Board of Zoning Appeals - Regular Meeting

I will call to order the March 25th, 2026 Fishers Board of Zoning Appeals meeting. And if you will join me for the pledge of allegiance. Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Okay. Roll call, please. Yes. Mr. Ginsley, here. Mr. Sylvie, here. Mr. Stevenson here.

Mr. there. Thank you. We do have quorum.

Thank you. We do have quorum to conduct business today. The first agenda item on our agenda is the approval of the we have two sets of previous minutes. One for February 25th, 2026 and then one a special meeting we had uh March 4th, 2026. However, we're going to defer the approval of those meeting minutes to next month's meeting because we have several board members who were not present for either of those minutes and we don't have a quorum to vote on that. Um, so we will next move to the public hearing session. Um case number VA-26-1, we have um a consideration of a development standards variance from exhibit H of ordinance number 1030305E known as the sub east fissures fisers PUD to allow an imperous surface coverage increase from 35% to 50% on a lot in area B-1 for the installation of approximately 3,000 square feet of pool patio. And we will have the petitioner here, uh, Dell Baker.

Yeah. It should be, if you click it twice, be there. All right. Well, hello. Thank you. I appreciate you guys coming out today just for this. Um, we built a house. We we've uh we've lived in Fisers for State your name and address for the record.

Yep. Dale Baker, uh 9896 Backstretch Row, Fischers, Indiana 46040. So, we've uh we've lived in Fischers for 15 years. We just built a house um in a subdivision, Brooks Park, the subject property that we're discussing. And um we would like to put in a pool and concrete area in the back. And um we have everything for the most part lined up but going through permitting uh came to our attention that uh the amount of impervious service we would have is it would exceed the uh uh the 35% and so we are seeking a variance. Um I have a couple of slides here hopefully that will lay this out pretty well for us. So, first and foremost, where the lot sits, there is a very, very large common area behind us, behind all of the houses, and there is a creek that is B Camp Creek or um that flows all the way down over to uh to Gist. And the common area is at a lower elevation. All of the water flows away from the properties. So if you look at this here, a little bit of an elevation map, you can see the flow of the creek as well as the watershed from the properties. So I don't think we would have uh too much problem or any problem with the with the drainage. So in looking at this, there's no change to the direction of the drainage or the discharge location. And it's still all going to go uh out the back down through the common area as it does today to the creek which is actually a flood plane. You can see on this next one here. Uh really really tiny. The the white thing

in the middle there is the is the subject property and you've got the creek there. You can see the elevation. Uh you can see that the the marked floodway here from FEMA. That is the direction of all of the water. Uh will be no change to any of that with the addition of this concrete and pool area. It will continue to flow out of the back down the uh down the hill into the creek. So, we're open to some additional mitigation if necessary. We could do a dry well. We do plan to put some drains um in in the concrete and talking with the with the uh uh concrete um contractor. I don't know that we would do French drain all the way around. That wasn't his recommendation. But a few channel drains that would drain out the back going down the hill so we wouldn't have to worry about any water shed going off to the sides uh necessarily. And then we would do downspout extensions going all the way out. That's where the sump pump drains out all the way to the back of the property down the hill uh into the into the watershed. And so in in conclusion here, the ordinance is really to prevent adverse drainage impacts, right? And in this case, we don't believe that that condition exists. We think that the topography, the unique topography of this property supports the variance. It would be different if there are houses behind us or the elevation behind us was was higher than where the property is. But in this particular case because of that substantial common area and the drainage into the creek, the direction of the water flow, uh we we think that the variance would be supported. No impact to adjacent properties, no impact to the path of the drainage and uh we would certainly be open to any reasonable conditions uh should should the board impose those as part of approval.

Thank you. Any questions? He'll take questions after this. We'll now hear from the staff.

Good evening. Grace Wy, planner for the city of Fisers. Item before you today is a request for development standards variance from exhibit H of ordinance number 1000305E known as the southeast to allow an impervious surface coverage increase from 35% to 50% on a lot in area B1 for the installation of approximately 3,000 square ft of pool patio. 9896 Backstretch Row is located in the Brooks Park neighborhood near the intersection of Olio Road and 104th Street. Property is zoned PUDM and regulated by the Southeast Fischer PUD and the city's unified development ordinance where applicable. The surrounding area as shown here is zoned PUDM in the Southeast Fiser PUD as well. Fischer's 2040 comprehensive plan designates the site as suburban residential. The existing site plan and the proposed site plan are shown here. The proposed pool patio is highlighted in yellow. The aerials don't show the existing home since it was built since the aerials were last captured. No public comments have been received. Staff has no recommendation to the board of zoning appeals for this request. Should the board approve this petition, staff recommends that it's done following condition. The approval letter and related documentation be recorded on the property with the Hamilton County Recorders Office. Staff is available for questions.

Thank you. Any questions for the petitioner or staff on this matter? I guess I have one question um in regards to mitigation um options that um the petitioner has proposed. Does the staff have any thoughts regarding that? And are there any drainage issues regarding this? Um so drainage review was completed by the city of Fischer's storm water engineer team um on the swimming pool permit that they submitted which is what triggered the variance request and they did not flag any drainage drainage issues related to it. Okay.

Um, Lucas and I are not experts in drainage. So, we do not have any enough knowledge to say one way or another if any of the mitigation efforts recommended um if one would be better than another. Okay. But if you wanted to include those, you could include a condition uh requiring the petitioner to work with the city with city staff and we could bring in that storm water team who are experts in the matter. Um, if that's a condition you'd like to include, then you wouldn't have to pick one tonight. Thanks, Grace. Any other questions? Well, at this time, I would entertain a motion. We'll make a motion. Public hearing.

I do apologize. Yeah, you said plan commission, but we also wrote it.

At this time, we will open the public hearing. If there's anyone here from the public who wants to address this matter, please approach the podium. Please share your name and your address and um we will listen to your comment. Seeing none, we will close the public hearing. And at this time, I will entertain a motion. I'd like to make a motion that we approve VA26-1 on the conditions that the approval letter relevant documentation be recorded on the property with the Hamilton County's Recorders Office, not including any mitigation options. However, I will say that that list is very good and you should be doing that half those things on your own anyway just for good drains around your house, downspout extension, so on and so forth.

Thanks, Tom. We have a motion by Tom. Do we have a second? Second. Second. Okay. We have a second by Jeff. Um, okay. Roll call, please. Thanks, Mr. Ginsley. Yes. Mr. Sylvie? Yes. Mr. Stevenson? Yes. And Mr. Lannon? I Thank you. The motion does carry. Thank you. Any old business that we have? Old business. New business. No new business. Any staff communications for us? We do not anticipate a meeting in April. So, see everybody back in May. Okay. So, we'll be approving three sets of minutes in May.

Correct. We anticipate kind of a heavy agenda. Yes. Really enjoy that night off in April. Yeah. May will be busy. Make up for it in May. We do appreciate it. Seeing no other items on our agenda, we will consider ourselves a journ.