Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA)

Town of Zionsville Board of Zoning Appeals January 14, 2014 Pledge of Allegiance was said and attendance was taken by the Secretary. Present: Greg Morical, Al Wopshall, Jay Parks, John Wolff, and Brian Traylor. Staff attending: Wayne DeLong, Carol Sparks Drake, attorney. A quorum is present. Morical Welcome to the January 14, 2014 Zionsville Board of Zoning Appeals meeting. The first item on our Agenda is to say the Pledge of Allegiance. All Pledge. Morical The next item on our Agenda is attendance. DeLong Mr. Morical? Morical Present. DeLong Mr. Wopshall? Wopshall Present. DeLong Mr. Parks? Parks Present. DeLong Mr. Wolff? Wolff Present. DeLong Mr. Traylor? Traylor Present. Morical The next item on the Agenda is the election of the 2014 Officers. Do I have any motions? Wopshall I make a motion that we appoint Greg Morical for the position as President. Parks Second. Drake That would be Chairman. Morical For the Chairman. Wopshall Chairman, thank you. Zionsville Board of Zoning Appeals January 14, 2014 Morical Any discussion? Could we have a vote? All those in favor, aye. All Aye. Morical Nay. So none opposed. That was not me. Okay and then the next position we need to fill is for Vice Chairman. Parks And I would nominate Al Wopshall for that position. Morical Second. Morical Any discussion? All those in favor say, aye. All Aye. Morical Any opposed? Okay, motion passed. Next item on our Agenda is the approval of the December 10, 2013 meeting minutes. Drake Mr. Chair may I recommend that you reappoint your Secretary on the record for this year please. Morical And remind me Ms. Sparks – Drake Mr. DeLong serves in that capacity – Morical Okay, of course. Drake Serves in that capacity for you. It’s actually appointed. Morical Perfect. Parks I will so move. Morical Second. All those in favor? All Aye. Morical Opposed nay. Okay, motion carries. Thank you. Next item on our Agenda is the approval of the December 10, 2013 meeting minutes. Does anybody have any comments? Parks I move their adoption as presented. Morical Do we have a second? Wopshall I’ll second. Morical Any discussion? All those in favor say, aye. Page 2 of 8 Zionsville Board of Zoning Appeals January 14, 2014 All Aye. Morical Any opposed? Motion carries. Parks It should be noted we have two abstensions for the ones that were not there in the December meeting. Morical Thank you. Okay the next item on our Agenda is continuation requests. Ms. Sparks is it appropriate to address the Pulte Project at this time? Drake Yes. Jacob Good evening. My name is Jeff Jacob an attorney here in town with Jacob Hammerley and Johnson. I’m here with David Compton from Pulte Homes. We are in fact as the letter may, you may have in front of you requesting continuance of this evening’s matter. We are simply not prepared to move forward this evening. We are continuing dialogue with surrounding property owners and trying to work through some, I don’t want to say redesign, but some changes to our plan and we think it’s premature to put that in front of you. We’re not in a position. We’ve got, in front of this body or in front of the Plan Commission where we’ve got applications pending to rush through this process. Unfortunately, that necessitates us showing up here and requesting a continuance, especially when we’re hearing some of the, we think some of the issues with surrounding property owners are addressable. Morical Are you requesting continuance to the February meeting or to some future date? Jacob February. Yes please, February. Compton David Compton, Vice President, Land Acquisition for Pulte. We’ll certainly keep the neighbors and yourselves, but it could be March, and we’ll know that probably within two weeks if it’ll be March. TAC was canceled. We have not got comments back from TAC from last week. We’re also looking at a substantial modification to one of the corners design wise, so it could be March and we’ll certainly keep Mr. Thomas and Mr. Schiferl, and the other neighbors that were kind enough to come out today, we’ll know that very soon. Jacob If I may also – Park Should we just go ahead and make the continuance to March and that way we won’t have people moving back and forth. Jacob That makes some sense Mr. Chairman. And I would also offer since we’d have a little bit of delay, I think you may hear from some of the adjoiners. We would, their suggestion was we perhaps re-notice it. My preference would not be from an expense standpoint to send out a certified letter, but we’d be happy to, especially if we have a redesign where we added anything. That’s a totally different issue, but we’d be happy to send out another letter advising property owners that we would be moved to the March meeting. Page 3 of 8 Zionsville Board of Zoning Appeals January 14, 2014 Morical Any – okay. Schiferl Mr. Chairman and Members, Kevin Schiferl, 8552 East 550 South. I did discuss that with Jeff beforehand and your rules obviously call for a re-notice. We understand the expense and we’re not calling for them to go to the expense of that, but as long as it’s any continuances along with a commitment that they get notice to us, you know, 10 days before the hearing of what it is that’s proposed, which I think is going to be workable, we have no problem with that. And that does not have to be certified if they could just do it by regular mail. Jacob Absolutely, just one clarification I think the rules allow for, if the body so chooses to request re-notice. It doesn’t necessarily mandate it. We’re offering that. We just, my paralegal would certainly be happy not to be fooling with green cards any longer, so if that’s workable for this body we certainly would like that request. Morical Thank you, any questions? Okay, thank you. Anybody else in the audience care to comment? Would you mind? We record all these and -- Jacob The request was for – Schiferl I’m Carolyn Schiferl, 8552 East 550 South. I request you to tell us the actual date. I don’t have the Agenda for the March meeting. Drake March 11. Schiferl March 11 at 6:30. Drake At 6:30. Morical I note in our rules that we do have the ability to request re-notification, but it doesn’t specifically note whether or not it needs to be by certified mail. Drake That’s correct. Morical Thank you very much. Any discussion? Drake But if you do not require it by certified, then I recommend in your motion if you grant this you state the actual date that this is being continued to. Morical Correct. Parks I would move that we grant the request for continuance by 2013-30-DSV to the March 11 meeting with proviso that the petitioner will notify by regular mail all of the neighbors of the date of that meeting. Jacob Thank you very much. Wopshall Prior to 10 days, prior to that meeting. Page 4 of 8 Zionsville Board of Zoning Appeals January 14, 2014 Jacob On or before March 1. Morical Do we have a second. Wopshall I’ll second the motion. Morical Any discussion? All those in favor say, aye. All Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. Jacob Thank you for your time. Morical Thank you. The next item on our Agenda is 2013-29-DSV, J. Gaiken, 8350 East 250 South, Whitestown 46075. Meyer Hi, I’m Whitney Meyer and we just bought this land and we are just petitioning to tear down the existing house and leave our current barn, garage, whatever you want to call it, because there’s a guy living up there that’s kind of watching over the place and we just want to take the original house down because it’s really dilapidated and originally the whole reason this came up was because we want to move the heating tank, or not the heating tank, but there’s a storage tank the well pumps up the water into and it’s currently in the house and we don’t want to pay to heat the house because there’s actually like holes in the walls and it’s just really, it’ll be very inefficient to heat that house to keep water going to the barn, so we want to drill a new well and to do all of this we have to get all the permits and so this is the process that we’re going through. Morical As part of doing the work and putting in the new house would you be willing to agree that the existing garage that your renter’s in on a full-time basis after that new structure is built would no longer be used as a full-time residence? Meyer Right, it’s going to be my workshop/studio for, I restore furniture and I build things, so. Morical And we noticed that in your application. Meyer Yeah. Morical We appreciate that. I was just wondering whether you’d be willing to essentially agree to that. Meyer Yeah. Morical Okay, thank you. Meyer Yeah. He’s got a lot of stuff that needs to be gone because I have a lot of stuff too, so yes that was the whole reason for buying it was because I really like that barn and so I want to keep it and I’m going to use it. Page 5 of 8 Zionsville Board of Zoning Appeals January 14, 2014 Morical Any other questions for the petitioner? And you sent notices to all the surrounding property owners. Meyer Yep. They should have copies of all the certified mail stuff that we did. Morical Okay. Thank you very much. Meyer Okay, thanks. Morical Are there any remonstrators here tonight? Okay thank you. Staff Report. DeLong Certainly. Staff comes before you this evening recommending approval of the petition as filed. The petitioner indicated they would be working towards abandoning the living unit and that sounds like that’s been memorialized this evening. Again, Staff is recommending approval. We do outline a number of items in this petition, but given this petitioner’s favorable support the Staff is recommending two commitments as outlined in the Staff Report which does mention the construction of the new home being finished, reaching substantial completion, by January 14, 2017. Staff will rest and wait for any further questions. Morical So Mr. DeLong one quick question, and we could ask you to come back up if we need, did she confirm, did the petitioner confirm that she’s okay with these conditions? DeLong Yes. Morical Okay, thank you. Any further questions for Staff? Then I would entertain a motion. Parks Then I would move that Docket 2013-29-DSV Design Standards Variance to provide for the use of a 1.5 story detached garage with 720 square feet of living space within the half-story all as the primary structure temporarily on the property (minimum of 900 square feet) of living space on the ground floor area required be approved based upon the findings in the Staff Report as presented. By approving this we require the following commitments be applied and must be reduced to writing in Town forms within 60 days of the grant of the variance today or the variance approval will be rescinded. 1.) A single-family dwelling complying with minimum Town Zoning Ordinance requirements must be constructed on the property with a substantial completion of the improvements being made by January 14, 2017. 2.) In the event the new single family dwelling is not substantially completed by that date, January 14, 2017, the property owner must by March 1, 2017 either obtain a remodeling permit to convert the existing garage into a single family dwelling which complies with the Zoning Ordinance of the Town of Zionsville or commence with demolition of the existing garage and all accessory use structures in an effort to bring the property into compliance with the terms of the Zoning Ordinance and the commitments set forth by the Board of Zoning Appeals. Page 6 of 8 Zionsville Board of Zoning Appeals January 14, 2014 Morical May I suggest an amendment to the motion? Parks Let’s get a second first. Morical Okay. Do I have a second? Wopshall Do you want to make your amendment first? Parks Let’s get a second on the motion and then we can amend. Wopshall Okay, I will second. Morical Okay and then discussion. I would suggest that we add one additional commitment to the two that you identified which is a commitment that use of the accessory structure which is the garage, will cease as a permanent residence by March 1, 2017. Parks I would accept that as a friendly amendment. Wopshall And I will second that. Morical Any discussion? All those in favor please say, aye. All Aye. Morical Any opposed? Motion passes. Thank you very much. The next item on our Agenda is the consideration of the 2014 legal services provider contract proposed by Carol Sparks Drake, our attorney. For the record everyone has in front of them and it was provided as a part of their packet her proposed engagement letter for 2014. Are there any questions or comments on the engagement letter? Parks I just note that if there are any litigation items that come up that is outside of the scope of the letter agreement. Drake That’s correct. Morical It’s outside the scope of the flat fee arrangement. Parks Right. Morical And we would engage her for that as appropriate on an hourly basis. Drake With the objective being to not have litigation arise. Morical I second that. Any further questions or comments? Parks I move adoption of the letter agreement with our legal services representative and the continuation of good work of Carol Sparks Drake in supporting this commission. Page 7 of 8 Zionsville Board of Zoning Appeals January 14, 2014 Morical Do I have a second? Wopshall I’ll second. Morical All those in favor please say, aye. All Aye. Morical Any opposed? Motion passes. Drake Thank you very much. I appreciate the opportunity to represent you and you’re a great group to work with. Morical Well we’ve enjoyed working with you Mrs. Sparks and you’ve done a great job, so thank you for continuing your service. Are there any other items of business before the BZA? Okay, thank you. Then we are adjourned. Page 8 of 8