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Last updated on Monday, March 19, 2012
(WASHINGTON) - The City Plan Commission met to hold a public hearing about the new outlook for the city limits and discuss how the zoning boundaries will change.
Jason Tiller of Times-Hearld reported this is an problem the city has had issues with in the past. According to a past Times Herald report, in 2011, the city placed a $1,000-per-day levy on Boyd and Sons Excavation for violating zoning laws by not applying for the appropriate permits when they constructed their new building on C.R. 350E. At the time, this was close to the city's two-mile boundary.
However the Board of Zoning Appeals voted to rescind the fines after discovering that the building was 114 feet outdside of the city's jurisdiction. At the time, the lines were drawn vaguely and there was some question about which side of the roads the boundaries fell on.
"The old lines essentially looked like a big cloud," said City Engineer Ed Barnett. "It just wasnt very accurate."
According to Barnett, last spring he and a team consisting of Buiding Commissioner Chris Wimmenauer and County Surveyor Dennis Helms began to study the limits to create a new more defined line. Barnett said that the new lines have been pulled in just a little bit, but will be along carefully plotted lines that will more clearly define where the city's jurisdiction is.
Wimmenauer said that the new lines will be defined along things like water ways, county roads, sectional lines and property lines instead of just having a random series of arcs or a big circle around the city.
"This way, the lines will be more defined and it becomes a lot easier to tell if someone is in or out," Wimmenauer said.
A detailed map of the new two-mile boundary can be found at the Building Comissioner's office on Memorial Avenue.
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