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No decision made in Heritage Lake Marina rezoning
After a pair of Putnam County Plan Commission meetings, a Putnam County Commissioners meeting and no shortage of contentious discussion, a decision on rezoning the Heritage Lake Marina property will wait another two weeks.
Faced with the final decision Monday on whether to affirm the Plan Commission’s advisory approval of the rezone, the commissioners chose to table the issue in order to do more discussion.
The matter will be back before the commissioners for their Monday, Aug. 17 meeting, with President Rick Woodall saying there would be no further discussion, simply a final decision by the commissioners.
At issue is a request by the Heritage Lake Property Owners Association (POA) to rezone the 2.6-acre plot on which the marina sits from Residential 2 to Commercial.
Despite being in a residential zone since the county adopted zoning in the early 1990s, the marina has operated continuously, having occupied the same spot for at least 20 years before zoning even came to be in Putnam County.
With the old building in need of repairs, the POA applied for a building permit last fall, which was granted by the Putnam County Planning and Zoning Department.
Along the way, the plan was to expand the footprint of the building, which had previously housed a convenience store and gas sales for boats.
However, by tearing down the old building, the property was no longer grandfathered in, meaning the land would have to be rezoned for the business to reopen on the property.
This oversight by the county was not discovered until construction was well under way.
Further complicating the issue, the POA hopes to put a restaurant into the expanded, rebuilt marina, a plan that has some Heritage Lake residents incensed.
While a number of other issues and disputes have been brought up during the discussions, the chief questions before the Plan Commission and then the Commissioners were whether to grant a rezone and if a restaurant could be allowed
On these questions, the Plan Commission, an advisory board whose decisions must be affirmed by the Commissioners, unanimously voted yes.
During their most recent meeting, following a discussion that had spanned their June and July sessions, the Plan Commission approved the rezone, with a number of restrictions. Chief among these was that the property would not be developed further with other retail commercial buildings and that hours would be set for the operation of the restaurant: 6 a.m.-9:30 Monday through Thursday, 6 a.m.-10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 6 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday.
During Monday’s meeting, though, the POA, through its attorney Scott Treadway, was asking for an expansion of these hours, namely 6 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 6 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, as well as an extension of no more than three hours for certain state holidays and special events.
Among the complaints aired at all meetings has been that the POA Board has not been forthcoming with its plans.
Treadway denied this
“There was never any mystery about what Heritage Lake was doing,” he said. “In fact, the POA went through a fairly exhaustive process to let the public know what they were doing.”
Several residents, though, said otherwise, saying plans were not made clear and classifying meetings about the issue more as “sales pitches.”
One woman said opening a restaurant would betray the original purpose of Heritage Lake — as a private lake community.
“The association was never meant to be commercial. It was meant to be residential,” she said. “The intent was that we have a quiet, residential area, not to be shared by the outside. We’re really concerned that this commercialization would bring in people who are using our facilities that were meant for us.”
Others, though, said they want to see the opportunities a restaurant would bring.
“I would love to see the kids who live out there have the chance for jobs,” Cindy Huddleston said.
Heritage Lake Property Manager Ken Rozelle said residents frequently express their desire for a dining option.
“All I have heard, every year, is ‘we need a restaurant, we need a restaurant. We’re tired of pizza. We need a restaurant.’” Rozelle said.
One problem the process has faced, though, is trying to accommodate all those interested in attending the meetings.
In order to accommodate more than can fit in the Commissioners Courtroom, the Plan Commission meetings took place in the courthouse rotunda. Some residents have said it was difficult to hear in that space, though such concerns were not expressed to authorities during the meetings.
With Monday’s meeting taking place while courthouse offices were open for business, it had to take place in the Commissioners Courtroom. As such, residents were shuttled in and out in order to make their statements while also trying to observe social distancing.
This left residents not knowing what the other side was saying.
Circuit Court Judge Matt Headley, who also owns nearby property, suggested such procedural problems may be an issue for the county if the matter is taken to court.
“You’re going to have to rethink about having a meeting somewhere else where everyone can meet,” Headley said.
He also said the addition of the restaurant will change the entire nature of the enterprise.
“The petitioner cannot dispute that it is going to completely change the use of that property,” Headley said.
However, it does not appear the commissioners will follow this line of thinking.
Instead, the commissioners will take the extra two weeks to research further and make a final decision. The Aug. 17 meeting is set for 9 a.m. in the Commissioners Courtroom on the first floor of the Putnam County Courthouse.