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Commissioners approve Heritage Lake Marina rezone
The Heritage Lake Property Owners Association can move forward with a request to rezone the marina property.
The Putnam County Commissioners gave the request final approval Monday morning, affirming an earlier decision by the Putnam County Plan Commission.
In doing so, the commissioners made only a minor change to the wording proposed by the Plan Commission during its July meeting, not yielding to further requests from the POA board.
The 2.6-acre plot on which the marina sits will be rezoned from Residential 2 to Commercial. A business has been run on the property since before for the county adopted zoning, but when the POA tore down the old marina building, the grandfather clause under which it operated expired.
Among the conditions under which the Plan Commission granted approval were that the property not be developed further and that hours would be set for the operation of the new restaurant set to open in the marina: 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.
The POA, through its attorney Scott Treadway, had requested extended hours with special allowances made for holidays and special occasions.
These were not granted by the commissioners, with the only change coming in the change of wording, from stating that no other “retail commercial” business could open on the property to simply saying no “commercial” business.
Before the commissioners unanimously approved the rezone request, President Rick Woodall asked if there was an intention of having live music at the facility or speakers outside that might bother nearby residents.
“There’s no intention of that at all,” one POA board member replied.
The decision brings to an end a contentious few months of Heritage Lake residents arguing the case for and against the rezone -- and particularly the addition of the restaurant -- before the Plan Commission and the Commissioners.
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 county officials were whether to grant a rezone and if a restaurant could be allowed.
In the end, the answer was an affirmative to both.
“I greatly appreciate everyone and their time to drive down these three to four trips,” Woodall said. “I know not everyone is going to be happy here today, but I appreciate you.”