Board of Zoning Appeals - Regular Meeting

which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Yep.

Thank you.

It's been a little while, hasn't it?

Yes. Well, I'm also the one that does the minutes, so that's why she's being this smart. Okay. Welcome to the July 15th meeting of the BCA. Can we have a roll call, please?

Here. Here.

Here. Thank you. Any correspondence?

OK. All right.

All right, our first case is old business, and it's case UB 2023-23, Michael J. Fenchap, 325 North, 725 West Hobart. Zoning is rural residential. Acres is five, and the request is a motion to deny. Petitioner is no longer in need for the use variance permitting the operation of firearm business out of the home.

Motion to deny.

Second.

We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed, same sign? Okay. The motion passes. That's tonight. Then we go to new business. For new business cases, we have rules of conduct for public hearings. At a public hearing before the board, the petitioner or proponent shall first present the facts and arguments in support of the case. Those who oppose the petitioner shall follow. The petitioner shall have rebuttal time at the conclusion of those opposing the petition. Those opposed shall then be allowed a total maximum of 10 minutes to rebut any new statements made by the petitioner in this rebuttal. It should be within the discretion of the board to impose any time limitations on either the petitioner or respondent and to limit public comment to those determined by state statute to be interested parties. Written remonstrances shall be accepted by the board, but need not be read into the board's record. This then concludes the public hearing. To maintain orderly procedure, each side shall proceed without interruption by others. All materials presented by the petitioner and or remonstrators or supporters to the petition, including photographs, shall become property of the board and part of the record. When we get to the public hearings, we have a microphone over here and here, so your name will be called or you'll raise your hand and I'll call on you to come up, whichever way it goes. And then we ask that you come to the microphone and before you start talking about what you want to say for the case, we need your name and address. It's important that we have that so that we can clearly put it in the minutes. and address all your comments to the board. And then after everyone has asked their questions, the petitioners will go ahead and respond to the answers. Our first case is U of E 2026-36, John Sanders. The location is 3 East, 900 North in Chesterton. The zoning is our one low-density single-family residential. The acres is 5.36. And the request to continue the sale of farm products that are not seasonal and or produced on the farm.

Yeah. Looks like originally it was 2010.

Yep.

My name is John Sanders. My address is 3 East 900 North Chesterton, Indiana. We have a small farm store where I sell my own raw milk and we sell other products there. If it wasn't for the variants and having my store, I would not be able to have my business and milking cows. So I've done I've milked cows for 50 years and hopefully I can continue for another five to 10 years. And hopefully my store can serve our neighborhood and the public for many more years. So I'm asking for another five year variance if possible.

Thank you, John. Nobody signed in to speak on this case, but we did, as Kristi mentioned earlier, we did get two letters of support. Since nobody signed in, is there anyone in the audience that didn't sign in that wants to address this issue? Okay, public hearings are closed. Jim, any comments?

No, I'm totally fine with this. I can't see anything. I don't know what the conditions were before, but I would be fine with extending it with the same conditions. Assuming no signage and all that normal stuff. But I can't see any of that.

I think there were hours, too.

Has anything changed? No, I do not plan on expanding my business.

So the hours of operation were 8 a.m., 10 a.m., 3 p.m., 5 p.m.? 5.30 p.m.

Yes. That was the only stipulations? Yeah, I'm fine with it. Doing another five years with the same conditions.

Okay. I've stopped at the e-store and bought things. It's a nice store.

Thank you. I'm fine with it. Thank you.

Okay, I have nothing. I think it's a good distance to have there.

So do I have a motion? Motion to approve UV 2026-36 for five years with all the same original conditions as previous.

Thank you.

Voting is appalled for case UB-2026-26, Bob, Billy, and RPS.

Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. Our next case is UV 202635. The applicant is Nancy Calafate. The location is just south of Lakewood's Terrace subdivision on Calumet Avenue in Valparaiso. The zoning is R1, low density, single family, residential district. The acres is 4.05. The request is to allow the operation at Farmer's Market. We need your name and address first.

My name is Nancy Califati, residing at 122 Phillip Lane in Lakewood Terrace, Valparaiso. My husband, James Coleman, and I also own 154 Johnson, an adjacent property to the subject property, which we call the Edge of Liberty because it's at the corner of Calumet and 600 North, which is the Edge of Liberty Township. One month shy of 10 years ago, In this very room, neighbors came together to oppose intensive commercial development on that property because we wanted to preserve the royal character of this corner of Liberty Township. That same vision inspired what we have built there instead. Over the last decade, we've invested our own time, labor and resources into creating a small agricultural property centered around seasonal local produce, community gardening, pollinator habitat and seasonal gatherings that connect people with local growers, food producers and artisans. We listened to the community when they wanted this property to remain rural. We spent the last decade building something that reflects those values. As that use evolved, we worked with county staff, most of them in this room, and filed this variance application to make sure everything is properly aligned going forward. We believe this use preserves open space, supports local agriculture, and provides a positive benefit to the community while remaining compatible with surrounding properties. Thank you.

Before we open the public hearing, does staff have any comments they want to make?

They did appear before the Development Review Committee. That was on . But it was some days ago. I did not attend that part. I excused myself. I had other business. One of the things we did want to bring up, there was a bunch of things like their driveway access. It needs a culvert. It was there before. It needs to be widened based on their use. It needs a culvert. The permit needs to be applied for. That came from the highway engineer. I think there would be some clarity, but I think the site distance and the water. And then memory service, we had a pre-app. Yeah. Portable buildings put on property. Well, if you could explain that to them.

Yeah. We purchased run-in sheds to work for our farm stand, and we were going to get them permitted, but you had recommended that we waited until we got the variance to see how that fit in. We will take care of the permits immediately after we are either approved or denied.

And as you can see on the map, they are zoned on one. Now, they say it's a farm operation. Is it construed as truly agricultural? I think that they're exchanging money for people to attend events and things like that for properties.

There is a fee that we charge vendors to help defer the costs of the advertising and the port-a-potty that we rent for there. It's a very, very low fee. And then there is, we sell produce at our firm stand.

So there is a revenue operation as well? There's a... You have a revenue generating operation, small as it may be?

Small as it may be, yes. Break-even revenue generating, yes.

Okay.

That's all.

Okay.

We have a few people that did sign in to talk tonight. I'll remind you, microphones on each side, name and address before you start talking about the case. First one is Susan Wickman.

My name is Susan Wickman. My address is 477 East 830 North, Valparaiso 46383. My husband and I, Larry, we have been gardening at a garden plot at this place here for about nine to ten years. It's very rewarding. We do tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, beans. And it's very rewarding growing your own vegetables and having a place that you go and you watch the stuff grow and then you do it. I would like for them to be able to keep this because I hope to keep on gardening for another five years or so. And I hope you vote yes because it gives people our age a place to go, a place to do this that we would not have the opportunity where we live in Jackson Township. Okay, thank you. Please vote yes. Thank you. And my tomatoes are good.

And I'm Larry Wickman. And I agree with Susan. And we've had a lot of fun. We've enjoyed. And we share. And everybody comes together. It's really nice.

Thank you. Linda Duttlinger.

These are all my remarks, so I assure you it won't take too long. My name is Dr. Linda Duttlinger. I'm a retired professor from Purdue North Central, and I've been working as a craft person, crafters is what we call this one, out at Nancy's place, and I'd like to talk about that part that she would like to see us continue to do. I taught at PNC, excuse me, you wanted my address, 3743 East State Road 10, Wheatfield. Now, for 30 years, I drove through Valparaiso going and coming to work five days a week. I do all my banking here, all my med work here, all my shopping here, and a good deal of my paycheck stays in Valparaiso. So I have always got a vested interest in what you're doing up here. I retired from PNC, and my sister asked me, would I be interested in doing some craft work, which she was doing. I said, sure. So we got into it, and we soon found that she had talent and I didn't. So... I brought in what I make. Ta-da! I make a sign that simply has VHS or any high school name or college, whatever you would like. There's hooks on the bottom so it's practical. Hook on the back, you can hang it up and you can hang up your keys, lanyard, whatever it is that you need to do. For this, I'm going to charge you a whopping $5. I don't sell a lot of them, as Nancy knows, but I like it and it's fun.

You are also break-even.

Long story. This would go under her category of low-impact community gatherings. There's two groups of us that get together on every other Sunday, and I'd like to stress that. First of all, we only go on It's Nice Weather. It's every other Sunday, so we're not there all the time. It's a fairly quiet, subdued group. We do fine. I'm 78, and I'm one of the older ones there. But there's a lot of folks who are coming that are trying to make extra money for groceries. extra money for gas so they can get to work on Monday morning. And we do have folks that come out and put forth an incredible amount of effort. I have seen talent out there that you would be hard-pressed to find anywhere else. We've seen most of our crafters are women, and we've seen people who knit, sew, crochet, and this year I think we've got two or three cooks that are doing a booming business out there. It's a chance to get your stuff out there and see what people are willing to pay for. And a lot of us have been doing it for some time. I've been at it now for a little over six years. The other group we have are customers. We have a nice flat area. They can drive in, there's a parking area off the road. So they park, they come out, they come over and they take a look at our craft items. What they will then do is just sit around, talk for a little bit. Nancy usually is able to have a food truck out there for us during the day and folks can stop and get a cold drink if they're so desired. We have got a few other things going on. And people will just sit around and watch. It's a nice place to come if you're in a stroller or if you've got a walker. And we are more than welcome to have anyone who wants to come out and see our work. The other thing I would like to point out is that As I said, I've been there now for about six years. I found Nancy and James to be excellent hosts. They take good care of us, and I would like very much to see this to continue. We have gone up in the number of crafters that we've had since I started. When I started, there were maybe eight to 10 of us. This last weekend, we had 22. 20. 20. So we are getting more and more people. And I really think part of the issue is the economy. But it does give us an opportunity to bring in a variety of crafts. And they've only got one rule with the crafts. You've got to make them yourself. You can't go buy them at Dollar General, raise them $2, and try to resell them. It doesn't work that way. And it's a rule that almost all of us that come out there can live with. So I'd like to thank you. If you have any questions, I would be more than happy to answer them. Thank you. Thank you.

Next on the list is Kelly Swart.

Good evening.

Can you pull the mic up a little bit? Thank you.

My name is Kelly Swart, 3090 South, 250 West, North Judson. I've been a beekeeper here in Valparaiso for about 10 years. I appreciate the opportunity to speak tonight in support of keeping Edge of Liberty an agricultural and community-focused property. I can only speak from my own experience, and my experience with Edge of Liberty has been nothing but positive. Our hives have been located on their property, and I've seen firsthand what a great environment it is for honeybees. Bees need healthy forage, open space, and a variety of flowering plants throughout the season. That's becoming harder and harder to find as more farmland and green space disappear. People often think honeybees are only important because of the honey that they make, but their biggest job is manipulation. They help pollinate fruits, vegetables, flowers, and many of the crops that we all depend on. Healthy pollinators mean healthier gardens, healthier farms, and healthier environment for everyone. That's why places like Edge of Liberty really matter. It's more than just open land. It's land that's being cared for in a way that supports agriculture, wildlife, and pollinators, while giving people a place to connect to the outdoors. I've also seen the positive impact of the seasonal craft fairs and community events that they host. The events aren't just places for people to shop. They're opportunities for small businesses to be seen. Many of the vendors are local farmers, beekeepers, bakers, artisans, and craftspeople who put a lot of time and heart into what they do. Events like these give them a chance to meet customers face to face, grow their businesses, and keep money circulating in our local community. Just as importantly, those events help people learn. I've watched families stop and ask questions about the bees. Kids get excited when they see the apiary or an observation hive and learn how money, excuse me, how honey is made. Visitors gardening, farming, and where their food comes from. In a world where so many people are disconnected from agriculture, those experiences matter. You can't really put a price on that kind of education. I also think it's important to preserve the real character of this area. Once farmland and food spaces are gone, they're gone. It's much harder to get them back than it is to protect them now. From everything I've experienced, Edge of Liberty has shown that agriculture and community can go hand in hand. They've created a place that supports local producers, provides habitat for pollinators, offers educational opportunities, and brings neighbors together through low impact events that fit the character of the area. As someone who has worked with honeybees for the past 10 years, I know how important land like this is, not just for beekeepers, but for everyone. Healthy pollinators support local agriculture. Local agriculture supports our community. and places like Edge of Liberty make that possible. I hope you'll consider the long-term value of this property and what it provides, not only for agriculture land, but as a place that supports education, conservation, local businesses, and the real character that makes this community special. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Steve Charnas. You can go there. Okay. I move.

How you doing? I'm Steve Charnas. 581 North State Road, 49, 583, and that 12 acres across. You know, I hate to pop the bubble here. I have nothing against anybody's plans and dreams of a business. But when it affects mine, I have a drainage problem. And for years, that whole area, I've dealt with it, okay? My father bought this mobile home park in 1972. And all my family died on the last. My job is to maintain the hand of town. The back of my property, when we put our storage buildings in, we put drainage ditches in all over. And we actually, in the back part of our property, we took the back half, if not third, and put drainage ditches in there to get it away from going down to Calumet. Okay. And now, no offense, I don't know how high you raised that property. Okay. But he filled in the ditches with mulch in there. And now when that water hits 600, it comes over to my side. And I posted pictures on the drainage board. My park gets flooded. It literally goes under the buildings. Calumet one year, 2020, I had to stand out in Calumet because the whole road was covered. It went from my park over. Now, my park is supposed to go north. There's an oak tree on my property with a ditch that goes over to the middle. It's down here. It goes to the middle and down through. There's the park. If you go up, there's a tree up there. There's a drain pipe that goes over. What actually happens is it all backs up. It all comes down to my park, the whole entire park. You have to see it. It's horrible. My tenants, I feel sorry. They got stuff all over the motor. I just spent $450 with the water department and sewer because they had to power wash the streets or their driveways and their homes because there was mud and debris all over it. It all comes and you cause part. I'm not saying you're a total fraud. But you caused part of it, okay? Now, my cousin, I've had a lot of medical issues. Part of my coat went out, everything. And my cousin went over to represent me, and he kind of treated him like crap. He didn't even care what he had said. But I do know neighbors around there are complaining about the basement split. So my concern is this. I have nothing against what you're doing. I have nothing against what you're doing. I have nothing against what they're doing, but I know as a businessman, and I've had, I had charnished heating for 42 years. When I go to do something, I have to worry about other things around me, drainage or what have you. Okay, and that's kind of how I feel here. It's okay what he's doing. I think he needs to put a drainage ditch in there, something to suppress that water, because now he's putting stone driveways, buildings. Now, stone, I know, it doesn't affect absorption, but once it's compact for parking in that, now it's no longer. And I'm telling you, if you talk to all the people there, that water's flying across 600 yards. And that's all my complaint is. You need to suppress your property from everybody else's. That's the only complaint I have. Now, as far as the businesses they're running, I tell all the people over there, I really don't care. That's his property. Let him do what he wants. If you have a problem, you fight for it. I only care about the drainage. I'm going to end up having to replace my streets. Who's going to pay me a hundred and something thousand? You know, that's my complaint there. I don't want to see it unless something's taken care of. And you can't blame me. I mean, I've been here. Our family's been here since 72. And sure, it ain't their nicest part, but I'm trying. Okay? But I won't allow it to get damaged this way. I'm sorry. So that's my complaint. That's all.

Thanks, Steve.

Sorry.

Staff, would you like to go next? That's all that's on the list. Or would you like me to finish the report? Okay. Anyone else in the audience that did not sign up? Okay.

My name is Barbara Melcher. I live at 139 Johnston Drive. Nancy and James were selling fruit and veggies off their out of their house. My grandkids love it. I am one of the original. We did it so my daughter has something to do. And if there's something wrong, they're going to fix it. Because we have built, we went from three campuses or canopies to 20. And it's a family. People check in. So anything that they need to do to continue it, I know they're going to do it. I mean, if they did something wrong, it was unintentional. They have improved that land. They've helped the whole neighborhood come together. And that's all I have to say. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else that didn't sign in but wants to talk? You want to go next or you want me to have them answer? If you'd like to answer any of those.

I do want to answer one thing. My husband's very passionate about this, so I just wanted to make sure I said that Mr. Charny said that we built up with wood chips. We built up at the top of the grid to keep the water from running down into the ditch. Over time, potentially, some of those wood chips fell into the ditch, but there never really was. any ditch there any ditch that we've had along that road was caused by like utility trucks making ruts there was no actual ditch there was no culvert the driveway that we had was within appropriate width that it was pre-existing uh james did try to get it permitted and he was told it was taken care of and any width increase was actually caused by snow plows and you just basically fill that in a little bit as they get expanded so we are a little bit wider than r1 is allowed to have but we can certainly bring that back We are planning on doing the expense necessary to put a culvert in under this driveway, but not if we don't get a reasonable insurance that we can continue the craft fair because we don't need a parking lot without a craft fair. We don't even need a driveway without a craft fair. We can run a firm stand from our house again. Like, we would just stop. Okay. He's told me I talk too much. Do you want to say anything else? No.

And we fully intend to put the drainage ditch over and in as soon as humanly possible. And it won't be an issue. Most of my landscaping is to contain the water. Because we want the water. Yeah. I grow plants. I need the water. And we've been in drought for how many years up until now? And... I think that the complaint was a little over exaggerated is very rarely do we get enough water to ever even touch the street. It mainly comes in from the higher highway 49 and through the cemetery and runs down to the street. So most of the water is coming from the other side of the property. From 600. And you can clearly see it running when it rains. And we will do what we have to to fix it. Any issues on our end?

We're going to go ahead and close the public hearing and go back to staff comments.

And some additional clarity. The reason they're here today. is because there was a drainage complaint, not the one that was presented to me here. It just had to be somewhere around the perimeter of the property. I believe to the west or maybe somewhere down.

To the north.

The staff went out there and found it, and it's when then we discovered they were having this operation going on without the proper variances or permitted uses, et cetera, like that. So that's why we're all here tonight. It started from there, and it came in for approval. As far as the bridge complaint, that's still undetermined. They have a reason to believe it's not really a big issue, but honestly, it won't be a big story, which we've had this spring. Second, back to the driveway, you know, that is a permanent function. So if you decide to go forward, they're still subject to other rules. Tonight's not the end of it. They will have to get a driveway permit to properly permit the driveway according to our standards with the culprits. As far as the mulch, the one thing I didn't mention is that they did do the highway along our right when they did put mulch along the bank. I assume that was for a state organization. But the concern of the highway engineer is the mulch is transportable when it gets wet or rain, heavy rain. It's not washing into what ditch we have. So that was a concern of the highway department. And then lastly, because of the operation that I'm doing, I think it would be a requirement that they would have to do some form of demarcation. and all the other important things that go with development of the property based on what you decide to create. So those are things for you to consider.

Thank you. All right, we'll go to comments from the board. Bob?

I know this has been here a very long time. I'm fine with it, but I think they need to follow whatever regulations come up that the county The highway department storm water requires them to do it to continue with the operation.

I'm also fine with it, but I agree with you. You have to take care of whatever drainage issues you have on your property. I'm guessing all of that water is not coming from just your property, but what you can control, you obviously should control and just follow the rules. the statutes of what you're planning on doing there.

Might I add that neither one of us have any kind of background in this. Simple things got away from us, and we didn't know exactly what we were doing, but we missed our opportunity to sit down with the county. That's all we're looking for today, is to get our seat at the table back so we can fix everything and do it right.

Okay, Jim.

Is it on hold right now until we get the variance until the DRC? It's middle of summer. So where?

I guess. Yeah. Yeah.

I don't have a problem at all with the business. Yeah.

Well, I have a question for you, Mike, actually. If somebody does make a motion to approve, would that motion be contingent upon them following all of the procedures that they need to follow regarding the drainage and operating?

The development plan, the drain, the driveway permit, yes. That would be all contingent on that.

Okay. Okay.

We would just like a development plan to see how the layout, how they're coming in, what the heartbeat is going to be. Is that all? We have nothing.

In addition to that, they've now got additional structures that they didn't have before, too. So that's all covered by what we do we can take care of all that. And it'll be something they'll have to deal with.

Would that be part of the motion to be contingent on doing everything the county requires them to do? Or no, are we just going to say this and let the county take it from there? Say we approve, we allow the operation of the farmer's market, then the county goes on their own and takes it from there?

I mean, that's possible. I just am a little uncomfortable suggesting that without more information at this point at the use variance request, because we don't have the development plan. We don't know. I'm not suggesting any of this is insurmountable. But I'm leaning more towards, I would rather this board, if they're going to approve a use variance, have a much firmer grip on whatever else needs to be done before it's okay. So in case, and I don't see it, but in case there's something that's more difficult to get around than not. And so I would suggest a continuance. Let the other processes continue. I think we can allow the use at this point in time. The petition's pending. We're aware of it. It's in process. It hasn't been denied. They are only going, from my understanding, once every other week. Is that correct?

Yes. So... 65 hours a year.

A whole lot of use at this point, or intensity, for lack of a better word. So... I'm leaning, my suggestion would lead more towards continuing it and allowing it to continue during the continuance and require those things that staff would need to have so we can come back and have a firmer idea what drainage problems there is or isn't, what would need to happen with the driveway, what would happen with the driveway cut. Buildings, those things. Again, completely agree with that. Completely agree with that.

So what time frame are you suggesting?

I think 30 days. I think we need to keep it on the griddle, so to speak. And if we need to have it continued, I think staff can tell us that.

And it all revolves around this development plan.

I think the development plan needs to show, too, one of the things that the people that talked from the audience and they themselves talked about how much it's grown. And so the issues that might be there now are only going to be more. And if they're following the rules here forward, then . Interjecting, I just want to let you know that we,

cannot grow anymore without actually destroying

the whole point. And part of what you're running to do without the development plan, we don't have an easy piece of paper to pick up. We can't expand anymore. It's expanded to this point. So part of what the questions keep circling back to having that development plan, which is just basically a piece of paper that shows where everything's going, where the driveway, the parking lot is, where the driveway cut are. If we have any drainage issues that have been dealt with, we know that. Those are some of the questions that we're going back to because we just don't have that information in front of us.

Madam Chair, do you need a motion?

Yes, I do.

Make a motion to continue. Ace UV 2026-35 to our next scheduled meeting on which we will have further information. I'll second that.

Okay. Can we do that by voice vote? Okay, we have a motion to continue to the next meeting. All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed, same sign?

A little more homework to do. No, it's not fine. It's not. I don't know how to do a development plan, who do I hire, and how much is it going to cost? The county could.

We'll help you out. Okay.

Okay. That is all that's on the agenda. Does anybody else have anything to bring up?

Motion to adjourn. To move. Second.

All those in favor, aye.

Aye.

Okay.