MOUNT VERNON – The Mount Vernon Municipal Planning Commission had to postpone for another month any action on a proposal to develop 110 lots on approximately 72 acres on Upper Gilchrist Road because the applicant did not file all the paperwork in time.
City Law Director Rob Broeren jumped in right after the planning commission meeting began on Thursday to tell its members they could not legally make any decisions about the application by Schlabach Builders of Millersburg, noting that the application lacked required documents and some of the documents that were filed came in less than 10 days earlier. City code requires all documents to be filed at least 10 days before the planning commission meeting during which a development plan is considered.
“Additionally, codified ordinance 11-3503 C requires the preliminary plot to receive approval of the health commissioner prior to consideration by the planning commission,” Broeren said.
He understood that the approval had yet to be received.
“Clearly, some of the stuff that we do have was not submitted 10 days prior to the meeting, as required by the ordinance,” Broeren said.
After a quick document review by Lacie Blankenhorn, the city’s Development Services manager, the meeting came to an end.
“Sounds like we’re going to have to wait until the health department approval is done and the other proper documentation of a complete package of this is submitted,” Mayor Matt Starr said.
Starr added that the planning commission will need a representative of Colonial Woods or its parent company to discuss a lot split that affects a prior development plan. The Village of Colonial Woods Condos development is south of the proposed development along Upper Gilchrist Road.
The planning commission learned that the Mount Vernon Utilities Commission gave its approval of a water and sanitary sewer plan to the engineering consultant for the development, promising to use gravity-fed lines and not a lift station.
“We can probably do a gravity section through that back section,” Chad VanSickle of Diversified Engineering said during the Utilities Commission meeting on Tuesday. “It’s just going to be deep. It’s going to be 20 to 23 feet deep for about 500 or 600 feet. So if that works, if that’s the better alternative, actually is probably a cheaper alternative to do that than to do a lift station.”
“I think we’re in unified agreement that we definitely would prefer the deeper section over the station,” City Engineer Brian Ball said.
