Zoning change urged for South Main land

Shelbyville's planning commission recommended amending the city's land use plan Thursday to change an area from low to high density residential to reflect the actual current use in the region.

Planners and engineers for the city recommended that an area between South Main and South Jefferson Streets, described as "a triangle shaped plot," be amended as high density residential.

The reason for the recommended change concerns a rezoning request made by Tory May, who wants to develop a quadruplex residential dwelling on South Main at South Brittain Street.

Planners recommended the rezoning, saying that the parcel is in a transition area near central business and high-density residential development, which minimizes the possibility of low-density development.

The city's current land use plan has this small area "sandwiched" between central business, corporate development and high density activities and planners and engineers say that the region would be more suitable for this use.

Codes concern

City councilman Thomas Landers addressed the commission on a topic of concern to him and builders -- the 2009 International Building Codes.

Shelbyville recently adopted the codes, but Landers said that a number of builders had contacted him with concerns over "things that don't make any sense."

He said the new codes add more costs to building a home at a time when the city is trying to encourage construction. Landers explained that his son built an $80,000 house and $1,800 was spent complying with the new codes.

"There's a lot of little things that go into this ... and the city is trying to hold down the cost to help people get things going, but we're shooting them in the back on some things," Landers said, adding that the county "is a little more lax" with the codes.

Councilman Al Stephenson said that the council can choose to exempt certain portions of the code if they wish and that the commission and council should study the codes more closely, using the recent example of taking out the requirement for residential sprinkler systems.

"The thing we don't like, we can delete them," Stephenson said.

Commission member Warren Landers said they adopted the codes as a guideline because in the past, the city "had some builders that actually came here and built some crap, and I think it was kind of a measure to get something on the books to stop it."

Says hello

Ed Dodson, Shelbyville's new planning and codes director, was also introduced to the commission Thursday. Chairman Morton Renegar said that Shelbyville was fortunate to have hired a professional architect to fill the position, and that Dodson would be instrumental in providing long term planning.

Dodson said he wishes to meet individually with each member of the planning commission to hear their thoughts and plans for Shelbyville and also said his first two weeks on the job have been "very busy."

Two other items that were scheduled to be heard by the commission were removed from the agenda.

A site plan for a two-story addition measuring 1,920 square feet to an existing classroom building at Beth Sar Shalom Ministries, 207 April Lane, was handled "in house," Dodson said, and a reconsideration of denial of a final plat submitted by Robert Allison was pulled from the meeting and was said to be addressed next month.