GOSHEN — Nearly 16 months ago 250 local residents packed a meeting of the Elkhart County Plan Commission to voice their opposition to a rewrite of the County Zoning Ordinance that had been in the works since 2009.
The Plan Commission heard the audience loud and clear and essentially killed the proposal to rewrite the current 50-year-old code.
On Wednesday morning the process to update the zoning ordinance began from scratch again as a special planning committee met for the first time at the Public Services Building to hash out a suitable upgrade over the course of the next year.
“It’s not an easy thing to do,” Elkhart County Planning Director Chris Godlewski told the committee. “Let’s just work through it, be open and I’ll address any issues as they come up.”
The goal of the committee, Godlewski said, is to take the current zoning ordinance, put it next to last year’s proposed rewrite and come up with the best, most practical and solution.
Much of the prior proposal was done in conjunction with Ground Rules Inc., a research firm based in Zionsville, Ind. Godlewski told the committee that they would continue to work off planning templates provided by Ground Rules, but the content would be unique to Elkhart County’s needs.
“I consider this a rewrite of the ordinance,” Godlewski said. “We’re going to come up with the information for that template. We’re going to just use (Ground Rules) for their document.”
The 15-member committee met for nearly an hour at the Elkhart County service building Monday morning, determining the processes of comparing the existing ordinance with the proposed re-write. It was very introductory in nature.
Members of the committee were recommended by the members of the Elkhart County Planning Commission and include Realtors, building contractors and other local leaders.
Zoning ordinances are used to determine land-use policies in cities and counties. Zones are often classified as residential, commercial, agricultural, manufacturing and so on.
Godlewski said the main objective of the committee is address ease of use, update definitions and use tables, and addressing conflicts.
The policy committee is scheduled to meet again on Sept. 5 and will meet once a month through the remainder of the year to finalize the first section of their zoning ordinance proposal.
Sections two through four will be crafted between January and August of 2013. Godlewski said he expects public hearings to take place in September 2013.
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Members of the Zoning Ordinance Policy Committee meet for the first time at the Elkhart County Public Services Building Wednesday morning. MICHAEL WANBAUGH | THE GOSHEN NEWS
Zoning code update begins anew using planning templates
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