Times Observer photo by Josh Cotton The former Pleasant Elementary School is at the heart of a sizable 20-parcel rezoning request that will now go before the county commissioners for the consideration. The county’s Planning Commission moved to recommend approval of the change during a Tuesday meeting.

The county’s Planning Commission has recommended approval of a rezoning request for a slew of properties in Pleasant Township, including the former Pleasant Elementary School.

The proposal will now head before the county commissioners, who have final say on rezoning requests like this under the county’s zoning ordinance.

A total of 20 parcels are subject to the change, which would change the designation from residential to ACR (agriculture, conservation, recreation), making the parcels open to a much broader slate of potential uses.

Ben Mahaffey, the county’s zoning officer, said the residential designation is “very restrictive in its uses.”

The area covered by these 20 parcels, some of which are over 100 acres, was zoned residential back in 1965 when the county’s zoning ordinance was first implemented.

“(I’m) thinking that we’re going to develop further into Pleasant,” he said of the designation, noting that development “never came to fruition.

“There’s a lot of woods, a lot of undeveloped land. A lot of open space.”

“It’s a lot of steep, mountainous areas through there,” Ristau added.

Mahaffey said the owner of the former Pleasant School, Ricky Ristau, is “interested in the warehouse option” available in ACR districts.

Planning Director Michael Lyon noted that these parcels probably should have been ACR all along.

“We just try to pick these up and correct them as we can,” he said.

Commission Chair Paul Pascuzzi acknowledged the change would give the property owners more latitude regarding what to do with their property.

That’s an especially complicating factor for the school.

“It’s a commercial building zoned residential,” Mahaffey said. “(There’s) not much to be done with the building I don’t think” given the zoning designation.

Commission member Andy Brooks, also a Pleasant Township supervisor, said the township might have an issue with the change as the township is set to act on a $4 million project to run sewer lines in the area.

“There’s a lot of land,” he said, “that would be developed if it had sewer.”

Lyon stressed that the change in zoning designation would not “hamper” any development that might come.