Board of Zoning Appeals (bza) - Regular Meeting

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And we'd like to call tonight's meeting of the board of zoning appeals to order. Daniel, when you're ready, let's have a roll call. Randy Jones, present. Delberger, here. Carla Brown here. Gore here. Andy, yes. Here. Uh, I trust everybody had a chance to review the brief minutes from the last meeting, May 28th. Any changes to suggest for anybody? I didn't have any either. I entertain a motion to approve them as written. Then moved. Second. Roll call vote when you're ready. Danielle Gore. Yes. John Dberger. Yes. Andy Boils, abstain. Brown. Yes. Yes. Right. Amendments are approved from last month's meeting. We don't have any old business tonight, so we'll go right to new business. First item on the docket is 25-B 02, which is a request for front back variance. Whenever you're ready. Okay, this is the staff report permit correction variance petition docket number 25-B2 hearing date June 25th 2020 petitioners and property owners Kevin and Laura McCracken request is a variance from the front setback requirement ordinance provision section 4.6A 6A of the Brown County zoning ordinance titled standard setbacks. Location property is located at 1287 Old State Road 46, Nashville, Indiana in Washington Township. Home is located on the south side of Old State Road 46, approximately 160 196 feet west of the intersection with

Mail Couch Lane. Zoning and current land in use. The property is zoned primary residential R1 with an existing home. General findings. One, section 4.6A titled standard setbacks in the Brown County zoning ordinance provides that the minimum distance between the front line of a building and the center line of State Road 46 is 110 ft. Do the existing home has a permanent front porch with a 47 foot setback from the center of the road? The owners wish to construct a detached garage approximately 47 ft from the center line of the road. Three, the reduced setback extends toward the road and not toward neighboring property. Four, the petitioner provided an elevation profile from the center line of the road to the required 110 ft setback demonstrating that there is a 17t elevation change from the requested setback to the required setback. Five, the existing home will be remodeled according to the site plan provided. The existing septic system is to the rear of the home and will be repaired if possible. If the septic needs to be completely redone, the new location will be between the home and Old State Road 46. Next, this parcel is just outside approximately 670 ft just outside the town of Nashville limits, which which allows for greatly reduced setbacks. Seven, the parcels along this stretch of road are unique in that they are built on a bridge with an average setback of approximately 73 feet. Eight, according to the site plan, the rear and side setbacks will be exceeded. Nine, there are many examples of reduced setbacks in the area, ranging from new construction to structures that were built prior to the adoption of the Brown County voting ordinance. The board the board may grant a request for a variance with respect to a specific property if after conducting a

public hearing under section 7.2 of the Brown County zoning ordinance, it finds that one, there are special circumstances relating to the property that do not generally affect other property or other uses of the same kind in the same district and vicinity. Two, the special circumstances create hardship in that if the variance is not granted, a substantial property right that is enjoyed by other properties in that district and vicidity cannot be enjoyed. Three, the granting of the variance will not permanently will not be materially detrimental to the public welfare or materially injurious to other property ordinance in that district or vicinity. recommendation staff find no evidence that the approval of this variance will have any impact on neighboring property owners in the same district and vicinity of their vehicles of reduced setbacks on that same road. And this is the the home is the rear structure there. a photo of of how steep that decline is. And these are average setbacks um from properties located uh within about I think it was 800 ft between that first one there and the second one. And here's the elevation profile profile submitted by the petitioner and that's the end of the stack report. Thank you Kayla. Any questions from the board for Kayla cards?

Uh of the 19 that were sent out, eight were returned to us. I should ask you or the petitioner about and number five that the um existing septic systems will be repaired with cost. We can ask the petitioner. I I had spoken to the um construction person about that. So I don't know what they found out in the last couple weeks. Sounds good. Is the petitioner here tonight? Yeah. Yes. Would you step up the microphone? I I know Jane has a question for you. Is there anything else that you want? Yeah, go ahead, Jane. So, uh, number five of this report, uh, what what's what's wrong with the septic or will it need be repaired or I actually don't know what's wrong with the septic, but I know that, um, Bernie brief from the plants department has visited the site along with the soil scientist and Chris R, a septic contractor. They're actually coming out again tomorrow to take some more soil samples. And it looks very likely that the septic will need to be replaced, that it will be in front of the house, will not be in the vicinity of where we would like to put the garage, which is currently compacted gravel dry. So, there is a a front yard and they've already taken soil samples there that acceptable, but they want to make sure that there's enough square footage. So they need to take two more samples. The hope was to repair the existing for obvious reason. Uh but uh it it looks likely that it's going to be a replacement in the So you don't have approval yet. I mean we're just in the process for

that. Were you having trouble with the existing system or um was this We purchased the home in February and the previous owners had no problems. We have not really occupied the home. I see. Um I think basically there just aren't complete records and so they don't really know where the beachfield is. There are records for the septic tank. Yeah. Which appears to be intact. It's plastic. No problems here, but they can't identify where you so sounds like a much older citiz. So, uh, you're you're looking at the new system possibly maybe going in on the right lower corner quad there or Yes. Okay. But really kind of coming out front toward the toward Old State Road 46 on the left side of the house and then running parallel to the road. Not quite sure how far. Yeah. Okay. Well, I'm Laura McCracken. Hello. Thank you. Thank you for your touch the screen. It's a touch screen. It'll go. Okay. Thank you. Thanks. Any other questions? Yeah, I don't think so. Thank you for that. Um, anybody in the audience here tonight that wants to speak for this petition? People across the street. We just would you mind going up the microphone and identify yourself? Yeah, it's we record these so that we could get accurate minutes. Good evening. The Brett Rickets and my

wife Nancy Pikes. Uh we just purchased the property across the street and um we don't have any objection to this. I mean, we're going to be the ones that, you know, visually would impact and fine with it. Thank you. Anybody here tonight that wants to speak against this petition? Hey, I don't think so. So, I'll bring this back to us on the board to discuss and make a decision on I I personally don't have any problem with this myself. Jamie, I'm concerned about the second, but I I think we can motion. Um Randy, no, I really don't. uh this is a fairly small u variance and u based upon staff findings and recommendations and all we've heard so far I don't have any real issues with I don't have any problems with it the only question I had for the petitioner is the garage is just for parking it's there's no apartment or bathroom or anything like that out there right that is correct okay I'm Yeah, I don't know that the garage and the septic have anything to do with each other. I'm struggling to see any connection too other than that they're now required to have a septic inspection done when you purchase the property and so they can get it up to speed. I think I can clarify that a little bit. Um they're going to remodel the entire interior of the house and I think that's where the sephic conversation came in. So they're doing this variance for the garage at the same time they're trying to remodel. Okay. Okay. If that I think that's where the correlation came. Yes. And they already are.

Yeah. All right. Well, I'd entertain a motion. Anybody would like to make one? or I'll move that we approve doc number 25-v02 request for a front setback variance. I'll second uh roll call when you're ready. Daniel yes. Yes. Brown. Yes. Yes. Angor. Yes. Your request has been approved. Thank you. Next item tonight is document number 25-B3. This is a request for a rear setback variance. Have you ready? Okay. Staff report for Treyoff variance petition docket number 25-B3. Hearing date June 25th, 2025. Petitioners and property owners Sergey and Laura Trey. Request is a variance from the rear setback requirement of 25 ft. Ordinance provision section 4.6. 6B standard setbacks of the Brown zoning ordinance. Location 6947 Leopard Drive, Nineveh in Hamlin Township within the Cordri Sweetwater Conservancy District. The property is located on the south

side of Leopard Drive, approximately 490 ft west of the intersection with Lion Drive. Zoning and current land use. The property is zoned Lake Residential LR and has an existing home, garage, and dock. General findings. One, the Brown County zoning ordinance and the rules of the Cordri Sweetwater Conservancy District provide that in a residential district, the minimum distance between the rear line of structures and the rear property line should be no less than 25 ft. Do the property have a deck of 60 ft by 13 ft at the edge of the water? The petitioners wish to construct a small dry bar/ storage shed on the existing lower deck of the dock approximately 10 ft from the water line. The proposed structure will be 13 ft by 6 and 1/2 ft. This the shed portion will be for the storage of lake related items such as skis and life jackets. Three, although structures with a floor area of less than 120 square ft are exempt from obtaining a building permit, the step setbacks shall still be met. Four, the standard setback extends the reduced setback extends toward the lake and not toward private property. and according to the petitioner should have no visual impact on neighboring properties view of the lake. Six, there are many examples of reduced setbacks for pre-existing and for new construction within the quarter sweet water conservancy district nearby. Six, according to the site plan, all other setback requirements will be met. The board may grant a variance with respect to specific property if after conducting a hearing under section 7.2 two of the Brown County zoning ordinance. It finds that Would you guys like me to read one, two, and three? No, that's fine. We're familiar with them. Okay. Recommendation. Staff finds that there are many examples of reduced setbacks nearby located both on land and

on the water. After review, staff finds no evidence that approval of this variance will be materially detrimental to other property or uses in the same district or vicinity. This is from the driveway looking um houses here on the left looking down toward the lake. This is on the other side just showing new construction of a deck. This has nothing related to the various request at all. Existing dock. And then looking from the deck back up toward the house. And then there are elevations here. They're quite small. That's the end of the second part. Thank you, Kayla. Any questions from the board for Kayla? Her report. Were there other sitback examples in the area? Every one of them. Find this one that doesn't you see the purple squares. Oh, be the the process to amend. Would it be worth amending that or I mean already put a variance on? Well, that be it'd be we'd have to amend the zoning ordinance. So it' be out of our hands be up to them. I don't know if it would be with the conservancy or if it would be probably both. Probably both. Yeah. They overlap here a little bit, but I do think that's something that the area commission should look at. I mean,

it's a every lot there wants to put a shed by the I mean, did I miss something? Did we We wouldn't have that for a setback. The last one. Well, we didn't for the last one. Actually, it was unrelated to the setback on the last one. It just kind of slipped in that they were working on their septic system at the same time that they were building the garage, but we were only asked to consider the garage. The petitioners are here if we do want the septic location. Okay. you know, they're all on subjects out there. Yes. Okay. Um, petitioners here tonight. Yes. If um is there anything you'd like to add to K staff report? Anything you want to share with us? It's a pretty minor structure. We basically wanted a storage shed. It's 7 foot tall, 6 1/2 ft deep, and 13 wide sitting on the existing deck. And uh we're also dressing it up quite a bit compared to just a shed. It's we thought we'd put a a bar facade on the side facing the deck. And um like Caleb mentioned, it's it's u under 125 square ft, but because of the proximity to the uh to the lake and the property line, um Nick Shan at the conservancy center was fine with the board there as far as what we're doing. We provided elevations, uh all the diagrams and and just the only hangup is proximity to the property line. Um, and the property line is somewhat questionable because it's in the lake. It used to be land there

that's eroded over time. Now it's in the water and the surveyors compared to even this this diagram here. I don't know how accurate they are, but um, the only person it could even potentially impact is Josie Gray. We've talked to her at length and is perfectly fine with it. So, um, hopefully you'll approve it and I got diagrams if you need to see what it's going to look like. We have copies. Okay, we should. But it'd be that far and you can see the bar stools. We're being a little optimistic that we're going to get your approval, but that's where it's located right there. And we're the corner, the closest point to Josie Gay's lift is 17 feet. The her dock is 25 foot. And um there's quite a bit of clearance more than what the picture looks like is. And we're about um seven or eight feet above the water vertically. Anybody in the board have any questions for petition? I don't. Okay. Thank you very much for that. Is there anybody here tonight who wants to speak for or against this request? See anybody? So I'll bring this back to us here to make a decision on thoughts anybody is in peace. I think the only issue is the contractor being pressured by the bar stools already present. They start the work a little pressure. I think the petitioner may be the contractor. All right. Well, I unless anybody has any concerns, I I haven't heard that yet. Undertain a motion on this. I'd make a motion to approve docket number 25-B3

as submitted. I'll second that. Roll call vote whenever you're ready. Daniel Boles, yes. Brown, yes. Randy Jones, yes. Yes. John, yes. Okay, your request has been approved. Thank you very much. Yeah, just in time for summer. Maybe a little late. Um, the next item on our docket tonight is 25-sec on the line. This is a request for a special exception for a home occupation to a home state. When you're ready, Kayla. The staff report for home occupation home safe docket number 25-se9 hearing date June 25th 2025 petitioner and property owners Jackie Adams for Dorothy and Bo Gunnar Gustafson request special exception for a home occupation to allow on Wednesday ordinance provisions Nashville Town Ordinance Chapter 153 3 111 in appendix figure 9 special exception requirements. Location 158 Hillside Drive, Nashville, Indiana and Washington Townships. The site is on the north side of Hillside Drive, approximately 460 ft northwest of its intersection with Dogwood Drive in Park View subdivision is and is within the town of Nashville. Zoning and current land use. The property is zoned primary residential R1 and is currently occupied by the property owner's sister. General findings. One, the petitioner is requesting a special exception for a home occupation to offer short-term accommodation for up to four guests. Two, homeay home occupations are allowed

in primary residential with special exception approval. Three, home occupation is defined as an accessory use of a dwelling unit for a business, profession, trade, or vocation conducted within an enclosed dwelling, which is clearly incidental and secondary to residential occupancy and does not change the residential character thereof. Or homeay is defined as a single family residence that is occupied by the owner and that is used to provide up to two guest rooms to the public for a fee. Five, there will be no employees as the petitioner resides in the home full-time and will manage the property. Six, the lot area is approximately 52,196 square ft, 1.89 acres, 1.989 acres, and is outside the boundaries of special flood hazard area. Seven, the dwelling is located about 25 ft from the front line. Eight. The two-story home with a loft includes 2,865 square feet of floor space. Guests will have access to the two bedrooms and two bathrooms in the main level, which equal 1,154 square ft as well as the 588 ft loft area. Nine, the dwelling does not exceed the 35 ft height maximum. 10. The site plane shows that there is area for parking that is 9 ft by 20 feet which meets the requirement of one additional parking space. 11. A home occupation such as this should not significantly increase traffic in the area. 12. Water and sewer services are provided by the town of Nashville water utility. Findings are fast. The board may grant a special exception for use in a district of act hearing. It finds that one section 153.111 special exceptions requirements in

procedure and appendix A figure 9 in the town of Nashville zoning board ordinance authorizes a special exception for this use in the designated district findings. Home occupations are allowed in all zoning districts except in direct industrial within the town of Nashville jurisdictions. In residential one and residential two districts, a special exception is required. Two, the requirements for special exceptions prescribed by this ordinance will be met. Figure 9 appendix A, special exceptions and requirement holds the following requirements for home occupation. One, minimum lot area 12,000 square ft. Two, minimum front setback 20 ft or 20% of the lot depth, whichever is less. Three, minimum dwelling size 1,200 square f feet. Four, minimum sideyard 5t. Five, maximum building height 35 ft. Six, minimum parking, one additional. Findings and recommendation. It appears that each of the special exception requirements is satisfied in this petition. Based upon the findings, staff recommends granting this home occupation. report. Thank you, Kayla. Anybody on the board have a question, Kayla, about the report? How many parts were sent out? Six were sent and four were returned to us. I'm sorry.

Six were sent and four were returned back to us. Okay. Commissioners here tonight. Um did you have anything you wanted to add to Taylor's report or anything you want to share with us? Yeah, I think it's pretty clear. We're not adding any Yeah, I was gonna say if you do go to the microphone, I appreciate it. We're not adding any structures. We're not adding any parking spots. And um could you identify yourself? Oh, sorry. I'm Dorothy Gusto, one of the homeowners. Miss Dorothy, my only recommendation would be there's a pretty steep drop off behind that house over the creek. I would put some type of marking or some type offormational pamphlet on the inside of the residence for guests, but also something outside saying don't go past here. That's an excellent idea. And we have talked about putting in a split rail fence or something just for ourselves because there is a a steep drop off maybe 35 50 ft I don't know but yeah it it we watch the deer run along the ledge and we're there one of them tumble over the edge so we wouldn't want to guess who to on the other hand that area is heavily wooded so the chance that a guest would just occasionally wander out there and drop off the hill is pretty rare. I think for somebody to try and walk to the music center. Yeah, never never underestimate stupid people. Yeah, you're absolutely right.

Any other any questions for the petitioner from the board? Thanks for that. I appreciate it. Anybody here tonight that wants to speak for or against this petition? Don't see anyone. So, it comes back to us to talk about and decide. Any thoughts? Anybody on the boards? I'll move that we approve do a number 25-c petition of property owners Jack Adams with Estison request exception for a home occupation home occupation to allow for a home stay. Do we need to think that needs to be added to the motion or add a requirement? No recommendation I would second motion. Okay. Okay. All right. I have a motion that's been seconded. Roll call vote when you're ready. Daniel, yes. Yes. Gore. Yes. John Delgger. Yes. Andy boy. Yes. Okay. Your request has been approved. Thank you. Welcome. Dan, do you have any uh anything to share with us about it? Two matters. Yes, sir. Uh one, the Timberly Lodge. You in the past have denied special exceptions to for uses. uh you've only got an agree entry signed in that case in there because they're going to be enjoined from operating that that the building as a stone motel or hotel

unless the zoning ordinance changes or approval was granted and then they agreed to a $10,000. So that case is resolved. The second one is that we had argument on the Joe Nixon 2 case last Friday. So, we're awaiting a decision. So, that is slowly moving forward. Right. Thank you for that. What does business look like next month? I believe we have fun. Yes. I hate to jinx it, so I'll say it. All right. Well, I I entertain a motion to adjurnn. Motion to adjourn. Second. Roll call vote to adjurnn when you are ready. Andy Jones, yes. Jane Boyer, yes. John Delberger, yes. Andy Bo, meeting is adjourned. It's probably down below.