Residents of the neighborhoods north and east of Valparaiso University received good news as a planned rezoning was pulled by the university.

The university had petitioned the city to rezone the house at the southwest corner of Brown Street and University Drive from neighborhood conservation to campus.

However, after getting a favorable recommendation Oct. 11 from the Plan Commission and having a public hearing on the rezoning at the Oct. 24 City Council meeting, the university stopped its request.

City Planner Tyler Kent told the council Monday that the university asked that the rezoning request be pulled from the agenda.

The university had torn down an early 20th-century house on the property that VU General Counsel Darron Farha said was not salvageable and built a new 3,500-square-foot home there for the residential housing coordinator who'll oversee the new sororities on Union Street to the south.

No university representatives were there to comment, but Kent said, “It's a permitted use, so it's not necessary.”

Farha was not available for comment, according to a person in his office.

At the Sept. 19 Plan Commission meeting and at the Oct. 24 City Council meeting, residents and members of the Upper Brown and Monroe Neighborhood Association protested the rezoning as another infringement by the university on the neighborhood.

In September, Brown Street resident Richard Stith said rezoning it to campus designation would give the university “a blank check” for land use in the future, despite it being on the end of a residential street.

City Council member Diana Reed, D-1st, who is also secretary for the neighborhood association, had called the measure “spot zoning” at a Plan Commission meeting.

Other residents noted the house now faces University Street instead of Brown.

Also at the meeting, the council approved renewal of the three-way liquor license for Good Husband Inc. for Fork & Cork restaurant at 66 E. Lincolnway and formerly known as Bonne Femme.

However, the council tabled approval of the license for Furinkazan Sushi & Bar at 21 E. Lincolnway at the owners' request as negotiations are continuing with Margarita's Bar & Grill for the purchase of the site and license transfer.

In Indiana, three-way liquor licenses that allow sales of beer, wine and hard liquor are allotted by population.

But Valparaiso has gotten state permission to have 10 three-way licenses for its historic downtown.

James D. Wolf Jr. is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.