Zoning Updates Planned for Winamac

Winamac Town Hall
Winamac Town Hall

The Town of Winamac may soon consider updating its zoning ordinance to bring it in line with Pulaski County’s. Pulaski County Community Development Commission Executive Director Nathan Origer appeared before the town council Monday. He says he’s been working with Town Manager Brad Zellers and the Winamac Plan Commission to adapt the county’s ordinance for the town’s use. “It brings it up and it just makes it so that if I live on one side of the Winamac zoning border or the other, the rules are the same between the county and the town,” he said.

Origer says having more consistent ordinances will make it easier for the county’s building inspector. It will also bring the town’s zoning up to more modern standards, according to Origer, especially for small manufacturers. “A small business like that, while they’re really small, theoretically could be downtown,” he said. “Any kind of really small niche industry that does not have outside storage, does not have a lot of employees, does not have pollution could work in a storefront, like the blacksmith shop used to be, although cleaner than a blacksmith shop.”

Origer says the updated ordinance would better specify where industries of different sizes could be located in the town. He expects the Winamac Plan Commission to consider the updates.

Additionally, the plan commission now has a new member. Town Council member Jim Watkins will serve as the council’s third representative on the plan commission. He replaces Kenneth McFarland, who died earlier this year.

In other business Monday, the town council passed a couple of ordinances. One was an additional appropriation, allowing the town to ready Local Option Income Tax funds for public safety expenditures, as well as various funds for the town’s Community Crossings street projects. The council also adopted an ordinance allowing it to pre-approve the payment of claims. Pre-approval is allowed by the state, but only if local governments have their own policy in place to allow it.