The Batesville Area Plan Commission faced two stumbling blocks at its March 6 meeting.

A plat of Lake of the Woods Phase 2 submitted years ago stated the two lots near the lake just before the entrance sign to the neighborhood were not to be developed.

Developer Doug Straber petitioned to vacate that language.

President David Raver explained to about a dozen attendees, “If that were to be approved, we would hear a petition to subdivide the property.”

“We've never gone through this process (vacating language on a plat) before that any of us can remember .... We are following Indiana Code on how to do that. It requires three factors that we have to vote on. If it fails on any of the three, the petition to vacate would be denied.”

The second challenge was commission attendance. Usually all members are present, but at this meeting four were (Raver, Chris Fairchild, Ham Struewing and Tim Macyauski) and two were not (Mayor Rick Fledderman and Bob Fitzpatrick). Member Doug Amberger was there, but had to abstain from voting because he was previously consulted by Straber.

The president reported that by law, the petition’s passage requires four positive votes (a majority of seven members) on each factor regardless of how many were in attendance. In other words, “3-2 would not be approval.”

Attorney Mark Jones, representing Straber, said, “From our prospective, with six potential voters, I'm better off with having as many here as possible ... I would be perfectly willing to put this off until next month.”

Neighbors still had a chance to sound off about the petition. Bill Wilson, 236 Lakeshore Drive, asked about the three factors.

According to Raver, at least four members must agree with each of these statements:

• Conditions in the platted area have changed to defeat the original purpose of the plat.

• It is in the public’s interest to vacate all or part of the plat.

• The value of that part of the land in the plat not owned by the petitioner (all lots in Phase 2) will not be diminished by changing that language.

Daryl Teed, 180 Lakeshore Drive, said, “Clearly, one of the biggest concerns out there right now: Nothing has been done about a road being built out to (State Road) 46 (from the western end of EGS Boulevard). Traffic is getting crazy there.”

Teed also was concerned that if houses are built on the two lots near the lake and visitors parked on the street, the sharp turn there could impede traffic. “It's a problem getting up and down that hill with anything parked (on EGS Boulevard) in that area.”