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Senior apartments, comm tower get green light |
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Wednesday, August 06 2008 |
By CHRIS MEYERS
Staff writer
A group of apartments in Columbia City for senior citizens got the go-ahead Tuesday night from the Columbia City Board of Zoning Appeals and will likely be ready for rent by the end of the year.
The apartments, to be built on Countryside Drive, would be similar to the group of yellow apartments on Armstrong Drive near the old Scott’s building.
JR Parent, president of Yellow Retirement LLC, said the Countryside Drive location was chosen because of its proximity to the nearby shopping center.
“We try to piggyback to retail areas,” he said, adding that getting senior citizens within walking distance of shopping centers was an ongoing goal with apartments the company builds.
The site plan calls for a 12-unit apartment complex, which will be on the north side of Denzil Drive, to the east of the building which houses the Bureau of Motor Vehicles.
Parent said today that Yellow Retirement will seek construction permits as soon as possible, with plans calling for the completion of the apartments by the end of the year.
To the east and north of the proposed site are mobile home lots and a tree line.
Also getting approval at the meeting was a 195-foot communication tower to be placed on North Oak Street.
Steve Woody, a representative from ERS Telecom Properties, said Centenial Wireless wants to put a tower in Columbia City at that site to help boost service in the area, especially in buildings.
“They’ve got some in-building coverage issues. They’re trying to fill in a dead area,” he said.
Plans for the tower call for it to be self-supporting with no lighting, due to its height. It could also support five other communication services.
“We know it’s an area that’s going to need expanded coverage,” Woody said.
There is also a chance of getting tornado sirens or other public safety equipment placed on the tower.
By comparison, two towers on Towerview Drive are 300 and 400 feet tall, and the one at city hall in Columbia City is about 190 feet.
A property owner near the site of the tower said although he knew of the existing commercial sites nearby, he wasn’t expecting another tower to “box him in.”
He questioned why the tower couldn’t go on the north side of Wal-Mart where there weren’t any nearby residences.
Woody said ERS looked at the north side of Wal-Mart as a possibility, but gave up on the idea after finding a nearby airport which frequently has ultralights and other aircraft fly in the area.
Jeff Walker, outside operations manager for Columbia City, said the city originally had concerns about the tower blowing over on the city’s electrical substation to the south, or workers being hit by falling ice from the tower.
He said after researching the type of tower proposed at the site it became clear that it would withstand very high winds, and its surface was not likely to cause problems with ice. |
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Last Updated ( Thursday, August 07 2008 )
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