Meijer's request to rezone 41.65 acres to special commercial (C5) to build a store at 900 Husky Trail, along Patterson Road, was tabled by the Warsaw City Council Monday.

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

Councilman and plan commission president Joe Thallemer said approximately 22.5 acres of the tract are currently zoned residential (R1) and the remaining 19 acres are zoned commercial (C3).

"Tonight is strictly a land-use decision," city planner Jeff Noffsinger said.

Council members were faced with deciding whether or not the commercial zoning of the 41.65 acres is appropriate.

Meijer's attorney, Steve Snyder, said the "uses in a C5 category are essentially the same" as the current C3 zoning.

Snyder asked council members to decide the highest and best use for the tract.

"Approximately half of the land we're talking about here is already zoned commercial," Snyder said.

He said he believes the Meijer store "with a convenience store and self-serve gas station" is the highest and best use of the land.

But, Snyder said, if the rezoning request is not approved, the 19 acres currently zoned C3 "would accommodate a Meijer complex."

He said the site plan could be redesigned to fit this tract of land.

But many of the concerns among council members and residents at Helser, Timber Ridge and Patterson Place housing additions focus on traffic.

"We know there is a significant traffic volume at this intersection," Snyder said.

The intersection he is referring to is where Husky Trail and Patterson Road meet Parker Street.

Meijer hired Woolpert, of Indianapolis, to conduct a traffic study.

Ted Andrews, representative for Woolpert, presented a traffic study at the April 10 plan commission meeting.

"We have tried our very best to accommodate the Meijer traffic," Andrews said at the earlier meeting.

He also said the Parker Street intersection at Husky Trail and Patterson Road "will warrant a traffic signal once the proposed development is fully constructed."

Thallemer said the traffic problem is "going to be a problem whether Meijer comes or not."

He also said the traffic study and Meijer's proposal would "definitely be an improvement, but not a solution. Something's gotta be done with traffic."

Snyder said the alternate plan of constructing Meijer on the commercially zoned 19 acres does not include the traffic study.

"We simply are stuck with the situation that exists," Snyder said.

"Meijer can go on the 19-acre tract," Snyder said, "but certainly not in the manner that would be beneficial to the community."

Council members also were concerned with the outlots and proposed service station.

"It's not a truck stop," Snyder said in response to concerns of semis populating the service station.

"Meijer does not exclude but does not encourage trucks. We're looking at consumer sales, not commercial," Snyder said.

Snyder also said Meijer is in "no hurry to sell these outlots."

Audience members were given a chance to voice their opinions.

Approximately 125 people attended the meeting. Of those, two people spoke in support of Meijer's request and 13 spoke in opposition.

Many of the concerns were identical to those presented at the plan commission meeting - traffic, lights and noise. Those opposed also were concerned with safety and the effect a chain store would have on local business owners.

After people opposed to the development had a chance to speak, Snyder said: "I think Gary Gerard (editor of the Times-Union) was right. Those are NIMBYs."

Snyder said many are not opposed to Meijer, just Meijer in their back yards. He said that if Meijer was able to find a new location, then the neighbors at the new location would also say "not in my back yard."

Snyder said Meijer has a lot to offer Warsaw.

"Meijer hires locally, including management," he said. "Every business is changing because that's the nature of business."

Thallemer said he believes the business is too large and council member Jeff Gross agreed.

"It's not a Meijer store," Gross said. "It's a complex."

Thallemer and Gross want Meijer "to go back to the drawing board and present something not as intensive."

"It's too intensive of a development," Thallemer said.

"Well, I think that's exactly what they can do," city attorney Mike Valentine said in response to Thallemer's request for a "scaled down plan."

Snyder said Meijer will "take a look at the comments made by the city council and see if they can incorporate those (comments) into a plan."

Snyder also said they will look at "what type of additional buffer they can establish on the east and north" sides of the property and "see what outlots they can eliminate."

Snyder reminded council members to look at the highest and best use of the land for the "community," not just the neighbors at Helser, Patterson Place and Timber Ridge.

Council member Jerry Patterson said he was undecided on what the highest and best use for the land was.

"My biggest concern is the traffic problem and safety," Patterson said. "I'm going to have to have some more time to think about it."

More time is just what Patterson and other council members got.

With three council members - Trish Brown, Jeff Gross and Bill Rhoades - voting to deny Meijer's request, council members Paul Siebenmorgen and Charlie Smith abstained from voting, and Jerry Patterson and Joe Thallemer opposed Brown's motion to deny the request.

Siebenmorgen then made a motion to table the request and Smith seconded it.

The motion carried with a vote of 5 to 2, with Brown and Gross opposed to tabling Meijer's request.

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