WINONA LAKE - If someone wants to open a massage parlor or other adult-oriented business, they need to look somewhere else besides here.

That's the message the Winona Lake Plan Commission is recommending the Winona Lake Town Council send to all prospective owners of massage parlors, topless bars, and tattoo parlors.

The commission approved a recommendation Tuesday that would restrict such businesses to the commercial or industrial zoning classification, and would prohibit sexually-oriented businesses from within 500 feet of a residential, church, school or day care use. Tattoo parlors would have a 400-foot restriction.

The measure was approved approved 4-0, with Commissioner Kim Endicott abstaining.

"I'm not going to vote for this because I don't want to give anyone the indication I support having these types of businesses in our town at all," Endicott said. "I don't see why we just can't ban them entirely, because we don't want them here."

In other business, the commission approved a recommendation to the council to adopt the state guidelines for handicapped parking designations. Any resident seeking to have a designated handicapped parking spot outside their home would have to meet the criteria set forth in Indiana Code 9-14-14-5-1.

The commission also approved a recommendation to amend the town code as it relates to either attached or detached garages, increasing the maximum number of spaces allowed from three to five.

Finally, the commission approved an Endicott recommendation that the commission inform the developers of Lexington Manor subdivision that a passing blister and decelleration lane be constructed at the entrance to the development off of CR 250E as a condition of plat approval for Phase II of the subdivision. [[In-content Ad]]