Lake Twp. : Trustees turn down zoning change request

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By a 2-1 vote Tuesday, the Lake township trustees rejected a request by a construction company to rezone a 33.3-acre parcel along Woodville Road.
Trustees Lorie Davis and Richard Welling voted against the change in zoning and trustee Ken Gilsdorf voted in favor.
Hillabrand & Sons Construction had requested the change from R-2 residential to B-3 highway business for the parcel located east of Bradner Road.
Welling said his vote was based on the parcel in question being flanked by residences. Currently, the property is an empty field.
“It’s pretty much zoned R-2 all the way around there. The parcel has been zoned R-2 for 20 years or so. Property to the south has been zoned R-2, it’s Lakewood subdivision,” he said. “People have moved into the area based on that area being R-2. Changing 33 acres to highway business would be a pretty drastic change. Our truckstops are all zoned B-3.”
Last month, the Wood County Planning Commission voted unanimously to recommend denial of the zoning request.
Gilsdorf said he supported the Hillabrand request because the township needs a good mix of business and residential development for its tax base.
“They’re an established business and have been here for a long time,” he said. “They’d only be moving about 1,200 feet from where they’re at because they wanted to build a new headquarters and a warehouse. A question I had for them was, does this mean any more trucks coming in or out than there is now? That was a concern of citizens. Hillabrand said no.
“There are about 53 businesses and 23 or so residences in that Woodville Road corridor. It’s always been a mixture of businesses and residences. Some people were afraid they were going to put in a dumping pit and they can’t do that. They could put in a pond or retention pond in the back 20 acres but they can’t build a borrow pit to throw things in. They were also going to put in a buffer zone by the subdivision,”
Gilsdorf also noted the property has been vacant for years and no developer has purchased it to construct another residential subdivision.

Decibel testing
The township zoning commission met Wednesday to hear the results of decibel testing at another local business, American Cold Forge, which is seeking a change in zoning of a 1.31-acre parcel along Woodville Road from B-1 commercial to M-1 industrial.
The county plan commission also recommended denial of that request.
Welling said the trustees will probably take up the Cold Forge request at their second regular meeting in August.
The testing was conducted by Mike Hossler, the township zoning inspector.
“Residents in the area felt it was too loud so we had the zoning inspector do some testing around the site,” Welling said.
Cold Forge and Hillabrand both have the option of filing suit in Wood Common Pleas Court to contest the decisions of the trustees, he said.
Residents living near the two parcels complained they were not notified of the zoning requests when they were initially submitted to the zoning commission for consideration in April.
The process was then started again with another hearing before the planning commission.

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