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Plan Commission forwards favorable recommendation to commissioners for 409-acre Monroe County Nature Preserve rezone
Summary
The Plan Commission voted 7–0 to forward a positive recommendation to the Monroe County Commissioners to rezone roughly 409.48 acres from Conservation Residential (CVR 2.5) to Institutional Public (IP) so the county can establish the Monroe County Nature Preserve under a trust deeded to the county.
The Monroe County Plan Commission unanimously voted on November 1 to send a favorable recommendation to the Board of Commissioners to rezone about 409.48 acres from Conservation Residential (CVR 2.5) to Institutional Public (IP) for the proposed Monroe County Nature Preserve.
Staff said the property was deeded to Monroe County for recreational purposes by the Huntington trust after the owner’s death in 2023. The county seeks the IP zoning designation so Parks and Recreation and the commissioners can manage the site as a nature preserve with uses such as hiking trails and natural-area management while remaining constrained by the trust language and the court’s interpretation of permissible recreational uses.
County legal counsel Justin Roddy, who appeared for the county legal department, told the commission the trust and court’s hearing order were written broadly and that county short-term plans (on the scale of decades) are compatible with the IP designation. "The trust was written...in very broad strokes to essentially encompass anything that we might potentially do there," Roddy said, adding that staff’s short-term plans focus on preservation and low-impact amenities.
Kelly Whitmer, director of Monroe County Parks and Recreation, told commissioners the department envisions a nature preserve with trails, meadows and, possibly in the future, a dog park or shelter but that the immediate intent is limited to nature-preserve uses. "What we want today is a nature preserve with many grass trails, maybe a dog park, maybe a shelter someday," Whitmer said.
Staff reported one letter of support received after the packet was published and no letters of remonstrance; the Highway and Stormwater departments provided technical comments and will review site-level permits when development is proposed. The Plan Commission voted 7–0 to forward a favorable recommendation with a waiver of the final hearing to the Board of Commissioners.
What’s next: The rezoning will be taken up by the Monroe County Board of Commissioners at their public meeting; members of the public were directed to direct substantive questions about long-term site programming to Parks and Recreation.
