8 December 2004 Plan Commission Working Session Sets 2005 Initiatives

8 December 2004 Plan Commission Working Session Sets 2005 Initiatives

Members present: Mark Mitter, Chairman, Rick Pope, Nick Held, Mike Hall, Jane Ohlmansiek, Tarry Feiss, Dan Batta. Absent: Roger Woodfill and Patrick de Maynadier. (Dennis Kraus, Jr. who will replace Roger Woodfill in January was also present, as was Jeff Hughes who will be D-1 Commissioner) [NOTE: Jeff Hughes indicated that he was interested in being the commissioner rep to the plan commission.]
Arnie McGill, Att’y, Mark McCormack, Enforcement Officer, and Travis Miller, Planning Director, were also present.
Citizens present: Tom Kent and Chris Mueller

The session took a little over three hours to discuss various issues over the past year including:

1. Forms for utilities, EMS, fire protection, and school districts to fill out regarding new development applications that will produce REAL information that the plan commission and developers can depend upon as accurate. Plan Commission will meet with these groups first to determine their needs and input. (Previously the commission is getting form letters which don’t state the impact on the school building projects or classroom size nor do they state when the sewage lines will actually exist to service certain developments.)
2. Zoning districts which need to be clarified and further divided into the subcategories indicated by the master plan committee.
3. Research cul de sac lengths and numbers of houses on them.
4. Clearly defined policies on septic, sewers, and whether or not the county will entertain possible experimental sewer plants or systems.
5. Road deficiency data which need to be updated and policies on development relating to this.
6. Driveway spacing and lot frontage requirements.
7. Developing a thoroughfare plan.
8. Working with the current land use map which was devised for the master plan and setting overlays of sewers, roadways, topography, soil types, etc. to guide future planning. (Board members had issues with drawing lines on maps that actually rezoned properties without the owner’s approvals- as a property rights issue) [NOTE: The current land use map is different from the current ZONING maps. Some properties are Zoned R and are functioning as Ag, for example. A current land use map tells the plan commission what is really happening in an area as opposed to what the old whole county rezone from early 1980 predicted.]

The plan commission added an extra working session each month for the 1st quarter and quarterly extra meetings thereafter to work on accomplishing these goals. They want to get factual data for the basis of their policies. Committees will be set up for each issue and consist of NO MORE THAN FOUR PC members, to avoid having a quorum at unpublicized committee meetings. The advisory board members for the master plan will be kept updated on the progress of these meetings and some members may be solicited to work on some of these committees. Consultants will be sought on a small scale to gather some of the data needed for some of this background, particularly with respect to roads (design and LOS, etc.), infrastructure, economic and tax bases models, cultural and environmental resource inventories, etc. Staff will obtain some of the data accessible within the county system.

Other items of information passed out at this meeting:
1. The master plan- hot off the presses.
2. St. Leon and West Harrison status with respect to ordinance assistance and permitting issues.
3. US 50 Corridor Planning status.
4. A change in the application deadlines for public hearings that will add about 2 weeks to the application procedure. The surveyors (Hall and Kraus) and Tom Kent were asked about this as well and seemed to think it would give them a better chance at approval. It allows for the tech review to occur BEFORE they submit an application for a hearing and thus gives the applicant time to address the tech review comments before applying.
A detailed memo was also passed out.

Meeting adjourned at 10:15 PM
Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township