Board of Zoning Appeals - Regular Meeting

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Commissioner shall then have five minutes of rebuttal.

No further testimony will be heard unless it is at the discretion of the board. If you are interested in commenting during any public hearing, please sign up on the sheets located at the tables at the right of the audience. When your name is called, please step forward to the podium, state your name and address for the record. Please address your comments to the board and not to staff or the appellant. Your comments should relate to the case directly ahead. We do understand that there may be several persons who wish to speak. The chair may therefore impose an alternate time limit for each person. Again, thank you for your assistance in facilitating a respectful, fair, and timely meeting. Again, welcome to our meeting. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Roll call, please.

Ann Inman. Here. Catherine Ransford. Here. Marcy Tashler. Here. Marcus Turner.

Here.

We'll show Paul Guckenberger as absent.

First item on the agenda is the approval of the minutes. Did anyone have any comments or corrections?

Yeah, I just did 10. This is the one you said you were going to not make it. Do we have any other questions or comments? If not, we'll entertain a motion.

should we wait for the amended meetings to be given back to us before approving or you can vote on them and then i will correct them and you can sign them next month okay just just make your motion accordingly we approve the meeting minutes from june 16 2026. with the with the condition that with the condition that the amended version showing showing the presence of an inman will be given back to the board for approval.

We have a motion by Mrs. Rainsburg. Is there a second?

Second. Second by Mrs. Inman. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Does anyone oppose? Minutes are passed. Requests for concurrences or agenda modifications?

We don't have any.

Public comment. Does anyone wish to address the board? Please come forward and state your name and address for the record, please.

My name is Adrian Pankow, and my address is 1650 South County Road 450 East in Avon. And I understand this may not be the right forum for this, but I'm trying to stay on top of this as much as possible. currently live in an area that is zoned agricultural and a neighboring property of ours is under contract with Poole T. And this is not our first rodeo, but it's just the due diligence and the effort that we have to put into continually reminding the town that when we live in an agricultural area, We shouldn't have to, on a regular basis, deal with medium density residential single family housing coming in. One of the great selling points to us when we were annexed into the town was that Avon's rich agricultural heritage could be maintained. by allowing us to raise animals, animal husbandry, agro-tourism, continue to live life like we've been living, and also setting a standard for any new single-family residential development to be on a minimum of five acres, estate-sized parcels. So now we have learned, and I have received, as have a couple of my neighbors, letters from the Pulte Group that they are under contract on the property and are in their due diligence phase. And I would just hope that the town and the town council and the planning and the zoning and all of the decisions that go into a new comprehensive plan that I'm learning of keep and fulfill the integrity of leaving that area of Avon Agricultural. I believe that people should be able to live in a community like Avon and not have to be surrounded by medium density production neighborhoods. And if that hammer falls on that specific property, then what's to say that any of the other properties that are between Gibbs Road and Vessel Road south of 200 south or the fields that we still have north of 36 between 400 and and 475 around 200 North, as well as 525 East, as long as those are maintained as agricultural as well. So again, may not be the right forum, but I'm just trying to get in from as many people as possible that will listen because we opted to formally come into and be part of the town under the belief that the town was gonna preserve that as agricultural. and allowing a neighborhood to go in right there in an area where there are horse farms. I raise beef cattle. That's not agricultural. So I appreciate your open ears and I appreciate your time.

Thank you. Does anyone else wish to speak? If not, we will close public comment. Staff, did you want to... Did you want to respond or does anyone want to respond? I guess I will. You asked about the correct forum and this is the board that grants variances for petitions. We do not hear rezone cases. Your comments would probably be better suited to the town council and to the plan commission. We've got one plan commission member here with us. She's the president of the plan commission. Okay.

Actually, we just got an email that we will not be having a plan commission next week.

Well, he said two nights. He's talking about town council.

Oh, town council.

Sorry, sorry.

There's town council, yeah.

The plan commission meeting was scheduled for July 27th has been canceled. So the next meeting will be August 24th.

The plan commission is always the fourth Monday of the month.

The count counts on two days is on. Well, there will have to be.

Could you step to the podium, sir?

Everything's being recorded.

So there will have to be a variance filed in order to change the zoning on that property.

The zoning is, the decision makers on the zoning ultimately will be the town council. The playing commission will make an advisory deciding on it will have nothing to do with it unless there's a variance needed for the development of the property.

Then that would not be considered a variance?

A variance is if you keep the zoning in place and ask for a dimensional setback or height or something like that.

You're asking for an exception to the rule, whereas what you're talking about, they will be asking to change the rules.

Okay, all right. Thank you for the clarification.

Thanks. And thank you for your comment. Next item is old business. Yes, I'm sorry.

mission and i live at 1738 south county road 450 east in avon and um i was one of the properties that voluntarily annexed with the um understanding that they wanted to keep part of that agricultural and i know right now this may not be the moment for it but i'm going to ask her the best way to go about this, but the plan commission is now looking at the new comprehensive plan. And then my understanding is they will make the recommendation to the town council, and then it would be opened up for public comment to adopt that new comprehensive plan. And so as Adrian said, I think we just kind of want to get ahead of it and make it known to the planners that are looking at this, that we are the slice of agricultural area left in avon and that um there was a commitment to keep us as that also um so we will be here at the town council they have the ultimate decision i understand but the plan commission has very much input to the town council so there's a lot that happens before that um And usually by the time it gets to the town council, the plan commission has stamped approval.

And it's kind of a formality unless you turn your mic on.

We given, we give advice to the town council and the town council is not a rubber stamp. I can tell you that. We have sent things to the town council with an approval or with, we recommend not doing this or to do this, and they've chosen to go a different way. So they are definitely not a rubber stamp. I want you to know they are an independent body and they are the decision makers. We just simply advise. The comprehensive plan has been approved.

It was adopted at the end of 2025. Yeah.

I'm sorry, go ahead.

It was adopted at the end of 2020.

Yeah, it's been the new comprehensive plan. The 10 year plan was approved several months, you know, sometime at the end of last year and approved by the town. It was forwarded by the plan commission and the town council approved it. And I believe that that area of agriculture. Well, I know it was because there's a lot of discussion. That area of agriculture was. Was kept agricultural. That zoning was kept in place. Okay.

Not the zoning.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. The recommendation. The recommendation. Thank you. Thank you. It was kept in place that it stay agricultural. Now, whoever wants to come in and develop that land in the future, if they want to change the zoning, they're going to have to come forward and ask for permission to change the zoning. Like I said, A variance, which is what this body deals with, is where somebody says, and we run into this with the commercial stuff. You know, we're asking for a variance in the zoning because everything else around it is similar. And, you know, I'm not asking to change the zoning, just give us an exception to the zoning. What you're talking about, they would have to actually change the zoning. The comprehensive plan is a guideline. And it is something that, At this point in time, we look forward and say, this is how we anticipate the plan developing. It doesn't always... work out that way. But this is what we're seeing happening. It is a recommendation. And that's what all have to, but any changes to the zoning would have to go, be ultimately approved by the town council. And the plan commission is an advisory board only. We are not, the town council is definitely not a rubber stamp. They are very independent. Correct.

But I know that they are very independent. interested in following the comprehensive plan, whatever that may be. So I must have misunderstood that they were in the midst of revising that plan. We did last year. We did last year.

recently they're not revising the one that they are anything like that it's already been done we had the steering committee that included members of the town staff members of various town councils as well as input from the schools once they adopt that plan they don't go in and make revisions to that plan

I mean, they come in for rezoning, I understand, but they don't come in and make revisions to that plan. They're not working on the comprehensive plan right now at all.

Again, it's set in place for 10 years, and we're just saying in the next 10 years, this is how we anticipate seeing the town grow. And sometimes that changes. Our last comprehensive plan, it turned out that things that we'd planned just didn't pan out that way, and so we adjusted it. And so it is simply, this is our vision for what we see happening to Avon.

So it's not rewriting the comprehensive plan, but you're looking at maybe adjustments to it right now.

The comprehensive plan is simply a suggestion. And we do look, the plan commission and the town council do look at the comprehensive plan saying, well, what were we intended? And in this moment in time, we're very early days. So we're still guiding the train, so to speak, so that, what we're planning to put in various sections and approve in various areas, that they do line up with a comprehensive plan, unless there's some huge crazy reason why we shouldn't. But I would encourage you to come to planning meetings, come to town council meetings, and when and if this proposal from Pulte comes forward, I can tell you as the president of the Planning Commission, we want people at our meetings. We absolutely want people at our meetings. You know, usually we have what we see here. And nothing makes me happier than we have a room full of people. Usually they're mad at us, but that's okay because that means they're getting involved. So I hope that's helpful.

No, it is. i misunderstood i guess then because i had read i think in the republican newspaper that they were working on the plan the town plan right now so maybe that may have been playing field of brownsburg maybe done it not too long ago but yeah i had so okay okay thank you well the republicans shouldn't have had a story about it

The website has the adopted plan. We don't have any activities going on to update it at this point. It's fairly new. You're welcome.

Okay, moving on to old business. This is adoption of the findings of fact for rights gymnastics, VAR 26-03. Okay. And Dan, did you want to give an explanation of what we're doing real quick? This is different for us.

When you have a denial, then the staff takes the reasons that you stated in the meeting and they draft customized findings of fact, which capture what you said. And that usually differs from the form findings of fact that you have in your packet for each case. So prior to three years ago, we would just have had you sign those findings at the next meeting because you've already decided the case. But a case came out of Carmel challenging that practice, saying that how can the findings of fact be adopted unless they're voted on at a subsequent meeting or the meeting where they have the denial. Of course, they're not approved there because they aren't prepared yet. And so the Court of Appeals said, oh, you're right. They have to take action in a public meeting. And so now what happens when you have a denial, because we want the findings to be supportable and free from our defensible under challenge, is that we bring them back to you with the specificity of your discussion and reasoning, and then ask you to formally approve them by a motion and a vote at a subsequent meeting. And that's what we're doing tonight in both cases. So it is kind of a new thing.

So the difference is now we're signing these pursuant to a motion.

You are approving the actual findings of fact that conform with your decision.

And Dan, I had a question for you. With respect to appeal windows, is it 30 days?

It is 30 days.

Is that effective after the case is heard or after the finding of facts are approved now?

After the findings of fact are approved. Okay. And that's a good question because we didn't know the answer to that either, but the court of appeals gave us that answer and said that although you had to denial the law, the planning and zoning law requires the BZA to make findings of fact. And so the appeal deadline doesn't run until the findings of fact are adopted.

Okay. Thank you for that.

Yes, it's kind of new. But when you have a denial, we'll take copious notes. If you have an approval, those are pre-prepared and much more simple. But on denial, we usually want to include the facts. And in one of these cases, you had quite a discussion. And we want to make sure that we state all the reasons you stated so that we can defend that.

Okay, so with that explanation, again, we're on VAR 26-03, rights, gymnastics. Does anyone care to entertain a motion?

I think we probably should go ahead and just for developing a record, go ahead and read the criteria into the record so that we know what we're voting on, just, you know, CYA. Okay.

So this is VAR 26-03, Wright's Gymnastics front yard trash enclosure, 8170 Kingston Street, a variance of development standards of the Unified Development Ordinance 5.1H2 to allow a trash enclosure within the established front yard. Criteria one, while approval would not likely be injurious to the public health safety or safety approval would be injurious to the public morals and general welfare of the community because trash enclosure being located between the public entry and the building and the street would be inconsistent with the aesthetic standard to which the town of Avon strives by requiring that trash enclosures be located in less conspicuous locations. criteria two the use and value of the area adjacent to the property included in the variance would not be affected in a substantially adverse manner for the reasons stated in the avon planning staff report appellant's decision and during the hearing criteria three The strict application of the zoning ordinance will not result in a practical difficulty if applied to the property in question because other complaint locations are available on site. Criterion four, the variance requested is not the minimum necessary because other complaint locations are available on the site. Criterion five, the need for the variance was caused by the owner previous or present because the site is unimproved and the proposed principal building could have been designed and located in a manner that better accommodated a compliant trash enclosure location. And it is therefore decided, is therefore the decision of the Avon Board of Zoning Appeals that this variance of development standard petition be denied. That's what we're voting on.

I move to approve the findings of fact for variance of development standards for VAR 2603, rights to gymnastics.

We have a motion by Mrs. Ransburg. Is there a second?

I'll second.

I have a second by Mrs. Inman. Any discussion? Roll call vote, please.

Ransburg? Four. Tassler? Four. Turner?

Four.

Inman? Four.

Okay. Should we just sign one or?

You want us all to sign individually.

We got a copy here. We'll have you sign. Okay. So we will move on to the next one, which is...

Special exception 26-01, wash and roll 6913 East US Highway 36, a request for approval of a special exception per UDO 2.10E to allow a car wash within tier one of the US 36 highway overlay. Applicable unified development ordinance standard chapter 2.10E. Criterion one, the proposed special exception use would be detrimental to the public health safety or general welfare because a standalone car wash would be contrary to the comprehensive plan recommendation for a pedestrian family mixed use environment and thereby would be detrimental to the general welfare of the community. Criterion two, the proposed special exception use would be injurious to the use and enjoyment of other property in the immediate vicinity or substantially diminish or repair property values within the specific zoning district because a car wash would discourage future redevelopment of adjacent properties for pedestrian friendly uses as envisioned by the comprehensive plan and thereby diminish or impair the future value of adjacent properties Criterion 3, the proposed special exception use would be served adequately by essential public utilities and services such as highway, street, police, and fire protection, drainage structures, refuse disposal, water, sewer, and schools for the reasons stated in the Avon Planning Staff Report Appellant's application and during the hearing. Criterion four, the special exception use would not create excessive additional requirements at public expense for public facilities and services or result in the destruction, loss, or damage of a natural, scenic, or historic feature of major importance. However, the use would be detrimental to the economic welfare of the community because an exclusively automobile-oriented use at this location would thwart the type of pedestrian friendly redevelopment of nearby properties and properties recommended by the comprehensive plan adopted last year. Criterion five, the proposed special exception could meet the requirements and standards of this ordinance. However, its relationship and compatibility to adjacent properties and neighborhoods would not be appropriate for the reasons stated in the Avon Planning staff report, appellant's decision, and during the hearing. Criterion six, the proposed special exception does not make adequate provision for public services, provide adequate control over vehicular traffic, provide for and protect designated common open space. However, it would not further the amenities of light and air, recreation, and visual enjoyment for the reasons stated in the Avon Planning Staff Report Appellant's application and during the hearing. And criterion seven. Criterion seven, the proposed special exception does not align with the general objectives of the comprehensive plan because a car wash offers no good services or amenities to pedestrians, bicyclists, or anyone else not remaining inside an automobile, thereby being contradictory to the comprehensive plan recommendation of Vibrant. pedestrian-friendly mixed-use development for this site in the larger Midtown District focus area. It is therefore the decision of the Avon Board of Zoning Appeals that the special exception be denied. With that, does anyone care to entertain a motion?

I move that we accept The findings of fact for a special exception for SE 2601, wash and roll.

We have a motion by Mrs. Ransburg. Is there a second?

I'll second.

Second by Mrs. Tashler. Any discussions? Roll call, please.

Ransburg? Four. Tashler? Four. Turner? Four. Inman? Four.

We have no new business on the agenda. Is there any other business? And with no other business, we are adjourned.

Thank you.