County gives first approval to zoning ordinance changes
Bartholomew County Commissioners gave their first approval to a set of changes to the county’s zoning ordinances yesterday, ranging from solar panel and bike rack placement to the regulation of biosolid facilities.
Jeff Bergman, director of the city/county planning department, said that most of the changes were small adjustments meant to clarify the rules or to meet state law such as where to properly locate wheel stops in parking lots.
However, some changes were completely new, such as the regulation of vehicle charging stations. Bergman said that the stations have begun to pop up at businesses and in strip malls. But the zoning rules did not previously address them at all, he said. The new rules clarified thing like setback distances for the stations and whether they can encroach on landscaping.
Another major change would require that biosolid facilities would only be approved as a conditional use in agricultural zoned property in the county. In a separate process, the county commissioners have been considering new rules that would ban the importing of processed human waste into the county altogether.
Commissioner Tony London said he found it surprising that there has been almost no public comment on the human waste issue for either the zoning ordinance changes or the complete ban.
The proposed ordinance changes were previously approved by the Bartholomew County Board of Zoning Appeals.
Commissioners gave their first approval to the changes Monday.