The Wayne Township trustee, a church and a business owner all received approval for their petitions Monday night before the City of Warsaw Board of Zoning Appeals. Sheila Burner, Wayne Township trustee, requested a variance from development standards to permit a second sign at 523 S. Buffalo St., a commercial property that houses the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce and other organizations. The Commercial-2 district only allows one freestanding sign, and a multi-tenant sign already exists on the property. City Planner Jeremy Skinner told members of the BZA that the second sign would be at the corner of Buffalo and Prairie streets. He said he didn’t have any size request for the sign, but he would work with Wayne Township on that. “I don’t see any issue with having a second sign. The building has numerous office spaces in it. I did talk to (Chamber President and CEO) Rob Parker and he certainly was in support of this request,” Skinner said. BZA Vice President Rick Keeven asked if this was the first in a series of such requests for the property. Skinner said this was the only sign request, but any future requests would have to come through the same process. If other organizations in the building want signs later on, Skinner said there would be discussion about modifying the Wayne Township sign to accommodate them instead of having a proliferation of signs. “Every request is its own entity,” Skinner said. Along with the Chamber and the township office, other organizations in the building include Warsaw Community Development Corp., Coordinated Benefit Design, Builders Association of Kosciusko Fulton Counties, Bradley Company, Nurses Etc. Staffing and Kosciusko Economic Development Corp. Skinner told Keeven that he didn’t know if they wouldn’t have another request for another sign later on, but the board would deal with that at that point in time. Keeven asked if the township was aware that it may be asked to share sign space down the road if another request was made. City attorney Mike Valentine said, “That’s not in front of us. Respectfully. That’s not in front of us. Their sign, under our sign ordinance, is being considered, not some speculation that we’ll have 24 more signs out there. That’s improper.” Burner said the Chamber, which owns the building, wants the township sign to be on the south end where the township office is so that traffic comes in that way, not the north end where the Chamber office is located. There were no remonstrators and the panel approved the township’s variance request. Though Tom Gaunt was the petitioner for a use variance to allow a church in a Commercial-3 zoning at 2526 E. Jefferson St., Aaron Hoak, Grace Baptist Church pastor, spoke in favor of the request to the BZA. Skinner said the petitioner was asking to use an existing building in a C-3 for a church. He said it comes down to the impact of a church in a C-3, but he didn’t see any problems with the request and the area can handle the traffic. Keeven asked what the size of the church’s congregation was. Hoak said average attendance over the last year was in the neighborhood of 47 or 48 for the Sunday morning service. The evening service is a lower number than that, he said. Currently, Grace Baptist Church meets in The Meeting Place, 475 Anchorage Road, the same building as Goshert Insurance. “As we’ve sought a better place to meet, we found this property, walked in and thought it could be a church this Sunday if we moved the salon equipment out and put some flexible chair seating in, which we have,” Hoak said. The building used to be home to Think Young hair salon. Hoak said it would operate with Sunday morning and evening services. With the flexibility the building offers, he said at some point the church would offer a Sunday school prior to the morning service and the building might get some traffic through the week. Hoak’s office currently is in his house so he also would move that to the building. The church also offers a mid-week service during half of the year. “A group of people that wants to be a blessing to our community. Hopefully be a good neighbor, an encouragement to the people around us. We’d appreciate the ability to use the building in that way,” Hoak stated. If the church can come to an agreement with the seller, Hoak said he would buy the building. No substantial changes are planned initially for the building. As for signage, Hoak said they would put signs up where the former signs were in the front and on the northeast corner. The petition was unanimously approved. The last two petitions were from Dale Miller, Noblesville. He requested a use variance to allow a professional office in a Residential-2 zoning at 1611 E. Center St. and a variance from development standards to allow a sign in a R-2 zone. The zoning district does not allow signs, but the overlay district where the building is located historically has allowed professional/retail uses a maximum 16-square-foot sign if approved for a use variance. Skinner said parking is already in place and use of the property for professional services is not out of the realm of possibility. Board President Tom Allen asked what type of business would be in the building. Miller said it was an engineering services company. Miller said it currently has five employees, but has gone up to as many as eight or nine. From time to time, he said they might have a customer come by. Parking is around back, and Miller said they moved in about two years ago, though he’s worked in the area for about 17 years. With no remonstrators, the board approved the use variance and then discussed the variance for the sign. Skinner informed Miller that the sign could be a maximum of 16 square feet but can’t be lighted. After further discussion about the sign, the board approved Miller’s petition subject to all ordinances regarding sign restrictions.
