Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
SYRACUSE - Syracuse Town Council dealt with a long agenda Tuesday, including approval of several ordinances, one of which was for rezoning property owned by St. Andrew’s Church.
Matt Sandy, Kosciusko County Plan Commission director, brought a request for rezoning 2.23 acres of property owned by St. Andrew’s Church from public use to commercial. He said the plan commission recommended the rezoning 8-0.
Attorney Steve Snyder spoke on behalf of the purchaser of the property, who he said plans to have a personal warehouse with a second-story residence on the site. Snyder said since the property is not being used by the church it is no longer public use, so a commercial zoning is in order.
The acreage in question is the fenced ball field. Reportedly, representatives of St. Andrews Church were concerned about the type of business that would be going in next door, so they went through a list of businesses with the purchaser and agreed on the personal storage and residence use. Councilman Larry Siegel questioned the commercial rezoning, if it will be personal storage and residence, but Snyder said it was appropriate and they would go back to the board of zoning appeals. The council approved the rezoning.
The council also approved an ordinance authorizing the issuance of economic development revenue bonds and loaning the proceeds to Rabbit Ridge Development.
Dr. Larry Allen owns the property where the housing development will be built behind Syracuse Family Physicians, north of town. He plans to have 44 units — 22 duplexes designated as senior housing and a community building and all other necessary infrastructure. The town is issuing economic development bonds in an amount not to exceed $1.65 million. The bond will provide 80% of the tax increment financing income to Rabbit Ridge and 20% to the town for 20 years, after which the proceeds revert back to the town.
Dennis Otten, with Bose McKinney, was present representing Rabbit Ridge. Siegel presented several scenarios, asking Otten if those scenarios were to take place and the bonds were paid off early how that would affect the town. Otten said if it was paid off sooner, 100% of the TIF revenues would go to the town.
In a related matter, the council approved writing a letter of support for Rabbit Ridge. Siegel questioned the need and town attorney Jay Rigdon explained because they were asking for a variance for multi-family duplexes, entities like Board of Zoning Appeals like to know that the council supports it.
Tyler Bowers, vice president of TRG Development, gave an introductory presentation that got a little tense at times. Bowers said he was working with South Shore Development, so Council President Nathan Scherer left the room while it was being discussed as he has some involvement with the development.
Bowers said he responded to RFPs (Request for Proposals) and has worked with Scherer and Jeff Dyson, with South Shore, and Kosciusko County Economy Development Corporation, and his part is to develop the multi-family properties.
He said getting water to the property is an issue and if they have to put in wells, “the cost would make the project unviable.” Siegel asked what the cost would be and Bowers said he thought it would be $2-$2.25 million for the wells, pumphouse and holding tanks and with that many units they almost become their own utility.
Siegel said the cost for the town would be $2.6 million plus the cost of pipe at $200 per lineal foot.
Bowers said having the water wouldn’t just benefit them but any other development out there. Siegel said they’d also have to run hydrants out there for additional costs.
Councilman Paul Stoelting said, as vice president since Scherer removed himself from the meeting, “I’d like to hear what you’re going to present.”
Bowers said The Ridge Group started in 1990 as Ridge Petroleum and then Tyler Ridge started real estate development. He showed slides of other multi-family developments they’ve done.
Siegel asked, “How does the town benefit?”
Bowers responded that there were a lot of economic drivers; that more housing brings more people and he said, “We’d like to work with you if possible.”
Dyson was present and said the town benefits because multi-family housing brings in a lot of young families, which affects schools by bringing in more funding from the state.
Siegel again brought up the town losing money on water and that they just had to raise rates.
Dyson said, “We’re looking at over $100 million in development and what’s stopping us is water.”
Stoelting said, “Larry, are you saying we should just ignore this?” He added, “They’re just here for introduction so rather than argue with them, I appreciate the information and I’m sure there’ll be more discussion and questions in the future.”
No action was taken.
Dawn Wilkinson, operations manager with KEDCO, brought the annual KEDCO agreement for approval and said they’ve been working with South Shore and Rabbit Ridge developments and have been involved in some preliminary conversations about possible development along the CR 1300N corridor.
“Growth has to happen and we’re here to help,” she said.
She said former CEO Alan Tio departed so they were between CEOs and interim co-CEO Suzy Light was with her. Scherer said he was concerned about the structure moving forward.
Light told them, “You can expect the structure of KEDCO to continue to be what it is currently at least for the next two years.”
Siegel said he felt “almost everything was harder because of the interference by KEDCO” and said there were some bad experiences. He also said he’d like there to be representatives from Syracuse on the KEDCO board and offered to join.
Wilkinson said she’d bring that back to the board and Light said they could expect an announcement of a new CEO in four weeks.
Scherer said he’d rather wait until they know who the new leader is. Someone had made a motion to accept the agreement and it was seconded so they moved to table the pending motion.
Town Manager David Wilkinson brought an animal waste ordinance, which was discussed at a prior meeting because code enforcement was getting complaints that people were not cleaning up after their dogs and the town had nothing to address the issue. The ordinance states “horses used for transportation are excluded from the provision of this ordinance.”
A couple of council members wanted to know why horses were excluded and Wilkinson said because of experiences in other communities they thought it best to make that exclusion but if they wanted to add it, they could.
Wilkinson wanted the council to suspend the rules so the ordinance could be passed that night and Scherer made the motion and it was seconded but it failed to receive a majority vote so the council will consider it for adoption next month.
In other business, the council:
• Approved a resolution changing the façade program to make it a matching program with a maximum of $5,000.
• Jeff Beer, of Beer & Slabaugh, was present on behalf of Doug Schrock, who wanted to put an alley in a public right of way on North Shore Drive. Neighbors were there to oppose it and the council took no action.
• Approved a task order to Commonwealth in the amount of $63,900 for engineering on the paving projects.
• Approved having the town manager send out RFPs for garbage collection as the town’s contract expires in July.
• Heard upcoming events include an Arbor Day Celebration April 26 at Schrock Field with third-graders. Lily Center for Lakes & Streams, Kosciusko County Water Conservation, Tree Board and Park Board members will be in attendance.
On May 4, the annual Touch A Truck event at the Community Center is from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
On May 18, the shred event is at the ballpark and it is also the first day of the Farmer’s Market.
