Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA)

MEETING RESULTS- ZIONSVILLE BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS February 14, 2017 The Regular meeting of the Zionsville Board of Zoning Appeals occurred on Tuesday, February 14, 2017 at 6:30 p.m. in the Bev Harves Room at Zionsville Town Hall, 1100 West Oak Street. The following items were discussed: I. Pledge of Allegiance II. Attendance III. Approval of the January 10, 2017 Meeting Minutes IV. Continuance Requests Docket Number Name Address of Project Item to be considered None at this time V. Continued Business Docket Number Name Address of Project Item to be considered None at this time VI. New Business Docket Number Name Address of Project Item to be considered Approved with conditions – 4 in Favor, 0 Opposed Petition for Development Standards variance in order to provide for an addition to a single family home to: 2017-01-DSV T. Wilson 11541 Trail Ridge Place 1) Deviate from the required side yard setback 2) Deviate from the required aggregate side yard setback in the (R-SF-2), Single Family Residential Zoning District. VII. Other Matters to be considered: Docket Number Name Address of Project Item to be considered 2016-22-DSV S. Crenshaw 4560 S. 975 East Status of Commitment (update: recorded & received) 2016-30-UV R. Keeker 8556 E. 300 South Status of Commitment (update: recorded & received) Respectfully Submitted: Wayne DeLong AICP Town of Zionsville Director of Planning and Economic Development February 15, 2017  Town of Zionsville Board of Zoning Appeals February 14, 2017 Present: Chairman, Greg Morical, Larry Jones, John Wolff, and Julia Evinger. Staff attending: Carol Sparks Drake, attorney; Wayne DeLong. A quorum is present. Morical Good evening and welcome to the February 14, 2017 meeting of the Zionsville Board of Zoning Appeals meeting. The first item on our Agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance. All Pledge. Morical The next item on our Agenda is attendance. DeLong Mr. Morical? Morical Present. DeLong Mr. Wopshall? DeLong Mr. Jones? Jones Present. DeLong Mr. Wolff? Wolff Present. DeLong Ms. Evinger? Evinger Present. Morical The next item on our Agenda is the review and approval of the January 10, 2017, meeting minutes that were distributed as part of the Board meeting packet. Are there any questions or comments on the minutes? Hearing none, I would entertain a motion. Evinger I’ll make a motion to approve the minutes as presented. Morical Thank you. Is there a second? Jones Second. Zionsville Board of Zoning Appeals February 14, 2017 Morical All those in favor, please say aye. All Aye. Morical Any opposed? Motion carries. The next item is continuance requests of which we have none, continued business of which we have none, and then new business, which is Docket # 2017-01-DSV, which we do not yet have a petitioner, but we’ve heard from them via email that they’ll be here shortly? DeLong Correct. Via text we do have communication that they are on their way. Morical Carol, is there any other business we could take care of in the interim? Drake I can report that both the Crenshaw and Keeker commitments have been recorded and have provided copies of their signed and recorded commitments to the Planning Department. Morical Thank you, Carol. Morical Okay, so now we are going to be addressing Docket # 2017-01-DSV, T. Wilson, 11541 Trail Ridge Place. Please state your name and address for the record. Rausch Thank you. My name is David Rausch at 70 East Oak Street in Zionsville and I’m here representing Tom and Emily Wilson for the proposed variance of development standards for the setbacks mentioned in the packet. Mr. Wilson will be here momentarily. I gave some bad advice. I was mistaken on the start time, so I do apologize for keeping you all waiting terribly. So, simply put, Mr. and Mrs. Wilson are artistic and craft folks. He’s a woodworker. She’s a wool weaver, and they have a lovely home with shops and so forth in their lower level. They engaged us to look at a possible addition to the home. We looked at an addition out at the rear. It’s a walkout basement into a lovely backyard, which didn’t work very well for a number of reasons, and the proposed addition that we’re looking at on the project right now is actually something that Mr. Wilson had looked at some time ago. As we got into the development of this addition, we realized that the pinch points on the property line, as you can see in the site plan, converge, and initially we didn’t have maybe the concern that maybe we should have. Just thinking about the addition being completely below grade as it is, and I would be happy to explain that if you need. But as we looked at just the geometry of the space and so forth, two things happened. One is that the converging side yards create a pinch point literally at the front building line and would diminish the cumulative side yard setbacks when you measure to our new underground addition and then similarly, excuse me, the setback then that’s left on the north side, which is where our addition is, is also singularly underneath the minimum standard, so with that in your packet are a couple of things. The sort of an image, if you will, of the site plan as the property sits today and as it will sit after this addition is built and the thing to make note of there is, is that the building will not be visible. It is completely below grade. Page 2 of 7 Zionsville Board of Zoning Appeals February 14, 2017 What is currently a motor court will be put back as a motor court and pavement on top of the building. So the only physical evidence, if you will, once the project is done is if you are in sort of the drainage area out to the back or the west of the property you would see a little bit of a walkout basement. So from the streetscape and from the, sort of the aerial view, if you will, the project is really configured very similarly to what the existing disposition of the land is. There are actually retaining walls there that will be replaced by this addition. Secondly, Mr. Wilson has a very friendly relationship with his neighbors and has, to my knowledge, no objection to this and, in fact, already has preliminary approval from the subdivision homeowners association obviously contingent upon this. And then lastly, just a detail, which is not specifically in your packet, the house that’s immediately to the north, if you will, closest to this addition is actually, you know, some 35 or 40 feet away from the property line because their driveway and auto court is actually adjacent to this, so there’s a decent separation between the structures in total. So with that in mind we’ve come asking and seeking a variance to the development standards for the two items mentioned and would be happy to answer any questions and, again, I greatly apologize for being a few minutes tardy. Morical Thank you, Mr. Rausch. What is the planned use of the new space? Rausch Sure. I was going to let Mr. Wilson answer that and again, he will be here shortly. They have two or three different activities if you will that they do. She weaves wool. She takes actually natural sheep’s wool and weaves it. She has a loom and creates tapestries and that sort of thing. He has a woodworking shop that I think I and a number of other folks would aspire to have, and then he does some, like right now he’s building some seats, some auto seats for some MG’s and things like that, so it’s those kinds of tasks if you will that he needs the space for, and as I understand actually does it somewhere on the south side of Indianapolis now. Morical So it’s essentially a workshop space? Rausch Workshop, activity, that kind of, yes I mean depending on the definition of that. Morical Craft area? Rausch Yes. Morical Okay. Not finished bedrooms or – Rausch Real good question. No the, well no it’s, when you walk into this space it will have actually a concrete ceiling, concrete or maybe a VCT floor, very spartan finishes. It’s very much a, yeah a workshop kind of space. It is not finished for living, kitchen, you know the party room or anything like that, no. Morical So it’ll essentially be a walkout into the backyard? Page 3 of 7 Zionsville Board of Zoning Appeals February 14, 2017 Rausch Yes, currently the back, the existing spaces to the south of this actually have walkout patio doors and so forth. There’s a deck above and then a patio below, the ground falls away. Then further to the west there’s actually a drainage area and so forth, so the natural slope of the site actually allows for this, and where our walkout area would be is actually currently a retaining wall, just a temporary retaining wall. Morical Thank you. Any other questions for the petitioner’s representative? Wolff Just out of curiosity, on the enlarged site, well it says the enlarged underground plan. It references a set of staircases, I believe, in the corner of the addition. Are those interior or exterior? Rausch I’m sorry. Which drawing are you looking at? Wolff It says the enlarged underground plan, and it’s really referencing the top left drawing. Rausch Okay. Wolff And I could be, I’m certainly not a trained architect. Rausch So yeah, that corner has actually been chamfered off in order to stay back from the property line. Wolff Actually the opposite corner. It looks like there’s a set of staircases there. Rausch Oh yeah, so that’s an – Wolff So it’s interior to the structure or are those – Rausch They’re both, the stair that is sort of the upper right of that sheet is actually an existing stair if you were to stand in the existing garage. There’s sort of a service stair that walks down to the existing lower level. So that actually is existing today and will remain. The steps that are then to the left of that that are going perpendicular are actually steps that are outside in the landscape. They’re actually on – Wolff Will there be a way to access this from the existing residence or do you have to go through the outside to go in? Rausch Actually, no to both. You’ll be able to walk sort of around this addition and come down and come through the outside doors that you see in this plan, but at the bottom of theses stairs that you’re looking at there is actually an existing door that’s to the lower right in the plan. That door exists and then there will be a new door just off to the left of that, so almost a little vestibule for the stairs, so it will be, yeah, connected to the existing inside. Page 4 of 7 Zionsville Board of Zoning Appeals February 14, 2017 Jones But if we’re looking at this correctly, the little new addition also has an exterior door on it? Rausch Correct. And again that’s on the walkout side. If you were to see that property today, unfortunately I don’t have any pictures. There’s a tent, and Mr. Wilson is here, so if we need to have him amplify anything, but those, where that wall is or those doors are right now is the timber retaining wall that’s probably 8 feet high or so and then the grade gives way to the drainage area. Morical Any other questions for the petitioner’s representative? Thank you very much, Mr. Rausch. Are there any remonstrators here tonight? Seeing none, may we have the Staff Report, please? DeLong Thank you. As summarized in the Staff Report, Staff would not be in support of this petition if this request involved an addition that was above grade; however, since this addition is below grade and given the efforts that are being taken to minimize that encroachment if you will, Staff is in support of the petition as filed and certainly notes the reduced side yard setback both in minimum side yard setback as well as the aggregate are both being requested to be reduced. Again, Staff is recommending approval of the petition as filed, and I would be happy to answer any questions. Morical Thank you, Wayne. Any questions for Staff? Evinger Wayne, a quick question. With this being more of an activity/home business maybe if some of these products are for sale, is there anything else that’s going to be required of them? DeLong In the Town of Zionsville in the urban area if a party is conducting a home-based business we simply ask that the party register it. I’m not aware if this, what’s being the hobby is something that is truly a home-based business. Certainly, we can have that conversation offline. Evinger It’s just, it’s a hobby? Okay, thank you. Morical Thank you. Any other questions for Staff? Wolff Wayne, I haven’t, I don’t recall seeing one of these where we had an underground encroach the side yard. Do you recall any of these in the past? Page 5 of 7 Zionsville Board of Zoning Appeals February 14, 2017 DeLong This is a unique situation. Certainly, the cost and the magnitude of the effort to accomplish this, this effort I would not say it’s typical that you would see this type of request, but given the characteristics and the needs, certainly the petitioner can speak more eloquently than I can, but it drives the request to you this evening. Jones I can sort of speak from experience. I’ve got a three-car garage under my three- car garage and we’ve got a walkout basement and so if you ever go around to the side there’s, technically I could roll a car down the hill and into my basement if I wanted to. Steve Mundy has a garage under his garage and if you’ve ever, so I think his driveway goes up to his house and then it drops off the backside almost and he can, you know I think he’s got a couple of toys he keeps tucked away down there, so it’s you know, I can speak from experience. We built our house on a contractor and developer and, you know that I’d love to have a Quonset hut out in my backyard, but it probably wouldn’t get approved in Austin Oaks, so, you know, we elected to do that, and it’s worked just fine for a way to keep stuff out of sight, out of mind and, you know, nobody knows any difference. Morical Great. Any further questions? Hearing none, I would entertain a motion. Jones You want to make a motion? Evinger Go ahead. Jones I move that Docket No. 2017-01-DSV, development standards variance for the addition to a single family dwelling within the R-SF-2, Single Family Residential Zoning District, for the property located at 11541 Trail Ridge Place, to 1) deviate from the required side yard setback of 12 feet to a side yard setback of 7 feet; and 2) deviate from the required aggregate side yard setback of 30 feet to an aggregate side yard setback of 19 feet, all as illustrated on the site plan attached to the Staff Report, be approved as filed and as presented and that the proposed findings of fact attached to the Staff Report be approved. Morical Thank you. Is there a second? Evinger Second. Morical Any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. All Aye. Morical Any opposed? Motion carries. Mr. Wilson, enjoy your new addition. Page 6 of 7 Zionsville Board of Zoning Appeals February 14, 2017 Rausch Thank you very much and thanks for the grace of a couple of minutes. I do apologize again. Morical Thank you Mr. Rausch and Happy Valentine’s Day. Is there anything else to come before the Board of Zoning Appeals tonight? If not, we’re adjourned. Page 7 of 7