Zoning request gets 1st approval

A Meridian Street building is one step closer to being converted into office space.

Portland Plan Commission approved a rezoning request for the building at 1314 N. Meridian St. that used to house Dayton Progress before the company closed the facility last year.

The property will be zoned highway service, changed from the previous industrial, pending Portland City Council approval.

The move makes way for the building’s planned conversion to house offices for branches of the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles, Department of Child Services and Division of Family Resources.

Those branches have all moved out of their former offices in the strip mall on Votaw Street at its intersection with Industrial Park Drive. Temporary offices are now located on the second floor of John Jay Center for Learning for the BMV, at 422 W. Race St. for DCS and in the former Dayton Progress building for DFR.

Peru-based JLKS Real Estate LLC, the current owner of the building, is also planning to add sidewalks, additional parking and a driveway to the building as well as cosmetic upgrades, according to a letter a representative wrote to the commission.

John Hemmelgarn, director of Jay/Portland Building and Planning, said the planned upgrades would make the building “more presentable than it already is.”
Hemmelgarn added that the building has enough room to possibly house additional offices.

Commission member Janet Powers, who also serves on city council, asked if there would be a public entrance off of Ben Hawkins Street to the west of the building. Hemmelgarn said that hasn’t been discussed.

According to the letter, JLKS is planning to make the north side of the building an entrance for the BMV with the main door facing Meridian Street serving as the entrance for the DCS and DFR offices.

Commission member Kent McClung, also a city council member, recalled that the building once housed a skating rink.

He said he supports the rezoning because it brings it to a similar categorization as the surrounding businesses on Meridian Street, which are also zoned highway service.

In other business, commission members Don Gillespie, Steve McIntosh, Kyle Cook, Bart Darby, Lee Newman, Ron Laux, Powers and McClung:

•Reappointed Newman as president of the commission, Darby as vice president and McClung as secretary.

•Learned of Paula Bonvillian's resignation from the commission because of conflicts with her work schedule. Mayor John Boggs, who recently appointed McIntosh to the commission, now has an additional appointment to make to make to the group.