Board of Zoning Appeals - Regular Meeting

Well, I'd like to welcome everyone to the Delaware Muny Metropolitan Plan Commissioner Commission regular meeting. It's our first meeting of 2026. This time would you please stand for the pledge. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Yes. So I think the first uh item tonight is just introduction and confirmation of members.

Okay. So we will do a summary here of our members who were reappointed and or their terms um were up. So we have county commissioner representative Steven Brand um will still be on the board and be the county commissioner representative. Jerry Dishman will still be the city council representative. We have Richard Ivy who is a mayor appointment and he was reappointed so he will serve on the board for another three-year term. Owen Lache was a mayor um appointment and he was reappointed and will serve on the board for another three-year term. and Jesse Landis is a county commissioner appointment and he was reappointed and will serve on the board for another three-year term as well. Um we do have a new advisory member Justin Curley from Purdue Extension has moved to a different county. Um he will be working in Wayne County. So, his replacement Emily or his replacement um Amanda Bullion is here um and she would like for um Emily Cring to serve as the Purdue Extension Representative. So, she did bring some information tonight about herself and about Emily. So, I will let you um speak on that if you would like to and then just push your little button here and that'll turn you on. Yep. Thanks so much for um keeping us kind of in the loop as we've gone through some transitional changes in our office um as Purdue has gone through some changes as well. So um traditionally as the county extension director um this would be a role that we would fit. However, I'm the health and human sciences educator and so this is not necessarily my wheelhouse. Um Emily

will be our agonal resources educator and a wealth of information I think uh to bring to to this kind of meeting. Um you can kind of read her bio on this sheet. Um she currently is our agonal resources uh covering several counties but her home office will be Delaware County. She is a Delaware County resident as well and then also serves as our liaison for our veteran farmer coordinator as well. So, I think she will be a good fit. She is teaching um some classes tonight at McCormack State Park and could not be with us. And so, I came on her behalf just as a new face and as our office kind of gets a little more acclimated um into some of these new roles as our our transitions have happened. So, okay. Thank you very much. We appreciate both of you. Yes, absolutely.

Okay. Everyone else stays the same. Everybody else stays the same. Okay. Um, okay. So, the next item is the confirmation of attorney. So, um, I think we just need maybe a motion and a second. I'd like to make a motion to retain current counsel. A second. Oh, okay. Someone else wants it, they can have it, but your ordering wins. Okay. We'll give it to Okay. All those in favor, please say I. I.

Anyone opposed? All right. Current council, uh, Mr. Murphy is retained. You okay with that? I hope. Okay. We didn't ask if you wanted it or not. We just You notice we didn't ask that question. Okay. Next. Uh, next item is election of officers. We'll go back to talked about people. Oh, all right. Let's do roll call then first. All right. Mr. Borchers, Mr. Brand here. Miss Bullion, Mr. Carol here. Mr. Dishman, Miss Hensley,

Mr. Ivy, present, Mr. Lache, Mr. Mr. Landis here. Mr. Leech, Miss Cypr. Smith here. Okay. So, as far as voting members go, we do have a quorum this evening. Okay.

Okay. So, now we can go back to election of officers. So, uh we will open the floor for um motions, recommendations. I'd make a motion to retain all current officers. Any other motion? Anybody else? Okay, we can close the floor of nominations. Okay. And vote on that one.

Okay, we do another We need to do a single. Okay. All those in favor of retaining the current um officers, please say I. I. Anyone opposed? All right. Congratulations. That will leave Mr. Smith as our president and Mr. Carol as our vice president. Okay. No more absences. So, Mr. Smith. All right. I'll do my best.

Well, only one so far. So, you have to beat that this this year is is what he meant. So, okay. I'll see what I can do. Okay. Um All right, then. Uh minutes for um the December 2025 meeting. I would entertain a motion to approve those minutes. I'd make a motion to approve with a minor adjustment that at the top where it says agenda, replace that word with minutes. Okay. I have a second. I'll second.

All right. Mr. Brand, yes. Mr. Carol, yes. Mr. Dishman, yes. Miss Hensley, yes. Mr. Ivy, yes. Mr. Landis, abstain. Mr. Smith, yes. Okay. So, that is six. Yeses, one abstain. So that is approval of December 2025 meeting minutes with the minor correction um voiced.

Okay. Uh, new business, Eileen,

MPC01-26A, jurisdiction, city council, being a consideration of a resolution of approval for the 2025 zone map changes to the official zone maps for the city of Muny, Indiana. So, in your packets here, these are all the resonings for the city that were heard during 2025. Um, they were heard before this board forwarded to city council for the final approval. Um we do this annually. These have all been approved. We just need to approve the official change of the entire zone map. There are 12 of them for the city. And then you did get a little packet this evening. We had a couple of corrections and they are I will note those here. on MPC13-24Z which is V. Janine Sers's revocable trust the bless you. The correct township should be Harrison. On MPC 11, let's see 11-25Z. Robert Huleston, the zone map on GIS Beacon was did not include a vacated alley. So, the map has just been changed to reszone that vacated alley. That was just a minor technical change in the programming. Um MPC12-25Z James Dy um the correct township should be center

Mount Pleasant. Yes. Sorry. Thank you. Should be Mount Pleasant. It was originally originally center. and council did say we were good to go ahead with this noting those changes during the meeting. Okay. Are we we do a separate vote for each? Nope. This is just one case that is approving um all the zone map changes.

Okay. We're only considering exhibit A right now. Are we considering A and both both county and city? Right. We are just doing exhibit A. Just the city currently. Okay. Okay. I'll make a motion to approve. I'll second. Any questions by anybody? Okay. Call Mr. Brand. Yes. Mr. Carol. Yes. Mr. Dishman. Yes. Miss Hensley. Yes. Mr. Ivy. Yes. Mr. Landis. Yes. Mr. Smith. Yes.

Seven yeses, zero nos. So that is approval of MPC 01-25 or -26A. I guess that's a favorable recommendation. Yes. Approval.

And this will now go forward to city council. So, this will be introduced to city council at their February meeting, which is February 2nd, Monday, at 6:45 p.m. Next case,

MPC02-26A jurisdiction county commissioners being a consideration of a resolution of approval for the 2025 zone map changes to the official zone maps for the unincorporated area of Delaware County, Indiana. So this is the same thing except for these are the zone changes and the map changes for the county and there were four. These were heard by this board forwarded with a recommendation um and had final approval by the county commissioners. No amen. No, no amendments on these. Correct. Nobody has any questions. We'll entertain a motion for a recommendation. Make a favorable recommendation.

I'll second.

Mr. Carol, yes. Mr. Dishman, yes. Miss Hensley, yes. Mr. Ivy. Yes. Mr. Landis, yes. Mr. Brand, yes. Mr. Smith, yes. All right, that is seven yeses, zero nos. So, that is approval of MPC or a favorable recommendation of MPC 02-26A. That will go to county commissioners. that will be heard at their January 20th meeting um in this room 9:00 am. Okay. Uh legislative action.

We do not have any legislative action to report this evening. Perfect. All right. Uh director's report.

Okay. So, I did provide you with our normal numbers here. Um but now we are at the end of the year. So, we have our grand totals here. Um, on the building commissioner side, permit applications filed through December. Um, we are at 288 building permits, 246 electrical, 97 HVAC, 85 plumbing, 67 certificates of occupancy, 49 demo permits for a total of 832 permits. fees collected for those permits um $151,519. Um just some information that 10% of that dollar amount goes to the unsafe housing fund which is then used by our office to demo unsafe h unsafe houses. Um 90% of that goes back into county general fund. Total contractor registrations for the year of 2025 were 532. So total contractor registration fees collected were 42,750. And that dollar amount does go back into county general. inspections completed for the year. 602 building, 407 electrical, 226 plumbing, 171 HVAC, 167 complaints investigated for a total of 1,574 inspections. On transportation side, just kind of wanted to do a brief summary here of our different committees and boards that we have um within our office. We do have the technical advisory committee which we call TAC. We have the transportation policy committee TPC. We are part of the

MOO council and we have a transit coordination committee. On the land use and development side, just wanted to report on our plat committee. We do have a member of this board serve on our plat committee. Currently it is Ricky Cyp. Um normally at this time we ask the person if they would like to continue to serve and then we have the board um vote on whether that person you know that person to continue to serve. I don't know if we've asked Ricky previously. I don't think we have. Um I don't know if we want to go ahead and vote on her and then I guess it's whatever the pleasure of the board.

Yeah. When you're not here you get the assignment. Yes, that's right. There's one next week. So, we Ricky Ricky enjoys that board. Yeah. Yes, she does. She's been on it a while, too. So, I'm I'm I'm sure she would be pleased. We need a motion. Yeah. Make a motion to uh leave Ricky Cyp on that advisory board. Okay. I'll second. All right. All those in favor, please say I. I. I. Anyone opposed? Same.

All right. The members are listed there for you, but we will keep Ricky on there. Um, I also attached as far as the building commissioner um inspections and permits. I also attached a summary page of a three-year comparison. That's just for your review. I'm not going to read through that one. um our committees as far as um land use and planning that we normally go over our totals for the year. BZA um heard 65 cases, 37 for the city, 28 for the county. This board plan commission heard 32 cases, 25 for the city, seven for the county. Good job. This board um plaque committee heard 19 cases, 11 for the city, eight for the county. We had one subdivision in the city. We had um one VRC case which is in the city. Um and our total number of cases um heard 120 which includes 75 city and 45 county.

Can you clarify what VRC is for the public?

VRC is village review committee. So it will it oversees development that is within the Ball State Overlay district. So any development happening in that area first gets heard and reviewed and approved by the BRC. Um boards and committees. Just wanted to kind of give you a reminder and a rundown of the boards and committees that I represent our office on. Um now some of these are monthly, some of these are bimonthly, some of these are quarterly. two of them are annually, so it's not as impressive as it sounds. Um, I am on the Cardinal Greenway, the Central Indiana Regional Transportation Authority, which is the SERTA board. I'm part of the Creative Space Action Plan Leadership Council. I serve as the treasurer for the East Central Indiana Regional Planning District. And there are two subcommittees within ECIRPD. the East Central Indiana Community Development Corporation and the East Central Indiana Economic Development Alliance. Um I'm on both of those as well. The Emergency Management Advisory Committee, the local emergency planning committee. Um my Action Plan, which is MAP, um I am serving in 2026 as a vice president. Um for our in office, TAC and TPC, I serve as a chair on those. Um, also wanted to give you guys a little heads up. We are looking into revamp uh bringing back our newsletter. So, I know years and years ago our office used to have a newsletter. Haven't had it for I don't even know how long, a long time. Um, but we think that is something that would be um helpful to agencies we work with, helpful to the public, and kind of get a little bit more collaboration and

involvement. So, we um keep your eye out for our newsletter. We will put everyone on this board on the distribution list, but please um anyone else that would like to be on the distribution list, um let us know and we will add you to that. Also, if anyone on the board has anything they would like us to put on in the newsletter to distribute, please let us know of those things as well. Um and we can get that information um dispensed, too. Um, and then I would also just like to let the board know that Fred Daniel did retire at the end of 2025. Um, he has not left us though. He worked yesterday and he's going to work tomorrow. He is actually going to help us through this transition um as a con as a like a contracted employee for a little bit just to help us through this transition. Fred worked in our office for 30 years. um very fortunate and blessed to have had him for that long. He has built what our office is now. Um so he he will never leave us. But but he did he did officially retire at the end of 2025.

Congratulations to him. Yeah, we had a big bash for him. So he Yeah. Is there any other questions? comments.

The only thing I would ask, and I don't know if this is pertinent, this may just be me wanting more information, and that's fine. If you look at the numbers on the comparison over the past three years, we've done a third more permits for the same amount of dollars as opposed to 23 to 25. And then my math may be a little skewed. So I mean I'm not a savant in any way but roughly um it would be it would be nice to know because we went down the next year by 60,000 went back up which I'm glad we made more money or there was more money collected. It would be nice to know like what

what caused the difference? you like are there any big projects? And not that it matters a whole lot, but I mean just knowing that would be nice to know if we were we're all involved in the community. If there was an establishment in a different county that was looking to expand or create another opportunity in Delaware County that caused this influx in revenue. Yes. Clearly, we can support that we can we can show them we can support that and if they we get come in. I mean, I I don't know. It may just be me just the numbers and I'm intrigued.

I saw the same thing. So, I'm wondering if it's the type of permit that was applied for because there were 200 more permits applied for in 2025 than 2023 and we brought in $8,000 less in income or 200 more permits. So, is it the type of permit?

Yeah, it is the type of permit. Um, commercial permits um have a much higher fee. So that makes a big difference if we have a bit big commercial project. I can't remember what your CAPAC was, but for instance, CAPAC is a million square foot building that obviously has those higher fees. Um so yeah, depends on the type of fee or the type of permit. Um a building permit has a different um fee than a pool permit. Um things like that. So yeah, and you and you've given a great amount of information. I'm not trying to

downgrade that. just when there you have that drastic of a change, it would be nice to I mean if there's an asterric or something, which I know you you've again done well. I just it would be nice to know what those big ones were and if it is an anomaly, it's an anomaly and we move on, but if there's a way to see it and maybe we're maybe the countyy's good in one area. I mean, I don't know what that it might be, but be nice to know it if that was a situation. Yeah. Yeah, we will we will um provide that for you. Can I get an electronic copy of this? An electronic copy? Yeah. Yeah. Thanks.

Yeah. And we are planning on um you know kind of providing our annual report to county council and commissioners and you know city council if needed and and those those bodies so that they're kind of aware of of the things we're doing in in our numbers as well. Okay. Well, thank you everyone. Thank you. Awesome. Okay. Uh, anything else from the board? Questions, comments, electric fence update?

Um, so we've gathered a lot of information. Um, I am going to disperse to this board and get some feedback. Um, our office's plan is to include the electric fence and fence subject in general in our revision of our ordinance. Um, we're not going to try to push through an amendment quickly as we are in the process of amending the entire ordinance right now. So, still still on the table.

Okay. Uh, just for clarification, the commissioner's meeting that you mentioned on January 20th, that's a Tuesday. So, it's typically the third Monday, but it's a holiday in the county, so it's the day after. So, that's not a Monday. Um, and then I would like to u compliment Brandy for the nice job she did at the city council meeting on Monday night. She did a great job presenting. Yes.

Yes. I was unable to be there, but I knew I sent Brandy and knew she would represent us well. Anything else from the board? Okay, return record.