Rezoning request again up for review

Logan supervisors to discuss resident’s desire to change zoning to agricultural

The Logan Township supervisors will again take up a campus-area property owner's request to rezone a residential section of his 15 acres, so the entire tract becomes agricultural.

Greg Denis's request for ground on Davis Road near Juniata Gap Road has already bounced from the supervisors to the Planning Commission to the supervisors to the Planning Commission and will be heading back to the supervisors a third time for a ruling, based on a commission recommendation this week.

At each step along the way, there has been a split vote.

Denis's request has gone through an additional two steps, because of division among the supervisors on the case.

Normally, a rezoning request goes to the supervisors first for an informal poll, before the applicant formally applies to indicate the likely outcome.

In Denis's case, the divided supervisors asked the Planning Commission for advice on whether they should even seriously consider the request.

The Planning Commission at that time voted that the supervisors should consider the case, and the supervisors subsequently voted in keeping with that recommendation, creating the go-ahead for Denis to formally apply.

This week, when the formal application came before the Planning Commission, it recommended that the supervisors approve the request.

The supervisors meet on Thursday.

Denis wants the residential half of his property zoned agricultural because he wants to construct an equipment storage building there, and if it's zoned agricultural, he won't need to follow the residential building code, according to a prior discussion.

He plans to grow hay to sell and may plant fruit trees, but doesn't plan to keep animals.

He also wants to build a house on the currently residential side of the property, which is the part closest to Juniata Gap Road.

The section of his property that is already agricultural isn't suitable for construction because it is covered with fill created by the construction of the Juniata Gap Road extension about 50 years ago and because a power line runs through it, according to Denis.

It would cost $50,000 just to have the power line moved, not counting the cost of digging or conduit, Denis said.

There are seven contiguous neighboring properties, with one owner objecting.

That neighbor is Heather Fleck, whose property is across a creek on the southern end.

It's not necessary for the residential part of Denis' property to be rezoned for him to build the storage building, she said.

Moreover, while his planned uses for the property might not be objectionable, a future owner might want to do something that is objectionable and there would be nothing to stop it, as long as it's legal under the agricultural designation, according to Fleck.

There have been animals kept on that very property, including goats and geese, and they have wandered across the creek and torn up flower beds, Fleck said.

Further, a ruling to rezone would be inconsistent with the supervisors' denials of similar requests in recent years, Fleck said.

Denis is 47 and said he plans to stay on the property for the rest of his life.

The section that Denis wants rezoned has been designated residential since the township adopted zoning in 1980, although it was used as a poultry farm prior to that -- and also afterward, until the early 1990s, under the grandfather principle.

When a person buys a property, they generally do so with the expectation the nearby zoning won't change, said Planning Commissioner Rick Meintel, who voted to recommend the supervisors deny Denis's request.

If there were residential land all around, he might agree, but given that half the Denis property is already agricultural and the land beyond that is also agricultural -- and given that Denis's ground has a history of agricultural uses, the supervisors ought to grant the request, said Commissioner Wesley Barnhart.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.