Condominiums proposed

A Geneva developer is hoping to bring new housing to property west of Portland near Jay County High School.

Attorney Josh Atkinson on Thursday presented CB Development’s preliminary plans for a 35-unit condominium development at the southwest corner of Indiana 67 and county road 75 south to Portland Plan Commission.

CB Development, owned by Glen Coblentz of Geneva, plans to use 4 acres of the former Beacon Heights Drive-in site to construct five self-storage buildings. Those are already allowed under the current agricultural residential zoning.

The company plans to request the remaining area, approximately 10 acres, be rezoned as planned development residential to allow for the condominium project.

CB Development’s preliminary plans call for 35 individual homes to be built along a new U-shaped road that would have two outlets on county road 75 south. The homes would be single-story units with three bedrooms, two bathrooms and an attached garage, totaling about 2,000 square feet at a price point of about $200,000.

“It’s not the duplex that you see sometimes where you have the garage splitting two homes,” said Atkinson.

All of the “common ground” in the development would be owned jointly by the members of the condominium association, which would handle mowing, snow removal, trash pick-up, etc.

Homes would be hooked up to Portland’s sewer system. They would each have an individual well for water.

There is likely to be a water feature in the center of the property to account for drainage rather than having water drain to the Salamonie River to the west. (The closest home would be about 150 feet away from the river.)

CB Development plans to have a buffer of trees between the homes and the storage units.

“It will definitely fulfill a major need that we have here in the community,” said Atkinson, who also serves on Jay County Development Corporation’s housing task force.

He and Coblentz also told council members Lee Newman, Don Gillespie, Kyle Cook, Ron Laux, Randy Geesaman, Steve McIntosh, Bart Darby, Janet Powers and Kent McClung homes could be a stepping stone to further development.

Coblentz said the plan would be to start by selling and building the first six homes of the development. It would then continue with construction of four to eight homes at a time.

Thursday’s meeting was for informational purposes only. Going through the planned development process requires CB Development to meet with board of works, police department, fire department, Jay County Soil and Water Conservation District and Jay County Drainage Board to get their approval on the plans. It would then return to plan commission — it hopes to do so in July — for its recommendation on the rezoning request. It would then move to Portland City Council for approval. If OK’d, CB Development would then need to provide engineered drawings and specific details for the project, which would return to city council for final approval.

The development would be the first for Coblentz, but he is working with his brother-in-law Mark Brumbaugh on the project. Brumbaugh recently completed a similar development in Bellefontaine, Ohio.

Jay/Portland Building and Planning assistant director Pati McLaughlin also noted that a public hearing on the U.S. Aggregates rezoning request of the expansion of its quarry facility is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. July 1.