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Without the petitioner present Wednesday, the Kosciusko County Area Plan Commission continued Robert Smits' preliminary plat approval request to their Nov. 6 meeting.
Smits' petition for preliminary plat approval is for an agricultural II development on 4.906 acres. The property is on the west side of Epworth Forest Road in Tippecanoe Township.
Board member Hal Strong said he was in favor of the petition but thought Smits should be at the meeting. County surveyor Dick Kemper made a motion to approve the petition and Charlie Haffner, board member, made a second to the motion.
Kemper then said he would be opposed to any future subdividing of the tract. Since the plan commission can't impose any conditions on the approval and Haffner also doesn't want the tract divided any further, Haffner withdrew his second. The board could ask Smits to voluntarily put the restriction on the plat that the tract wouldn't be further subdivided, but since he was not present, they could not ask him to do so.
For lack of a second, the motion to approve the preliminary plat failed. The board then voted unanimously to continue the petition a month.
In another matter, Marna Riedel's petition to rezone ground from environmental to agricultural was unanimously approved. The 21.05-acre property is on the east side of CR 350W and zero feet north of CR 200N in Prairie Township.
Riedel told the commission the property has been in her family for a long time and they are thinking of possibly building a home on the site, which is mostly classified forest.
On rezonings, the plan commission is only a recommending body to the Kosciusko County Commissioners. The commissioners will hear the rezoning petition at 10 a.m. Oct. 22.
The plan commission also approved the final plat for section four of the Northwinds Subdivision, off CR 100E, south of CR 450N. There are 30 lots in the section.
Members of the plan commission present at the meeting were Hal Strong, Barbara Carwile, Don Arms, Vic Virgil, Charlie Haffner and Dick Kemper. Not present were Kevin McSherry, Kelly Easterday and Norm Lovell. They meet at 1 p.m. in the Kosciusko County courthouse, Warsaw, on the first Wednesday of every month.
