Termed as sort of a “housekeeping effort,” Kosciusko County Area Planning Commission approved the vacation of several unimproved road right of ways and platted lots within Oakwood Park.

Oakwood at Lake Wawasee is being redeveloped and Oakwood Retreat LLC asked to have several road right of ways vacated, as well as several lots in an attempt to consolidate properties. Dan Richard, area planning director, said the right of ways were never developed or improved. He noted, for one example, one platted lot actually had its boundaries running through the middle of where the hotel now sits.

“Oakwood was laid out during several different phases,” Richard said. “This is kind of a clean-up effort to get rid of the road right of ways and plats that really don’t exist anymore or serve a useful purpose.”

Attorney Tom Niezer represented the petitioner and said the property was purchased in December 2012 and is being redeveloped. Niezer, emphasizing he was not criticizing the original developers, said Oakwood was developed to further the goals of a ministry and not necessarily as a residential developer would do it.

“Some of the lots are too small and if they are not vacated, we really can’t make any improvements,” he said, adding it would take several individual petitions before the board of zoning appeals to ask for variances.

Lee Harman, chairman of the APC, asked Niezer what would happen to the existing homes on the lots being vacated. Niezer indicated the homes would be rented seasonally and would become metes and bounds, which is a specific way to survey and describe a particular piece of property.
Richard noted some of the existing roads actually do not match what is platted and, he added, the town of Syracuse has been working with Oakwood to correct this.

Vacations will occur in lots 2-33 and the undeveloped right of way between lot 16 and to the north of lots 14 through 7 in the original development; lots 1,14,27,40 and 53 in the second addition; lots 1-4 in the third addition; 12 feet of lot 9 in the fifth addition; and lot 5 and an undeveloped platted 20 feet of right of way on the east side of lot 5 in the sixth addition.

The APC voted unanimously for the vacations — members James Moyer and Keith Hardy were not present — and there were no remonstrators for or against the petition.

In other business, the APC voted 4-3 not to vacate a roadway just off Hill Lake in Seward Township. The public roadway is in the Sunset Shore addition abutting Leiter’s Sunnyside Park. Richard noted when the technical committee reviewed the petition, they came to no real consensus. “Planning wise, we may want to keep the roadway because it is possible to develop the property to the north,” he said.

The road is not maintained by the county and is not part of the county’s road system. Jennifer Carnes, an attorney representing the petitioner Jeremy Scutchfield, said all but one of the surrounding property owners have consented to the road vacation and don’t want to see the road extended.

But some APC members were not sure if the property owner simply wants to consolidate his properties or if he intends to build a new house or add to an existing one. Kevin McSherry of the APC, a volunteer firefighter, said the fire department is concerned if the road is vacated and one of the other two nearby roads is also vacated it would cut off access to emergency response vehicles.

Since five votes are needed to recommend approval or denial, the APC will send a recommendation of a “no” vacation to the county commissioners, who will consider the petition April 23.

Also on the agenda, the APC voted unanimously to table a roadway vacation petition for 60 days until the June 5 meeting. Jerri Flowers and Phyllis Custer petitioned to vacate a portion of Wray Drive, a public roadway in the old Wray homestead subdivision off the south side of Hoffman Lake in Prairie Township. Richard noted nearby U.S. 30 did not exist when the subdivision was originally platted.

The petitioners were not present at the meeting and Richard emphasized all of the nearby property owners need to be willing to officially combine their lots for the road vacation to work properly. Ted Baker lives nearby and said he is concerned the road vacation would cut off access to his own back yard, but said he is willing to work with the petitioners if he can have access.

Roy Haywood lives directly east of the petitioners and said he has no objections to the petition. Larry Coplen of the APC made a motion to table the petition, which was seconded and approved, to allow time for an agreement to be worked out.

APC meetings are held at 1 p.m. the first Wednesday of each month in the commissioners room of the county courthouse, Warsaw.