Board of Zoning Appeals - Regular Meeting

2025. Our first order of business would be the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands nation indivisibley for all. Roll call, please. Roger here. Dean, Michael Sims, here. William Hutton here. Thomas here. Danali here.

Thomas here. Marcus Taylor here. Seven present. We have a quum. Thank you very much. Is there a motion on the floor for the approval of the minutes of June 6, 2025? I make a motion to approve. Second it. Second. Second. Thank you.

I was waiting for Brian to sit down. Thank you. Can we have a vote, please? Yes. Sim. Yes. Thomas. Yes. Yes. Yes. Marcus, yes. William, yes. I zero. Thank you, Mr. Poland. Do we have any old business? Um, how about Oh, we did that already. Yeah. Sorry. We're we're down to number four now. Okay. Old business. Okay. CP-25-05.

Okay. If you recall, we had a subdivision plat, excuse me, uh for the Hammond Brier East Merkantail Plaza. Um after we received the recorded subdivision plat, we noticed that they forgot to fill in the um document numbers that were associated with the uh access cross access and the sewer easements. So that led us to a certificate of correction that was done by the uh surveyor. Uh typically how we handle uh the planning commission side of the um certificate of correction and I think Shannon you didn't copy a second page on the document but there was Oh, I'm sorry. There it is. I take stand corrected. If you look at the actual drawing, um there's language uh upon which the uh plan commission and the uh secretary signs and typically that this would um have been brought back to a plan commission meeting and uh we would make a motion to approve that. But because of their timing on the project that uh we modified the language um just to defer that to the president of the plan commission and because this was done um a little out of the norm of how we handle it. Um we are asking for the plan commission to take action to and the motion would be to ratify the certificate of correction for the Hammond Brier East Birkantil Plaza subdivision. Thank you, Mr. Poland. Are there any questions by any of the commissioners regarding this document?

Hearing none. Is there a motion on for the ratification? Mr. President. Yes. I move to uh ratify the certificate of correction. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. Call to vote. Yes. Sim. Yes. Yes. Yes. And Shannon, could you turn your mic on because I cannot hear you at all. Is this better? Yes. Okay. Thomas Dverton? Yes. Marcus Taylor? Yes. William Hutton?

Yes. Seven eyes, zero nays. Motion passed. Mr. Poland, is there anything else we need to do for this? Uh, no. That concludes that.

Thank you very much. We appreciate it. Moving on to new business CP-25-07, petition of storage development Hammond LLC for approval. a one lot subdivision of Hammond storage addition to the city of Hammond located at 3518 Sheffield Avenue and 345 136th Street which is zoned I1 light industrial district and C4 general commercial district within the city of Hammond Lake County Indiana. Mr. Secretary, have all the notification requirements been met?

Yes, they have. Thank you very much. And do we have a petitioner at the podium? Yes. Flourish. And I apologize for the extra 30 minutes on the boardman. Uh Scott Yan. Thank you. Y Ah ne uh three Lincoln Way, Valareerezo, Indiana. Thank you. And I also have with me Amit Patel who is our real petitioner here but I'm going to stand in and try to uh give an overview for y'all. Thank you. Okay. Um so Amit is here. His company is storage develop storage deev Hammond LLC.

Hang on one second Jake. What are you trying to do? Okay. All right. Okay, thanks. Sorry, Scott.

Oh, no, certainly. Um, and we're here concerning there are two common addresses. I'll give a little bit of background, but 3518 Sheffield and 345 136th Street. So that'll give us our orientation. But if you look at um the overview of the GIS um that is on page one of my supporting letter for 257. Uh 257 is a petite an application for subdivision approval. And then when we get to 08, that's going to be a petition to reszone because we have um couple of parcels that were zoned differently than the surrounding parcels. So that just is our big overview. Um Amit has a a rather substantial development plan uh for this area. Um he'll have to come back before the BCA and furtherance of that plan. He's already been before the redevelopment commission and uh received approval from the redevelopment commission before coming here and uh in this process he's been uh busy working with Mr. Poland and other representatives of the city and has a uh pretty extensive project that he uh intends to undertake. One of the give just a little of this background. One of the significant aspects of that of this project is that you might wonder that's a really big swath of land. What used to exist there? As far back as anybody can determine, nothing. And there are a number of reasons for that. I've looked at maps because I was kind of curious back into the 20s and 30s uh because those are some of the first aerial maps that we could see and there's nothing developed there. Now in recent years, one of the primary drivers for that is

there is environmental contamination that has existed on that site and meat has been working extensively to uh remedy that issue and has one of our earliest steps here was working with Ron Novak uh to come up with an action plan that if he gathers the approvals that he'll go forward on to address those concerns. So what we are talking about in this instance is uh putting to work a parcel of property that has you know hasn't been able to work for the the city to this point. Uh so the property is currently zoned um or segmented between I1 light industrial and C4 general commercial districts. We're going to ask you to convert the uh C4 later in the other petition. Convert the C4 to I1.

Stick to the subdivision. I'm sorry. Stick to the subdivision.

Editorial comment here. I'd like to let people know where we're going. But uh in any event, we've got a a long uh legal description and we're trying to combine this long uh legal description into a single parcel. And that in essence is uh the uh the basis for this application for subdivision approval. Ultimately, if you look at page six, you'll get an overview of the development that AM meet plans. Uh ultimately he'd like to put on a uh climate controlled storage facility that's about 200,000 square ft, a 311 canopy parking stall storage for RVs um and boats. So these will be enclosed settings. And one of the kind of really interesting and exciting attributes of this project is that these stalls, these parking stalls will have solar roofs on them. They'll have solar collectors. So, we're going to also be generating uh electricity at that at that site via solar collection. And these are pretty advanced uh panels and uh meat has been traveling all over the por place sourcing these and he's ready to to do this project. Uh and so we did bring this out to redevelopment commission and it's got a lot of attributes from an economic perspective that aren't necessarily for us tonight but at least that the redevelopment commission has considered. Uh and for that reason uh amongst some others we think this is a really good project ultimately for Hammond. Um we need to show you in the application for subdivision and working uh together with uh uh with Mr. Poland uh Don Tinga has worked extensively in coming up with this uh subdivision plan. Um and there were I will just tell you

there were a lot of tweaks along the way in this process. Uh I'm happy to get down into any of the details. Uh but we do meet the four criteria that we need to meet for the application. And for that reason, we're asking for approval of this subdivision application this evening.

Okay. If I may help you along, Mr. Yang. Um, for the plan benefit of the plan commission, um, this is actually currently five tax parcels. And even though we talked about the addresses of 3518 Chev Sheffield and 345136 Street, um, there's a couple of other addresses that are associated with the current configuration of the property. Uh, this property also has two wetland areas. Um, in the subdivision plat, you will see that these are called out as wetland easements. Uh, there's an existing utility easement that is not in conflict with the proposed development. Um, oh, and I was going to say one of the tax parcels are are interesting just by itself because along 136 Street or some people call it Boy Scout Road, um, there is a two- foot wide strip of land that parallels the the street and that is colloally called as a spite strip. Um and that was at one time owned by the IHB and then ultimately um it had been acquired by um the actually the lot that's the gas station is on their portion of it and then uh he Mr. Patel has acquired his portion of it. Um going back to the use of the property, I think this has pretty much been um slag dump um over the years and and that's where the environmental issues start. Um because of the way the parcels are drawn, there are no um legal descriptions that go to the to the center line of the street. So there's no no need to dedicate any of the streets on the adjacent adjacent to this. Um and

then ultimately it is uh to consolidate into one lot and then the final address of the property would be 3518 Sheffield Avenue.

Thank you Mr. Poland. Before we go any further, Mr. Patel, is that correct? Yes. Did you sign in? Um, the sheets over in that podium if you would please. It's just a formality, but we would appreciate the paperwork.

Thank you. Thank you very much. With that being said, are there any questions or comments, contributions from any of the commissioners? Any questions? If not, moving on, we'd like to open it up to the general public. Is there anybody in the public that would like to voice an opinion or anybody online who would like to voice an opinion? Anybody online or in the public? If hearing nothing, public comment is now closed. Commissioners, last chance. Any questions, comments?

Mr. Poland, would you like to offer your recommendation? Sure. Um, in addition to my previous comments, um, the lot does meet the minimum, uh, lot size requirements in area for the lot. Um, there's at least one technical thing on the plat that needs to be addressed. I know that it's not on the version that you have, but I know the comment has been given to Mr. Patel and he's passed it on to Teringa. Um, the plat does not specifically put the 3518 Sheffield address in the correct location to um, effectuate that. uh address uh change. That being said, I'm sorry. Go ahead.

Okay. That being said, the subdivision plat was sent out for agency review. Um not all agencies responded in the time frame. Typically, NIPCO is not responding in the time frame. Of all the responses, no objections were received. Staff's opinion is that the plat meets the requirements set forth in the subdivision control ordinance and recommends that the plane commission grant preliminary and final approval of the subdivision plant subject to um one the technical corrections that I referenced and two um the approval of the resoning by the plan commission and the city council. um because of the two zoning, we assumed it's going to be the I1 zoning and the final end final once that's finally approved. Um so all of our tech our technical review was based on the I1 zoning, but we just need to have that completed in the second step. If the plan commission agrees with the staff report is recommended, this staff report is adopted as findings effect.

Thank you, Mr. Poland. Any questions, comments? Thank you. Is there a motion on the floor? Motion to approve. Um, is does that motion go for preliminary and final approval and including the two conditions? Yes. Second. That was a yes and a second. Can we have a roll call vote, please? Roger Rob, yes. Ronald Sims, yes. Thomas Casmirzac, yes. Dance Fatali,

yes. Thomas Dvertton, yes. Marcus Taylor, yes. William Hutton, yes. Seven eyes, zero nays, zero extensions. Motion pass. Mr. President, go ahead. I'd also like to make a motion uh that we uh adopt these this report as binding effect. Do I hear a second? Second. Thank you. Can we have a roll call vote, please? Roger. Yes. Ronald Sims, yes. Thomas Casmir Zach, yes. Dan Vitali, yes. Thomas Dabberton, yes. Marcus Taylor, yes. William Hutton, yes.

Seven eyes, zero naysay, zero abstensions. Motion passed. Thank you very much. And then uh Mr. Patel or Mr. Yani, um would you just please follow up with Mr. Tanga to make sure that the technical corrections that we've identified and then I'd like to see a digital copy first before you give us the myars. I'd like to add one more comment if I may. This is a very unusual piece of property, a very unusual configuration with a lot of obstacles. Thank you for taking it and and making it work. I wanted to say the same thing. I'm sorry. We appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.

Regardless how some of us may come off. Thank you. And I'm sure you had a lot of help from Mr. Poland and his staff. Indeed.

Thank you. Hearing that, let's move on to our next case, and that would be CP-25-08. Petition of Storage Development Hammond LLC to reclassify property located at 3518 Sheffield Avenue and 345 136th Street, which is zoned I1 Lightnustrial District and C4 General Commercial District to I1 Light Industrial District within the city of Hammond, Lake County, Indiana. Madam Secretary,

has all requirements been met? Yes, they have. Thank you very much, Mr. Petitioner. Yes. Uh Scott Yan once again for petitioner and uh meat is here as well. Want to say hello to my friend uh Mr. Dverton and wish we were at least where he appears to be. Whether he is or not, it's lovely. No, it's I'm where I'm where you think I am, Scott. Thank you. Oh, great. Good to see you. Good seeing you.

Um, so this is the petition to reszone that I got out a little ahead of myself the last time. Um, and on page two, you can see the the the area of the property that is currently designated in C4. It's that red box. um and all around the property. Um and that consists of a I think it's trying to remember if it's one or two parcels uh that were Luke Oil uh owns a gas station. Uh and I do want to indicate that I actually spoke with representatives of Luke Oil. They're fully aware of this. Sent them all the documentation and uh they're not here this evening, but they seem very enthused by the project. I'll just pass that along. um the property um to move forward coherently requires the same designation. It does uh in terms of because we're going to have a single lot now that has just been approved subject to meeting some conditions. Um and so we're seeking to have that single lot have the same zoning designation of I1 rather than bifurcated C4 and and I1. Um, we have to show to you uh that we comply with that this change will comply with the comprehensive plan uh and specifically um that we meet the amended North Hammond redevelopment plan and on page four I and five I've set forth the 10 criteria um of why we think this project complements the Hammond Marina which uh this area is designated to help enhance and how the amenities this project if approved would offer uh enhance that

entire area. Um first of all I mentioned the interior climate controlled storage and the RV and uh um and boat storage. Um this will also this facility will also um feature a cleanout and wash bay. That's an very large and with a high roof so that RVs can be cleaned under roof. Um it will have a full dump station for RVs. Um, it's going to have a lounge that allows people who are there working on the RV, updating it, um, doing the type of work that they would want to do to have be there with their families, including loading and coming to the the park, picking up the uh, RV, and then heading out. So, it's got a full uh, lounge uh, with couches, TVs, play area for children. It's designed for families. Um there's also a recreational area with a dog park. In short, this is intended to be uh a very family uh friendly facility. It will be highly secured in terms of access to and from the facility. Um and we think that the this will um enhance the services and quality of life for Hammond residents. It's going to give a a uh dynamic use to this property. Uh there will be employment associated with this facility. We're maximizing the use of this land which hasn't been able to be put to use thus far. Uh we're encouraging new investment, increasing local tax base, um inviting new private investment, and these are all criteria that are set forth within the comprehensive plan uh that addresses this area. uh and it

enhances the utilization of the Hammond Marina and even Lake George uh as a community resource having these facilities nearby. Um and we're addressing an environmentally challenged property in this project. So, we think it really hits it out of the park when we look at the comprehensive plan, which is something we ought not pay short attention to when considering a zoning change. um the current condition and character of the uh structures uh in in this district. You need to consider I think you're all familiar with this parcel out on Boy Scout Road. We're not going to cause any uh issues with applying um or conferring I1 light industrial district uses. We already given you, you know, usually at this stage I may not know the intended use sometimes. here we know uh and it is going to be uh something that is very suitable for this facility. Uh as to any concern uh that you might think well we've got RVs coming on and off the property. These are relatively few visits per day. If you think of it think about it people are going to park their RVs uh leave their boats there for extended period. So, you know, there will be many days where there are five 10 visits in total the entire day. So, this is not a traffic stream that's going to overburden us. And it's in an area that can facilitate that type of traffic. Uh, and we're also we have a lot of buffers. If you looked at those overhead images of the uh property, some of the even the Google Earth images um on page two of my letter, you really get a sense of kind of the either the train tracks or the road and uh tree lines. There are a lot of buffers to this property, including uh the existing water on site um that will act as

buffers to the surrounding area. So, this is not going to be a a use or a zoning designation that conflicts at all with surrounding properties. Uh, we have to show you that this is the most desirable use for the land. Um, and we think that this use that we've come forward with is very desirable. um in being mindful of the fact that we are seeking a zoning change. Um it would allow other uses, you know, in the future potentially, but we've gone through with Mr. Poland and you'll see on miss on page six and seven and eight of our of the supporting letter through the striketh through language all the sorts of things that we say you're not approving here this evening. Um, so we have a specific use in mind. Um, but for example, we're never going to sell fireworks from this site. Um, uh, we're not going to, obviously, you know, one of the uses that I one permits is adult entertainment. That's never permitted here. Um, no vehicle sales, towyard, not not allowed. So, there are a lot of or there are some uses in I1 that we are just saying no, those don't belong here. and uh and we agree that as part of any approval those uses would be stricken. Uh we have to show you that we're conserving property values. Uh here I think we're greatly en enhancing property values. We're giving a good uh coherent use to this property. Uh and that ties into our fifth factor that this is evidence of responsible development and growth uh and will be something a big investment in the Hammond community that's going to pay off in many ways in future years. So in light of uh we believe establishing those criteria uh we are seeking a uh change of the zoning map uh to permit I1

light industrial district uses uh on the property that we have just now designated as lot one. So thank you. Thank you Mr. Y. Any questions, comments from any of the commissioners? Mr. Poland? Yeah, I have some questions.

Um, in your on page six and seven and eight, when you do lay out the uh uh uses that you want to um exclude from the zoning, are you planning on a covenant document to effectuate that? Yes, I'll I'll prepare a covenant document. Okay. And then just for discussion purposes, um you may want to leave uh section 1110 number five, which is basically the cell towers. Oh, because you got a it's a three-story building. Correct. Correct.

You know, I don't know what the how what the grid is and whether there's any um dead zones. you might want to just think about that maybe um not elimmit, you know, to to not preclude the opportunity of a cell tower on top of the building. We would like to retain that possibility. I'm not quite I don't have a specific recollection of why we thought we needed to exclude it, but if we could leave it in, we'd like to. Yeah. So, so, so, um, so anyway, you if you can um prepare the covenant document um um for us as and I I everything else I don't um have any concerns about what you're what you're suggesting.

Thank you, Mr. Poland. I do have some questions. Thank you, if you don't mind. No, no, I was uh preparing in my mind. Okay. Um, looking at these common access gates, how do these gates operate? I'm glad I have I've heard the description, but I think Amit is going to do far better than me. I know he will,

Mr. Patel. So, so there there two common ways. One is uh through an RFID, which is basically like a IP pass sticker that you have that are provided to the customers. The second way is usually like a pin pad. There's a pin pad right at the gate that they punch in the code and the gate will open based on, you know, if they're RV customer or are they a self- storage customer. With that in in mind, I appreciate that understanding. How do the gates actually operate? How do they move?

So, they there there's multiple types of ones that go sliding back and forth. And then they also have one that actually just goes up the angle which is more preferred. It just goes vertical. That's I don't know if I'm answering like an operational question or No, you're you're answering my question because I'm looking at the sliding gate. Um if you look at the one on the just off of Sheffield Avenue to the left of Sheffield Avenue. Yep.

If that one's a sliding gate, then that would be sliding onto somebody else's property. Correct. So, it would our preference is the the vertical. They're much better than any uh any of these uh those style or sliding styles. Well, I'm an architect by trade, so I'm I'm pretty sensitive to this. The last question I have or the second to the last is when I look at the gate on Boy Scout Road,

Yes. What's the number of vehicles that could stack there to get to the operator, whatever it might be, a pad, a keypad, whatever it is, before cars start backing up onto the road. You're talking about 136 Street, correct? If I'm looking at uh it looks like probably only one or two are less. Just something for you to consider. Okay. Yep. I I think we can. It looks like we might be able to move it further. So, to get at least two in the queue. Okay. That's all I had. Yeah. You'd want to make sure the queue is on property. Yep.

On the street. And then the only thing about the gates going up, you got clearance issues of of a taller vehicle and then you get into height issues of a fence. So just we have to we'll have to talk about that.

Thank you. I appreciate it. Any questions from the commissioners? Moving on. We'd like to open this to the general public for comment. Is there anybody in the audience or anybody online who would like to comment on this case? Anybody in the public? audience or online hearing none. We'll close public comment. Any last chance commissioners? This is this is a good plan. This is good. I tell you this is good. Um Mr. Poland, it's your turn.

Thank you.

You're welcome. Um so as stated the request is to reszone the property to a single classification of I1 light industrial. Um the staff report goes through the five criteria that the state requires us the plan commission to consider for the resoning. Um that kind of speaks for itself. Um, we also talked about that uh there's going to be a covenant document that talks about restricting some of the uses. The other thing um um for the petitioners I um when it comes to covenants, you know, Scott, when we talked about uh self- storage before, you know, we had um and this is something that can be addressed through the board of zoning appeals, it would be um those hazardous materials and those types of prohibition. So that would be probably a either the same document or a separate document on the covenants for that.

I was just I don't want to speak out of order, but rather than record two covenants, could we make it a condition? Because I just hate to muddy the chain of title too much. It's only because since we didn't address that here, and we're going to probably address it at BCA, you've got covenants that are coming from a plan commission action and a BCA action. So, I think that's a a legal question we can talk about with our attorney. Okay. if it has to be separate or single documents if possible. I'd like to do a single, but just throwing it out there.

Okay, that might be tricky wording, but fair enough. We can discuss that. Um, that being said, uh, staff recommends that the plan commission forward to the petition to the city council with a favorable recommendation. I'm going to amend the report by saying subject to the recording of a commitment document restricting the specified I1 uses. If the plan commission agrees that the recommendation with the recommendation, the staff request that this report as amended is adopted by the plan commissioners finds effect.

Thank you, Mr. Poland. Any questions? Hearing none, is there a motion on the floor? Make a motion to approve with the second. Hold it with the addendums with the amendments, the changes. I didn't hear what he said. Oh. Make a motion to approve with uh said amendments. Okay. Actually, you have to say that you are making a recommendation to the city council and whether you're saying favorable, unfavorable, or without a recommendation. and the preferred is favorable.

Mr. President, yes. I will make a motion to uh forward the petition to the city council with a favorable recommendation subject to I didn't catch everything that you said subject to the uh the recording of the commitment document restricting the specified I1 uses. back. Thank you. Second. Second. Thank you. Roll call vote. Roger. Yes. Ronald Sims, yes. Thomas Casmir, yes. Dan Fatali, yes. Thomas Dabberton, yes. Marcus Taylor, yes. William Hutton, yes. Seven eyes, zero nays, zero extensions. Motion pass. Thank you,

Mr. President. Yes. I'd also uh like to make a motion that the report as amended is adopted by the plan commission as preliminary findings effect. Thank you. Thank you. Roll call vote. Roger. Yes. Ronald Sims. Yes. Thomas Casmir. Yes. Dan Fatali. Yes. Thomas Dverton. Yes. Marcus Taylor. Yes. William Hutton. Yes. Seven eyes, zero nays, zero abstensions. Motion pass. Thank you.

Thank you. I I need your help. I appreciate it. Mr. Poland, any correspondence? No correspondence. Thank you. Any comments from the commissioners? Any staff comments?

Um, yes. I, uh, regret to inform the, uh, planning commission members that, uh, our former, one of our former attorneys, Alan Faulner, um, passed away on October 11th. I literally just found out about it today. Um, so those of you that knew him, um, he was our attorney in the 1990s, I think up through the 2000s. Um, he was a great man to work with and, um, I'm sorry for the family. The other thing is um I do not expect to have a November plan commission meeting, but certainly keep the date open in December uh for the third Monday or depending upon if the council changes any of their meetings, we always get bumped to the Tuesday following the third Monday.

Thank you, Mr. Poland. Are there any public comments? Mr. Just briefly, I just want to echo Allan was a kind and gentle soul and he did really good work, but you know, I miss him too. Yeah, just he was just a good human being. So, maybe his family will know. Mr. Chairman, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, Mr. Dabberton.

I would als I would also like to echo the the comments about Allen. uh very very kind very calm individual very capable knew him for many many years did a very good job thank you Mr. applicant. Any other comments? If hearing none, is there a motion on the floor for adjournment? So move. So move. Thank you. Thank you. Have a good night. Thank you for your help.