Developer Jeff Thomas addresses questions about the Tuscany Subdivision from members of the Winona Lake Plan Commission.

WINONA LAKE — The developer of a 33-lot subdivision on South CR 250E in Winona Lake has most of the T’s crossed and I’s dotted and told the Winona Lake Plan Commission on Tuesday, May 22, that he’s ready to start moving dirt. His only obstacle to the first part of site preparation involves the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.

“Dirt moving, as soon as we have our Rule 5 [permit] wrapped up, we want to start immediately,” said Jeff Thomas, of Oakmont Development, developer of the Tuscany subdivision. “I would say we’re about 48 hours from having our Rule 5 permit. Once we have that, we like to get started on getting everything going, dirt-wise.”

Thomas, along with several representatives of the project, met with the plan commission to keep the panel updated on the progress of the project.

Thomas told the commission that each lot would have a well, the less expensive alternative to tapping into municipal water infrastructure. He said the cost per lot of having a well was about half the cost of bringing city water to the site. “That was a shock to us,” he said. “We weren’t expecting that. We’re trying to provide housing, something that’s affordable and that was just something we weren’t able to do.”

Thomas was also advised by the board to check with the post office regarding the approved installation of mail boxes.

Thomas said the biggest delay would be getting plans approved by IDEM for the sanitary sewer.