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Residents of a neighborhood who don't want to see any more industry around them are suing the city and the owner of the company after a variance was granted to allow the business to move ahead with its plans.
A lawsuit was filed Feb. 18 in Kosciusko Circuit Court naming the Rolling Hills Property Owners Association, Center Island Development Inc. and several individual residents as plaintiffs in the case and the city of Warsaw Board of Zoning Appeals, LRC Products Inc. and Phillip W. Barkey as defendants.
LRC was granted a variance Jan. 24 allowing for an industrial use in a residential district. The company, a distributor of laminated rafters owned by Barkey, plans to store wooden rafters on the property.
Rick Helm of Warsaw is the attorney for the plaintiffs. It was noted in the petition for a writ of certiorari - or an order from the court for the zoning board to review its decision - that the criteria required for a variance to be granted was not met by the board and that the requirements of the zoning ordinance were not applied.
According to the court document, nothing in the record of the hearing that any BZA member "made a finding or a conclusion that the variance requested was because of a 'difficulty or hardship ... caused by the ordinance and has not been caused by any persons presently having an interest in the property'" as required by the ordinance.
The case notes that the "'economic hardship' was created by LRC Products Inc. by purchasing the real estate, zoned and platted as residential use, and not by any peculiar condition of the property", and that approval should have been withheld because the "clear standard of [the ordinance] which requires that the Board find that the alleged difficulty or hardship 'has not been caused by any persons presenting having an interest in the property.' (No such finding was made.)"
Further allegations include that the decision-making process used by the BZA violated the petitioners' rights: that the BZA members reached their conclusion "without reference to any legal criteria, entered discussion primarily focused upon limitations which would be in their view, the 'best interests of everyone' and then approved the use variance without ever finding facts or applying conclusions of applicable law to those facts."
The purpose of the case is, ultimately, for the zoning Rolling hills board to reverse its decision and deny the variance approval.
The property in question is behind LRC and Gilliam Lanes and between Gilliam Drive and Center Lake. LRC bought the tract at auction and wants to use 1.4 acres, with an additional 8.107 not used for industrial purposes and the wetlands portion of the property not used at all.
A hearing on the court case is set for 9:30 a.m. March 10.
