Thinking Outside the Box: Mixed Use at County Planning Commission Meeting

When an item pulled out of the consent agenda was discussed at the County Planning Commission’s meeting on the evening of Wednesday, July 9, a divide was evident between commissioners and that divide has long-term implications for how zoning is applied, consistently and efficiently, in the face of established laws which sometimes conflict with necessity. A citizen-driven text amendment that would allow, by conditional use permit, storage for an already existing commercial use in an agricultural zone led to a long and impassioned exchange between Commissioner Hugh Henry, who favored the amendment, and Commissioners Scott Kersjes and William Gordon who raised critical questions about an exceptional commercial use becoming so dominant that it compromises the integrity of the original uses for which the zone is intended.

Thinking Outside the Box: Mixed Use at County Planning Commission Meeting

Called a “building services establishment”, this possible adjunct for the commercial use to which the agricultural zone is showing hospitality would allow small business owners a degree of storage space that would facilitate those businesses. Henry emphasized that many such exceptional businesses exist that would otherwise die due to the forbidding expense of operating in a commercial or industrial zone. For Henry, this item is personal, as in his youth, his family operated such a business after his father returned from serving in Vietnam. Therefore, the ability to take advantage of mixed use and pursue it to whatever maximum is justified may be a matter of pure survival. Amid these reflections, Henry did admit that if the building services establishment becomes a retail site, then concern might be justified.

Zoning Administrator Chase Lenz and Planner Kelly Wahl.

On the flip side, Kersjes and Gordon relented somewhat on the idea of storage space, should the possibility of the establishment serving as a retail hub be ruled out. But even at that point, Gordon expressed hesitancy to embrace such a text amendment. He sees greater utility in a conditional use permit within the industrial zone, and at the same time maintains his desire to see the character of the agricultural zone preserved. It would appear that by some mysterious difference of quality, the character of the industrial zone is more impervious to alleged abuse than the agricultural. Because the citizen driving this amendment wants such a permit, clearly the movement to revise the code arises from the necessity of working close to home, where other activities take place. But Gordon stood firmly for the purity of the zoning code as it now stands, reflecting Aristotle’s imperative in his Politics that the best man should enforce the law.

(L) Planning Director Matt Wendling and County Attorney Jordan Bowman.

The County and the Town register brain activity of late, as there has been a push on several fronts for legislative tasks to become administrative tasks. While it is important for the council and the board, respectively, to approve a project, it is also important to avoid hamstringing that project by involving the legislative bodies in every step of the process. Likewise, it is important to consider whether citizens are hamstrung by overly rigid zoning ordinances that may not do justice to the unique situations in which those citizens find themselves. It is important to think outside of the box.

Concerned citizen John Jenkins speaks up in public comments about the legitimacy of the so-called governmental body created amid the conflict over Samuels Public Library.

Click here to watch the Warren County Planning Commission meeting of July 9, 1025.