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Ordinances regarding an Airport Overlay District (AOD), gravel driveways and vehicular surfacing requirements, surface parking lots in the downtown Warsaw business district and allowing schools in all zoning districts will be discussed by the Warsaw Plan Commission at their Nov. 9 meeting.
City Planner Justin Taylor asked the Plan Commission members at their meeting Monday, Oct. 12 to review the drafts of the ordinances over the course of the next month in preparation for the discussion.
“I wanted to get these items in front of you to give you time to digest them. If I had to prioritize them, I would say - and I’m definitely not trying to steal their thunder - but I wanted to give the board time to digest because this is a very important piece of legislation that will come before you for a recommendation to council. This is the Airport Overlay District draft, so I’ve included that,” he said. “If you review one of these documents over the next month, this is the one to review. There’s some changes. It’ll overlay to our existing zoning ordinance. They’ll present it in depth next month, so there’s no action needed tonight. No discussion needed tonight, but I wanted to make sure the board members had a copy of what is being considered.”
While HWC Engineering is expected to present the AOD, Councilwoman Diane Quance requested Airport Manager Nick King be in attendance at the November meeting as well to answer any questions.
Another ordinance concerns gravel driveways and vehicular surfacing requirements.
“There was a lot of discussions with the BZA (Board of Zoning Appeals) regarding modifying our requirements for only asphalt or concrete to be used for driveways. So this ordinance would allow an apron or approach to be used, a 25-foot apron, and then the rest could be gravel or stone. That allows some of the larger lots that we have around the city to possibly use part gravel if they would like, without that risk of tracking it out onto the road,” Taylor explained.
The next ordinance to be reviewed will be a revision to the city’s dumpster ordinance that incorporates the comments they received the last time the dumpster ordinance was presented. It differentiates between the business dumpsters and construction dumpsters.
Regarding the ordinance amendment for parking lots in a Commercial-4 (C-4) district (downtown Warsaw), Taylor said, “This goes in conjunction with the efforts of Main Street Warsaw. They are currently working on a historic preservation document that will go to the Board of Works meeting this Friday. But, again, trying to preserve some of those historic structures in our downtown. So this would enable us to put in front of the BZA those requests where they would demolish a building just to build surface parking. So, in an ideal world, we would try to maintain some of our historic buildings. This would enable us to restrict some of those actions just for surface parking.”
He said the ordinance would be just for the C-4 district and not across the whole city.
“The push was to get downtown protected by some sort of change to that ordinance, so that’s what this is proposing,” Taylor said.
The last ordinance he gave for the Plan Commission to review was an update to the city’s ordinance due to a change in state law.
“The last one is an update where state law passed last year requiring municipalities not to restrict the development of schools in any zoning district, so that’s kind of a done deal, so we are just updating our permitted uses table to reflect that state law change,” Taylor said.
Also at the meeting, the Plan Commission was presented with the petition from Biggs Indiana Properties LLC for the final (secondary) plat approval for Belle Augusta section 5, east of the intersection of CR 225E and 75N.
Taylor said the proposed plat creates 41 residential lots, lots 101 through 141, and continues the established Belle Augusta residential development north of the previously platted sections. The expansion was approved under the city’s planned unit development (PUD) process to allow some flexibility with lot sizes, he said.
“This is now on that final phase where it comes back to you for that final plat approval,” he stated.
Taylor recommended the Plan Commission grant contingent approval of the plat as there were a couple of items that needed to be addressed - including the as-builts for the public infrastructure that have not yet been completed and a drainage basin issue that city engineering is currently reviewing.
Though it was a hearing for the final plat approval, the Plan Commission members had an hour of questions and concerns about the details of the required green space and access to it, drainage, the detention or retention water basin and the home owners association covenants.
City engineer Kyle Alger eventually made a motion to approve the secondary plat “contingent on receiving the as-builts, having maintenance done on the existing storm system, observing the storm system in one more significant rain event and verification of green space and access.” Commission member Jeff Owens seconded the motion and it passed 8-0, with member Dave Baumgartner absent.
Taylor also presented the draft of the compliance report for the Indiana House Enrolled Act 1001 public hearing that the Plan Commission had Sept. 14.
With the review completed, he said the draft of the report will be updated and finalized and submitted to the state at the end of the year, along with some other documentation.
