Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA)

Town of Zionsville Board of Zoning Appeals May 14, 2013 Pledge of Allegiance was said and attendance was taken by the Secretary. Present: Larry Mitchell, Greg Morical, Steve Schanke, Al Wopshall, Jay Parks. Staff attending: Wayne DeLong, Carol Sparks Drake, attorney. A quorum is present. Mitchell Good evening. I’d like to call the Board of Zoning Appeals meeting to order. First item on the Agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance. All Pledge. Mitchell The next item on the Agenda is the roll call. DeLong Mr. Mitchell? Mitchell Present. DeLong Mr. Morical? Morical Present. DeLong Mr. Schanke? Schanke Present. DeLong Mr. Wopshall? Wopshall Present. DeLong Mr. Parks? Parks Present. Mitchell Thank you. Let the record reflect we have all members in attendance. The next item on the Agenda is the approval of the April 9, 2013 meeting minutes. Are there any changes? Schanke Once again, I thoroughly reviewed it and it looks fine. Mitchell If there are no changes I will entertain a motion to approve. Wopshall I make the motion. Morical Second. Zionsville Board of Zoning Appeals May 14, 2013 Mitchell A motion has been made and seconded. Any further discussion? Hearing none all those in favor of the motion signify by saying, aye. All Aye. Mitchell Opposed nay, motion carries. Next on the Agenda is new business. First item on the docket is 2013-06-DSV under the name P. O’Connor is the property at 360 West Linden Street. I’m not going to read off the items to be considered. There are Agendas in the back for anybody. Of notice as to how this works is when you please come we’ll have the petitioner come up and present their case. When you do so please state your name and your address and speak clearly into the microphone. We are recording. Any remonstrators will have 15 minutes to present their case. The petitioner will have 5 minutes to rebut and then finally the remonstrator will have 5 minutes to rebut as the final presentation. Sir? O’Connor My name is Patrick O’Connor. My address is 3421 Eden Way Place, Carmel, IN 46033. We are asking for a variance for a 30-inch deck extension on a side screened-in porch. I’m the general contractor for the homeowners. We’re in the midst of remodeling the house right now and they’re going to be moving in, in the very near future. The current use is an enclosed screened porch and they would like to remove the screening and extend the floor surface of the deck by 30 inches, essentially a balcony and, as I understand it, the concern of the Town of Zionsville would be the fact that there is a lot coverage issue with the existing house in terms of percentage of lot coverage and the 30-inch deck extension would extend out to the east property line. My clients, Michael and Diana Powell, have talked to the neighbors on both sides, in particular Michael Turley, the property owner on the east side and he has no problem whatsoever with the proposed deck extension. As a matter of fact, he is pleased that they even approached him because he had issues with the previous two homeowners that did things without his consultation and he even said if you want to cut the trees down on my property to enable this to happen you have my permission and he did send me a brief email acknowledging his conversation with the Powells, so I have copies of that if anyone on the Board would like a copy. Mitchell That e-mail wasn’t part of your package? O’Connor It wasn’t. Janice just said to bring it with me. I’ve got copies for everybody. Mitchell If you do, please. O’Connor Oh sure, no problem. Mitchell And this is the person that’s immediately next to – O’Connor His property would be facing the proposed deck extension. Mitchell Thank you. O’Connor And again you have pictures of the existing screened porch. Page 2 of 6 Zionsville Board of Zoning Appeals May 14, 2013 Schanke This photograph that you delivered to us shows the screened-in portion of the porch that will be removed? O’Connor Just the screening would be, yes. Schanke Yes, and then it will kind of cantilever out to the – O’Connor That’s correct. Schanke To the actual property line. O’Connor That’s correct. Schanke Will there be – I’m sorry finish your – O’Connor No, that’s correct and there would be a guardrail around the deck because it’s not that high off of the ground, but what their intended use for this is essentially a grill deck because they don’t have, with this being on an alley on the back there’s no place to grill in the back. They don’t want to grill on the front porch. They don’t want to grill in the screened porch because of smoke issues and if we had the deck extension then whatever smoke came from the grill would be allowed to dissipate in the air that way. Mitchell Thank you. Are there any other questions for the petitioner? Parks I’m going to defer my question until after the Staff Report. Schanke I was wondering if there were going to be any steps down. I believe you said it was just a railing around – O’Connor No steps down whatsoever. It’s just basically a balcony extension if you will. Mitchell Okay, thank you sir. We may ask further questions as this carries on, but thank you. Are there any remonstrators here tonight? Schanke Are there any procrastinators here tonight? Since we’ve had high school students all year. Mitchell Welcome. Staff Report please. DeLong Thank you. Staff is supportive of the petition as filed. We do note this is a request for a lot coverage deviation as well as a setback deviation. This petition is atypical. Certainly bring review of the petition that’s seeking a 42 percent lot coverage request when that comes to you. We certainly would review that with heavy scrutiny. What’s interesting to note is the lot is currently covered with 41.33 percent of structure. What is requested this evening is an increase to 41.78 percent. It’s just a very minor deviation request. We really would turn to the adjoiner to see what their concerns are and with their support based on this e-mail that’s certainly something that comes into play in our minds. With the variance itself a maintenance easement or how this extension would be maintained comes Page 3 of 6 Zionsville Board of Zoning Appeals May 14, 2013 into mind and certainly we would encourage some sort of maintenance easement around the deck 3 feet, 5 feet, something just to allow maintenance if it’s necessary. Another plus with the extension and it’s mentioned in the Staff Report, it’s not on footings. This is cantilever. Again, we would look at this with even higher scrutiny if this was an addition that had a footing underneath it, but given the characteristics as described by the petitioner and we articulate in the Staff Report, Staff is supportive of this request and has prepared findings to that effect and I would be happy to answer any questions. Schanke Can you confirm on the record that this note from Mr. Turley, he is the owner of 320 Second Street? The one that’s referenced in the staff recommendations. It’s the same neighbor? Because otherwise I was gonna ask that a letter be attached to the documentation before any permits were issued. DeLong Yes, I mean certainly we could go back to the GIS system and double check that information, but counsel is providing us the list of adjoiners and it’s in our packets and it is the name. Schanke Okay that’s fine. And I thought I read in there, but I can’t seem to find it now, but there was something going on with the front porch as well? No? Mitchell The petitioner stated that there was not, just for the record. Are there further questions for staff? Parks Yeah, the maintenance easement itself would be a document that would satisfy both of the concerns that we had. One is to get access to this thing that sticks out to the edge of the lot line and also then would confirm that the owner of the property to the east would, in fact, be supportive of it because it’ll allow access to that. Has that easement been drafted yet to your knowledge? DeLong We have not seen that easement. As a condition of the approval this evening certainly if that’s not something that can be drafted and brought to us I wouldn’t see this approval living on, if you will. Parks Okay, but we could set it up as a condition for approval and that’s the way the – O’Connor To address your question, Mr. Turley in fact told the Powells or recommended to the Powells that that very point be taken care of, so it was his suggestion that an easement be recorded, so if he sold his property and the Powells sold their property that that easement would be in place in perpetuity, so he’s perfectly fine with an easement to be recorded. Mitchell And your clients are also okay with having – O’Connor Absolutely, yeah and we’ll do whatever it takes to get that filed and recorded with your guidance. Mitchell Are there any further questions for staff? Schanke You’re not going to need a very big lawn mower. Page 4 of 6 Zionsville Board of Zoning Appeals May 14, 2013 Mitchell All right, I would entertain a motion. Parks I would move that Docket #2013-06-DSV a Design Standards Variance to exceed the maximum lot coverage by 7 percent permit a 0 foot side yard setback and permit an aggregate side yard setback of 10 feet in the Residential Village District for the property located at 360 Linden Street be approved based upon the findings attached to the Staff Report as presented with the condition that a maintenance easement or agreement be established in favor of 360 West Linden Street, recorded in the office of the Boone County Recorder and a copy bearing the recording information be provided to the Zionsville Planning Department prior to commencement of deck construction or alternatively prior to issuance of a permit to commence that construction. Mitchell A motion has been made. Is there a second? Morical Second. Mitchell Is there any discussion on the motion? Schanke One quick question, what exactly is an easement in favor of themselves? Parks The easement is in favor of the property owner by the neighbor. I thought that through as I was, I had a question and then I realized that the easement will be actually signed by the neighbor, the neighboring property in favor of this subject property. Schanke Okay, I thought the easement was to allow access, you know, just like we don’t let anybody build within a foot of sidewalks and everything. Parks Right, but the access has to be on the neighbor’s property. Schanke Okay, okay. Parks And so that neighbor has to sign the easement. Mitchell Because they will have to move onto the neighbor’s property. Parks I’m playing lawyer here. Schanke So the easement is for construction. I thought the easement was for future maintenance or whatever might happen. Parks It is. That’s the way the motion is stated. It’s a maintenance easement. Mitchell Is there any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor of the motion signify by saying aye? Group Aye. Page 5 of 6 Zionsville Board of Zoning Appeals May 14, 2013 Mitchell Opposed nay, motion carries. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Other matters to be considered at this time. There are none. You picked a good meeting to come to. O’Connor So to the point of the letter, so should I have an easement drafted and then have it recorded in Boone County and then give you a copy? DeLong Yes. O’Connor Okay, all right. Does it have to be signed by Michael Turley and the property owners both? Drake It would be signed by the Turleys because it’s a burden on their lot. O’Connor Okay, thank you very much. Mitchell All right, this meeting is adjourned. Page 6 of 6