Plan Commission - Regular Meeting

Y County Board of Zoning Appeals. Would you do roll call, please? Yes. Frank Palver here. Roy Walker. Andrew Proines here. Wayne Funk. Jason Carneahan here. Andrew Cruz here. Chris Gmer here. Meredith Wright here. And you said the approval of the minutes. Maybe a preliminary question for Jason. Do you feel comfortable voting on the minutes? I don't have a problem with you passing them even though you weren't here. That would be fine. Otherwise, yeah, I'll make a motion to approve the minutes from May 12th.

Can't I guess I can second them. I read them. Second. All in favor say I. I. I. Okay. Old business. None. No business. New business. 25-08, Gospel Fair LLC.

Uh he's requesting a use variance to allow for um outdoor agurism and a family farm entertainment. property is located on the west side of County Road 71, approximately onetenth of a mile south of the intersection of County Road 71 and County Road 62 in St. Joe. And the property is zoned A2 agricultural. Um, in your packets, uh, has a staff report and about a page and a half write up uh, from Mr. Coburn about what he's proposing to do um, for the property. Hopefully, you read that. I'm not going to read that verbatim um, for the meeting. Um, but as you can see on the site plan, um, where they're proposing the proposed use, uh, he and his family just live on the property north there, um, at 7166 County Road 62. Um, and again, they're proposing the use variance to allow the property to be used for agricultural based family attraction. Um, lighting will be within the site. um maximum 12 feet in height, about a 12 square foot uh sign located um on County Road 61 um near the entrance. Uh hours of operation are Friday, Saturday, and Sunday 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Um Saturday would offer a uh message service at 9:00 a.m. Uh parking obviously you can see the access off of County Road uh 71. They have proposed um approximately 342 total spaces with overflow available and seasonal employees of maximum of 10 or sorry 12 uh maximum employees. Uh so as you can see on on the site plan, you you drive in to the parking spaces um a proposed barn um aboutund and or sorry can't do that math in my head 101 by 210 uh feet. um some

uh grain bin, gazeos, fire pit areas um surrounding the property, uh playground, volleyball, um gospel garden. Um they do have proposed and have been approved by the drainage board to re uh uh word am I looking for? Not maintain, but they're re anyway. It'll come to me. It'll come to me. It'll come to me. I promise. The Henry Gatis Lateral 2 reroute. Thank you. Reroute the Henry Gatis lateral 2 um to south of the dry retention pond that has been approved and they've requested or sorry, received the um approval from the drainage board for that. Um no other issues came up during routing as far as um access. The highway department did have a concern of it being a gravel road, but couldn't um couldn't really doesn't have the ability, I guess, to require anything more um than just notice that um it is a gravel road and no plans to to to pave or even chip and seal county road 71. So, um there's any questions, I'd be happy to answer them. Um Mr. Coburn is here to to give more information um as far as what they are proposing. Again, you've got the um information there on about the page and a half of information they have uh written up. So, if you have any questions for me, I'm probably not going to be the best to answer them, but the petitioner is here. We have Do you know if we have any more of these types of things in the county that are actual exceptions?

Not that I'm aware of. Okay. I know there's a few small ones that do like fall things and stuff. I didn't know if there was Okay, why don't we have Mr. Coburn, you would come to the podium to your name and address, please. Make sure that's got a blue light on. Ben Coburn. Address is 7166 County Road 62 in St. Joe. So, how many acres is this?

It's uh the lot is 20 acres altogether. We will not utilize the entire 20 acres, but the the lot altogether is 20 acres. My property that's adjacent to it officially look at the site maps says five and a half. It's seven if you count the county easements and all that on it.

Will you be doing any concerts or anything like that with the stage? Uh no plans. So the the the goal of Saturday morning um message uh ultimately we're going to give a gospel message during that time. So there may be some you know maybe quiet praise and worship or something like that but no we're not going to invite AC/DC or anything out there. Yeah. It's unfortunate. Right.

Um hours are 10 to 8. 10 to 8. Yeah. How's that align with the rest of businesses, commercial, etc. Weekends? I mean, yeah.

This is just so different than what that is going to be. um out here as you can I mean aerial map I pulled up in a literally next door there's just three houses there and they all have at least five acres or more of what than what he has. Um so there's really no businesses in the vicinity that are going to be similar to this other than when you get to uh over towards St. Joe, right? Um, so and there's a good amount of space between. I mean, yeah. Yeah. How do you get to your overflow parking? The overflow parking behind my house, that's just uh that's off 62. So, you could either come straight from

is there 101 or you can just you can just turn left onto 62 from 71 and get there from there. Is there currently a drive into that? No. So there would have to be a drive put there would have to be that correct? No concerns there Chris. I didn't think there would be and from an hour's perspective we really tried to originally came across got this idea from you have the Ker Der dairy farm that's in Allen County. So really tried to look at how they were doing things and really tried to mimic a lot of their hours and stuff like that. they put together. I love the idea. I intend to go.

Love to have you. There's there's one similar to what you're doing over by uh Goan. Okay. Because I go by it when I go into go. Yep. Have people mention every now and then if someone mention one down in LA Lafayette area that there's something else similar to that as well. They have I don't know what you'd call it like a wet slide for they have quite a bit of stuff. Yeah. And it's probably about the same probably acres, right? Yeah. So, uh, sewage pump and hall tank. Are you going to have permanent restrooms? Correct. Yeah.

Yeah. We'll build permanent restroom facilities and we've already got it worked out with a, you know, hall company. Actually, an elder at my church does that as a part-time job. So, we've worked it out with him. He'll he'll take care of that. and they designed the system. I think originally we're going to have two tanks, but they're going to add additional tanks, you know, as we grow or get busier. So, he was approved by the health department to do this. Um, I think the only thing they were waiting on was your payment for the permit, which you probably took care of, but um, so Kathy confirmed with me that the holding tanks are are approved.

Okay. Well, by the amount of parking you're making available. I hope you're that successful. Right. Are you planning to pave all that at the beginning or gravel? Gravel. Yep. Looks like gravel and grass. Oh, yeah. Based on the split there, is the southside grass past the line as well? It's grass right now as well.

No, I'm saying it says the the label here says gravel or stone parking and then grass parking. So that'd be for the overflow right now. The idea was just to make that grass for the time being. If we need to make that gravel, then we can. And the thought was we don't I haven't even talked to him about it. There's a stur one of the sties across the road. I don't know if he'd ever let us here. That whole parking area that's map is all stone, not grass at all. I assume it was part grass, part gravel. Is that correct?

Well, it it'll be all gravel. I mean, you'll get in the grass into the dry all of the parking spot areas there. He was saying it's not going to be grass at all. It's going to be stone the whole way. Yeah. Okay. Would we foresee a lot of growth? I mean, obviously, it's hard to hard tell at this stage, right? Um hope so. Yeah. Right. I mean I I have already talked to Daniel Graber who owns the 30 acres next to it if at some point down the road if you know if it grows and we can expand if he's willing to sell and he is. Yeah.

Um I have not talked to Story across the street yet, but you know that's a another piece of land that we'd love to extend to. It makes a lot more sense from a parking standpoint to be able to use that lot, you know, where you can just walk across the street. uh versus to go down further where where Daniel owns it. But so we'll see there would need to be any restrictions on coming back if that were to occur. So if they expand, they would have to come back with other stuff. So I'm wondering,

I'm not trying to be difficult, but I'm wondering if any new buildings were to go up, etc. Like if they got bigger and they're like, "We'd love to put another big building here." Um, so as long as the if it's all contained within the same property, we've never had them come back, but it's the expansion onto other properties. They'd still come back for a permit. So, right, building permit. So, it wouldn't really because if it's approved tonight, it'll be approved for this property layout. Correct. Right. But they'd still have to get approval for a building if they wanted to another building. So, yeah, that makes sense.

Well, it's quite an undertaking. So, you're You're obviously pretty confident. I am something I've been working on ultimately for a few years now. So, we're finally here to hopefully get approval and can move forward. Okay. Anybody else have any more questions? Okay. Thank you. Appreciate it. Um, anyone in the audience that wishes to speak for or against this proposal?

Your name and address, sir?

Lyn Reinhardt, 4224 County Road 71. I would agree this sounds like a great opportunity for family wholesome entertainment venue in the area. I had a couple questions. They've kind of been discussed or addressed a little bit tonight that way as far as the the parking lot with the size of it, the construction, and I guess the main thing was um Septacre sewer service that way because I know the the county would require if it was to be reszoned commercial, which is kind of what they're doing, um that any commercial property would have to have sanitary sewer. service available. So, just something to think about, I guess.

Thank you. Thank you. Did we discuss that? Okay, that's what I thought. Okay. Yeah. All right. Anyone else? And there's only three people out there. Did you want to speak? Okay. Pardon me. He's here for moral support. Oh, that's your security. Yeah. Okay. Any more questions?

Jason? Andrew? No, I'm good. Andrew. All right. Well, I can proceed with proposed findings here tonight. use variance. We have petition 25-08 and jurisdictional findings. We'll go through those first. And all of the findings we talk about are preliminary until they're voted upon later. Jurisdictional findings number one, application completed and filed on May 9th, 2025. Yes. Legal notice published in the Star on July 31st with publishers affidavit and receipt received. Yes. Certificate of mailing notices sent and receipts given to staff. Yes. Letter of no objection from the county health department dated May 22nd.

Yes. Letter of no objection from the county highway department dated May 13th. Yes. Letter of no objection from the county surveyor dated July 3rd. Yes. Letter of no objection from the county oil and water conservation district dated May 13th. Yes. And letter from the Dicab County Airport Authorities not applicable here. Now, we have five proposed findings of fact questions, and we'll need some discussion on each of these questions. I'll start out with number one. Will the approval be injurious to the public health, safety, morals, and general welfare of the community?

No, the approval of the use as proposed will not be injurious to the community. As a matter of fact, it's community-based business. Okay. Number two, will the use and value of the area adjacent to the property included in the variance be affected in a substantially adverse manner? No, the property values adjacent to the property should not be affected negatively. Uh number three, does the need arise from some condition peculiar to the property involved?

Uh the use variance is needed for reasonable use of the property. There are a few agro tourism sites in Decala County. Proposed use is not permitted. All right. Uh will the strict application of the unified development ordinance result in unnecessary hardship if applied to the property for which the variance is sought? The use variance is needed for reasonable use of the property. It's not currently permitted. And uh this uh uh and would you say too, Andrew, that this is a good good use of the property? I believe this is a good use of the property.

Uh number five, will the approval interfere substantially with the policies of the comprehensive plan?

No, the proposed use should not interfere with the comprehensive plan provided the petitioner meets the conditions and regulations set forth with this approval. Now I'm going to go through the proposed recommendations and comments with the conditions of approval proposed here. First of all, staff is recommending approval for this use variance and recommends the following conditions. Number one, the board retains continuing jurisdiction of this use variance to asssure compliance with all terms and conditions andor impose additional conditions deemed necessary for health and safety. Number two, the use variance would be approved for an agriculturalbased family attraction as described during the meeting. Number three, no off-site drainage, existing subsurface water, existing tiled water drainage crossing over said real estate should be obstructed by any development on this site. The board of zoning appeals may enforce these conditions by injective relief with attorney fees. I would just know for the record that there was discussion of moving one of the laterals, it sounds like, but that

that'll be Oh, it's a number seven down there, too. Great. Uh number three, uh number four, no certificate of occupancy or certificate of completion shall be issued until the applicant files written evidence of compliance with any of the conditions of the Dicab County Board of Health, Highway Department, drainage board, surveyor, airport, soil and water conservation district, or other agencies applicable. File written evidence of compliance with federal or state agencies that were identified in the findings or conditions to zoning administrators to determine when conditions have been met. Number five, property owners or visitors may not object to the farming operations surrounding the property. Furthermore, they may not object to the potential dust from County Road 71. Uh number six items, construction storm water general permit will be required for development and a storm water pollution prevention plan will need submitted to the soil and water conservation district before development of the property. Uh number seven, reconstruction of the Henry Gettis lateral two drain. Number 157-02-0 shall be completed prior to the property being open to the public. And number eight, should the use no longer be operational, the land must be returned to its pre-development conditions. Back to you. Uh the reconstruction of the GIS drain is that property owner's responsibility. Are you aware of that?

Okay. And you're aware of all these conditions? Okay. There are a few. Okay. Anything more? Anybody have any more comments, questions? Okay, I'll move to approve. You make a motion to approve. I will second that motion. We have a move.

A motion. Okay, you ready for roll call? Yes. Okay. Andrew Robin, Jason Carneahan. Yes. Caller. Yes. Well, we wish you the best. When's your estimated opening?

Sounds like Did I see a 5 inch? Well, yeah, that's a lot. Okay, thank you.

No. Do we have anything else? Not that I know of. Andrew will be policing it, too. So, appreciate you guys. That's I'm really excited about that. On Facebook all the time. I want to see one. If there's nothing else,