busy."

But if the rezoning request is not approved by the council, an alternate plan will still be an option.

Snyder said the alternate plan consists of building Meijer on the 19 acres already zoned commercial without rezoning the additional land. But, Snyder said, this plan does not include the traffic study.

"It's always been a possibility," Snyder said. "It's certainly not Meijer's desire (or the) best plan (for Warsaw), and it doesn't solve the traffic problem."

Snyder said all site plan revisions "have been distributed to the council members and planning staff."

"I think what we've proposed makes sense," Snyder said. "I think there's a lot of benefit for Warsaw."

Snyder said the people in the immediate vicinity "are going to be those most vociferous."

But that's just part of the process, he said.

These issues and more will be discussed at the city council meeting at 7 p.m. Monday in the old courtroom at the Kosciusko County courthouse.

City Council President Jerry Patterson did not return phone calls from the Times-Union.

The Warsaw City Council includes: Mayor Ernie Wiggins, president Jerry Patterson, Joe Thallemer, Trish Brown, Jeff Grose, Charlie Smith, Paul Siebenmorgen and Bill Rhoades. [[In-content Ad]]