Taking the oath of office, from right, are Tom Allen, Rick Keeven, Jeff Grose, James Emans, Dan Stevens, Rick Paczkowski and Diane Quance. The oath of office was administered by Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer. (Photo by Deb Patterson)
WARSAW — The new nine-member board of the Warsaw Plan Commission was sworn in Monday evening during the board’s first meeting of 2016.
Due to state statute and the city having a full time engineer and park board, the plan commission was increased from seven to nine members at the start of the year.
The commission is made up of five individuals appointed by the mayor with no more than three from the same political party. These individuals include the city engineer, board of works appointee, park board appointee and city council membership appointee. The terms of each member are staggered, ranging from four years to one year.
Tom Allen, Dave Baumgartner, Jim Gast, Rick Keeven and Dan Stevens have been appointed to the commission by the mayor. Allen, Gast and Keeven are Republicans; Baumgartner is a Democrat; and Stevens is a Libertarian. Terms for Allen and Baumgartner will expire December 2018. Gast’s term, who was appointed in 2013, will expire in December 2016. Stevens will serve a two-year-term, ending December 2017.
James Emans, city engineer, will serve on the commission as long as he is employed by the city. Jeff Grose, board of works appointee; Rick Paczkowski, park board appointment, and Diane Quance, council appointment from its membership will all have terms of expiration based on their term in their respective areas.
Property Re-Platted
Property owned by DeWayne Busz at 658 S. Buffalo Street, received preliminary plat approval to divide the 4.94 acres into four plots. Originally, according to Busz, it was four lots, then it was combined into one. He wishes to return it to four lots and bring back the wooded habitat on one of the lots.
It was noted the division would include one lot where the current Wabash Donut Shop is located, with two additional lots created to the north of that facility. The fourth lot would be the large area to the west, which is mostly wetlands. The three lots would all have ingress and egress off the property, two from Buffalo Street and one from Lake Street.
Busz, who is adjacent to the area he wishes to plat again, stated he has plans to replant trees in the larger lot to get it back like it was when his kids grew up and a place where kids could play again.
While Busz had requested a final plat approval at the same time, the commission tabled that decision until details of a city stormsewer easement could be defined, and possibly an easement to allow placement of snow at the end of Lake Street.
During other business:
- Allen and Keeven were re-elected as commission president and vice president respectively.
- Commission members were presented proposed changes to the zoning ordinance regulating the height and setback of non-residential districts. It was discovered, with the tech park, the ordinance allowed for taller buildings in commercial districts than in areas zoned for industrial. The proposal will be presented in February in an ordinance format for further discussion.
- Approved the 2016 meeting schedule of 7 p.m. the second Monday of each month.