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Petitions seeking to rezone ground from agricultural to agricultural II districts caused some headaches for the Kosciusko County Area Plan Commission Wednesday.
Ag II zonings are so disliked by the Plan Commission that at one point board member Kevin McSherry said, "... Ag II has been a mistake for Kosciusko County."
McSherry's comments came during a hearing of Bryan and Brad Thomas' petition to rezone 12.89 acres of ground from agricultural to agricultural II. The property is on the north side of Hepton Road, west of CR 900W in Scott Township.
Last month, the petition was tabled when the board was unable to get a majority vote either for or against it. Only six board members were present in May and the vote was four to two; it takes five of the nine-person board to approve or deny a petition. Wednesday, the entire board was present.
Attorney Loren Sloat, Nappanee, represented the Thomas brothers at the hearing. He said that according to strict definition of agricultural and agricultural II zoning, the property fit the requirements to allow rezoning.
"It's not prime farmland. The yield on the hill in any typical year is half of what it is (elsewhere)," Sloat said.
Amish populate the area, he said, and the Thomas family wants to build residences for the Amish community.
The average size of the other 24 lots in the area is less than six acres per lot on average. One lot is an Amish church and another an Amish school.
"It seems like it makes some sense to allow some more growth in this area," Sloat said. He said his calculations show the area is 60 percent Amish and will continue to need homes for Amish families in the future. There are other properties which still have potential sell-offs on fertile farmland. If the plan commission does not allow more Amish housing on the Thomas property, then housing will go up on land that is fertile, he said.
Plan director Dan Richard said the property does have prime soil and can make for good farmland.
"Irrespective of what types of soils are there, it's what the farmers produce (that counts)," Sloat replied.
Brad Thomas said the property they want rezoned is on a slope and does not produce high yields. He said he and his brother farm about 1,100 acres of land and own 800 of it.
There were no remonstrators to the petition, but the board denied the petition five to three.
The second hearing of the day, also denied, also involved agricultural to agricultural II rezoning and the Amish as well.
Devon Hochstetler petitioned to rezone 40 acres from an Ag district to an Ag II district. The property is on the south side of CR 1350N and west of CR 700W in Jefferson Township.
The similarities between Hochstetler's petition and the Thomases' petition was evident to board member Charlie Haffner.
"We see right here what we promoted by the last decision," Haffner said. Haffner wanted to approve both petitions.
One difference between the two petitions was that Hochstetler wants to sell 16.3 acres of the ground to his daughter.
County Surveyor Richard Kemper and Highway Superintendent Rob Ladson both said if the property were rezoned, that would open the property up to become a subdivision later, even if Hochstetler had no intention of doing so presently.
Richard said the board must remember that they need to look long-term and not just at current petitions and situations.
"It gets down to how serious are we as a plan commission going to be?" Richard said. He said the county has a comprehensive plan in place and the plan commission needs to try to stick to the plan that tries to protect farmland.
Kemper told Hochstetler, "I have absolutely no problem with what you want to do. It's just another example of how kids need to be exempt. Parents need to be able to sell off pieces of land to their kids."
Haffner said a problem the commission is having is that they're trying to fit every petition into a mold. While protecting farmland is important, he said, not every one fits into that mold.
There were no remonstrators to Hochstetler's petition.
While the board denied Hochstetler's petition six to two, they agreed to ask the county commissioners to look at making sell-offs to children of property owners an exemption to the sell-off limitation rule.
"That's the way you're going to help the Amish community," McSherry said.
Board member Hal Strong voted against the recommendation because, he said, too many people abused the policy in the past and will again.
The commission also approved four final plats and tabled one petition.
