Celina Legion gets OK to sell eight lots

CELINA - Celina American Legion Post 210 officials can sell eight of its lots located south of the hall at 2510 State Route 703 after action by Mercer County commissioners this week.

Last month, the county zoning commission recommended rezoning the Legion's tracts 1-8 from special parks to medium-density residential.

Legion officials said they want to downsize the post's footprint so they don't have to maintain and mow the lots anymore.

Commissioners Greg Homan, Rick Muhlenkamp and Jerry Laffin this week, though, modified the zoning commission's recommendation by approving a zoning change to high residential, as originally requested by Legion officials. Laffin told the newspaper the R-3 zoning is consistent with that of the area's residential neighborhood.

Their approval of the zoning change comes after they held a public meeting on the matter last week attended by three Legion representatives and eight citizens, who voiced concern about drainage and utilities on two of the tracts of land on Pleasant Ridge Avenue and other issues, according to the meeting minutes. Muhlenkamp said the session had been "cordial."

Legion officials plan to sell the lots for the development of single-family homes. Legion representatives at the February zoning commission meeting said they intend first to offer the lots to nearby neighbors.

"Our intent is for it to be single-family residential," Legion trustee John Barker had said.

Tracts 1-6 abut the Jackson Subdivision and tracts 7-8 are located south of the Legion's parking lot along Pleasant Ridge Avenue.

The Jefferson Township House, where the zoning commission meeting was held, had a standing-room-only crowd, and assistant county prosecuting attorney Andy Hinders, sitting with zoning commissioners Kent Marbaugh, Dan Kirby and Dick Swaney, noted he hadn't seen that many people since meetings several years ago for a proposed ethanol plant.

Many attendees seemed to be concerned about the original rezoning application that Hinders said had called for rezoning 9.936 acres that included the American Legion Hall, park canal and two triangular parcels abutting another triangular-shaped parcel of land owned by the state.

"That's not even on the table," Barker had said about the two triangular parcels. "That's still part of the state, and the state won't even talk to us about any type of agreement about what to do with that."

His comments appeared to reassure many attendees.

Julie Fledderjohann, who said she lives near tracts 7 and 8, expressed concerns about the R-3 zoning request, which according to Hinders would allow for single-family dwellings, two-family dwellings, triplexes and residential planned unit developments.

Fledderjohann claimed that since Legion officials had put up a nearby metal building, she's had to put up with loud music and drunken parties in the summer, forcing neighbors to close their windows. She was concerned about the prospect of duplexes or larger developments on the land.

Hinders had pointed out that none of the lots in question meet the size requirements for a single-family dwelling and a variance would need to be granted by the Mercer County Regional Planning Commission for any type of construction. A PUD also would need a variance because of a 10-acre minimum requirement, he had noted.