After 3 Years, Comprehensive Plan Finished
May 25, 2022 at 1:33 a.m.
By David [email protected]
Area Plan Assistant Director Matt Sandy presented the county comprehensive plan to the Commissioners.
“As you know, Kosciusko County, as we have area planning, does have to have a comprehensive plan. We had an older comprehensive plan that was slightly out-of-date, to be nice, and had an opportunity to rise through the community foundation, K21, and with that was able to start the comprehensive planning process back in 2019,” Sandy said.
While the first discussion started in 2019, he said the process really got rolling in 2020.
“It’s been an extensive project with our consultant,” Sandy said. “They’ve been great to work with.”
Katie Clark, community planner with Taylor Siefker Williams Design Group, the consultant, was present at the Commissioners meeting.
Sandy said the comprehensive plan has been through the process. There were multiple public input sessions, an online presence for people to provide their input that way and reviews.
“Ultimately, this is kind of a unique plan for us and I think, overall, it’s not just a county plan, but it’s also all of communities that wanted to participate,” he said.
The Area Plan Commission did review the plan and had a public hearing on it at their last meeting and they were passing it on to the Commissioners with a unanimous recommendation to adopt the county plan, Sandy told the Commissioners.
He said they haven’t heard anything negative about the plan, and there were letters from the Plan Commission and steering committee.
Commissioner Cary Groninger thanked Sandy, Clark and her team for all the work they put into the comprehensive plan.
“I just think this is a huge win for our county,” he said, adding that at the last Commissioners meeting they approved a county park board, which was an idea that came out of the comments the county received during the plan process. Groninger said the plan is really a road map for the county’s future and provides a comprehensive plan for the smaller county communities, which they’ve never had before.
He also gave kudos to the foundation for helping the county acquire funding to get the plan off the ground.
“It’s just cool to see when the communities work together and it’s really a win for everybody,” Groninger said.
Sandy agreed the plan was a road map and not a regulatory guide map. “This is our document that’s going to steer, hopefully, our decisions, ordinance amendments, those type of things for the next four to five years. And like you said, if we keep checking things off that quick, we might have to do a revision before that,” he said.
He also praised Clark and her team and said they maneuvered it great.
Commissioner Brad Jackson made a motion to accept the comprehensive plan, Commissioner Bob Conley seconded it and it was approved 3-0.
Sandy said the next step was to go to the town boards that did participate and getting them to adopt their sections as well.
Clark thanked the Commissioners and all of the community members that were there. She said, “We’ve gotten accolades, obviously, today for our work, but we couldn’t have done it without all of the participation of leadership that happened in the county and in the communities, so thank you. It’s been a really great process. And, as I told the Plan Commission, I think you’re one of the few communities that I’ve worked with that have started implementation during the planning process. So that’s really exciting to see and I’m excited to see where you guys go from here.”
In other business, the Commissioners approved:
• A quote from Steve’s Roofing for $10,000 to replace the roof and shingles at the county coroner’s building, as presented by County Administrator Marsha McSherry. The other quote from Royalty Roofing was for $19,050.
• Quotes from Adams Remco to replace copiers at the county annex building and the probation department.
The quote for the high-volume copier at the annex building from Adams Remco was $13,665 and was $7,887.60 from Office Concepts, however, the annual maintenance agreement from Adams Remco was $800 and $2,494.80 from Office Concepts.
The quote for the copier at the probation department was $11,444, with an $800 annual maintenance agreement, while the Office Concepts quote was $6,688.80 but with an annual maintenance agreement of $2,494.80.
• The reappointment of Tim Keyes to the Warsaw Community Public Library Board of Trustees for another four-year term, as recommended by Library Director Ann Zydek.
• All three rezoning requests as presented by Sandy.
The first one was for Michael Cox who wanted to rezone 10 acres from public use to commercial. The property is in Turkey Creek Township in the northeast corner and used to be the former Wawasee Airport. There were no remonstrators.
The second one was for Betsy Spiegel to rezone property from residential to agricultural. The property is on CR 400N, just north of the Barbee Chain of Lakes. It is 23.15 acres. There were no remonstrators.
The final rezoning was a request from Ernest Hochstetler to rezone 20 acres from agriculture to agricultural II. The property is a quarter mile south of CR 1350N. There were no remonstrators.
• Announced the next Commissioners meeting is at 9 a.m. June 7.
Area Plan Assistant Director Matt Sandy presented the county comprehensive plan to the Commissioners.
“As you know, Kosciusko County, as we have area planning, does have to have a comprehensive plan. We had an older comprehensive plan that was slightly out-of-date, to be nice, and had an opportunity to rise through the community foundation, K21, and with that was able to start the comprehensive planning process back in 2019,” Sandy said.
While the first discussion started in 2019, he said the process really got rolling in 2020.
“It’s been an extensive project with our consultant,” Sandy said. “They’ve been great to work with.”
Katie Clark, community planner with Taylor Siefker Williams Design Group, the consultant, was present at the Commissioners meeting.
Sandy said the comprehensive plan has been through the process. There were multiple public input sessions, an online presence for people to provide their input that way and reviews.
“Ultimately, this is kind of a unique plan for us and I think, overall, it’s not just a county plan, but it’s also all of communities that wanted to participate,” he said.
The Area Plan Commission did review the plan and had a public hearing on it at their last meeting and they were passing it on to the Commissioners with a unanimous recommendation to adopt the county plan, Sandy told the Commissioners.
He said they haven’t heard anything negative about the plan, and there were letters from the Plan Commission and steering committee.
Commissioner Cary Groninger thanked Sandy, Clark and her team for all the work they put into the comprehensive plan.
“I just think this is a huge win for our county,” he said, adding that at the last Commissioners meeting they approved a county park board, which was an idea that came out of the comments the county received during the plan process. Groninger said the plan is really a road map for the county’s future and provides a comprehensive plan for the smaller county communities, which they’ve never had before.
He also gave kudos to the foundation for helping the county acquire funding to get the plan off the ground.
“It’s just cool to see when the communities work together and it’s really a win for everybody,” Groninger said.
Sandy agreed the plan was a road map and not a regulatory guide map. “This is our document that’s going to steer, hopefully, our decisions, ordinance amendments, those type of things for the next four to five years. And like you said, if we keep checking things off that quick, we might have to do a revision before that,” he said.
He also praised Clark and her team and said they maneuvered it great.
Commissioner Brad Jackson made a motion to accept the comprehensive plan, Commissioner Bob Conley seconded it and it was approved 3-0.
Sandy said the next step was to go to the town boards that did participate and getting them to adopt their sections as well.
Clark thanked the Commissioners and all of the community members that were there. She said, “We’ve gotten accolades, obviously, today for our work, but we couldn’t have done it without all of the participation of leadership that happened in the county and in the communities, so thank you. It’s been a really great process. And, as I told the Plan Commission, I think you’re one of the few communities that I’ve worked with that have started implementation during the planning process. So that’s really exciting to see and I’m excited to see where you guys go from here.”
In other business, the Commissioners approved:
• A quote from Steve’s Roofing for $10,000 to replace the roof and shingles at the county coroner’s building, as presented by County Administrator Marsha McSherry. The other quote from Royalty Roofing was for $19,050.
• Quotes from Adams Remco to replace copiers at the county annex building and the probation department.
The quote for the high-volume copier at the annex building from Adams Remco was $13,665 and was $7,887.60 from Office Concepts, however, the annual maintenance agreement from Adams Remco was $800 and $2,494.80 from Office Concepts.
The quote for the copier at the probation department was $11,444, with an $800 annual maintenance agreement, while the Office Concepts quote was $6,688.80 but with an annual maintenance agreement of $2,494.80.
• The reappointment of Tim Keyes to the Warsaw Community Public Library Board of Trustees for another four-year term, as recommended by Library Director Ann Zydek.
• All three rezoning requests as presented by Sandy.
The first one was for Michael Cox who wanted to rezone 10 acres from public use to commercial. The property is in Turkey Creek Township in the northeast corner and used to be the former Wawasee Airport. There were no remonstrators.
The second one was for Betsy Spiegel to rezone property from residential to agricultural. The property is on CR 400N, just north of the Barbee Chain of Lakes. It is 23.15 acres. There were no remonstrators.
The final rezoning was a request from Ernest Hochstetler to rezone 20 acres from agriculture to agricultural II. The property is a quarter mile south of CR 1350N. There were no remonstrators.
• Announced the next Commissioners meeting is at 9 a.m. June 7.
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