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In what was being hailed as a new outlook in zoning, a request of Ag II was denied Tuesday by the Kosciusko County Commissioners.
The decision follows a recommendation by the county area plan commission, which unanimously opposed a proposal to rezone 19 acres south of CR 100S and CR 675W from Agriculture to Ag II, a classification that's been scrutinized in the past year as a waste of good farmland.
The property owners, Samuel and Beverly Anderson, said they would limit the number of residential tracts to two or three, but under the zoning, nearly 18 tracts could be developed.
The plan commission offered several reasons for its decision. They said the proposal didn't meet the true intentions of the Ag II classificiation, and that the surrounding area was too isolated from needed public services. Another reason noted by the commission was that access to the property is located on a dangerous curve in the road.
Compared to other Ag II requests, the land in Tuesday's proposal ranked very low in terms of acceptability for rezoning, according to criteria based on a standard assessment used by the county.
The owners had already exhausted available selloffs and the proposal looked like an attempt to sell off a few more properties, according to the plan commission.
The vote essentially sends a message that the area has reached a point of saturation in development, said plan director Dan Richard.
The plan commission, Richard said, is looking at the original objectives more closely.
The decision was the third recent action opposing Ag II in recent months, Richard said.
In other matters, the commissioners:
• Chose not to support a request by Cardinal Center to include $12,000 for KABS for 1998 as part of its annual budget. Commissioner Brad Jackson expressed concern that the request would set a new precedent for future requests. KABS is a rural bus service that serves the county.
If approved, the request would have been considered by county council next week when budget sessions are conducted on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday nights.
• Were informed that Marcia Eikenberry has been hired to replace Fiona Norris as director of Kosciusko County Solid Waste District. Eikenberry is parks director in Ligonier and will begin work in her new capacity in mid-September. Norris announced her resignation last month to move to Georgia.
• Approved an appropriation of $2,080 for Court Appointed Special Advocates program from the Superior Court budget. The money was inadvertently not funded last year. Prior to that, it came from the welfare department's budget. CASA provides court-appointed advocates for children caught in the middle of court actions.
• Heard a proposal by Warsaw's assistant planner for a proposed bikeway path stretching from Winona Lake Park through Warsaw west to the City-County Athletic Complex. The path is a little over 6 miles long.
Organizers are seeking grant money and are not seeking monetary support from the county or the towns, said city representative Jeff Noffsinger. The county assistant planner, Tanya Ford, said they plan to develop the walkway into the county land use plan in hopes that the original plan could branch out into the county.
