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Housing Opportunities of Warsaw's planned unit development will be forwarded to the Warsaw city council with no recommendation from the plan commission.
Attorney Steve Snyder presented HOW's proposal before the plan commissioners Monday for a residential planned unit development for senior housing south of Gilliam Drive and west of Gilliam Bowling Lanes.
The development plan shows nine building sites with 19 units - eight duplexes and one triplex. Made to look like single-family homes, each duplex is 750 square feet. A three-foot-high berm planted with three-foot-tall trees is indicated to serve as a buffer zone along Gilliam Drive.
Currently, LRC Products has a use variance for commercial storage on the R-1 zoned 4.377 acres. HOW has an option to buy the property pending approval of the PUD.
If approved, this would be the first residential development the 8-year-old not-for-profit organization has managed.
Residents of the Rolling Hills subdivision, to the west of the property, filled council chambers to capacity to remonstrate against the proposal.
During a December HOW-sponsored public meeting, the PUD was presented as affordable senior housing. A letter from HOW dated October 2003 also described the plan as housing for the elderly.
Confusion arose when Snyder cautioned the commission not to consider which age group would occupy the units. The board cannot make a decision based on the age of future occupants, he said, citing federal law.
Snyder asked them to consider the plan as an attractive buffer between high-density commercial use along Ind. 15 and the single-family residences of Rolling Hills.
Rolling Hills property owners Jim Anderson, Brian Gosney, Scott Bowman, Bill Baldwin, Judy Enyeart, Jay Fisher, Dick Leslie, Ruth Roberts and Terry Melton approached the board.
Anderson, a member of the Rolling Hills Property Owners Association, said there were no guarantees the PUD would stay with HOW or be for senior housing; that the units do not blend with the character of the neighborhood because the average home in Rolling Hills is 2,000 to 5,500 square feet and is valued between $80,000 to $450,000; and the market study is not specific to Rolling Hills but shows broad national figures.
Gosney noted that Rolling Hills homeowners have to meet specific covenants governing the property and that there are no covenants on the property under consideration.
The residents said a Catholic church has plans to build north of Gilliam and that no other homes have carports.
Roberts reminded the commissioners they were charged with protecting property values.
Joe Hamilton, broker of Coldwell Banker, said he could not give a percentage of depreciation to property values but the PUD would be a detriment to property owners because the PUD is different.
When the public portion of the meeting closed, plan commissioner Jeff Grose said he was upset and concerned with the decision to grant a use variance for the property a couple of years ago. Grose voted against the variance.
"I thought you were going to be looking at rafters," he said to the Rolling Hills residents. "Why hasn't this property been developed? Nothing has happened here."
Commissioner Joe Thallemer also voted against vacation of the plat in March 2000. The plat vacation issue was eventually decided in court.
"This property was available for purchase for a year," Thallemer said. "We have to consider the neighbors, the wetlands and the lake."
Grose said the R-1 zoning didn't protect the neighbors a year ago from a commercial use variance. The PUD before them comes under the board's review and control.
"If they follow the zoning, we won't be there to oversee plans," Grose said.
Snyder reminded the group that minimum lots could be platted for eight or nine houses under the R-1 designation.
Richard Keeven said he was stuck on not being able to consider the PUD elderly housing.
Dewey Lawshe and Lacy Francis Jr. both said they thought the PUD was the best plan for the area presented so far.
The vote to send the proposal to the common council with no recommendation was unanimous.
Plan commission members are: Alan Clingan, Lacy Francis, Jim Gast, Jeff Gross, Richard Keeven, Dewey Lawshe and Joe Thallemer. Clingan and Gast were absent.
