Pictured, from left, are Kosciusko County Area Plan Commission Director Matt Sandy, Board of Zoning Appeals Members John Beer and Kevin McSherry, BZA Chairman Lee Harman, and Hearing Officer Randy Cox. InkFreeNews photo by Liz Adkins.

By Liz Adkins
InkFreeNews

WARSAW – The Kosciusko County Board of Zoning Appeals denied a petition for an exception regarding a home-based auto repair business south of Claypool during a Wednesday, Nov. 12, board meeting.

The business, Wiesehan’s Automotive, is at 3019 W. Hill Lake Road, Claypool, with the property owned by Marcella Manns, who requested an exception to allow the business to exist within an agricultural district. Manns and Zach Wiesehan, owner of Wiesehan’s Automotive, attended the meeting.

At the board’s October meeting, Area Plan Commission Director Matt Sandy had noted issues with storage of vehicles in the right-of-way. Manns told the board she planned on moving to Connecticut at the end of the year, with Wiesehan staying at her residence.

At the November meeting, Wiesehan said screening was placed on one side of a fence on the property and that vehicles were reorganized to be off the roadway or within the driveway.

“There’ve been a lot of improvements compared to what it was when we first came in (to the BZA),” said Wiesehan.

Sandy said as of a week ago, there were still ongoing issues with vehicles at the business extending into the right-of-way. In video footage Sandy filmed, one parked vehicle was shown extending past a fence line, but not into the roadway.

“It’s not impeding traffic, it’s not in the way of someone driving on the road,” said Wiesehan. “And it’s not a very highly traveled road, and the vehicles aren’t somewhere where people might think they’re going to hit them.”

Manns said Wiesehan occasionally has to temporarily place vehicles within the right-of-way to move them around on the property.

“And that’s part of the concern is you should be able to operate totally on that site,” said Sandy.

Wiesehan said the county’s zoning ordinance stated vehicles needed to be within the property as much as possible. He also told the board the parked vehicle shown in Sandy’s video was moved from the fence about a couple hours later.

Manns and Wiesehan also said they had considered adding a bay area ono an existing building at the property for extra parking.

With residency, Wiesehan said he was in the process of moving into Manns’ residence and getting his address changed on his driver’s license to reflect living at the Hill Lake Road address.

“Here’s the problem,” said BZA Chairman Lee Harman. “You’re resistant to what we’re trying to get accomplished, and you continue to do so. You want to park in the right-of-way, and your attitude is ‘farmers are doing it, so we can do it.'”

Austin Jones, who lives south of the property and spoke against the petition in October, also attended the November meeting to speak in opposition. A letter signed by a different number of property owners near the residence was also submitted to the BZA, with the signees also in opposition of the petition.

“We’ve been at this for 60 days, and they’ve been at this for over a year,” said Jones. “I feel like they can progress a little faster.”

Jones said his primary concerns with Wiesehan’s current business location was parking and the environmental impact. He noted a commercial building near Silver Lake was currently up for lease and wondered if Wiesehan could potentially use that for his work.

“I’d like to see Zach succeed, but he needs the room to grow, and I just don’t see the property offering him that in any case,” said Jones. “I’d like to see him find a commercial real estate that could support him.”

BZA Member Kevin McSherry moved to deny the request, with the board unanimously following that motion. The board gave Wiesehan 90 days to cease business operations at the Hill Lake Road property.