The Warsaw City Council's unanimous decision to deny Meijer's rezoning request Monday may not stop Meijer from coming to Warsaw.

Meijer's request was to rezone 41.65 acres to special commercial (C5) to build a store at 900 Husky Trail, along Patterson Road. The Warsaw Plan Commission also unanimously recommended to deny the request.

Meijer's attorney, Steve Snyder, said it is still a possibility for Meijer to build on the 19 acres already zoned commercial at the same location.

"We're re-examining that site plan to see if it will work," Snyder said Thursday.

But, he said, the biggest concern Meijer has is the traffic. The problem intersection of Parker Street and Husky Trail would still exist as it does today. Meijer's alternate plan of building on the 19 acres does not include a traffic study. The initial plan included an extensive traffic study conducted by Ted Andrews, representative for Woolpert, Indianapolis, and hired by Meijer.

If Meijer decides to move forward with this plan, "it would only have to go in front of the plan commission for development plan approval," Snyder said.

The plan commission would review Meijer's request and make sure it meets the requirements, such as number of parking spaces and drainage.

"Once we meet the requirements," Snyder said, "the plan commission (cannot legally deny the request)."

Snyder said Meijer has engineers reviewing the plan.

Warsaw Mayor Ernie Wiggins said if Meijer does decide to move forward with the alternate plan, "they would just go back to the plan commission (and) have a site plan approved."

City Planner Jeff Noffsinger confirmed Wiggins' statement, saying: "They (Meijer) would have to submit their development plan to the plan commission."

Further, he said, the plan commission would evaluate the plan to see if it "conforms with the (site plan) ordinance."

Noffsinger said criteria the plan commission will look at include landscape buffers, drainage, transportation, setbacks and parking. [[In-content Ad]]