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Planning decision creates minor subdivision off Greenwood Drive
The Greencastle City Plan Commission approved a minor subdivision of a General Business (GB1) District property at its recent November meeting.
Jon Hutcheson, the current owner of 202 Greenwood Drive, was approved to subdivide his 1.9-acre tract north of the Auto Zone store into a new buildable lot south and west of the existing residential structure located on Greenwood Drive.
Hutcheson “is doing this to market it and such,” engineer Greg Williams of ASA Land Surveying said on behalf of his client.
The lot, which extends to Fawn View Drive on the west, is being divided into two lots -- a 1.26-acre lot with an existing barn and a 0.64-acre site with the existing home.
The property, zoned GB-1, is not part of an existing subdivision. The residence, meanwhile, is a legal, nonconforming use and was zoned R-1 (single-family residential) when the original structure was renovated in the 1980s.
Greenwood Drive as laid out as part of the Green Meadows Subdivision to the east in 1949, Williams noted.
City Planner Scott Zimmerman noted that the site immediately north of the property in question, owned by the Alicia E. Shinn Trust, is zoned GB-1, while the property on the opposite side of Fawn View Drive and just north of the Verizon store (formerly Blockbuster Video) is residential.
The reason the property came before the Plan Commission, Zimmerman explained, was because it is commercial property and every lot doesn’t meet GB-1 standards.
Plan Commission member Emily Knuth, via Zoom, made the motion for approval, which was seconded by Eric Wolfe and passed unanimously but not before a few options were added. The petitioner asked that if both properties are developed together, it not require a replatting, while Mayor Bill Dory suggested that language be included that the developer be responsible for all public improvements like sidewalks, curbs and gutters. Streets and sewer already exist.
In other business, the Plan Commission:
-- Adopted the 2021 commission calendar, meeting at 7 p.m. the fourth Monday of each month, with the possible exception of Monday, Dec. 27, 2021. That meeting could possibly be moved up a week to avoid the holiday period.
-- In further dialogue on the RV parking ordinance discussion from October, Mayor Dory noted the input from the fire department suggests that RV parking or fences should not be allowed in areas where it might restrict firefighters’ ability to put a ladder up against the wall of a home in a rescue effort. Meanwhile, Zimmerman said he’s working on standards that allow RVs/trailers in side yards as long as they don’t extend beyond the face of the house.
-- In a follow-up on the October discussion involving available building lots in The Avenues on the city’s East Side, it was noted that how driveways would need to be arranged on small lots continues to be a wrestling point in areas where lots can’t meet parking standards because of not enough space or it being too expensive to do so.
-- Heard members note that small houses might be better than no houses at all. In fact, Donnie Watson said he had just finished a 600-square-foot, one-bedroom home. The community needs housing in all price points, Zimmerman said, “not just larger homes but those that are small and affordable.”
-- Heard commission member and realtor Wolfe note that the community is running low on its condominium inventory. Demand remains high, he said, particularly with lots of retiring faculty members and people moving to Greencastle to be closer to children and grandchildren. “They find out it’s a lot cheaper than living on the coast,” he said.
Joining Wolfe, Watson, Dory and Knuth were Plan Commission Chairman Doug Wokoun, Wayne Lewis, Matt Welker, Mark Hammer and Jeff Mahan. Tim Trigg and J.D. Miller were absent.
The next regularly scheduled meeting of the City Plan Commission is set for 7 p.m. Monday, Dec. 28 at City Hall.