Board of Zoning Appeals

AREA BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS OF TIPPECANOE COUNTY LAFAYETTE DIVISION January 18, 2022 The City of Lafayette Board of Zoning Appeals met in regular session on Tuesday, January 18, 2022 at 4:00 PM. Members present were: Jackson Bogan, Dave Williams, Dick Murray, Bob Metzger, and Cariynn Smith. The meeting was called to order by Mr. Bogan. The first order of business was the election of officers for 2022. Mr. Williams moved to cast a unanimous vote to continue the same officers, Mr. Bogan and Mr. Williams, which was seconded by Mr. Metzger. The motion passed by unanimous voice vote. Jackson Bogan will be President of the Board for 2022 and Mr. Williams will be Vice President of the Board for 2022. Mr. Williams moved to approve the minutes of the previous meeting as distributed; second by Mrs. Smith. The motion passed by unanimous voice vote. NEW BUSINESS 2022-1 RICK D. & KATHY L. GORDON Variance to reduce the front setback to 22' instead of the required 25'. Property located at 2413 KICKAPOO DR. Mr. Wiiliams moved to hear and approve the petition; second by Mr. Murray. Rick Gordon, the petitioner, presented the petition. Mr. Gordon stated that he and his wife want to construct a front porch onto their house. They just want a place to sit and drink coffee. Mr. Gordon also submitted a petition signed by 4 adjacent neighbors supporting the request. 1) 5 yes 0 no. Petition GRANTED. 2022-2 KRM ARCHITECTURE Variance to increase the total sign area to 236 SF instead of the allowed 126 SF. Property iocated at 3690 CONCORD RD. Mr. Williams moved to hear and approve the petition; second by Mr. Murray. Katie Grajewski, agent for the petitioner, presented the petition. krM Architecture is working with State Bank who is taking over the existing building at the comer of Concord Road and Veterans Memorial Parkway. They are requesting to replace aii of the previously existing signs with new signage and to add one additional sign to the building. Mr. Bogan asked about the previously existing signage and Matthew Shively stated that the signage onsite did not conform to current zoning standards. They are proposing one-for-one changes with the existing signage and the additional sign request wil! be on the southeast rotunda of the building. The appearance of the building and the signage will match the previousiy existing conditions with the exception of the additional sign on the southeast corner of the building. 1) 5 yes 0 no. Petition GRANTED. 2022-3 NOVA LAFAYETTE, LLC Variance to reduce the amount of required parking spaces from 139 spaces to 85 spaces. Property located at 200 S. 4TH ST. Mr. Williams moved to hear and approve the petition; second by Mrs. Smith. Chris Shelmon, agent for the petitioner, presented the petition. Mr. Shelmon stated that the apartment building on the property in question was granted a parking variance in the past under a different design. The apartment originally had a second floor space that was meant for a fitness center but nothing ended up materializing. The petitioner would like to convert that existing space into 4 new dwelling units. They have not had any issues with the current parking arrangement from the previous variance and the building is full. Mr. Sheimon also pointed out that since the fitness center will no longer be onsite, this would alleviate any potential parking issues they wouid have with customers coming from offsite. Mr. Bogan asked about the previously granted variance. Mr. Shively stated that they were originally approved to provide only 77 parking spaces but that he believed they ended up installing 85 parking spaces. Mr. Shelmon confirmed that to be the case. Even though they provide more parking than was originally granted, they still need this parking variance to make up for the proposed 4 unit addition since these units were not part of the original plan. Mr. Shively read a letter in support of the parking variance request from Dennis Carson. Mr. Carson stated that there are many transportation options in the downtown area and that many people do not have or need a persona! vehicle. He also outlined different parking options people have in the downtown area and that these options will increase once the new public service building parking garage is completed. Jim Rau spoke in opposition of the parking variance request. He owns the property directly across the street from 200 S. 4th Street. Mr. Rau stated that there are very limited parking options available in this area. He believes they are asking for too much relief from the required parking. He was also concerned about the transient nature of the apartment building, especially with the potential of having multiple Purdue students renting the units. He believes this causes issues with trash haulers onsite and this causes trash to biow over to his property. Mr. Began pointed out that this property was already granted a reduction in the required parking to 77 spaces and that the new request is required because the petitioner wants to add 4 dwelling units. He also mentioned that if they do not grant the request, the previously granted request of 77 spaces still stands so it would essentially act as a detriment to the area if they did not grant the new request. Mr. Sheimon mirrored Mr. Bogan's comments and said that if this variance was not granted, the petitioner could technically remove 8 parking spaces onsite to meet the originai petition request. 1) 5 yes 0 no. Petition GRANTED. 2022-5 KJY INVESTMENTS LLC, F/K/A 800 MAIN STREET LLC Variance to reduce the amount of required parking spaces from 6 spaces to 3 spaces. Property located at 800 MAIN ST. Mr. Williams moved to hear and approve the petition; second by Mr. Murray. Chris Shelmon, agent for the petitioner, presented the petition. Mr. Shelmon stated that this building has a unique and large space upstairs that is not currently being utilized. The proposal is consistent to other similar uses in the area with a one-for-one parking space per unit. Two parking spaces would be provided in a proposed garage at the rear of the property and another space would be provided outside next to the garage and the access would be off of the alley. Mr. Murray said he counted 6 bedrooms total and asked if that was correct. Mr. Shelmon stated that was correct. Mr. Murray expressed concerns about the number of proposed bedrooms compared to the proposed parking and asked if the city was okay with that. Dave Griffee stated that they used to grant parking variance requests for new residential units from a bed quantity standpoint but the last time that happened was roughly 5 or 6 years. Since then, parking variance requests have typically been looked at from a dwelling unit quantity standpoint. The normal requests and variance approvals over the past few years have typically provided one parking space per dwelling unit but the vast majority of these dwelling units have been one or two-bedroom units. He also pointed out that the Centennial District has gone to a 1 parking space per unit requirement for their overlay district and that it has been successful. Mr. Shelmon requested that the petition be continued until the February 22, 2022 meeting so that the petitioner can explore potential offsite parking options to lessen the overall impact of the request. Mr. Williams moved to continue this petition until the February 22, 2022 meeting; second by Mr. Murray. The next meeting of the Lafayette Board of Zoning Appeals will be on Tuesday, February 22, 2022 at 4:00 PM. There being no further business to come before the Board at this time, the meeting was adjourned at 4:41 PIVL ^^ —z> lairmarf Secretary