By MARGARET L. WILLIS

The Stone River PUD proposal came to the council with an unfavorable recommendation from the Advisory Plan Commission meeting and the council followed through on that, voting 2-1 to reject the petitioner’s request to approve the PUD, in spite of some amendments that lowered density.

With no majority of the five member council on either side of the issue, no final action was possible and the PUD will be carried over to the next council meeting.

With Richard Bolinger absent and Louis Bain still deployed to Iraq, council president Jim McGee and members Mike Perrine and Bernie Poparad split over approval of the PUD that was revised from 60 proposed paired patio homes to 40 on the 9.72 acres on the north side of Rt. 20, just west of S.R. 149.

The site is where many town residents hope to control development and create a pedestrian friendly town center. The topic was one of the top issues in the recent town council elections.

Poparad was the lone vote against denying the petition, in other words, in favor of the PUD proposal.

Jim McGee and Mike Perrine voted to deny the PUD.

Speaking on behalf of the property owner and developer Robert Lewis, John Linn, an engineer with Abonmarche of South Bend, told the council he felt the revised plan met all the initial objections on density and access.

Linn said research directed the development plan, which proposes 40 paired single family units and a clubhouse on the 9.72 acre parcel, which he said would match the density of the Villages of Burns Harbor to the west. The homes would be geared toward the busy professional and the seasoned adult market, he said.

The development would have access onto Rt. 20 and onto Doman Lane.

Linn said no requests for changes were made at the final Plan Commission meeting on the development, so he is not sure why the vote was to deny the development.

Perrine made the motion to follow the recommendation of the Plan Commission to deny the PUD. For a few moments no second was made. Jim McGee sought to hand off the gavel to make the second, but Poparad relented and agreed to second the motion, then voted No on the question.

Snowplowing for Harbor Trails

In other development business the council voted unanimously to approve the Plan Commission’s conditional acceptance of the roads in Harbor Trails, so that the town can plow the snow from those roads this winter. A five-year maintenance bond, equal to 20 percent of the road replacment cost will be required of the developer as well as repair of damaged Salt Creek Road.

And, the council agreed with the Plan Commission to “call” the bond posted by the builder of the sidewalks so that a sidewalk that infringes on private property can be torn up and repoured in the correct place.

The street department is still awating word from NIPSCO on placement of a new streetlight at the northeast corner of Salt Creek Rd. and Rt. 20, street commissioner Doug Wentz told the council.

A stop work order is in place on the Moneypenny property. No building permit will be issued until the current owners sign an agreement of steps that will be followed and items that will be addressed before the structure will be issued an occupancy permit, Building Commissioner Radall Lopez said,

Town Attroney Chuck Parkinson said the agreement, which calls for cooperation has still not been signed.

Police Chief Jerry Price said he has given his officers a ‘heads up’ that no work should be going on at the home site while the stop work order is in place.

Posted 11/15/2007