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Now that Warsaw's master plan is finished, city officials must look at how that plan will affect some of the city's zoning ordinances.
Those zoning changes will be discussed in a public meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday in the city council chambers. City planner Pat Hudson and assistant planner Jeff Noffsinger will present proposed changes and answer questions from the public.
"Any person who's interested should be there," Hudson said Friday. "We want what the community wants."
Probably the most obvious change in zoning will be the proposed creation of the Center Street Overlay District, Hudson said.
The Overlay District would extend from the railroad tracks near Ind. 15 to Colfax Street. The purpose of the district would be to preserve the residential character of Center Street by limiting the sites that can be converted from residential into commercial.
Hudson said proposed landscape buffers and screenings also will be discussed.
For example, the proposed ordinance would describe what kind of buffers, such as trees or shrubs, would be required between specific kinds of zoning, such as when a single family residence is located next to a parking area or a commercial district.
Also included in the revisions would be an added section on wetlands that would follow Army Corps of Engineer guidelines, a section on mobile homes, restrictions on freestanding signs and some minor zoning map changes.
Hudson emphasized that the meeting Thursday will be to discuss the proposed changes, and that a final resolution won't go to the city's plan commission and council until next month.
"We're not going to go in and change a bunch of zoning and change a bunch of assessments," he said.
The proposed zoning changes are the result of the city's new master plan, which gives recommendations on city growth based on changing trends and needs.
