Board of Zoning Appeals Hearing Officer - Regular Meeting

77 East, 150 South, Operation Morgan Township. Zone is A1, General Egg District. Acreage is 1.28. Request informal review to allow for three existing shipping containers to be used for storage and vary from the following. one it's to have a reduction in side yard setback two to allow the structures in the front yard three to allow a decrease in minimum front yard setback fourth to allow the exterior finish snap to match or closely resemble the primary structure and lastly to allow more than two accessory structure on a parcel less than two okay i think you're here for an update yeah so well are you ready to remove the containers No, not yet.

The boxes have been painted.

I'm sorry. State your name. State your name and address. Michelle Thues. State your name and address.

Brian Rudolph, 7070 East, 150 South. 46383.

Michelle Fuse, 77 East, 150 South, Alparazzo, 46383.

The reason for that, they recorded everything, so we have to know who's...

Okay. Go ahead and tell us where you're at with your project.

Well, we still got to finish the two rooms on the house, and... in the siding, we gotta finish the siding on the outside. So.

The boxes have been painted to fit the property's color scheme. Right. Not fitting what the neighbors requested, but fitting your color scheme. They've been placed exactly where the county said we could place them, because we cannot drive them across the septic system. I do have a proposal. You said three boxes, one and a half acres, not acceptable. What if we rented two more acres? adjacent to our property so that we had three and a half acres basically in our name but two of them rented and then three boxes on three and a half acres would fit your criteria the boxes aren't allowed in the county at all I don't care what color they are they're not allowed if they're in your backyard they're not allowed then why did you write all of those pages and pages and pages of criteria that we literally spent days going over all right time out here okay

You agree to take our removals after construction. Okay. Yeah. All right. We're done. I gave you six months extension.

And we hired one of your licensed contractors who took our money and then showed up and go to court over that.

I'm speaking. You will have your turn. Okay. Thank you. I gave you six months extension to complete the project. So where are you with the project? That's what the review is for.

We're probably about

We might be halfway through. We should have been, but we can't get contractors to help.

Yeah, halfway to two-thirds of the way finished.

Because outside, I've seen the siding installed on the outside. It looks pretty nice, as a matter of fact. Some of it. We haven't gotten around to the back yet. But the container's still there. Yeah. So how much time, how much more time do you need?

Well, I don't know. I've been out of town for four months.

Since the economy has tanked here, you've had to leave. I gave you 60 days. I'm going to give you another 45 days. I have to be removed in 45 days. I can't get the project complete in 45 days. Nope. No.

We still have to mud inside because we couldn't get contractors to show up other than to take our money. I know, but it's the circumstance that we find ourselves in. This was never supposed to take this long. But we're doing this here in Porter County, and Porter County is posing an awful lot of obstacles, not just the people.

It's not just the county.

It's not just the county, but too many things have popped up that have gotten in the way of completing this project, an unreasonable amount. And I'm not going to get rid of all of my things.

I think we're very reasonable. So I'm going to give you 60 more days to remove. So 60 days have to be removed. So it gives you time to get the project, get another contract, whatever it takes. But they have to be removed in 60 days. Okay. Well. Okay, so case DB-202529 is denied and the containers have to be removed in 60 days. Thank you. Next case is our public hearing. I have to read the rules of conduct. Rules of conduct at public hearing reported for... The petitioner or proponent shall first present the facts and arguments in support of the case. Those who oppose the petitioner now 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 limitation on either the petitioner or respondent and to limit public comment to those determined by the state statute to the interested parties. Read remonstrance should be accepted by the board, but need not to be read into the board's record. This then concludes the public hearing. To make an orderly procedure, each side shall proceed without interruption by others. All materials presented by the petitioner and or demonstrators or supporters to the petition, including photographs, shall become property of the board and part of the record. Okay, with that, the first public hearing case is DB-2026-17. Applicant is Jeff Barton, location 397 West, U.S. Highway 30, Bob Brazel, Union Township, zoning's RR, rural residential. Request to allow increase in match and floor area for the appearance not to match or closely resemble the finish or facade materials on a primary structure for a proposed 36 by 56 accessory structure. Yes, sir. Okay. State your name and address.

Jeff Barton, 471 Scarborough Road, Valparaiso 46385. Okay.

Tell us your project and why you need the variances.

We're building a pole barn, and we just need extra square footage for all the stuff I want to put in the barn. So I've got a few trailers, four-wheelers, cars, my son's Ford Bronco, a few things like that. So that's the only reason I need the extra square footage.

So for personal storage? Yes, sir. Okay. Okay, so public hearing. Anybody want to speak in favor of this case? In favor? Seeing none, anybody want to speak against or have any questions on this case? Yes, ma'am, come up. We have a microphone here. Please step up and state your name and address first.

Daisy. I'm at 252 Garnett Drive. I received a letter of the notice. I tried to find the location. First of all, I don't understand why I got this. I did the GPS and it's eight miles away from my house. I can't find the exact location of this property. And that's So I just want to be knowledgeable.

Do you own any property?

Yes.

So it might be a property that you own, not necessarily?

No, no. I only own my personal property.

Oh, okay.

And I'm right on US 30, right off of US 30. A few of my neighbors wanted to come, but they're working and weren't able to come. None of us could figure out where it is.

It's a house right there. Okay.

Okay. Where is it? Where is it? Here's US 30.

US 30.

There's Joliet Road right there.

Where's Joliet Road?

I'm sorry.

Joliet Road is right here. It's right there. Okay, I'm right there at the corner.

No, you're not four miles away.

No, it says eight miles. This is eight miles. It's not eight miles. I don't know. Okay, so on that, behind my house, I'm the first house in that subdivision. Behind my house is a farmhouse, and then there's another house. Then there's property. So is it a vacant lot? No. Or is there a house there?

No, there's a house there.

Okay. And is it, okay, all right. What's your concern? Well, where is it located?

On the side.

Oh, but I'm trying, I'm trying. Okay. Can you bring it? I know exactly where it is now. Okay. It's a little house. Did you just purchase it like a few months ago? A few months ago. Okay. Okay. Now I know. I don't know why this is telling me, and it took me all the way past BU, Vampires University. I don't know. I put it in, and I know exactly where it is. Okay. So I wanted to put the program behind me.

No, no, right next to it.

Just all your questions to the board. I'm sorry. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. No, it's fine. Okay. All right. So he's wanting to put it next to the property. Is it going to be towards the house, that farmhouse, or is it going to be on the other side?

It's going to be behind the house.

No, it's going to be outside the house.

Is it this side?

Yeah, the head stage. Right outside the house. That's where the head stage is. Yes, sir.

I know it's not in front because there's not a variance for the front.

Okay, so it's next to. All right.

What's your question?

Well, okay. I personally don't have an objection because it's not facing me. It's not around me. I'm turning it this way. Those three houses behind his house. I know have concerns. We were all trying to figure out where he was located. And they were working the two houses at the end. And the middle one being an appointment. So I personally don't. Do they have concerns? They were having concerns, but we couldn't figure out when or what was the problem. What were the concerns? Because it's all where is the location now? I know. Yeah.

They don't. Okay.

Now, it will affect them because their property is better than him. So the Walmart is going to affect them? Well, it's just the size of it. I don't know. But I know what they had voiced their opinion on.

Okay. Well, they should be here.

I know. I know. But now I know where it is. Okay.

All right. Thank you for coming. Anybody else want to speak against or any questions on this case? Seeing none, I'm going to close the public hearing. What size is he allowed in this zoning?

He's allowed 1,300 square feet.

So how much is he over? A little over 2,000.

So you're over 716 feet over variance. Why so large?

All the stuff I have right now, I have three different garages, two rental houses, two detached garages, and my own garage at home. So I built it big enough. With those three garages, I'm at about 1,600, and they're packed. So I figured between myself and my son, but pretty close to 2,000 by the time we're done as far as the square footage.

Sir, you have to speak up. Oh, I'm sorry. Here, go ahead.

So I figure... Because I have three detached garages right now, rental houses I own in Valpo, and I've got all this stuff stored in there. And that comes to about 1,500 square feet. So I figure if I add about 500 square feet to that for additional stuff, that would give me the 2,000 that I need. That's all.

It's a very large boat mine. that you requested. And plus, the stakes where you have it staked out, it looks like it's in front of the house. So I don't know if you use a surveyor. No, it's just me. I evolved it. Just me and my wife. Yeah. Okay. I got a pretty good eye, and I think it's in front of the house by a couple feet.

It's in front? It could be.

Yeah, it might be, but I'm hoping that when the normal surveyors get there, that they're going to put it even with the front end of the house. If it's approved, you have to have a surveyor.

Yes, sir.

Yeah. The stakes are. Yep.

Yeah, but anyway. Correct.

I can't, no. 2,000 is not very big.

The little house next to it is 800 square feet. It's a problem.

The house is so small.

It's a huge pole barn. And we stayed lower on the roof, too, as opposed to what is allowed. We kept it under so it didn't stick up too high. So it didn't stick up too high. So we dropped it a couple feet as far as what you allow for the roof. So we decided to keep it lower, lower profile.

It's such a small house. I think it's going to be outplaced. The house is, what, 800 square feet or something like that? 800. Yeah?

Yeah. But eventually we hope to add another house.

Wow. It's up to you. If you want to approve, you have to...

Yeah, I'd really like to use it at that if we can.

What about a piece of 38 by 46? 30 by what? Well, a 36 by 48 is 1728.

So that would help. Yeah. Is that what you're saying? Yeah. Yeah, if you do a common size, it's 36 by 48. That gives you 1728.

Correct.

Okay.

That was my original plan. And then when my son called me and said, hey, I put my Bronco in there. Everybody wants larger. You have to understand what I'm saying. I mean, okay. It doesn't stop.

Okay. Okay. And it'd be used for personal storage?

All of it.

And you have to sign a commitment to that. It'd be used for... Sure. not a business no i don't know or rental yeah okay there's a there's a there's a document form okay with that i will prove case db-2026-17 with the size being at 1728 square feet With the understanding you would have a survey or I'm not proving the stake location right now.

Sure, I get that.

But it will be on the side of the house or the back of the house? I get that, yeah. It will be on the side?

Well, yeah, it's going to be on the side of the house for sure. Yeah. Based on the road. And then even with the front of the house.

Okay.

But we can only go so far out back because there's water problems in the back of that lot. Yeah. But anyway, that's what it is. Definitely cannot be in front of the house. Correct.

Okay, and it's a signed document that would not be used for business.

Correct.

If you're owning a person.

Yes, sir.

Okay, you're approved.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you. Christy, do I pick up that approval at some point? Let me decide how that works.

Give us the plans for the original ones and correct your permit.

Okay.

And they'll put it through.

So we want to go back to the 36 by 48? Okay.

You can give us a call. We have other cases that have to be moved in. Okay. Okay. All right. Thank you.

Give me a call if you have questions, but please submit your permit. This is DB-2026-37, applicant Lucas Walden. The project is Walden Acres Administrative Subvision. Location is 135 West 700 North of Brazel, Liberty Township. zoning RR Road residential district acreage 8.72 plus request to allow for a proposed administrative subdivision two lots to vary from the following. First, existing accessory structure to remain on the property without a primary structure. Second, existing accessory structure to remain in a front yard. Third, reduction in minimum lot width of 330 feet. Fourth, reduction in minimum lot area of five acres. Fifth, driveways to be less than 100 feet apart. Six vary from the one to four maximum width to depth ratio in our large zone.

Hi there. Bill Davies with Davis Land Surveying in Chesterton.

And Lucas Weldon from Valparaiso.

And we have a pretty big piece of property that this... Watch the address, please.

It's 1105 Martinal Road in Valparaiso, Indiana. Thank you. 46383. Thank you. Yes, sir.

Sorry about that. We have a fairly decently sized property that's currently in two pieces. The piece that you can see here is where there's an existing residence. There's an existing pool building on the north side. Very nice building. And he's wanting to move that north property line south to include the pool building on the bigger piece that goes significantly north there. And eventually building on that property or selling that property is the plan.

Can you go up there and point out what you want? My ordering is so bad. Can you go up there and show us what you want? Sure. Thank you.

I have some more legible copies of that.

Okay, you're fine.

So this property line here would be moved to the south, making this one acre, and then this building would be included with the rest of this parcel. I think it goes over into here, if memory serves.

Correct.

We're here for two administrative subdivisions. This is the first one. Yeah, so one right behind it. Yeah, we can talk about the other one. It's going to be more over here, two properties over here. He owns a few other properties in this area. This one here. And we can point to the east here. Is that correct?

Yes.

Where would the driveway be?

There's an existing driveway here for this one. Yes. That goes up significantly into this area. Soil borings were done up in this area.

Correct.

So we know we can get a septic in there and a house in there. Very big piece of property. And again, the intent, one of the things for the variances is that this building is going to exist on a property that will eventually be built upon, but it's an accessory structure without a primary structure, which is one of the things. So there's an existing driveway that services this house now, and there's also an existing driveway that services this property.

So what size would that be? Where would that be, the accessory structure? It's existing, right? Yeah. What size would that be?

It's about 8,000 square feet.

Where's the driveway going for the other two, for the other administrative stuff?

The other administrative subdivision are two lots over here that will have access through his existing property here.

Oh, okay. So he's on a different home first.

Okay. Thank you. And in 10, it should build houses to?

There would be three additional houses.

Three additional. Okay. All right.

Okay.

All right. It's a public hearing. Anybody want to speak in favor? In favor of this case? Seeing none. Anybody want to speak against or any questions? Yes, sir. Come up. I see a couple of names here.

My name is Robert Ralph. I live at 150 Wood Duck in Mallards Landing, directly north of this lot, and we're concerned about the flooding and the drainage issues. Right now we're getting extraordinary extra drainage through that field that's right behind us, which is adjacent to whatever he's going to make, which I don't know. But I mean, we're, that whole field runs There was a ditch that used to run across there, and that ditch no longer works because of all the movement in the lots there, and it filled up the ditch. And now my neighbors and three of us, we all have over an eight spot in 1994. We're flooding to the extreme. Our whole backyard, I can show you.

You need to call our stormwater department. Have you talked to stormwater department?

Well, I don't know about stormwater.

Well, let me talk to him because he's on record. So did you online submit a complaint that you were budding? Yes. How long ago was that?

Well, last bud was July 4th, July 17th, July 11th.

You submitted all those days?

It's not the bud, it's like getting the cake and keep going through our backyards.

And you've talked to our stormwater department?

No, I haven't.

That's what you need to do.

When I got this notice, it said stormwater department.

It's everything in one. We're building stormwater development, roads, bridges, all in one department. But they need to know about that if you guys are having flooding out there.

That's where it's going to be fixed.

Or you can go out to room 311 and let them know that you need to talk to someone at stormwater. Because if we don't get complaints, we don't know.

well we've been playing my neighbors complain it's also where uh uh the pipeline runs across that area yeah vector pipeline and ever since uh that ditch is just going out but it's no longer used we can't we have no drains at all in our yards it just runs out to the wetland with each of us and it takes all day to run them

So your main concern is the drainage?

Drainage, yes. Okay, all right. Whatever he's doing, you know, it's just drainage problem.

Okay, okay, thank you. Okay, and Stephanie, yes. State email address?

Yes, Stephanie, Wiki 171 West, North. My first question is, I'm looking at the blue square. Is that where the property that you lease out? Am I supposed to talk to her? I want to know if that blue square is where he leased out the property. Because I need to be able to figure out where everybody is. Because I know who the people are.

Go ahead.

Answer any other questions. Okay. You have somebody living next to you. I don't see them parked on the map. I think it would be the one in the middle, but I'm not sure. Where the green one is, that you're going to put the houses behind over the gas lines. There's one to the right. There's an empty field, which you own now at Gatlin. And then there's a house next to you, and you have the house where your bed and breakfast is, where your sign is. I'm assuming that little thing at the bottom is the sign that that's your bed and breakfast with the big barn and the house. Is that correct?

Go ahead. The way it works. Ask your questions.

Five acres. Less than five acres. I have a real problem with it. He has lots of property. There's absolutely no reason to reduce what's required of the county. And who knows me knows that I don't look like when they put 185 trees on 20 acres. Okay. Reality is, this is the world area.

And

the house in the green, they have children. If he puts two houses back there, from what I was told by my neighbors, is that it's for his 10-year-old and 12-year-old son. But because he leases things out as B&Bs, he's got to hide in my neighbor's house with young kids, and they're out there, he's ready. I know those parties. I see them, I can even hear them from my house. So I want to know if that's realistic or why not move it over to someplace else where it's not over. It's just over his property. He's got the acreage next to him. And risk our children. And I have great grandchildren. So I still have great children around. More than one. Most of the thing is I don't care about his age.

It's crazy.

I have no idea what's waiting for his people who come out to shoot him. And I did very negative things, but I believe there's somebody here who would like to talk about the guns, and somebody being hit, and that was nice. And as far as the gentleman up here, I think there's a question, because I could have sworn I could have said he filed a complaint with water, storming water. And why haven't they responded to him? And that needs to be considered before we do anything. You're putting, you're taking one of the most beautiful properties of the area right next to the park. The wetlands you're talking about is the next to the park, Cherry Heights Park. That's a recreational, nature-preserved area. So if you're not careful how you do it, you're going to hurt that. So my question is, what's the effect on the park? And what data do you work so hard to do? Me, I'm next to the green area, but he's still being my background, behind my scenes, which doesn't mean he hasn't either. As it is, currently, I've been turning it out to my farmer, which I greatly appreciate, because my background turned out to the farmer as well. But as more he builds out, the less the farmer has, and our farmers are struggling right now. I've been very good, very consistent, very clear. My neighbor's nice enough to let me use his driveway. I'm nice enough to put his trucks in my property. Thank you. I think it's all happy now.

Anybody else have any questions or concerns?

Yes. Good afternoon. Melissa Lefevre, 1592 Floyd Drive, Valparaiso, Indiana. If you see him up just a little bit, But I live in Alexander. I'm the president of the HOA there. And thank you. You can see all of that. There's 71 homes in Alexander. And in the evening time, we hear shooting in that property. So my question is, is there a gun range back there that they're shooting? And that's not just... It doesn't sound like practice because there's guns, there's big explosions that we hear. I know, like, it scares me and it scares my dogs and other people in our neighborhood. One evening, and I got it on video, where a bullet ricocheted past me properly. So I'm very concerned about what's happening on that property right there because when I heard it and I actually sent it to the police, they went over there and it stopped for that evening. But the shooting does continue. I'm not against the Second Amendment. I'm just afraid that it's not being properly backdrops. for whatever property, and it's going to, you know, cause harm to myself or any of the neighbors in that area, especially when I hear bullets ricocheting right past my home. And that's personal. Okay, thank you. Okay, you're welcome.

Anybody else like to speak? Seeing none, turn back. We'll come back up. State your name and address again. All right.

The other thing I wanted to mention was the same thing that Mr. Rowe addressed, which was the flooding that's happening behind. We're not sure. And again, we'll go and take it up with upstairs. But there is significant flooding that's happening. Kathy just raised my neighbor two houses over. Her entire shed is completely underwater when it rains because all that water goes straight back and they can't even use the shed. And this is a problem that has been ongoing since whatever development has been happening back there in that field. And the drainage just goes straight to their property and it takes a very long time for it to evaporate and go away. So that could be taken into consideration with any future building, drainage especially, because it is flooding out our backyards.

Thank you. Okay.

Our gas lines. State your name and address. Stephanie with E171 West 700 North. Thank you. The gas lines. That's a very populated area. I grew up in 94, so I moved in in 93. I cried. I cried. I said, oh, darn, this might be, but it's so nice. Those gas lines back there are major, large gas lines. If they get punctured,

Everything around there is going to flow.

So building back to them makes absolutely no sense to me. And I want to know what they're going to do to make absolutely sure nothing happens. So we already have four wheels going back there. That's his property. He can do that. I don't mind if they go on my farmland and they ask permission first. With the top part. But those gas lines are very hazardous, and they're very large. And I want to know what they're doing to protect that, because quite frankly, my barn would be knocked down. But the neighborhood store, if that explodes, they lose their barn, they lose their house.

Okay, thank you. Anybody else want to speak? Seeing none, I could turn back to you. Respond to those questions, please.

Well, I can start with drainage. Our company in the 1990s did the subdivision for Mallard's Landing, and I can tell you that we did not stake out the storm sewer. It was basically the developer put the storm sewer in all kinds of cattywampus. We've had issues all throughout that subdivision with drainage over the years. We've tried to fix it piecemeal over the years with each lot as we would do site plans for them, grading plans for them. As far as what you were saying, yes, definitely take that up with the drainage board. When we do a subdivision like this, we do what we call drainage calculations in order to determine adding three houses to a property that's around 75 acres, 74, breaking off the other existing house to try to minimize whatever runoff is going to exit the property. We determined that there really wasn't much that was going to happen. It was not going to create additional drainage running off of the property. So as far as that's concerned, an additional three houses on 74 acres is not going to impact that drainage a lot. When we go to permit the three proposed houses, that will go through Porter County. And if they see anything that looks like it's going to make additional drainage, then we take care of that. The county makes us take care of that. As far as the other issues, my hearing's so bad, I heard about half of it, so.

May I speak? When I bought the property, I had spoke to many of the Mellard's Landing neighbors behind my property, and they had mentioned that they had a lot of drainage issues from day one. I, at the time, owned an excavator, and I told them I'll try to help them. Well, the issue is I walked on the property, the drainage just comes down. It runs west to east, and then it shoots north. Well, the way... Whatever happened were the years. The drainage kind of backed up, and there's one spot that needs to be cleared out, and all that water can run out of there, no problem. The issue is the gentleman that owns the land there, I don't have that say, so I'm going on his land to dig. That little spot that needs to be cleared out, that would allow all... I think it's Mr. Bobrowski's name, but anyways, that would allow all the water and all the problems in Melrose Landing that they'd be fixed, at least on the backside of houses there. They complained to me that they've had issues long before I bought that property, long before I bought it, so... I would happily help if I could, but again, it's not my property to go on there and start digging more drainage ditches, obviously.

How about the guns?

The guns, it's funny you say that. I've never shot a gun, I don't think, one time on my property. I ride four-wheelers, and I've got a lot of people that sneak on my property and do it without my authorization. I do have one gentleman, Mr. Barbowski, who owns property around me. Once a year, he likes to goose hunt, so I say you're more than welcome to do that, obviously, safely. I can't control who else goes to my property and shoots guns and whatnot. I try to, but I can't always control it. There's been times that... I had some very expensive equipment on my farm and my windows were actually shot out from somebody. So it's not like I'm doing it. I mean, you know, I'm not big on guns.

Do you have a gun range?

Absolutely not. We had the gentleman that had the goose thing that was shooting the geese, Mr. Wabrowski, he set up like a little hut. But no, you know.

Okay, this ditch, okay, I want to make sure people, this ditch they referred to, okay, is that a recorded ditch or is that just a ditch a contractor made? What ditch are they talking about?

On the backside of my property, I honestly don't know if it falls on my property or Mellard's. I'm not even sure, but there's just a ditch that looks like it was man-made a long, long time ago.

Do we show that in the plans? Is it a recorded ditch or is it a man-made ditch? That's what I'm talking about.

It looks like it's man-made.

It's not a regulated thing.

It's not regulated in this case. I walked, and you could see the spot that creates all the backup. When it backs up, it hits the shed that the lady's talking about and all these things. But somebody has to get back to it with an interpreter. That's the way to fix it. I want to make sure people know.

Okay. Any new questions? I think they answered all the questions. It has to be new. New question? Go ahead. Okay. State your name.

First, this lovely neighbor is outstanding. mentioned that there had been some digging in the back area. That's probably causing more trouble to the programs that surround her. Second, there is a drainage ditch just to the right of the green place where they went with the houses behind. That is in there. It goes all the way down to the top of the creek and everything else. It's been there for years. It is blocked up. But it also went back to the back, showed that, and also toward the gas lines. It has been there for years. It was one of the problems we were having with my plan across the night, sorry, with the swamp. That was to make sure the swamp could drain, so you could have a little better bridge out there. So my question is, how is it that it worked before and not after? And my second question is, how is it that we all here repeated constant bullet shooting? And how do you know that people you're leasing your property to is not shooting? Because it always seems to be when somebody is shooting.

Okay, I'm going to close the public here. Great.

review do we look at the drainage yes our engineer will look at the drainage and they have to meet our county standards in order to go forward with the development they don't meet our regulations and they can't move forward with the subject until they comply david champion will be reviewing that to make sure that they meet our codes okay so if this is approved and they built two homes

They cannot increase the drainage onto the adjacent property. I understand they cannot increase the drainage. That's our new guidelines.

That is correct. That's why we do drainage calculations. There usually be 80 pages of how water runs off these properties when they're not improved. And then once we improve them, how water is going to run off after the fact. this was extremely minimal as far as drainage calculations. We have them sometimes where we have to do ditches, swales, rock dams, all these things to redirect water, but there wasn't That was not the case here. These are very large properties, and it's very minimal. The effects and the soil is pretty decent out there. Okay.

So it has to go through drainage review. Okay. And then the other issue was the guns. You don't have a gun range. You don't plan on having gun range out there. Never.

I'm not big on guns. I have a few friends that walk the property. I would imagine every now and then they might light off a flip, to be honest, but I don't shoot guns. I have no interest in them. I imagine once your house is built out there, people won't sneak and shoot. As far as the single-family home, it was on Airbnb for a little while. We took that off, I would say, two years ago. It's been off the market for a long time. We stay there here and there, but we live on the south side of Valparaiso, so it's more of a getaway for us at this point. I spend a lot of time in my barn.

And then other concerns, the gas mine, I'm sure that's plotted. Correct. And that'd be part of the building permit, the location.

I spoke with, I think it's Encore, I believe, whoever owns the pipeline or who's responsible for it. I spoke with them about having to put in basically a road over the pipeline if I ever wanted to build on the back, whatever back left lot that is by Millard's Landing. And they said there'd be no issues with that whatsoever. So I'm not digging where I'd want to put the road across. I actually have to add clay and stone.

Yeah, we're not digging whatsoever. Pardon me for that.

Yes, sir.

And your construction would be so many feet away.

Yeah, it would be hundreds of feet from it, or I think the house would be built ultimately. Okay. All right.

Any concerns? I was going to ask that question. Okay. So she's pointing out there's an easement, whatever that is. The pipeline. The pipeline easement.

Oh, yes, sir. Yeah. Yeah, I had talked to them, and I believe the pipelines are 13 and 16 feet in the ground where we'd be crossing over. And, again, we've got to add clay. We've got to build up to get the water off the road, you know, if we ever did it.

Okay. Thank you. Okay. Any other concerns? No. Okay. All right. With that, one question I have. The driveways be less than 100 feet apart. How far would they be apart?

Well, here we're talking about existing driveways on the property on the east. The property on the west has an existing kind of gravel pad. Yeah. that is there currently, and then the other driveway is almost right next to it, I can show you here.

Yeah, so I guess I need, how many feet apart will they be?

So this is, again, we're talking about two different developments. So this is the existing driveway that services the existing house here. This one here services the property to the north. These are definitely less than 100 feet. And then down here, we have a similar situation. This is an existing road. There's an existing dirt path that comes up here with some gravel by the road here. This is probably... center line to center line, I don't know, but edge to edge is pretty close.

We plan on putting the road on the east side of that path, so we'd be at least 150 feet from the existing driveway. Not quite metal, sorry. Currently, there's a grass path that sits right by the existing driveway of my neighbor. We're going to go on the other side, just east of that tree line, so we'd be 150, 200 feet from my neighbor's existing gravel driveway right there. Okay.

Okay.

but for reference, the number four on the 412.5 feet, that's about where we'd want to put the driveway, where the number four is.

Okay, all right. All right, I can make a motion to approve case DB-2026-37. Okay, you're approved. Okay, that's both of these cases. Now, the second case is, which is pretty much the same, DB-2026-38, applicant Lucas Walden. projects for the acre ministry subdivision. Location north of 161 west, 700 north of the township, zoning is RR, new residential acreage is 27.51 plus. Request to allow for proposed ministry subdivision two lots to vary from the following. First, to allow the installation of a shared driveway within a proposed 30-foot egress. Yes, so the issues on this one the Shared driveway

The driveway that would service two lots on the west side, they're not ready to put it in yet. It's going to be quite a few years before they're going to build up there. So when we talk to a client, we always say, let's be forward thinking. This gentleman has two sons who are sitting behind me here. Those would eventually be two houses for them. and to us, there's not a lot of point in building a driveway until you're ready to get permits, so that's the first thing, and then there's not going to be any road frontage. We won't be doing a private road or anything like that. It will just be an egress. Egress is meant to get them up to those two lots, and it's through property already owns.

Okay. So public hearing, we pretty much spoke about it. Anybody got any new evidence or any information or questions on this case? Anybody have anything? Any questions? Yeah, any more questions?

On this, the 38, right?

Yes, this is 38-38.

Stephanie Wicke, 171 West 700 North. There are a couple other easements. There are, I think, exceptions they're asking for, which happens to be less than five acres. On the 37, I just want to make note, I understand you want it for your sons, which is great. But, yeah, as long as the guarantee doesn't rip them out, Thank you. But as far as the other one, I still say best advice. All right.

Okay, thank you. Anybody else have any questions? Either way, for or against? Same doubt, and we'll close it. And same requirement, you have to go through drainage review. Okay, so anything else, Christy? No. Okay, I'd like to make a motion to approve DB-2026-38 here. Thank you for your time. Okay. Excuse me. DB-2026-39, applicants Tanner, Austin, Maury, Carol, and Dave Tiemans with Tiemans Land Survey. Project is more administrative sub-vision. Location, approximate address, 857 North by East Westfield in Jackson Township. It's RR Ruben's District. Acreage is 11.85. Request to allow full sophisticated sub-vision new lots to vary from the following. First, reduction of frontage on lot two. Second, vary from the maximum width to the ratio of one to four in RR Stony.

Good afternoon. David Tiemens from Tiemens Lancering, 223rd Court in DeMott. I am representing both Austin and Morey, Tanner and Morey. They own the property there, as you mentioned, it's 11.8 acres. What they'd like to do is divide this through administrative subdivision into two lots. One lot would be five acres and the other one would be 6.45. So it would be more than at the minimum or more than the minimum. The reason for the variance stems from due to the frontage, one lot would basically be 40 feet wide, which is where the driveway location would be. from the property. The good news in this case is that we'd only be asking for one driveway, so we're going to be asking for two driveway cuts. The driveway would be located farther than 100 feet from the adjoining neighbor's driveway. And actually, we did get a permit from the highway department for that driveway already for like a construction entrance. So because of that frontage on the lot two parcel, which is actually the parcel in the back, they have a 40-foot strip that would go to 550 west. Because of that variance of 40 feet of frontage, that also is the depth of the property. That would also exceed a four to one ratio. So that would be the second variance. So the second variance is kind of due to the first variance. They plan to, they're brothers, they plan to each build a home. on this property and share a driveway. We have already submitted, we've already gone through the stormwater department on this and they did not find any issues with our calculations and approved the drainage plan as it is for two lots.

Okay, that's it? That's it. That's a public hearing. Anybody want to speak in favor? Seeing none, anybody want to speak against or any questions on this case? Yes, sir.

William J. Nichols, 853 North, 550 East, Westville. Not that I'm against any of this. How is it going to affect me? I am right next door. Deep drainage, septic, things like that. That's your question? So far, yes. Well, answer all your questions. Okay. Drainage, septic system, and legal terms like variance, how does that impact me?

Right next door. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Anybody else? Say none. You might respond to that.

I did not get where he was located north or south of us.

The septic system, they'd be well.

They're both located, one is located towards the northwest corner of the property, and the other one is located right in the middle, towards the middle of the property in each direction, so the very center of the property. Those would be the two locations with the septic system. They would be high enough such that any perimeter drains required would drain out onto their own parcel, so no new drainage, as far as septic systems are concerned, would go directly to your property. As far as surface water drainage, again, we've indicated, we've already went through the stormwater department, there is no impact. The drainage will continue the way it's going right now. Currently, the property has been farmed, and the impact will actually be reduced because of adding grass to a large portion of the property that is now being farmed. As far as the variances are concerned, I don't know what impact any of those would have on your property. As you can see, going up and down on each side of the road, there are several properties that have a similar situation where they're either sharing a driveway or there's a driveway that goes alongside some other parcel to get access to the county road. So this is a condition that's well within the surrounding neighborhood.

The zoning is still staying the same. We're not changing the zoning. The zoning is still our honor. All right.

I'm just coming up. William J. Nichols, 853 North, 550 East. Can I step around? If you want, sure. Three, four times a year when we have really bad rain, it does not show up on this map. I literally have white water rapids, and you can see it right now where all the exposed field stone is. There is a drainage that comes, and I don't know if the previous owners did this on their own. I've been there since 2012. This is my pond. I would like reassurances that nothing is going to be redirected to my pond. Mother Nature, we cannot help Mother Nature. I understand that. But truly, this is like a freshly plowed field. This is not accurate of what's going on right now. Because you could physically see there is a ditch that forms with a really heavy rain. And it goes all along that northern edge of my property. And I just see ground disturbance. Maybe I'm assuming the worst. But I want this to go on record that this was a huge concern of mine.

Okay, thank you. My response, yeah.

Yeah, if you look at the topography, there's a natural drainageway that goes along your north property line, and yes, there's a pond in the back. We are not changing anything by what we're doing. All the development that we're doing is on the north side of our property, so we're not changing any topography other than around the two houses in order to build the house up. Otherwise, we're not changing anything else, so the drainage... should not be affected by what we're doing. And like I've stated, we've presented a plan to the stormwater department in showing what we're doing, along with the report, and they've approved that plan.

Thank you. Okay, I'm going to close the public hearing. So you understand, it goes through our drainage review. They cannot increase any runoff from their property. Okay, that's our rules. That's our guidelines. You can explain if you want how that works. They calculate...

So our stormwater department reviews their submittal for engineering. So when you have farmland like that, which Dave was explaining a minute ago, it's not really good for runoff. So the fact that they're putting in houses is going to be evened out by the fact that they're putting in lawns which absorb a lot more water so your drainage to your property will either stay the same or possibly even get better because the farmland isn't going to be shedding as much water onto your property now is that accurate dave yes thank you actually be slowed down also so not only does it absorb it it slows it down

And to go on the record, we had two administrators send in emails or letters, Mr. Parker, H. Parker, and Robert Rowe, concerned about the main initiative. Okay. And I think we addressed the main initiative. So with that, we're okay.

I just want to state that Mr. Parker did come in and Dave Champion did talk to him.

Okay, so he understands? Okay. Okay, with that, I'd like to approve case DV-2026-39. It's approved. Okay, thank you very much. Next case is DV-26-43. Applicant's MMPM Investments LLC of Kevin Kors of McMahon Associates. Location's 553 West State Road 130 Wheeler, Union Township. Zone ECH Heights SC Commercial District. Anchorage is to request for parking improvements in addition to a stormwater basin to vary from the following. First, relief from the requirement to provide interior, exterior pedestrian network and greenbelt. Second, to vary from all landscape benefits. And third, relief from the lighting plan requirements.

Good afternoon, everybody. Kevin Koros, McMahon Associates, 952 South State Road 2, Valparaiso, Indiana, 46385. Here on behalf of MNPM Investments, who was not able to make it today due to scheduling conflicts. So we are in front of you with the highlighted box today. There was an existing building that my client had purchased about half a half a year, a year ago. Not too sure what the previous use was, but he runs a limousine business. So as you go by there and if you've been by, you've seen a lot. limousine cars. The property is zoned commercial highway. It is allowable for that. We have had our submittal to the stormwater department office. We've received comment responses from both planning and both from engineering. Engineering comments have been addressed. We now have a substantial conformance letter from the stormwater review. The comments that are left over are what we're here to see you guys about regarding Ms. Hale's comments on the planning side of the property. The plan for this property is to expand the parking lot and include drainage to bring The drainage on the site up to code, most of the site drains from north to south. It will all now be caught within a catch basin and released to the existing roadside drainage swale. We do have approval and conformance with INDOT as well for the entrance. conformance there. There is an existing septic on the north side. So what we're here to see you guys about is one of the items which is directly associated to the corridor overlay district, which is the pedestrian network standards. And as you can see, this is a very agricultural area. So we're asking for relief from those standards because there are no pedestrian network standards anywhere to be found in this area. I think that one's pretty self-evident. The other items that we're looking for is lighting and landscaping, which are not corridor related. But we are asking for those standards due to the existing nature of the site. There's not a lot of... clientele that accesses this building. Therefore, the lands or the lighting and ultimately the landscaping don't really need to be included in this. This is kind of a business where one owner and his drivers come in and then they all leave the site. So that's what we're here for. I'm happy to answer any questions you guys have or the public.

Okay, thank you. Public hearing. Anybody want to speak in favor of this case? Anybody want to speak against or any questions? Yes, sir. You have two names signed in. You are?

Okay. Yes.

Thank you.

Hi. Myself and our family, we're not against or pro or against this business of business. Our family owns 100 acres. just to the northeast adjacent to where the firehouse is. Okay. And all our drain tiles come that way, right? And it flows into the corner of the firehouse. And then it goes down to 130. And with that basin there, if that band sunk, we're going to get hit with it all. My brother-in-law was the first house there. 2007? 2008? They were flooded, and then the house next, which was my father-in-law's, which I just purchased two years ago, that was flooded as well. That happened back on. So I spoke to David Champion the other day in regards to the basin, and the maintenance on that is on the owner, correct? And so if he doesn't maintain that properly, then we could have an issue. So I just want to be on record that, you know, to the owner who's not here, you know, that he maintains that so we don't have a issue. Okay. And that's all I have.

Well, thank you. Okay. Another person signed in, John Gourley. Yes, sir.

John Gourley, 1934 East Grand Street over in Indiana. I'm off and buying a cell phone for the property that's going to be... west of there and we have seen water build up on locations in the southwest corner so we're very concerned about that because someone might want to build a house there in the future that this interferes with that also the basin that gets installed will be an easement to access the farming Okay. Well, thank you. Anybody else have any concerns or questions? Yes, sir. That's okay. No. Just state your name and address.

You're fine. Okay.

My house, the first house, is the east of the park, right there. We have drain tile, we have 12-inch drain tile, we have 10-inch, all that, and it goes down from 100-acre back all the way down to that corner. And in 07, we flooded up because of that reason. If that retention pond that you're gonna put in backs up or anything, it's gonna go right into that corner and back up and then go right into all the perimeter drains between our two houses. And I had $15,000 damage because of that. And I'm really worried about that retention . So, I mean, if it's going to hold water all the time, I guess my issue is where's the water going to go, you know, draining off that field. That's real important to us.

All right. Thank you. Anybody else? Okay, let's see.

Return, return, return.

Sure.

So as we've heard, drainage is the majority of the issue here. So once again, I want to reiterate that this has been reviewed by the stormwater reviewing engineer. That would be Dave Champion, whom one had already had a conversation with. I will dive into a little bit. I know this isn't really... part of what we're here, but I don't mind diving into this a little bit as to kind of the understanding. And I understand that you guys know about this. This is more for the benefit of the crowd that is here for stormwater standards. And as it's already been mentioned once, when you develop a property, you're not allowed to release any more water than what has been there before, right? So we do drainage calculations, which come up with curve numbers. Those curve numbers have to be less than what's existing. So that pond is there to detain water. It doesn't hold water indefinitely. So it detains water. It releases it at a rate that's specified by approval from the stormwater authority. manual of the county. So that water will eventually be released back into the ditch where it has always gone. When that pond gets too full, say if we have a 500-year, 100-year storm event, that water comes up to the top of the level. It hits what we call an overflow, which is a depressional area in the pond. So when it can't hold any more water, that water spills out over and goes into the same ditch that it always goes to. There's provisions for that within the stormwater annual. That water will then take its flow as it always has been. Per our approval, we have upgraded the culvert system along underneath where the existing drive is that you can see on the south side of the blue line. We have widened that drive and has such as part of the NDOT review process, which we also submit drainage calculations for. Those have been reviewed and approved by NDOT as well. So water will flow to where it's supposed to. You know, what happens if it gets too backed up? That's an issue, as we all know, for the actual stormwater department office, if there are drainage concerns up and beyond what our numbers show that goes to that department. in terms of protecting the, I guess I'll say, quote, easement. I'm not aware of any easement on the property as far as farming. I was under the understanding that it's being leased, but we were not provided any title documents that showed an easement. We weren't provided title documents at all. So one may or may not exist, but that is, if it does, it is only an easement. So that's, whether that rights are allowed to be built on or not is I guess what I'll say is above my pay grade. That's a legal counsel issue there. There will be a drainage swale that runs from north to south along the west property line. So that'll guide the water within the property to the pond within the property. So if anything, the drainage will be the same or better as it is right now. The farmland directly to the west will be the same as well. Some of that water is You can see our watershed calculations. Some of that water bleeds onto our side. Our drainage calculations take in effect of that. So I think I've tried to beat that as far to death as possible here.

Okay. All right. Anybody have any new items, new questions? It was mainly drainage. Can you explain that? Yes, sir. I've stated your name and address again. I'm sorry.

John Corley. Okay.

Thank you.

When the property was sold, it was either 40 feet of easement or 50, I can't remember. But it was in the documents when it was sold to the Bikini Airplace that had it on the shelf. Okay.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Okay. All right, I'm going to close the public hearing. So the drainage, again, goes through drainage review. It's going to be improved over what we have. And some of the variants you're asking, Landscaping, I have a concern about. We should do something. I mean, it is all gravel.

Understood.

I mean, you know.

Well, as you know, you ask, ask, ask. And, you know, we are aware that it is a sea of gravel. It is visually in line with the fire department directly to the east. You know, there's really, you know, not much need for softening with all of the agriculture that's around there. I understand. And as you know, all I can do is ask, ask, ask.

I'm going to ask you for a minute. We've got to do something. We're trying to improve the fire department for years and years. I understand that. If it was built today, it would be different.

So we will meet, obviously, coverage standards for the land coverage. I think that was noted by Ms. Hale's office here. So we will meet that. As far as beautification and as far as planting, planting would probably be far more desirable to additional greenscape. So as you know, the overhead or the highway, overlay requires i believe it's a 100 foot green belt which is obviously pretty ridiculous for this kind of site but i think we can we could probably work with you guys on some plantings yeah do some planting some green okay i think that would be very agreeable you've been out you've been out there okay sure it's just I can get with Susan and we can work on something that's mutually beneficial to everybody.

I would ask Rick that you could specify the length or the depth of that green belt that you do want, whether it's 10 feet, 15 feet. As long as you approve that, then I can work with them on what exactly goes in that green belt.

Okay. And just to be clear, too, that the green belt we mostly have with that pond takes up that whole kind of quadrant area on the frontage. So we do have a lot of that in a lot of the A lot of the other portion, the driveway portion, is large specifically because of the limousine vehicles that are coming in and out. They need to have a lot of room. So just to be clear, we do meet quite a bit of greenscape on that westerly side. It's just the easterly side we need that much asphalt to safely get vehicles in and out. As you've seen, he's got much longer than just standard limousines out there, too. I mean, I think he's got one of those Cadillac limousines that are much longer. And that's why it was so imperative that we got NDOT approval before we even came here, because if NDOT didn't get into this, then obviously there would be no point.

Well, what can you live with? What's reasonable? As far as green space? Are you talking like you want a berm or just an area like Tenchi or what?

I think just the plants, you don't have to go do stuff instead of having to go.

Yeah, you can't go all the way across.

Yeah, we've got a slight berm in the front. We could do some plantings across that.

Yeah. Perfect.

I think she wants a definition of how much we want. Is that what you're asking for? How much green space? Okay.

Yeah, if you could just give some standards, because in my role as planner, I can't make the decisions on that. But if you say like a certain number of trees and shrubs or something like that, I can work with them and make sure their plans comply with whatever you say. How wide is the property?

Property is 188 feet wide. And we have more than half of that is green space in the frontage.

Yeah.

Yeah. I think our drive entrance ended up being 40 feet. That was the max allowable by NDOT. We have slightly additional pavement on the west of that entrance, and we have slight additional pavement on the east side. We can't really move the entrance. Obviously, that's locked in by NDOT now. And really, from the entrance east can't really be changed because that's also the asphalt that the fire department used when they do their truck turnarounds as well. So, again, the pond in the front takes care of a lot of the green space. I agree that if we can, if there's a statement as far as how many trees per like lineal foot, I don't remember off the top of my head what your ordinance is on that.

I think for this project, it should follow the minor subdivision rule for street trees, which is one per 40 feet.

Yeah, I was going to say, I thought it was 30 or 40 feet.

Yeah, one per 40 feet of frontage.

Perfect. I think that's very fair.

Yeah. Okay.

Okay.

The last item, lighting. There's no lights out there.

Yeah, they have two wall packs right now. And that's all that they, again, there's no clientele that's coming in and out of here. It's just the owner and his drivers. They operate mostly, you know, during the day and into some nights. They don't feel the need that they need lightscaping for any reason because they don't have anybody on site.

I'm more concerned for safety, police officers or whatever. It's pretty dark at night lately. But the lights are on the building you're talking about.

Yeah, correct. Two wall packs on the building itself.

You can't put one or two lights in the parking lot.

All we can do is ask, ask, ask.

It's pretty dark. It is dark.

If we were to put... Oh, sorry.

For security purposes, you would want a couple of lights in the parking lot.

I'm not gonna speak for them, I wouldn't disagree. Obviously we don't want any lights in the front because again, that's the entrance area, but maybe we can compromise and do, so they park most of their vehicles on the west side of the parking lot. If you go on out there, you can see that they're all up and down the property line. So maybe we do one light pole kind of midway in the parking section of that, that would illuminate that area where those vehicles are parked.

I'm good. Are you good? Are you good? Yeah. That's reasonable. Okay. It's so dark, Kevin.

Oh, that sounds good. I think I can speak for him and say that that's fair enough.

Okay. Okay. Anything else? Okay, I'm open to public hearing just for one second.

State your name and address. The concrete pad with the mailboxes, is that on your property?

Go ahead, you can respond. You want me to go ahead and respond? Yes, it is. It is on the property.

Okay, so all citizens have access to that, so there should be white in there 24-7, should there not be?

The pad is there. That was the old pad for the, that is no longer being used as a mailbox area. There's nothing to go up to there. No, there's no mailbox there. Yes.

either put a tarp over it or turn it around so the public doesn't see it. I mean, that's a bad move. Okay.

Thank you for your time. Hence the driveway widening.

Thank you very much. All right. Back to the case here. Okay. I'd like to approve case BBS-2026-40 with a commitment to be made on landscaping and the lighting. How about one more thing? Sidewalk. If sidewalk ever comes through, should they have agreement that you put that in if they ever come 20 years from now or no?

Yes.

It would be a state.

It would be a state project.

So scratch that. All right. You're approved.

Thank you guys very much. I appreciate it. Thanks, Rick. Thanks for being flexible. I'm nothing if not.

This is DB-2026-4. Applicant is William Taylor, Caracalla-Carlson with Miller Buildings. Location, 497 East Burdick Road, Chesterton, Jackson Township. Zone is RR, Northwest Central District. Acreage is 4.47. Request to allow a 72 by 48 session structure to vary from the following. Placement of session structure to below front yard. Second, the height of 20 to 26 feet and nine inches.

Hey there, everybody. Cal Carlson here, 7657 Indiana Highway 2, La Porte, Indiana. I'm here to ask to be able to place a new RV garage for my customer, Mr. Taylor Williams, in the front yard and to have it be 26 foot 9 inches tall. That's it. We need the height specifically because of the height of the RV. Mr. Taylor is a pretty tall guy, and in order to maintain it, he'll need to stand on top of it. And having about five feet of space would be, like, really helpful for him.

Okay. That's it?

Yes, sir.

In case of public hearing, anybody want to speak in favor in this case? Seeing none, anybody want to speak against or any questions on this case? Why so tall? Repeat that again.

So speaking to the apologies, he's got a 13 foot tall RV. And oftentimes with RVs, you know, you're getting you need to do a lot of maintenance on the roof. And in order to stand on top of that roof. He needs about an 18-foot tall ceiling.

On top of the RV, you're saying?

Yes, in order to do maintenance to the roof to repair leaks or anything else that might need to be done up there.

I said, that's a new one.

That's a new one.

That's a new one. Nat goes, you have to build it so high. I mean, it just doesn't. You do some of the maintenance outside. You have to work on an air conditioner or something. So he wants a taller building because he wants to stand on top of the RV. He wants to be able to do maintenance to his RV. To the RV. Okay. All right. So I can understand. Okay. Well, what size can he have? The size is not an issue, right? The square feet?

Yeah.

So in his rear yard, he has a pretty big pot back there. And then as soon as you get behind the house, the land slopes off pretty heavily. So it would be a lot of grading and work to place his building back there. And then on top of that, you know, he wants to stay as far from that water as possible.

And how far off the road are you?

267 feet. 270? 267. I got it.

Yeah, I drove around. There's no other pole barns in the front yard out there. There's pole barns out there, but not in the front yard. We could absolutely move it back further.

I'm sorry?

We could absolutely move it back further towards the house. I think he may be amenable to that.

I just...

Just, you know, aesthetics in the front yard. It's just covering the house. I don't know. It doesn't look good. That's a large board. What's here? Yeah. How many letters went out for this? For neighbors? Yeah. I can actually tell you here. And no one's here. Well, can you use scissor trusses? 26.9 is too high. 26.9 is too high.

Oh, absolutely. We can adjust the pitch if you like.

I'm sorry?

We can adjust the pitch for sure.

So what height do you have?

I can get with a slightly lower pitch. I can get down to... Let's see here, actually did the math. 22 foot four with a 212.

And the size, 72 by 48 off the large. Yes, but... Are you making it smaller?

No. We're not here for the square footage. We're here for the height and for the placement.

The RV is not 72 feet.

He'll also be using it for storage.

I'm sorry?

He'll also use that building for storage.

Okay. So you're stuck on 72 by 48? Yes. He could have that square footage, right?

But I think part of the acreage is part of this lake and beyond it. So all he has is this. So it's kind of a false statement on how much land property he has.

And it drops off and back.

Yes, sir.

All right. Another pole barn in front yard.

Yeah, it's too large.

You have to rethink that size. If I'm going to prove it in the front yard, it can't be that large. That's large. So I don't know if you need more time to talk to your client, but that's I'm okay with a 22-4. I'm okay with a Chevy 2x48 in the front yard.

Fair enough. No, I cannot make it any smaller. We can... What size would you approve so I can bring that back to them?

I'm sorry, what?

What size would you approve? So I can bring that back to him. Zero. I'm teasing you.

I guess what can he live with? I mean, what size? You tell me the RV size, and I can give you a size.

Right, yeah. I'm not exactly sure how long or...

If you give me an RV size, I can give you a size. Absolutely. Is it a three-five footer or...

Yeah, I would guess it's a very large RV.

It's not a bus, is it? Essentially, yeah.

It is really big. So about, let's say, 35 by 10, maybe 15. Not exactly sure how wide an RV is typically.

8.6.

What size?

An RV is 8 foot 6 wide. 8 foot 6. That's the width of any vehicle going down. If you have an oversized one, stick them.

60 by 32? Is that a common size?

Yeah. Yeah, that would work as long as it's divisible by four. We're pretty able to make everything work, yeah.

So 60 by 32, that would work?

Yeah, but I would need to get the okay from the customer for that. And he's actually out of town right now. He wanted me to go ahead and take this meeting, but we may have to go to an appeal.

Want me to continue the case then? You have to get his approval or what?

Yeah, can we go ahead and continue this? Yeah. Would that involve coming back to another hearing?

Yeah, unless you call him now. I could put you on back to the, I guess, three more cases.

I'm absolutely willing to try.

Okay, I'm...

We're gonna have you put your afters to take your stuff and go to the room outside and call them.

I will call you back. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Okay. DB-20242, applicant Deborah Benedict, Carol of Zachary, Utah. Location, 778 West 30 South Brown Point, Porter Township. Zonies are one, both districts, single family residential district. Acreage is 10.17. Construction will be built in the front yard.

Hi. Zachary Shuda, Shuda Construction, 374 East, 600 North. So we are constructing a barn in place of a recent barn that was collapsing, and I, the pond, applying for the permit, we realized that this is actually closer to the access drive, which is now considered the road, I believe. so we were asked to apply for a variance uh it's it's the same footprint as the previous barn for safety reasons we actually did some rough framing in order to protect the elect the original electric meter that services the house and the shut off panel so we're just hoping to get approved the structure that that we've we've applied for the permit for okay so public here you might want to speak in favor

Seeing if anybody wants to speak against or any questions. Close the public hearing. Okay, explain to me how this started. Was there a permit or not a permit? I mean, permit for what? Yeah, what's wrong?

So this came in as an accessory structure addition permit. Upon further review, aerial view showed that the building was not there, that it had fully come down. The applicant had indicated that there was one remaining wall. Sounds like to what you were doing to protect that electrical. Yes. And so they believe that the one wall led them to qualify for an addition. It does not. They were able to change the permit on our end, but now it is a new construction permit. However, because the building had fallen to such disrepair and was ultimately removed, excluding the one wall, they are no longer grandfathered in and need to come to you requesting to rebuild the building.

What was the original request for signs?

30 by 60. And they do have some substantial acreage there. So square footage is not one of the variants that they're requesting right now. However, like the last one, you can still make that a condition if you wish.

Repeat that again, please.

Square footage is not something they're requesting a variance from right now. However, like the last one, if you wanted to make that a condition because it's in the front yard, you can.

They already have it constructed. It's 75% completed.

It's rough framed. It's post-framed, so we left the style of construction as post-framed. Because this played out the way it did, we decided to protect the materials and the electrical meters for safety reasons and just put the structure in and wrap it in Tyvek to protect it. from water because that those electric meters serviced the house next to it and we felt like just the amount of rain we're getting it was dangerous so um it was like why you know it just made sense to go that far and so you constructed it without the proper commitment correct that's what you're

And that will be an early bird fine. That's right. It will be two times the cost. If your variance is granted and you're able to get a permit, it will be the two times the cost.

Okay. Yeah, I actually consulted Mike Haller about that safety hazard and asked him and he said, you know, he couldn't, he couldn't recommend it because there was no, you know, we didn't have a permit, but he reassured me that he felt like it was like a no brainer for a variance approval because There's already one there and it's surrounded by trees and there's a garage that's actually closer to the lot line. So he felt like there'd be no reason for anybody to object. It doesn't exceed the square footage requirement or maximums. So he advised me on the risk, but we felt like it was worth it because construction materials are expensive and there's an electrical panel involved. So we understand that.

Well, let me explain to you. There's other methods during that. Like electrical panels.

Sure.

And then there's tarps to cover materials.

Sure.

Okay. So I'm going to have to talk to my accountant. I have to continue this case and talk to the attorney and see which way to go. So I'm going to continue case DME-2026-42.

So even though we're willing to pay the fine, we can't get approval or anything?

Okay. You continue. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Next case, D-B-A-S-2-6-4-3, applicant Adam Spurr, location 828 South 350 West, Heber, Indiana, Boone Grove Township. Boomtown, I'm sorry. Zone A1, acreage is two. Request to allow a 32 by 48 accessory structure with a 10 by 48 lean-to. The very final following. First, to allow increase in maximum floor area allowed. Second, to allow a decrease in side yard setback from 30 feet to 30 feet.

Adam Spur, 828 South, 350 West, Hebron.

Your request?

Requesting for two variances based on I'm currently zoned A1, which I believe A1 and Fort County are supposed to have 10 acres. And I'm sitting on right at two. um the first variance for the distance off the property line is as you can see in that picture our lots are i believe 151 foot wide 200 like 800 feet deep so um on our street as of now there are currently eight barns six of the barns all fall within that 10 to 12 foot off the property line so statically trying to keep with the barns on the street and then um if I move it further back towards my property to bring it in more. The problem is it's you can kind of see in the woods back there that holds water throughout the fall and springs. So just bring the barn up more. But in the square footage issue is The 32 by 48 barn itself falls under the square footage that I'm allowed, but the 10-foot lean-to going down, the 10-foot lean-to is not going to be used for storage. It's going to have some patio furniture, ceiling fans, lights to be able to hang out there, watch the sunset with family. But mainly both variances come back to the whole fact that we're zoned A1 on only two acres.

Okay. As a public hearing, anybody want to speak in favor?

Yes.

Yes, state your name and address.

Lawrence Carlson, 840 South, 350 West. Yeah, I'm all for this. I think it's a great idea.

It's going to build a great space, especially the exterior. So we're all for it.

Thank you. Anybody else want to speak in favor? Seeing none, anybody want to speak against or any questions? Seeing none, I'm going to close the public hearing. There's a lot of pole barns out there. You're right. A lot of them. Okay. The only issue I have is side yard setback you want. I mean, you have all the acreage. Your septic's in the front yard.

Yeah, septic's in the front yard.

Okay. And you have all that backyard to move it over. But I don't see the hardship.

Well, I mean, I think if I was zoned the way it should be zoned as residential, what's that setback on residential? Is it a 10-foot?

It depends on the zoning. With RR, it's like an acre requirement in RR. Yeah. I think the cider setback is 15 feet.

Okay.

So that's kind of where you would be if you were an RR zoning. Okay.

Eight feet is awesome. I put the eight feet down. I'm more at like 11. I laid it out again the other day. It's like 10, 6, 11.

Yeah, I tried to eyeball it.

Yeah, and the problem is the county doesn't have a hard measurement from where my house is to the property line. So I've pulled strings from property lines trying to get over behind my house. But with the woods in the back, it's kind of hard to pull that hard measurement down. I mean, 10 or 12 feet I could be okay with, and it wouldn't be behind the house where I'd still be able to pull up alongside the house and just kind of shoot right into it.

I'm part of it, visibility, having to get a driveway back there.

We have a nice set of woods in the back the kids like to play in.

Yeah In the size I don't have problems. There's some pole bars out there. It's not in the front yard, so that's good.

Yeah.

And you need that size, right?

Yeah, the size was the main one. I was just trying to keep it closer. I talked to them. My neighbors couldn't make it, but they already have arbor bodies picked out that they want to put up next to it, so they're not opposed to it.

Well, can you live with that 15 feet for 11?

I think if I go 13, the problem with, I'll have to push it. If I can do 13, I'd be okay with 13 if that's doable. Lucky 13. Okay. Okay.

Are you going to use it for personal?

Yeah, personal storage. We're going to buy a camper. We're going to find a boat. Yeah, all the kids' toys I've accumulated in my garage that made it unusable.

Yeah, except for the front yard. Yep. As a matter of fact, there's a pole board down the street, 56 by 36. I don't know if that was built with a permit or what. There's several at 30 by 50. Yeah. So it fits the area. All right, with that, I will approve case DB-2026-43 with the side yard set back to be at 13 feet. Thank you. You're approved. Last case, DB-2026-44, applicant Tammy and Carla Taylor, location 139 West 900 South Couch, Boonton Township, zone is A1, General Ague District, acreage is 2.73, request to allow a sorry setback deduction for proposed addition to a distant garage 30 feet to 10 feet.

I'm Gary Jorgensen, Jr., 1853 South State Road 2, Valparaiso, 46385. My sister's property that I'm here to assist her with adding the addition to the garage. And we're here for the variance to allow for that size garage along the extended garage. What size extension are you going to be? That's 30 by 40. 40 wide? 40 deep. 40 to 30 wide.

30 wide. Okay, thank you. Okay. That's it? Yes. Okay. Public hearing. Anybody want to speak in favor? No. Anybody against? Any questions? Opposed? Public hearing.

It's kind of the same situation, too, because they're at 8-1 on two meters.

Okay. I believe at least... So they're at 30?

If their code is 30, they want 10?

There's about 10 left, yeah. I believe it's 10.

Yeah.

And the garage has to be that large? Two-car garage. It's a single-car garage currently right now. Yeah. And it's a small single. They want to be able to park both their vehicles and their boat and have some storage. The house is going to be resided, so the whole... How the dish and everything will match. It's going to be a match. Yes. And the size and the way it comes out in front of the other garage matches the other side.

So it's going to be attached, of course. Correct. It's going to be set back two feet, or a lot of times they set back...

The front will be four or four feet, set back behind eight feet.

Okay. And what would it be if it was RR? It would be 15?

15, sorry, I didn't accept that. Okay.

And you had to have the garage that size, that's what you're saying?

It's, by the time of the vehicles, you get them both in there, you almost need, you know, without being tight. And you measured, you sure you had 10 feet? That's, yeah, we were measuring across.

Okay.

Yes. Okay.

And so, of course, it's a garage, just for personal use. Yes. Yes. Okay. Any issues? No? Okay. All right. With that, I will approve case DB-2026-44. You're approved. 10 feet to multiple. No less than 10 feet. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. You can drop it off. Sure. You can drop it off. Yes.

I don't think he's proposing to build anything. Let's go dig a hole right in the middle of this.

I thought it was off to the side. That's what I thought.

It is off to the side. Off to the side is the problem. Okay. All right.

Susan, can you check on that? Susan, okay, we'll check on that. Well, thank you.

Can I give you my mom's number and my number? Sure. She will call. Okay. I appreciate your time, folks.

No problem.

Yeah.

And put your email on there, too.

Yes, ma'am.

Yes. Is he done? Okay. Are you ready? I'm calling case D8-226-4. Welcome back. Back up again. Okay. Can you restate name and address? Yes, go ahead.

Cale Carlson, here on behalf of William Taylor, 7657 Indian Highway 2, LaPorte, Indiana. Here to get a 26'9 tall building placed in the front yard. was not able to convince the customer to... Oh, you couldn't reach him? No, I could reach him. I was not able to convince him to lower the square footage at all. Okay. And then I spoke with him about doing scissor trusses, and apparently we've already discussed that with him, and due to the installation requirements, it became cost prohibitive.

So he doesn't want to do that?

No.

He doesn't want to lower it to... So he wants to stay at 26? Is that what you're saying?

Yes, he wants to keep the height where it is.

Okay. Well, with that, it's out of character for the area they have in the front yard. Okay. It was in the back yard?

Yeah.

Okay. So I would deny case D-2026-41. So you're denied. Thank you. Anything else?

Okay.

I don't. It does not work like that.

It could change. So make the same week as the plan commission. Just in case.