By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW — Warsaw Plan Commission on Monday approved recommending two resolutions to the city council regarding development projects.

The final plat for phase I of the Greenbrier development at the corner of East CR 350N and Airport Road also was approved.

City Planner Justin Taylor said the two resolutions already were approved by the Warsaw Redevelopment Commission and they needed a recommendation from the Plan Commission to take to the council.

The first resolution, 2023-07-01, “is for the expansion of the Central Development Area. This expansion will include the former Owen’s site and the former Marsh site,” he said. “This will enable the city to incentivize and participate in these redevelopment initiatives.”

Commission President Rick Keeven asked if the Owen’s site was “a go” as far as the apartment building project. Taylor said everything was moving along nicely and it was looking really good, though he wasn’t involved in the project on a day-to-day basis.

Councilman and Commission member Jeff Grose informed the other Commission members that the Redevelopment Commission at their meeting Monday approved a resolution and purchase agreement to buy the Marsh property from Cardinal Services for $1.25 million. Hopefully, it will result in retail at that location, with a grocery store being the first thing.

Dan Stevens, commission member, asked if the resolution affected any of the residential houses in the area. Taylor said it should not and the homes behind Marsh were not included.

Commission member Bob Coffelt asked if there was “any intention” for the property across from Marsh on the east side of Ind. 15 since it was included in the expansion. Taylor said he hadn’t heard anything directly.

The Commission approved recommending the resolution to the council by a vote of 9-0.

The second resolution, 2023-07-2, was for the reallocation of the Gatke project allocation area. Taylor said a developer is moving forward with putting housing on the former Gatke Corp. site and the reallocation will help the city spur on the development. The Redevelopment Commission approved a similar resolution at their meeting Monday. Grose said the allocation restarted the clock and was for 25 years.

The second resolution was approved unanimously.

There was no opposition to either resolutions.

Finally, Taylor presented the petition for the final plat for phase I of the Greenbrier subdivision at the northeast corner of CR 350N and Airport Road.

He said the petitioner wants to subdivide 18.91 acres into 53 lots. The preliminary plat was approved in late 2021. Since that approval, the developer has constructed the public infrastructure portion of the project. There is some electrical work that needs to be finished on the sanitary sewer lift station that will serve the development, but other than that, the lift station is complete.

Phase II of the development includes a PUD (planned unit development), which was approved in general detail by the city council in 2021, he said. Phase I of the development is unaffected by the PUD and conforms to Residential-1 zoning regulations.

“It is the opinion of the Planning Department that the final plat for the Greenbrier subdivision Phase I be approved by this board,” Taylor stated.

Jeff Thomas, owner of Oakmont Development, talked about the greenspace, drainage and utilities, but there were no remonstrators against the final plat. The Plan Commission approved it 9-0.