By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
If all goes as planned, the Wood County Senior Center will break ground for its new home in August. And by next year, local seniors will be eating lunch, playing cards and doing yoga in their new facility.
On Wednesday evening, the Bowling Green Planning Commission voted to recommend rezoning for the site at 140 S. Grove St. The 34,566-square-foot building will be used as a senior center and adult daycare facility.
City Council will make the final ruling on the zoning change.
The Wood County Committee on Aging has requested three waivers – two involving parking and one dealing with landscaping.
The first waiver requested is to allow parking within the front setbacks on both South Grove Street and Buttonwood Avenue. This is essential to maximize the amount of parking on the site.
The second waiver requested pertains to required parking. The city calculates parking requirements by the first floor footprint multiplied by the number of floors. That adds up to 179 spaces – which is far more than the site can accommodate. Instead, the site will have 82 spaces, if the waiver is granted.
The third waiver has to do with landscaping along the north and south property lines at the site. The residential owners along the north property line have requested access to their backyards through the proposed senior center site for lawn care.
To accommodate that request, a landscape buffer will not be placed along the property line bordering those residences. There is a small area along the south property line as well that has an existing wood privacy fence separating the proposed site from the adjacent property. So the waiver request also asks that no buffer be required along that fence.
A public hearing about the site plan will be held by the planning commission on July 9, at 7 p.m.
Denise Niese, executive director of the Wood County Committee on Aging, thanked Heather Sayler, the city planning director, for all her work on the zoning request.
Also at this week’s meeting, Sayler reported that permit requests are up for the year in the city planning department – with 169 so far this year compared to 136 at this time last year.
But the permits requested for single family homes is half the number of last year – with 11 so far this year compared to 22 at this time last year. There have been three commercial permits requested compared to one last year, one industrial compared to zero last year, and two institutional compared to zero last year.
Sayler also reported about some projects likely to come before the planning commission soon.
The Menards project is still under review, with a public hearing likely in August. And plans have been submitted for another plat in the Cogan’s Crossing subdivision.
Sayler also stressed the importance of local residents filling out the 2020 Census. The numbers recorded play a big role in federal funding and grants.
“I just can’t tell you how critical that is to our community,” she said. “It’s really important that everyone fills it out.”
In other business, the planning commission re-elected Jeff Betts as chairperson, Gary Hess as vice chairperson, and Judy Ennis as representative to the Zoning Board of Appeals.
