Amish Youth Center Scores 2 Variances in Parkman
The Haven Board’s second swing at developing an Amish Youth Center got the project to first base at the Parkman Township Board of Zoning Appeals meeting March 12.
The Haven Board’s second swing at developing an Amish Youth Center got the project to first base at the Parkman Township Board of Zoning Appeals meeting March 12.
The board voted to grant a use variance and an area variance allowing construction of the center for supervised groups of young Amish at 18040 Tavern Road.
Board member Rob Yoder said the Haven Board has yet to acquire the property and plans are in the early stages.
BZA Chair Joe Keough said the hearing, which lasted well over an hour, gave time for people for and against the plan to speak.
The acreage, including a house and outbuildings, is zoned residential and has been used agriculturally, he said.
That was why the use variance was necessary and why the BZA viewed the request to change the zoning to institutional through an updated lens, Keough said.
“A use variance, by the old standard, would only be granted if the parcel was unique and couldn’t be used as zoned,” he said. “There have been nation-wide changes where a use variance can be granted if the intended use would inherently benefit the community.”
Most of the opposition to the variance came from neighbors concerned about noise from the ball fields, Keough said.
“After listening to both sides, we thought the Haven Board put together a well-thought-out and viable plan based on it being ‘inherently beneficial to the community,’” Keough said, adding he doesn’t expect there will be more noise than would come from a school playground.
“Overall, I think it’s an excellent idea,” he said.
The Haven Board’s pledge that all activity at the Amish Youth Center on Tavern Road be actively supervised convinced the BZA to grant the variances, he added.
Keough estimated 35 residents attended the hearing at the Parkman Township Community Building.
“It was pretty crowded,” he said.
The irregularly-shaped, 12.36-acre parcel only has a little more than 56 feet of frontage and the Parkman zoning code requires a minimum of 60 feet for a driveway, Keough said, adding the BZA approved an area variance for the frontage, so a driveway will be allowed onto Tavern Road (state Route 168).
Parkman Township Trustee Henry Duchscherer Jr., who attended the BZA hearing, said March 21 he didn’t think there was a strong legal argument against the Amish Youth Center, adding he thinks there are about 2,500 Amish in the township.
He also discarded the concern young people using the outside softball and baseball fields would be overly loud.
“I don’t think they’ll play ball all night, either,” Duchscherer said.
Last fall, the Haven Board presented the concept to the BZA on property on Hosmer Road and requested a variance, but the Haven Board decided against the project when it became apparent some of the non-Amish residents opposed the location.
