Builder told to fill part of lake to compensate for plat mistake

4/7/2005

BOWLING GREEN - The developer of a 450-acre residential subdivision in Middleton Township has been ordered to fill in part of a lake to compensate for the construction of two homes that are too large for the lots they sit on.

The Wood County Planning Commission Tuesday night refused to re-plat the villa lots in the Riverbend development at State Rt. 65 and Roachton Road, saying the developer must comply with the rear-yard setbacks.

Dave Steiner, planning director, said the commission agreed to extend by 12 feet the rear lot lines for two villas under construction, but he told the Riverbend developer that the rear property line must be at least two feet from the edge of the lake.

Tim Swiergosz, vice president of Prestancia Building Co. of Sylvania, which is building the two homes, said he will have to fill in approximately five to seven feet of the lake to comply with the order.

Mr. Swiergosz said when he discovered the problem about two months ago, he immediately contacted the Middletown Township zoning inspector.

"It was a series of errors that were made that somebody didn't catch the rear setback,'' he said. "We turned ourselves in. We didn't want to pose a problem here.''

Mr. Steiner said once allowances are made for setback requirements, the villa lots only have about 65 feet of buildable space. When the high-end villas, which cost around $400,0000, are built with sun rooms, they do not fit on the lots.

When Middleton Township became aware of the problem, it ordered construction to stop on the two villas but allowed work to resume when the developers said they would ask the planning commission to approve a re-plat of the lots.

"It was a combination of errors. It shouldn't have gotten past us and it did,'' said Paula Miles, interim zoning inspector for Middleton Township.

Mr. Steiner said the planning commission was somewhat confused by the dilemma.

"They felt if you can't fit that house on there you're going to have to find a different lot to put it on,'' he said.

The commission agreed that Riverbend could resubmit a plat plan for the remaining villa lots in Plat One of the new subdivision. Plat One is on 72 acres and is to contain 124 single-family and villa lots.