Plan Commission Recommends Denial of Road Vacation
Posted
Jordan Fouts-
Kosciusko Area Plan Commission recommended Wednesday the denial of a vacation request that had drawn opposition from 100 neighbors.
Larry and Judy Farver had requested the vacation of a public right of way beside their property at the end of North Elwood Avenue in Syracuse.
The avenue technically goes alongside their driveway and ends at a Lake Wawasee waterway, though their attorney, Stephen Snyder, told commission members the tail-end of unimproved road is not on the county’s maintenance schedule and is instead maintained by the Farvers and other neighbors. The Farvers recently paved their driveway and were afraid of people driving on it or parking and blocking them in, he said.
Snyder requested the road be vacated, narrowed or signage placed restricting it to foot traffic.
Two neighbors attended the meeting to voice opposition, and the commission received 70 pages of petitions with 100 signatures from neighbors expressing remonstrance.
Among the arguments against vacating the road were that neighborhood children sit at the end of it to fish and that it’s used for snow pileup in winter.
Commission member Kevin McSherry observed that area fire departments have expressed concern with the loss of access to public right of ways.
The commission voted unanimously to recommend rejecting the Farvers’ request to the Board of Zoning Appeals.
Members later approved a vacation request from Mark Anderson for an undeveloped road that bisects his property at East Wooster and East Van Ness roads in Wooster.
And they voted to postpone a decision on a rezoning request for a bait shop at Ind. 13 and CR 350N. Owner Mark Dillon had asked for rezoning from residential to commercial.
