Board of Zoning Appeals - Regular Meeting

I'll call this uh November 12th, 2025 border zone appeals meeting to order. Uh first uh pledge of allegiance. Pledge 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.

David, do you want to do roll call? Yeah. Pete Saunders. Yeah. Vicky Gosski, present. Mark Danielson, present. Brian Cer, present. Nate LS, four present. Thank you. I finally turned it on. Approval of minutes. I'll make a motion to approve. Second. Have a motion and a second. All in favor? I I. Motion passes.

Item number five, uh, variance for development 25-12 petition. uh detached [snorts] accessory building to principal residential building from 10T to 8.5 ft with petitioner step forward. Please state your name and address for the record.

Hi, Doug BG. I I purchased property at 1817 Indiana Avenue. My current address is one Marine Drive, Michigan City. Uh so this house was built in 1938 and we're going to completely gut it and redo it. Take out the radiators and all that. You know how the old houses have small bedrooms? Well, I want to put a decent size master bedroom on the back. And so, half of it's going to be a master bedroom. Half of it's going to be a a three seasonasons room. And my designer and my builder drew the drawing. They like what's there and they don't want to change it. Well, 162C2 of this code says that you have to have two structures have to be at least 10 ft apart. And we are at 8'7 in. So, I'm asking for developmental variance uh for that for that space in between where the porch is going to be and the garage already exists. I'm not moving the footprint out towards the property line at all. It's all right between my house and my garage. And if you look at the standards, it's certainly not going to be injurious to the public self health and safety or general welfare of the community. Nobody's going to be affected like this at in an adverse manner whatsoever. And strict strict act application of of the of the rules will affect me because we're going to have to redo everything, redraw everything. And I don't want a smaller bedroom than what we what we drew. Any questions?

Thank you, sir. Thank you. No questions from staff at this time. David, you want to?

Yeah, just real briefly. Item number five, variance of development standards 25-12 petition is to reduce the minimum building setback for a detached accessory building to a principal residential building from 10 ft to 8 and 1/2 ft. Um, this property is as indicated [clears throat] is located 1817 Indiana Avenue. Um staff has inspected the site and gone through the request and detailed out in the staff report. Um as you can see the proposed addition is going closer to the existing garage. Um just going through some of the photos that I took of the site just so you get a vantage point of the house and the garage. Um this is from the front

as you can see there. Um and then so this is from the back as you can see the existing garage is there existing stone structure um which the petitioner wants to uh come closer to than what is currently allowed. Um the the approval of this is is to reduce the minimum building setback between the detached garage and the principal or the house um will not be injurious to the the public health, safety and general welfare because the proposed addition is between the existing house and the garage. um the use and value won't be affected of the surrounding properties because it is contained within this site and it's not increasing any setbacks beyond what is already there. Um so the strict application of the terms of the zoning ordinance will constitute an unnecessary hardship if applied to the property for which the variance is sought because the homeowner would not otherwise be able to build a reasonable addition to the existing single family dwelling without the variance request. So staff does find that the requested variance of development standards petition conforms to the goals and policies of the countywide land development plan. The requested variance to reduce the minimum building setbacks is compatible with the development of adjacent lots along Indiana Avenue that were constructed on average 100 plus years ago. So staff does [snorts] recommend approval of the petitioner's request to reduce the minimum building setback between the detached accessory building and primary house from 10 ft to 8 1/2 ft as part of variance of development standards petition 25-12. And I'll answer any questions if you have them.

Any questions? No. No. Um, at this point, I'll open it for public comment. Is there anyone from the public? [snorts] So, hearing none, I'll close this portion. Public comment. We want to make a motion. I'll make a motion to approve the variance. Second. Uh, motion and a second. All in favor? I motion pass. Thank you. Thanks, sir.

Uh item number six, variance development standards 25 uh-13 to exceed maximum accessory building area requesting 976 ft. The petitioner step forward. Please state your name and address for the record. placement.

Um, hello. My name is Christa Medina. I am the owner of 816 I Street. I am here today because my petition to have a gazebo built in my backyard has exceeded the limit of 721 square feet. The total area with the structure being built will be 976 ft. It exceeds the limit by 255 square ft. The structure size will be 16 ft x 24 ft. The rear end will be reduced from 10 feet to six feet and the side will be reduced from 10 feet to four feet. The structure is not over the property line. It is all in the property. It is behind my garage. So, it's it just seems to look like it's an extended part to the garage. I don't believe the structure will be will affect the property in a negative way. I believe it will enhance it in a positive way by updating the yard and giving my home an outdoor area to be able to spend quality time in. The structure will also provide a place for shade which my yard is lacking of.

Does anybody have questions? I have any questions currently? No. Okay. So, you're building you're I'm just to make clear you're building this on the garage or off the side of the garage. Yeah. Okay. David, you'd like to hear us?

Yeah. So, item number six, variance of development standards 25-13 petition is to exceed the maximum accessory building area requesting 976 square ft in total area. Um, in other words, [clears throat] the petitioner proposes to allow a 16x4 covered roof addition. You can see on the uh presenter here that the red dot is where the addition would be located. Site plan is a little unclear. Um but just wanted to show that for reference. Um staff did um discuss this with the the petitioner. Um originally um since this property is located in the B2 general commercial zoning district, it there is only a setback of three feet from the side in the rear yard for accessory buildings. Um, and it's because it's not in a residential district is why there's different setbacks. Um, just going through the photos of the site, as you can see, as the petitioner has described, the proposed covered roof addition doesn't extend beyond the plane of the existing detached garage, um, which is 24x 24 ft. Um, and this is just showing from the back on the other side of the fence. You can see, um, is well within the limits from the backyard there. Um there's the addition and then this is just showing from the back just showing the property lines there. Um staff did go out and look at some of the um accessory buildings in the area and discovered that there is a a range of sizes in the area from 120 ft to about 976 ft on surrounding properties just in the general vicinity around specifically around the port high school. Um, as you can see, just re just close by, there's a garage that's kind of an extended bay with a garage on the back. Um, and then again, just going further down I Street to the north, you can see the same thing addition on the back half of the garage. Um, and so staff does find that the

requested variance of development standards petition conforms to the goals and policies of the countywide land development plan. The requested variance to exceed the ME maximum accessory building area is compatible with the existing accessory buildings in the surrounding area. So staff does recommend approval with a modification of the petitioner's variance request to allow 976 square ft of maximum accessory building area as part of variance development standards 25-13. And I think I drew in the modification because we changed the the building setbacks because 3 feet is allowable under the zoning ordinance. So you can just disregard the modification there. And so yeah,

I don't have anything. We have any questions? No. No. For me, you like to make a motion? Make a motion to approve the variance of development of 25-13. Second. I'll second. Motion second. All in favor? I. Thank you. Thank you.

Item number 72514. uh 9,368 square feet requested.

Good evening, Mr. Chairman, board members. I apologize Mr. Schoffner couldn't be here due to work and asked me to apologize for him. Um, as David has summarized very well, my client's seeking uh to add to his current pole barn that's on his property that formerly was in the county and now is part of the annexation. um he'd like to bump it up to 9,368 square feet and exceed the height for an accessory building. Uh we submitted with our petition drawings of the building, what it's going to look like. Um Mr. Schoffner owns Shaner Construction. You can rest assured it will uh be very appealing and an asset to the neighborhood. that honey.

I don't have anything. And to just clarify, it's for personal use, not business use. Correct. Correct. Okay. You know how we men are, the older we get, the more toys we collect. He needs some more storage. Storage space. [snorts] It's quite a big increase though. I'm sorry. It is quite a big increase from just under 7,000 right as the allowance to 9,000 9,300. Correct. Right.

Uh David

Yeah. So item number seven, variance of development standards 25-14 petition is to exceed the maximum accessory building area requesting 9,368 square ft. Um and also on the notice documents was to exceed the 18 ft um because the petitioner like to go flush with the existing structure that's already there. um that didn't make it on the agenda, but modification for that because it was noticed um in the documents that the applicant has sent out. Just wanted to make that clear for the record. Um the parcel is 13.07 acres. As you can see, as outlined in red, there is an existing building and a um a larger house on the property there along West 300 North. Um as you can see, the building would be a 40x60 addition to the existing building. you see um as with two garage doors. The petitioner would like to add an additional one or two garage doors there. Um I think there the the elevation didn't make it in there, but that's okay. Um and so staff has reviewed the request and does find that the requested variance of development standards petition conforms to the goal goals and policies of the countywide land development plan. There's requested variance to exceed the MAC maximum accessory building area and maximum building height for a deta detached accessory building is compatible with the surrounding area that have similar accessory buildings um in the general vicinity. So staff does recommend approval of the petitioner's request to allow 9,368 square ft of maximum accessory building area and the increase in the height maximum height of 18 ft tall. Um as part of the variance of development standards 25-14 and I'll answer any questions if you have them.

And to clarify the addition is not 9,000 square feet. The total building will be after the addition. It's one question. Um, still planning to try it this year or in the spring? I believe he's still planning on trying it this year. Okay. To quit getting 8 in of snow.

Any other questions from B? At this point, I'll open up for a couple public comment. Anyone from the public? Hearing none, I'll close public comment. You want to make a motion? I'll make a motion to approve the variance 25-14. Second. Second. Motion is second. All in favor? I. Motion passes. Thank you. Thanks, sir.

Item number eight, 25-15. Good evening. Scott Savanic from Dylan Group, Tommy Evans from DA Group, John Cavage the uh developer. We're here asking for a couple variances. Um the property's located southwest corner of Monroe Street Boy Boulevard. It's on 31 acres. Uh we actually from last meeting we had immediate planning commission. We listened to everybody. We went back and redesigned the subdivision itself. Um, we removed a lot of interior roads with that. That's why we're asked for a couple variances. Uh, it's going to be 70 new single family homes. There's two existing homes on site that are actually going to remain. We're we actually work that in there. And there's going to be 49 rental units on the north side of the road to be named. Um we're asking for a variance from R1D section 4.04. Uh rear yard setback there is normally 20. We're asking for 10. The reason for that is the we don't think it's be a real harm to the to the subdivision because everyone's going to have everyone in the backyard is going to have open space. We basically keep almost we're trying to keep all the trees that we can in the backyard. We're not going to touch anything. Originally there was it was going to be demolished. So, [snorts] we've uh really listened to listen to the people and listen to the board as we're asking for from a 20 foot to a 10- foot reduction. Um, also we're asking for the front yard setback on the R2B to be 10 feet from 10 feet to from 15 feet to 10 feet. Um, reason for that is we're just, you know, uh just the way the units are. We're going to have about 18 to 19 feet

between the curb and the actual building line itself. So you still have your 20 feet of be able to put the utilities in like we're thinking. Um so if you guys would be allow us to do that'd be awesome. We're ask also asking forance to allow into the uh backing into a street. So what we've done is on the rental property so we don't have on a rental property you know is you have rent you have a lot of cars. So, we're trying [snorts] to keep the cars as many cars off the road as possible. So, we're trying to add a little bit of [clears throat] a parking lot because with a parking lot then you have to start getting into landscaping, tearing down more trees. We're trying to really keep this minimal as we can. So, we're just asking if we can instead of have what they call pullins, you know, six or seven parking spaces on each side of the actual rental properties and then we can just back out like any anyone else would in a driveway or anything. We're not asking for to have 25 or 30 parking spaces, just enough to try and keep minimum amount of cars off the pro off the street as we can. We we have made the road a little bit wider than normal. Um it's not the normal standard. We've actually increased it by about I don't know four to six feet wider than a normal road on the east west road and north part. Um, also we were asking about getting a waiver for Boyd Boulevard, putting a sidewalk in, but it sounds like talking to the staff and I'll speak for them, but it sounds like if we if the developer would be open to putting money into a a bank basically and then down the road when Boyd Boulevard sidewalks come in, that money would be added for Boyd Boulevard. Uh, but we do have sidewalks throughout the rest of the property. you can get from point A to point B. We've also left a cart path um on the south part to go back into the golf course. So that way it's everyone can who's in there, they don't have to get on Boyd Boulevard and cut on over.

They can just walk to their golfing. Um as you see on the south part, um there's going to be single family homes facing the lake. Like I said, in the middle, we basically try to keep as many trees as we can. Um we're not going to cut any of those down. and then the two parking spaces. And I think that's it for now. Yeah. You have any questions, we're here to ask answer. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Nothing from me, David.

Yeah. So, I can I can go through this real really briefly. As was mentioned, Scott mentioned item number eight, variance of development standards 25-15 petition. Um you've heard the requests for the variances. So I'm just going to explain um staff's analysis on each of the requests kind of line by line. Um and just going through um the request for the front yard setbacks. Staff feels that the front yard set or uh the rear yard setback and the front yard setback allows um additional space to be provided for open space within the development itself. Um so staff does not have any issues with the effect upon the approval um of those two requests because it is consistent with a lot of the developments in the surrounding area that have happened in the city. Um and so with that I would go to the two small parking areas perpendicular to the street for the town home lots to allow the motorists to back into the street. Um this is fairly typical of a lot of sub or houses in the city of Leaport. People have to back into a street in order to go. Um they're requesting the same thing in order to um allow additional guest parking for the town home units. Um and so those particular things are comparable to what's already existing in the city limits. So staff recommends approval of th that request. Um the removal of the sidewalk requirement as was mentioned by Scott along the major thoroughfare frontages. Uh Monroe Street already has a sidewalk on it on the south side of Monroe Street. So that there's no there's no request there. Um Boyd Boulevard does not have a sidewalk and as was mentioned um city trails, greenways and blueways master plan has identified Boyd Boulevard as an opportunity for a future option for a pathway or a trail or a sidewalk. Um and so certainly welcome

the participation on that aspect. Um and so staff has included a recommended condition um including language in the variance request to allow that to to take place. Um and so and then the do we want to mention the last one?

Yeah, let me handle this one if you don't mind. So and just one clarification on the last point that David made. Um, so it's pretty standard for communities to require a waiver um of installation of a sidewalk for the developer to participate at a later date financially in the installation of a sidewalk or pathway which in our case based on that uh greenways and pathways master plan. We would ask them to help us with the installation um contributing towards the installation of that pathway in the future um which would be a more comprehensive project that would you know serve a larger area at a later date. Um and then finally, the other request that was originally made and part of the um uh notices that went out uh was a request to uh reduce the required um 20 foot wide utility easement to 10 ft as per the public works construction standards um in uh as they as they refer to easements. And um since that was advertised and part of the petition, we do need to take action on the request. the request the staff has for that is that the board of zoning appeals actually um table that portion of the request this evening to allow us to further um work with the petitioner on that request and um specifically to work with our um uh wastewater and water directors

uh to see if there is a need for that still based on the design of the subdivision and to verify the jurisdiction as far as what body really needs to take action on that request. So, um, we would be to be clear as part of your motion this evening, we would request that you consider tableabling that specific item that was included in the request, um, for that reason. So, um, just wanted to add that to the staff report and [snorts] all under one action. Uh, yeah, you could you could do the remainder of those as one action, I think, as long as Mr. Worthly is is comfortable with that since they're all developmental standards requests. Yeah. Okay.

Um, [snorts] any questions currently? When are they thinking about starting construction? Hi, I'm John Kobchock, the developer. Uh, we'd love to start as soon as possible. So, as soon as we get through all the primary plat and related approvals, uh, we'd love to get going. So, so a month, two months, 3 months, four months. You know, I always like to be conservative, but uh probably, you know, start land development like uh six to seven months from now. That would be ideal. Thank you. You know, weather dependent and stuff like that. Uhhuh. That's our goal. Thank you. Thank you.

At this [snorts] point, I'll open up for public comment. There's no public comment. I'll close this portion of public comment. Um, staff would like to make a motion with You want me to do it? Wa.

Try it. I make a motion for variance of development of standards for 20 number 25-15 petition which would be basically to reduce the minimum rear uh building set back 20 ft to 10 ft in R1D zoning district and reduce the yard set back from 15 to 10 in R2B and the public works construction section, the parking areas. Don't forget the part the the two small parking areas just Oh, and the two parking areas. Sorry.

Yep. And then the easements will be tabled. Sorry to be wordy. Sidewalk. [snorts] The waiver. The sidewalk uh waiver form [cough] and remove the sidewalk. You want that in there also? that we're uh we're not approving the sidewalk waiver or the the removal of the sidewalk requirement, but they're that we're requiring a waiver um to participate at a later date. So move that and I'll second that. So then we're approving based on the condition that they're Okay. Yeah. Yep.

Yeah, that's exactly right. Okay. Motion and a second. All in favor? I I motion passes. Yeah. Um old business, new business. No other business. I'll make a motion to adjurnn. Seconded. Second. All in favor? Hi. Hi. Let's go and my tweet.