Projects lack approval (11/10/03)

A free-flowing discussion eventually exposed a serious flaw in the enforcement of the county’s drainage ordinance.

Jay County Commissioners, meeting this morning as the county drainage board, discovered that a host of industrial and commercial projects over the last six years have not had drainage plans approved as required by the county’s drainage ordinance.

That ordinance, which was adopted in 1997, says owners or developers of most non-residential building projects must prove the projects will not add to the amount of run-off water before being issued a building permit. Ways of dealing with the run-off include retention ponds or oversized tiles that are then restricted before outletting — effectively creating an underground retention pond.

The ordinance does not exclude incorporated areas, meaning that many projects in the past six years on the north side of Portland — including three near Meridian Street and Industrial Park Drive — should have had drainage board approval before permits were issued.

This morning’s discussion included county surveyor Brad Daniels and Jay/Portland Building and Planning administrator Bill Milligan, along with Commissioners Gary Theurer, Mike Leonhard and Milo Miller Jr.

It started when Daniels reported to the commissioners that he had checked out a tile draining land near Heritage Commons retirement community and that the tile was working fine.

That moved to discussion of Portland Place Senior Housing, an apartment complex under construction at Lafayette Street and Creagor Avenue just west of Milton Miller Park.

It was discovered that the project never received approval of drainage plans, leading the commissioners to call Milligan to discuss the issue.

Theurer told Milligan he should not issue building permits until drainage plans are approved. Daniels said he would prepare a form for Milligan to hand out to prospective builders of commercial or industrial property to take to the drainage board for approval.

In their last drainage board meeting, the commissioners heard an engineer working for Heritage Medical Group, the developer of Heritage Commons, say he believed an unnamed 15-inch tile draining the community was either broken down or plugged up.

Daniels said this morning he checked the tile, which runs straight west from the community to an open ditch along Industrial Park Drive, and that it is functioning properly.

In other business this morning, the commissioners:

•Approved paying the cost of tile for a repair job in the Brooks Creek Watershed in Blackford County.

The claim, for $22.20, was filed by a property owner just west of the Jay-Blackford county line along Blackford County road 100 North. The cost was for 12-feet of 10-inch tile.

Daniels said that Jay County crews would have done the repair if they had been called.

•Approved combining parcels for the purpose of lowering drainage assessments for two county residents, and denied another request.

Requests were approved for Ida Nelson, who lives on county road 150 West in Jackson Township, Loblolly Watershed; and Joe E.J. Schwartz, who lives on county road 900 North in Bearcreek Township, in the Daugherty and A.B. Butcher Watersheds. Both had multiple parcels but only one that had a structure or foundation.

A request to combine parcels was denied for Steve Chrisman, who owns property west of Bryant on county road 650 North in the Loblolly Watershed, because a home on the property is located on two different parcels.[[In-content Ad]]