By BARB STUMP
WAKARUSA, Ind. — The Wakarusa Town Council rezoned the old Wakarusa Farm Center building on the southeast corner of Ind. 19 and C.R. 40/East Waterford Street Tuesday night.
Mark Kanney presented the petition for the Elkhart County Planning Department.
Kanney had presented the petition to the council at September’s meeting. The petition had been tabled so Scott Tuttle, who was purchasing the property, could enter into a covenant before the property was rezoned. That covenant was presented to the council Tuesday night.
Tuttle will install and maintain a fence and visual buffer that is 5-feet high along the southern boundary of his property. The southernmost 50 feet of real estate will only be used for storage of non-motorized product (manufacture on site) units. These covenants will stay with the property and any new owners would have to abide by them.
Previous owners promised the neighbors that they would keep the southern boundary up when the property was purchased. The owner did not do what he had promised, according to residents. When Tuttle asked the Elkhart County Planning Committee to rezone his property the neighbors asked for help in having the property maintained.
Tuttle told the council in September that he had already worked on the existing fence and had removed the worst sections. He had also mowed a portion of the property that had been left go. Tuttle said he does not have a problem making a commitment to the covenant.
The council approved the commitments and rezoned the property from business B-3 to manufacturing M-1.
Tuttle’s property was involved in a fire late last week. He had just moved his business into the building and lost everything. He is in the process of working with his insurance company and the insurance companies of the businesses that were working on his building.
