Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA)

Town of Zionsville Board of Zoning Appeals September 25, 2012 Pledge of Allegiance was said and attendance was taken by the Secretary. Present: Larry Mitchell. Greg Morrical. Steve Schanke, Al Wopshaw, Jay Parks. Staff attending: Carol Sparks Drake, attorney. A quorum is present. Mitchell All right, good evening. This is the September 25, 2012 meeting of the Zionsville Board of Zoning Appeals. First item on our Agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance. All Pledge of Allegiance Mitchell Mr. DeLong will you take the roll please? Mitchell Let the record reflect we have full attendance. A quorum is present. First item, third item on the agenda is the approval of the July 24, 2012 meeting minutes. Are there any corrections? Hearing none, I would entertain a motion to approve. Schanke I’ll make a motion we approve the minutes of the meeting on July 24, 2012. Morical Second it. Mitchell A motion has been made and seconded. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor of the motion signify by saying aye. All Aye. Mitchell Opposed nay. Motion carries. Onto new business. We have four, I’m sorry five items on our Agenda tonight. I’ll briefly go over how our procedures for each of the petitioners. The petitioners will be allowed 15 minutes to make their presentation. Any remonstrators will be allowed 15 minutes to make their presentation. The petitioners will be allowed five minutes of rebuttal time and then finally the, any remonstrators are allowed the final five minutes of any rebuttal. The Board may ask questions to the petitioners or the remonstrators at any time through the presentations. That time will not be taken from your overall 15 minutes and 5 minutes. When you do come up to speak please state your name and your address on the recording because we’re recording everything and we need to get on record everything and we need to get on record who is speaking. And, if you’re coming up to remonstrate when I ask for the remonstrators on each case just raise your hand and come up and if there’s more than one then what you can do is just get in a line behind the microphone. The first item of business is Docket #2012-10-DSV under the name G. S. Hall. The address of the project is 9134 Iris Lane. Item to be considered is a petition for development standards variance for an increase of lot coverage of 11 percent above the allowable 20 percent for installation of a pool with concrete skirt in an RSF-2 zoning district. Would the petitioner please come forward? BZA September 25, 2012 Page 2 of 17 Hall Good evening. Thank you for allowing us to be on the agenda tonight. My name is Greg Hall and I’m here with my wife Shannon, and we reside at 9134 Iris Lane, which is in the preserve of Spring Knoll subdivision and the purpose for our attendance this evening is to request a variance on the 20 percent lot coverage ordinance that exists for the subdivision in which we live and the purpose for that variance as you stated is so that we could install a 16 x 34 in-ground swimming pool on our property. Certainly, I think you’ve had an opportunity to see some of the background information and don’t want to take the 15 minutes. But here to answer whatever questions you might have for us. If you’d like for me to summarize some of that background information I would certainly be more than willing to do so at your pleasure. Wopshall Do you plan on a fence or a cover? Hall Yes, that’s part of our Homeowner’s Association expectation we will be putting, both an automatic cover as well as a fence. Wopshall And you’re behind the easements? Hall Pardon me? Wopshall You’re well within the easements? Hall Yes, yes. Wopshall Of 13 feet? Hall Yes, yes. Schanke It looks like your neighbor behind you has a pool back there also I believe. Hall We actually have on both sides of us to the north and to the east. They both have pools as well. Schanke The other one that’s got a cover over it. Hall Yeah, so we actually are kind of surrounded by them. Mitchell Are there any other questions for the petitioner? Hearing none, are there any remonstrators here? Seeing none come forward we’ll hear staff report. DeLong The staff is recommending approval of the petition as filed. In review of the petition the staff summarizes the lot coverage is 27 percent not 31. I believe that when we first looked at this petition coming in we may have counted the driveway as part of the lot coverage and that is simply not something that’s required or looked at as lot coverage. The site plan has not changed since it was submitted to the Town or here this evening. Again, staff is recommending approval and I’d be happy to answer questions. Mitchell Were there any questions for staff? Hearing none, I would entertain a motion. BZA September 25, 2012 Page 3 of 17 Parks I move that Docket 2012-10-DSV for a design standards variance to exceed the maximum lot coverage to the urban single family residential district for the property located at 9134 Iris Lane be approved based upon the findings in the staff report as presented. Schanke I’ll second it. Mitchell A motion has been made and seconded. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor of the motion signify by saying, aye. All Aye. Mitchell Opposed nay? Motion carries. Thank you. Hall Thank you. Mitchell Next item on the Docket is 2012-11-DSV under the name A. Smith, address of the project is 755 West Hawthorne Street, petition for development standards variance for an increase of lot coverage of 3 percent above the allowable 35 percent for installation of a home, detached garage, pergola, and patio in an RV residential village-zoning district. Petitioner? Smith Thank you, sir. My name is Angela Smith. I’m the owner of what now is currently a vacant lot at 755 West Hawthorne. I have with me my builder, Barry Smith, who is a local Zionsville builder. We have designed a home, which I think will complement the property. It’s not an overly large home. I plan to live there with my two children. It’s a three-bedroom home. We would like to have a two-car detached garage on the property and that would require a variance of an additional 3 percent and a patio space as well as the detached garage, so at this point I am happy to entertain any questions that the Board may have. Mitchell The only thing I ask you is what’s your current address? Smith My current address is 6732 East Stonegate Drive in Zionsville as well. Mitchell Okay, thank you. Are there questions for the petitioner? Morical One question. I notice in your petition that you noted that the alley was set for a hearing to vacate earlier this month. Was that hearing held and was that alley vacated? Smith Yes it was held and yes it was vacated. Schanke I’m sorry I’m sure everybody here knows it, but what’s a pergola? Is it like a-- Smith It’s basically a covered walkway that just runs between the garage and my home, so I can walk without getting wet. Schanke I got one of those by the barn. BZA September 25, 2012 Page 4 of 17 Smith Yes, and now you know what it’s called. Schanke Thank you. Mitchell I’ll draw you a picture here. Schanke I knew everybody knew what it was, but I didn’t and I didn’t see it on the drawing, so. Mitchell All right. Are there any remonstrators here tonight? Please sir, come forward. Harris My name’s Art Harris, 760 West Sycamore Street. I’m not a remonstrator, I have a question if that’s allowed? Mitchell Yes. Harris I would like to know whether this is a one-story structure or a two-story structure. Mitchell On the drawing it says a one story. Smith One story. Mitchell Yes, yes. I’m sorry, we’ll allow the petitioner’s representative, building representative to come forward. State your name and your address, so it’s on record. Smith I’m Barry Smith. I have an office at 170 South Main in Zionsville. And that is a one-story structure. The only one-story garage on the alley I think, so. Mitchell Okay thank you. All right. Are there any petitioners, I’m sorry remonstrators? Seeing none, staff report. DeLong Thank you. Staff is recommending approval of the petition subject to the findings as outlined in the staff report. There have been no changes since the matter has been filed with the Town. Again, staff is recommending approval and I’d be happy to answer questions. Mitchell All right, are there any questions for staff? Hearing none I would entertain a motion. Schanke I’ll make a motion. I move that Docket #2012-11 design standards variance to exceed the maximum lot coverage in the residential village district for the property located at 755 Hawthorne Street be approved based upon the findings of the staff report as presented. Mitchell Thank you. Is there a second? Wopshall I second that. BZA September 25, 2012 Page 5 of 17 Mitchell A motion has been made and seconded. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor of the motion signify by saying, aye. All Aye. Mitchell Opposed nay? Motion carries. Thank you. Smith Thank you. Mitchell Next item on the Agenda is Docket #2012-12-DSV under the name G. Wetenberger at the address of 55 Poplar Street. It’s a petition for development standards variance for an increased lot coverage of 13 percent above the allowable 35 percent for installation of a home in an RV residential village zoning district. Petitioner please come forward. Webb Thank you. My name is Garry Webb. I’m with Webb Consulting and Construction Services. My address is 4631 Briarwood Trace and I am representing the Wetenberger’s, the potential homeowners. First, I think you all received our revised plans, which actually took the square footage down by 400 and some square feet which puts the percentage at about 42 percent versus a 48, so we’re in the 7 percent range at that point and also part of the calculations that were used to develop the square footage included the patio and the patio is pervious patio stone, so it’s really not a hard surface and we can change that if you’d like, but it’s not concrete and that does meet all the LEED requirements and green standards, so I would assume that would not be considered as a hard surface coming out the back door. Mitchell Just so the record notes the petitioner has provided a supplemental document provided to the Board tonight for which there’s a total of in the upper left-hand corner it says 3,405 total square feet for a lot coverage of 42.5 percent which is different than was read in on the Agenda which showed a 48 percent total coverage. Iit’s now down to 42.5 percent. Thank you. Webb And also that, that square footage includes the patio, so if that can be deducted that brings us down a little bit further. Schanke By patio you’re referring to in the back? Webb On that form it is still 8 x 8. Schanke Your revised drawing, so that’s the impervious. Webb That’s still pervious right. Schanke Oh pervious? Webb Pervious right, the water will go through it right. Schanke It will go through right, yeah percolates through. BZA September 25, 2012 Page 6 of 17 Webb The other comments that I wanted to make versus or I guess in rebuttal to the staff’s report was the house was large for the area and one of the pieces that we thought when we designed this house to fit that lot is it’s a corner lot. It’s the keystone lot. It’ll be the keystone house as you come in that neighborhood. To the west of that is commercial and the alley behind and the alley beside and I would totally agree with the staff if that house were situated between two of the smaller homes, but it’s by itself. It’s on the corner, so it does offer I think some really benefits to the neighborhood and it’s really not creating an issue for smaller homes. I don’t think we’re outsizing those by any means. I think one of the other comments from the staff was there is an existing garage or shed or whatever was there that was owned by the people next door who sold the property to the Wetdenberger and that goes away, so that’s not, there’s no free- standing sheds or anything like that that goes on that space. The homeowners are very willing if we need to scale down another couple hundred square feet we can do that, so we’d like to go wherever we can go, but we really feel that what we’ve done now recently will certainly make it fit the neighborhood. Mitchell Are there questions for the petitioner? Wopshall Yes, what is the lot size? Webb It’s 80 x 100. Wopshall Okay the staff report has it listed incorrectly thank you. Webb Yes, the legal description and we knew we needed 8,000 square feet, so that’s what they purchased from the people next door. Mitchell All right. Are there any remonstrators here? Seeing none come forward we’ll listen to the staff report. DeLong Thank you. Staff is recommending denial of the petition as its filed and certainly these amendments go forward to reduce the home down to 41.7 percent. The staff is still concerned about the size of the home and proposed lot coverage. It’s more typically historical or precedent or whatever the word might be certainly in the 3 to 5 percent range is where I believe the Board had been for these types of requests. I mean, certainly we do recognize that this parcel is the corner of the keystone of this lot and you would find that in times past where you had a town block where you had one large home anchoring that lot and the rest of the block was orchard and then other homes would develop, typically smaller homes and that’s potentially would could be created in this setting, but still at 41.7 percent staff still would recommend the variance not be approved. If the house could come down from some size, down to 40 percent lot coverage, but again its all about what’s unique with this parcel in and that’s still up in the air as to what is the necessitates the variance with the development. Mitchell Are there any questions for staff? Schanke Now, I think if you take out the pervious 8 x 8 it still only drops it to 42.3 which is only a couple tenths of a percent, so it’s really not-- BZA September 25, 2012 Page 7 of 17 Webb It’s roughly 7 percent versus what – Schanke I had 42.5 in the handout that you gave us and I just subtracted a of that. Webb Right, so. And our walks and so forth are also measured in that space, so we could take some of those out and put pervious in there. I mean we’re very close to where we need to be and this is mostly for where it is and how it sits on that property, so we easily could do with pavement or however to cut that back. We can actually narrow the porch by a foot probably all the way around which would then give you everything that we needed. Schanke Yeah, but that’s still just doesn’t make, it seems to be a very, a very large percentage of the property is its house, whether that’s the footprint or what and I’m looking at the aerial trying to visualize what that would look like from the side. If it was just a little bit closer to the 35 percent. I’m just rambling on, sorry. Webb Is there some definition of a little bit closer? I mean, we can scale it down a little bit if we need to. We’re trying not to lose the architecture of the home if you look at the front elevation, especially the new front elevation when you start cutting a foot here and a foot there it kind of makes things lopsided, but we have room in the porches and we have room in the back and some of the areas that we’ve counted as hard surface that wouldn’t be aside from the patio, so we’re willing to work with that, but if we can stay within the 5 percent we can easily do that. It’s only 2 percent of what we need to do, so. Schanke I know we don’t have any remonstrators here tonight. Do you know whether the homeowners got any feedback from anybody who received notice? Any type of informal feedback. Webb From their conversations they bought the property from the people next door to the east and they were very excited about what was going to happen over there. I mean it’s a very handsome-looking house. It certainly will lend itself as you come off of Main Street to fit into the neighborhood architecture and we have not heard anything. We did send all of our paperwork out to everyone, so, no I have not heard anything and as far as I know they’ve not heard anything that said we don’t want this house there. We went around, she did, showed people I think in your brochure that we have the colors even of you know what they’re proposing to do. Wopshall I drove by the lot today and this looks a heck of a lot better than an empty lot I know that. The neighbors on both sides, do you know how large of a footprint they have, roughly? Webb The lots, well the only lot that’s to the east of them I think is only a 40-foot lot, so these were two lots or three lots I think the way they had it laid out and the Wetdenberger bought the whole parcel, so that they could have 8,000 square feet to build a home on. Wopshall So nothing comparable right there. BZA September 25, 2012 Page 8 of 17 Webb Right and that’s why I said because we’re on the corner and we’re by everything else that’s big and coming in off of Main Street that made a difference and I would certainly concur with the staff if it were down two lots down and we’re trying to sandwich us in between two small houses or down on Maple it wouldn’t fit, but it does fit on that corner. Mitchell I generally don’t opine as chair on these types of things, but I will make the comment that I do agree with the petitioner that this is, if you look at the commercial buildings to the west of it a lot of them are 100 percent coverage. Virtually you know they have parking requirements they have to deal with, but when we try to look at what is, you know, a unique situation in which we would allow to exceed our typical comfort level on these types of variances I think this type of thing would fit that criteria in the fact that I think it’s a very aesthetically pleasing home. I think it fits into the aesthetics of the downtown area. It butts up to a lot of commercial and has been kind of a transition keystone type of area and that’s the only thing I would offer. Webb There’s also the 8 or 10-foot alley to the west of that too, so that even makes the property looking bigger when the house is sitting there. Mitchell Is there any further discussions or questions for the petitioner? Schanke Real quick, do you propose any plantings around the perimeter of the property and I say that because there are parking lots around it. Not that, you’d not want them to see the house and the house might not want to see the parking lot. Have you thought about plantings or anything? Webb Yes and the plan is to put a wrought iron fence around the property and probably put some vines up on the fence. Schanke Oh okay. Webb So yes definitely. Schanke Visual as well as security. Mitchell All right hearing no more discussion I would entertain a motion. Morical I move that Docket 2012-DSV design standards variance to exceed the maximum lot coverage in a residential village district for the property located at 55 East Poplar Street as revised per the designs provided tonight to this Board be approved based upon the findings in the staff report as presented or dowe need to revise that? Mitchell Yes, yes. Morical That’s what I get for making this motion. Mitchell That’s okay. A motion has been made. Is there a second? Parks Second. BZA September 25, 2012 Page 9 of 17 Mitchell The motion is properly made and seconded. Is there any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none all those in favor signify by saying, aye? All Aye. Mitchell Opposed nay? Wopshall Nay. Mitchell Let the record show that there’s four yes and one against. Thank you sir. Webb Thank you for your time. Mitchell Motion carries. Next upon the docket is 2012-13-SE under the name of F. Schalk at 10755 East 100 North, a petition to allow a special exception to allow for a new residential build in AG agricultural district. Petitioner please come forward. Andreoli Thank you, Mr. President. For the record my name is Mike Andreoli, 1393 West Oak Street and I represent the petitioner, Farley Chalke, along with his wife seeking a special exception to put one single-family home on 78 plus acres out in the Union Township area adjacent to county road 1100 E. and 100 North. I think Mr. Parks and Mr. Schalk can talk to the need of why the county years ago developed this ordinance with regard to requiring special exception because of the strip lot that was occurring and to make sure that each of these particular building plans receives appropriate scrutiny before these lots might be subdivided, surveyed off and sold to individuals. Hence, years ago the county adopted a procedure where in the agricultural district you have to seek a special exception for a single-family residence. As we indicated this property is along County Road 100 North and 1100 East. I had Carol pass out, hopefully she did, a sheet so that you or I know Mr. Parks is, this ground formerly was the Best ground and it was sold in a number of parcels by auction, 12 separate auctions at one setting maybe a year and a half ago or thereabouts. The reason I gave that to you is you may be faced with additional special exception requests on these lots in the future as these have now sold off from a common owner and now individuals own that. I have highlighted in yellow this particular acreage out of those parcels that were auctioned. Prior to coming in front of you tonight we did several things in order to make sure you were comfortable with a special exception, which I think is required on these particular types of requests. One, Mr. Schalk at my urging went out and did soil borings and had submitted to the county surveyor such plans as well as to the health department for septics and again one of the primary reasons why these things are scrutinized is people are selling off lots, one-acre, two-acre lots where one acres were permitted in areas that simply were not appropriate developable lots. They were in drainage areas. They had no outlets and septics would not function, but yet these were being surveyed off and sold and then people would come in and trying to get building permits for them and it was clear that they weren’t suitable buildable lots, so hence the need for special exception. You do all of this ahead of time and we did this. We submitted it and staff has a copy of the septic permit that was issued by the Boone County Health Department and he has that in hand and had that prior to his staff report, which was a favorable staff report. So that you know, that 346 BZA September 25, 2012 Page 10 of 17 feet to the building area of the house from our west property line 519 from our north property line and respectively 660 from the corner here, 956 and of course 1400 feet from this particular area, so while not in the center it’s well off the property line. It’s not close to any of the other properties and this will be near the house as well as a designated septic system that has been approved and so those existing structures on there those are outlots. There’s a barn. None of them are subject to occupancy nor can they be subject to occupancy unless we receive the appropriate waivers from this Board and we’re not seeking that because we have no plans to occupy those buildings. They’re not served by sewer or well or anything of that nature, a septic or well. In essence we already have an existing drive. That drive will be utilized to go ahead and serve the property. It’s a gravel drive. I don’t think Mr. Schalk has any plans to pave it in an immediate time frame and Mr. and Mrs. Schalk currently live in Westfield. With approval they’re going to put their house up for sale and would love to be Boone County residents at this particular location. I’d be happy to answer any questions that you may have and before I do that not knowing whether you had any interest, but this is the, essentially the house that, the house plans that have been submitted that will be built on that particular site. All of this again has been presubmitted for approval for the Boone County Health Department because they needed to know the number of bedrooms, size of the house in order for the septic to be appropriately sized which it was, so I’d be happy to answer any questions that you may have or others members of the general public. Schanke I have one, two, #1 it’s not Union Township anymore it’s rural Zionsville, sorry. Andreoli You know I was, Mr. Schalk was asking me about that and I of all people ought to know it’s Zionsville and I told him that’s what it was, but when you’re out in the rural area it’s still Union Township. Schanke No more Union Township. And secondly on your other exhibit there it looks like lot #5 may be landlocked and that green road you show – Andreoli I don’t have a copy of one. I gave you all my copies. Schanke Well I saw some place it looked like it actually goes down to some structures that may be on lot #5. Is there a risk that that would be a driveway to the other one? It doesn’t really affect-- Andreoli Well in this particular auction lot #5 it looks like it goes down to a county road. Schanke Well I can’t tell if that’s a county road or not. Andreoli It is. Schanke It is, okay. Andreoli Yes. Mitchell It’s called Big Springs Road. Andreoli Yes. BZA September 25, 2012 Page 11 of 17 Schanke No, Big, oh I see you can come in from Big Springs, never mind, never mind. No I, I don’t have to recuse myself, but I live quite close to there too. Andreoli Well it’s not the most artful of maps, but again it was utilized for that auction and I thought it might prove helpful to keep in your files for future requests that might be made. Schanke Yeah, the road as shown is actually going onto those other structures, but not that was my only question. Mitchell And just for the record the petitioner did provide a single page that looks like a plat map that includes a total of 12-13 parcels with their appropriate acreages. It looks like it was provided by the or developed by the Schrader Real Estate and Auction Company and Mr. Andreoli was referring to this as the former Best that has been sold into parcels and this is highlighted as parcel #4 within that documentation, so are there any further questions for the petitioner? Wopshall Yes I’d like a clarification. That private road definitely runs through the property? Andreoli I’m sorry. Wopshall The private road that runs through the property so there’s no question about ownership and right-of-way. Andreoli This particular road? Wopshall Yes. Andreoli No, they own this entire 78 acres, so that, the green line that I have there is the lane that was utilized to access the existing structures. That will be utilized to access the house when built and there will be no new cuts off of County Road 100 North because that has already been given permission years ago to utilize that cut. Wopshall Okay, thank you. Mitchell I do have a question. You had indicated they had submitted soil borings and everything. Andreoli Yes. Mitchell Has everything been approved to install a septic system? Andreoli Yes, preparatory to getting any kind of septic permit now and I think it’s a good idea, they require soil borings. In addition, we took an additional step we delivered the plans to the surveyor’s office. As you can see by looking at this see there is a low area at elevation 910. This is going to be up at 920. There’s not going to be any issues with regard to whether this is going to be located appropriately in a flood area, but we had the surveyor look at it and then the BZA September 25, 2012 Page 12 of 17 Health Department as is their custom will go up and talk to the surveyor and make sure they don’t have any issues with it as well and there weren’t any, so that permits have been issued. Mitchell Great, thank you. Are there any petitioners here, I mean remonstrators? Yes sir, please come forward. Kouns My name is Paul Eugene Kouns and I have a farm at 759 North 1100 East and we’re a CFO and have been for 40 years and I’m here not to complain, but just as a courtesy because there was a house on this farm up until three or four years ago, so I just want to make sure that they understand that it is a farm and there is noise and dust and odor with the farm and a lot of people that move out there don’t understand that and then we hear about it later, so that’s all I have to say thank you. Mitchell Are there any questions for that remonstrator, the gentleman? Schanke I might add there is an airport also. Mitchell Yes sir, your – Kouns And there’s jets there too. Schanke Yes, there are. Mitchell You’re well represented on our Board by – all right thank you. We’ll listen to staff report. DeLong Thank you. Staff hes recommended approval with a special exception to provide for the new residence out on 100 North and Rural Zionsville. Again, there has been no changes to the petition beyond the petitioner providing appropriate copies of the permits from Boone County. Again, staff is recommending approval of the petition subject to the staff report and I would be happy to answer any questions. Mitchell Are there any questions for staff? Hearing none and no other comments I’d entertain a motion. Parks I’d move that the Docket 2012-13-SE for a special exception petition in the agricultural district for the property located at 10755 East 100 North be approved based upon the findings in the staff report and with the condition that there be a right to farm section added to our findings that the owner recognizes that the neighbors do have the right to farm. This be approved as amended. Mitchell Thank you. The motion has been made and seconded, is there a second? Schanke I’ll second it. Mitchell Motion has been made and seconded. Is there any further discussion? BZA September 25, 2012 Page 13 of 17 Schanke Yeah, I wonder this is, I live at 115, I live very, very close to this. I wonder if it’s also subject to the noise statement that we put in things that are near the airport. I know I had to sign that when I got my, I don’t know. There’s one right to farm, but I farm so, but there’s also one about acknowledging the airport is there and you will not. Andreoli Well we’re not within the airport district so we wouldn’t – Schanke No, you’re not in the district – Andreoli We’re not in that area so obviously we’d – Schanke Within a mile though – Andreoli Well we checked all of that out. Essentially what happened was the Eventide folks, which is the Schrader Auction folks asked me to give them opinions in terms of what it was going to take to put homes on these particular tracts and I did give them the opinion based upon what they were going to need to do and that is, of course, come before the Board in order to get that done. I have no problem with the right to farm as Mr. Parks knows and I know that’s not uncustomary at all on these type of AG acreage. I have the language in the processor and we’ll do a right-to-farm covenant, which we will submit, to Wayne and to Carol for review. It’s a one-paragraph document showing that we recognize there’s a right to farm on that ground and surrounding acreage and we don’t have a problem with that. Mitchell All right, just so that we’re clear the motion has been for approval with the addition of a right to farm document be submitted to staff under their approval. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor of the motion signify by saying, aye. All Aye. Mitchell Opposed, nay. Motion carries. Thank you. Next item on the Agenda is 2012- 14-UV under the name Ike and Fritz Ventures LLC, a property located at 10656 Andrade Drive, petition for a variance of use in order to allow a wine café restaurant and sales business to operate in an I-2 industrial zoning district. Morical Mr. Chairman, before we go on to this particular discussion with the petitioner I feel I should recuse myself because I own a parcel very close to this in Andrade Park. Mitchell All right, thank you. Price Thank you, Mr. President, members of the Board. My name is Matt Price with an address of 485 West Sycamore Street and with me tonight is the owner of the business that if it’s approved tonight will operate as The Backroom. I do have some handouts, which I’d like to give you all just to orient you towards the property and then explain a little bit of the proposal. BZA September 25, 2012 Page 14 of 17 Mitchell Mr. Andreoli could you, yeah thank you. Counsel for petitioner is handing out a document that’s labeled Town of Zionsville, Board of Zoning Appeals, September 25, 2012, under the 2012-14-UV, table of contents and aerial photographs, site exhibits, plan of operation, Tab 4 is a photo of the front building and Tab 5 is a photo of the back of the building, please. Price Thank you Mr. President. First let me just orient you a little bit about the property. It’s in what we call in Zionsville the Andrade Industrial Park which is in kind of the far southeast portion of the Town and behind Tab 1 we’ve drawn a black circle around the proposed location. It’s north of and surrounded by other I-2 type business uses. Behind Tab 2 is kind of a closer picture of the location where the end piece in this flex space. It’s an 1,800 square foot facility. It has access out of Andrade Drive and comes equipped with parking, both in front and rear then as well as a loading area in the back. With regard to our plan of operation this is a bit of a hybrid type use. My client is seeking to obtain approval for a unique offering where she’s going to combine both wine storage, distribution, and sales from this location where the business would be very much in keeping with the type uses that you see for flex space in the area meaning that she’ll have some limited office space there for her operations alone. She’ll have some space for storing wine and then a location in the rear, a location in the rear where customers can come and pickup orders, but she’ll also have a wine tasting and educational experience for wine connoisseurs and those seeking to become wine connoisseurs where she is going to have some limited food offerings during her business operations as well as from time to time catered food brought in by other area restaurants to serve to her customer base. Schanke Quick question. Price Yeah. Schanke Will this be storage of her wine or say I’m a wine connoisseurs and my wine celler is full. Price That’s a good question. Schanke Full. Is this where people can come and like rent a wine storage locker for themselves or will it be just hers that she’s selling? Mitchell I think they probably have room for your boxes of wine. Schanke Okay, yeah. Price Well, it’s an excellent question. At least for right now the concept is it would be wine that she has available for sale. Not to say that if there wasn’t a demand and it was permissible under other laws that she couldn’t possibly have storage for folks who have overflow, but that’s not the current plan. The current plan really is being, drives the need for this space because she’s really looking for the flexible kind of offering where she can have ample space for the storage, a convenient pickup location, but also have the available space for her office operations and for the tasting room and so this property kind of creates a unique mix and allows this hybrid type of function at this location and we’ve included BZA September 25, 2012 Page 15 of 17 behind Tab #4 pictures of both the front building and behind Tab #5 it gives a shot of the back of the building where a customer could come and pick up their order. Some of her sales will occur right there at the facility. Other sales will be accomplished through internet marketing, which is becoming increasingly common in the wine industry today. And also we will say that part of the attractiveness of this is that it is a fairly nondescript location. Her idea is not to do a lot of aggressive advertising, but rather to market herself via the Internet and word of mouth really to those with a special interest in wine tasting and expertise and so that’s how she seeks to build her business in this location. We did include a plan of operation which we submitted to Wayne in order to provide some very specific details about our hours of operation, some special events that will be held at the location from time to time and proposal is made subject to the limitations contained in that plan of operation, so that it’s appropriate to this location. With that I could answer any questions that you may have about the proposal and Colleen Fanning, the owner and operator of the business, is here as well and she may be able to provide additional detail and we would respectively request approval and incorporation of all the findings of fact. Thank you. Mitchell All right. I have a question. I’m not sure if it’s appropriate for the petitioner’s counsel or for staff. If we accept these conditions as part of the approval of this, I would sincerely hope that this becomes gloriously fabulously successfully and suddenly she needs to come back and operate more days of the week. Do you need to obtain an additional variance beyond that? DeLong Yeah, it has this petition, so it’s subject to the plan of operation that’s on file, so the modification to your variance of use would require the petitioner to come back. Mitchell Okay thank you for that clarification. Is there questions for the petitioner? Schanke Same question again so if she wanted to operate on Mondays, Wednesdays or Saturdays she’d have to reapply and secondly I assume that any necessary permits or, that’s not us that’s you, but there’s gonna be a hurdle or two to jump through as well I’m sure. Price We do. We have a couple more hurdles like that and that is pending. Schanke Yeah, I like the hours being a little off from the standard work hours. I’m not sure what the inhabitants of the other buildings are, but that is kind of the loading dock for them too and if you had customers coming back to get their wine and trucks, but, but you’re after hours pretty much. Price Pretty much. Mitchell Are there any remonstrators here tonight? All right. None have come forward. Staff report please. DeLong Thank you. Staff is recommending approval of the variance use, subject to the plan of operation and the floor plan that’s submitted. This is supootable based upon the additional information and the petitioner’s packet has been very helpful. Staff has spent quite a bit of time reviewing this petition and has met with the BZA September 25, 2012 Page 16 of 17 petitioner and the applicant and been out, certainly we’ve been to all the sites of all these projects, but certainly this particular one we’ve been inside the building looking around, planning for the building permit application. Staff finds that this use is supportable based upon the plan of operation with the recommendation that some identified plan of operation provides that comfort if you will and any changes to that will require this matter to be revisited. Again staff is recommending approval and I’d be happy to answer any questions. Mitchell Are there any questions for staff? Hearing none. My only comment would be for the petitioner there in the plan of operation is to have an open house for employees of the business park from 4:30 to 6:30 and to participate from 10 to 15 people during this time, you do know there’s going to be a FedEx hub put in down there with over 300 people at that site you might want to rethink that at some point. Of course we probably don’t want the FedEx drivers drinking alone. Anyway, I digress, I digress. If there’s no further discussion I would entertain a motion. Schanke I will move that Docket #2012-, have I got the right one, 14, this is SE, I thought it was a UV, UV, yeah it says SE, I’m sorry. Restart, I make a motion that Docket #2012-14-UV use variance to allow for a wine café and sales operation in the I-2 industrial district for the property located at 10656 Andrade Drive be approved as presented and described in the plan of operation and conceptual floor plan and additional packets handed out at this meeting. Mitchell A motion has been made. Is there a second? Wopshall I would like to second that, but amend it to allow operation of the other three weekdays, except Sunday, for the same hours, so six days a week, the same hours. Mitchell Will the maker of the motion accept the friendly amendment? Schanke Yes I do. Mitchell And since the seconder of the motion made the friendly amendment then it carries. Is there any further discussion on the motion? Schanke Just to be clear the motion now states that we are approving the same hours, but – Mitchell I’ll restate the motion. The motion has been made that Docket 12-14-UV use variance to allow wine and café sales operation of the I-2 district at the property of 10656 Andrade Drive be approved as presented and as described in the plan of operation and conceptual floor plan amended to allow operation of the backroom as opened for business on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 12:00 to 8 p.m. All other items being the same including the items included in the packet provided by the counsel for the presenter or petitioner at the hearing. That is the motion. It has been made and seconded. Is there any clarification of the motion? Hearing none, all those in favor of the motion signify by saying, aye. All Aye. BZA September 25, 2012 Page 17 of 17 Mitchell Opposed, nay. Motion carries. Thank you. Price Thank you Mr. President. Thank you. Mitchell There are no other items of new business on the docket. We have one other item of finding of fact per the Patrick Henry Sullivan Foundation. Drake Yes, Mr. Chairman. As you recall last month you voted to deny that petition and these findings of fact have been prepared consistent with your discussions at that meeting. Schanke We had said we would modify them to indicate that it did not meet the – Mitchell All right that, the findings of fact are making its way down for signature. Is there any discussion on those finding of facts or needed? Drake I would recommend you take a vote on the written findings of fact. Mitchell All right thank you. We’re going to take a brief pause to allow the members to read it quickly if so desired. Parks Are we going to be signing the findings of fact from tonight’s action tonight or are we going to do that in our next meeting? DeLong Yeah, let’s just wait since there’s been so many petitions this evening. We’ll get everything organized and bring it to you. Mitchell All right is there any questions for the findings of fact on the Patrick Henry Sullivan Foundation document that was presented tonight? Hearing none, I would entertain a motion to accept the findings of fact. Schanke I’ll make a motion that we accept the finding of fact as presented supporting our denial of the petition #2012-09-DSV. Mitchell All right. Is there a second? Morical Second. Mitchell All those in favor signify by saying, aye. All Aye. Mitchell Opposed, nay. Motion carries. No further matters to come from the Board tonight. I call it adjourned.