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Warsaw Plan Commission (WPC) wanted a recommendation from the Traffic Safety Commission (TSC) on an access point for one of the three parcels to be sold at 1060 Mariners Drive, owned by Mallers Joyner Cinemas, and they got one Wednesday.
In requesting the recommendation on behalf of the WPC, City Planner Justin Taylor said it was for a plat that was brought before the WPC at their May meeting.
Mallers Joyner Cinemas submitted a plat to the WPC in May to reconfigure three lots at 1060 Mariners Drive. The lots were merged for tax purposes and have been maintained under the common ownership. The need to reconfigure these parcels came about because the owner wants to sell off some of the lots and one of the property lines bisects the building, so they can’t sell two of the lots until they’re cleaned up. The WPC approved the preliminary plat at their May meeting, but held off on approving the final plat.
Taylor said Wednesday, “As you can see, there are currently three lots for the cinema. They are looking to reconfigure these lots and ... that’s why they have to go through the platting process so they can reconfigure those lots to conform to our ordinance.”
He said the reconfiguring of the plat would involve “bringing the lot line for what is going to be lot 3 down to where the break is in the pavement here and then straight down from there.” According to a provided map, lot 3 starts at the bottom of the North Pointe Cinemas parking lot and goes down to Mariners Drive and the roundabout (but not, obviously, including the roundabout). The east side is bordered by Husky Trail.
“So these lots are currently under common ownership. They will be sold separately to potentially different owners in the future,” Taylor said. “The reason the Plan Commission wanted to get some input from the Traffic Safety Commission, a recommendation, is because of the reconfiguring of lot 3. It would need an access point, if and when it is developed in the future. We don’t know what that is going to be yet, so it’s kind of hard to anticipated how much traffic that might create, but the plan commission did want to be cautious especially considering these are relatively busy roads, and just see if there was any input that the commission might have for the plan commission to approve this subdivision.”
The cinemas put together three different preferred options.
Alex Reed, listing agent for Mallers Joyner, and Josh Vazquez, operations manager for the Cinemas, presented the options for lot 3 to get some sort of access from Husky Trail.
Option 1 would be for an access point to be directly into lot 3 where the yellow pylon sign is along Husky Trail for the theater, basically where the boundary line will be for lot 3 and the theater lot. Reed said it would get the access point to lot 3 as far away from the roundabout as possible but still be on lot 3. He said if that was too close to the roundabout, the other two options have the access point further north. Option 2 access point would be directly across from the Family Worship Center, which would cut into the theater lot. Option 3 is even further north to basically where the gravel starts at the theater, about 400 feet north of the roundabout, and also would require an easement from the theater lot.
Reed said they want to keep lot 3 viable to sell in the future.
Warsaw Police Department Capt. Joel Beam asked if they did a traffic count off Mariner Drive as opposed to Husky Trail.
Vazquez said they pulled some traffic data and that’s all they had. Taylor said they didn’t have numbers for Mariners Drive, but for Husky Trail it ranges from 7,500 to 11,000 average daily trips per day.
“Closer to the intersection of 30, that’s where you get the 11,000. As you get up by the theater, it’s about 7,500,” Taylor said.
Vazquez said they think option 1 is the best option and it puts the access point just south of the North Pointe Cinema sign. He said it’s based on the fact that Martin’s Super Market has a curb cut very similar to it on the other side of the roundabout, but Martin’s is less of a distance from the roundabout than where the Cinemas would like theirs.
Councilwoman Cindy Dobbins said she would like to limit the access point to a right-hand turn only going out onto Husky Trail. Vazquez said that’s a consideration for all three options, but he pointed out there’s not the same limitation for the Family Worship Center on the opposite side of Husky Trail.
Public Works Director Dustin Dillon said he liked there were three options and that may be dictated by whatever traffic goes in and out of whatever lot 3 becomes at some point. He was also happy the road was “super wide” right there where they wanted the access point.
Taylor said option 1 doesn’t require any changes to the plat, but options 2 and 3 would and an overlay of an easement for the ingress and egress ability for lot 3. “Because if ownership of these parcels changes, then the ability to create easements becomes more difficult,” he said.
Beam asked if an access point was put on Mariners Drive instead of Husky Trail, would there not have to be an easement. Vazquez said if it was put on Mariners Drive, for lot 3 specifically, it would be too close to a blind corner, in his opinion. He also said there wasn’t as much room along Mariners Drive.
Taylor pointed out there was also a detention basin on the west side of lot 3 along Mariners Drive.
After about 17 minutes of discussion on the matter, Beam said with the access point being 150 feet from the roundabout, and as wide as Husky Trail was at that point, option 1 would be a viable option and he made a motion to recommend to the WPC that option 1 be approved. Dillon seconded the motion and it passed unanimously.
The final plat will go before the WPC at their 7 p.m. June 8 meeting at the WPD Training Center.
