Planning Commission Briefly Discusses Signs
WARSAW – With no plats or rezonings to consider, the agenda was light for the regular monthly meeting of the Kosciusko County Area Planning Commission Wednesday afternoon, Oct. 7, in Warsaw.
The APC did briefly discuss real estate signs. Dan Richard, area planning director, noted roughly 10 years ago the Kosciusko County Board of Realtors requested the zoning ordinance pertaining to real estate signs be enforced. Richard said the enforcement efforts went well for a few years and when signs not in compliance were removed they were left at the county highway department to be picked up. But problems have developed again within the last couple of years, he said.
Discussions are to be held again with the board of realtors, Richard said, and the ordinance may be updated as needed. No vote was taken during the Oct. 7 meeting, but the plan is to discuss the real estate signs again at the Nov. 4 meeting.
Mike Kissinger of the planning commission asked if an ordinance had been in place 10 years ago, why it had not been enforced before the request by the board of realtors. Bob Conley, also of the APC, used law enforcement as an example and said it is impossible for police officers to enforce every ordinance on the books. “You make a decision to enforce only the ordinances applicable to today,” he said.
Chuck Haffner of the APC said he would like to see fines given to violators of the sign ordinance in addition to leaving signs at the highway department. “We’ve done all this work to remove the signs,” he said.
Richard noted part of the discussion process is to get clear directions. “We are getting hazy directions now,” he said.
In other business, the APC recommended approval for two road right of way vacations. One is for a small 11-foot strip of right of way in the Wright Place subdivision just off Eli Lilly Road on the north side of Lake Wawasee in Turkey Creek Township. What prompted the petition was the Martin family wanting to build and discovering a problem with setbacks from a right of way.
The other vacation is a continuation of the attempt to vacate piece by piece Baugher Road, a platted road on the south end of Webster Lake never built and which does not exist anymore except on paper. The petitioner is the Eubank family. Other nearby property owners have been notified by mail they can petition for vacations, but some have not responded yet.
County commissioners will consider both petitions at their Tuesday, Oct. 20, meeting.
It was also noted at the APC meeting the new flood zones for the county based on the updated flood control ordinance can now be seen on the Beacon website for Kosciusko County (kcgov.com).