Town panel addresses messy property

If they had to do it all over again, Town of Belgium Zoning Administrator Charlie Parks said, he wishes the rezoning of the St. Mary’s Church property would not have been allowed.

Portions of the property were rezoned to single-family residences, which are now messy to the point where an Illinois man is holding off on building a house across the street.

At last week’s Plan Commission meeting, Parks called the rezoning “probably one of the biggest mistakes we’ve made in rezoning since I’ve been around.”

The property was rezoned, Parks said, so the church could help meet its budget.

“They took that problem off their table and brought it on to our table,” he said.

“We are dealing with a problem now. It’s starting to impact the neighborhood and I think there’s just a lesson to be learned from this.”

Fellow commission member Dennis Dimmer disagreed, saying the issue isn’t rezoning but the property owner. He said other properties in town look worse after they changed owners but weren’t rezoned.

Commission Chairman and Town Chairman Tom Winker again suggested sending the owner of the former church property a letter asking him to fix up his property and to come to a Town Board meeting. The board had already agreed to send a letter to the owner at its September meeting.

Beyond junk cars, the town ordinance doesn’t address messy properties. Parks said all that can be done is to “ask folks to clean it up and be mindful their neighbor’s property.