Plan Commission - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call the meeting to order so we could all rise the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, [clears throat] indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Roll call. Kevin Bryce here. Bobiano here. Craig Kenworthy here. Pamela Mish

here. Ed Morales here. Redstone here. Luther Williams. Nikki Lowski. Burns, also present. Mike J. You got a form, sir. Thank Thank you. Uh, any correspondence? We got no correspondence.

Okay, we'll move on to new business. We'll move to case [snorts] MJ-2024-1 Gatlin KM Living Trust. This is a primary [clears throat] primary approval for a five lot major subdivision. Okay. Good evening. My name is Todd Le. I'm here on behalf of the petitioners. Uh in this case, this is a uh primary plat for a major subdivision that isn't so major. Uh and I'll explain uh as we go through. Uh the property in question is approximately 53 acres. It's like 52.92 acres if you're counting precisely. Uh and is located just on the south side of uh county road between 50 west and 100 west. It's [clears throat] zoned A1, which is your agricultural one of your agricultural uh districts. Thank you. I knew that wasn't working. Now it is. Um so it's uh zoned agricultural. So the Brandon family uh is doing this major subdivision. Uh this property for many years was the family farm. Uh previous generations farmed the land. Uh the current owners, the current generation have no farmers. So they're divesting of this asset uh of their family. And in order to do [clears throat] that, they want to sell uh a land. And they're doing that by parceling it off uh into 10 acre parcels uh for a subdivision that complies with the zoning. The A1 zoning has a minimum

lot size of 10 acres. And so this 53 acres is being divided into five lots. It's a challenged parcel. It has a pipeline easement that runs through it. There's some um undevelopable, unbuildable soils uh on the parcel, but because the lots are so large, uh we have plenty of uh good soils for uh home construction and the uh septic systems of the area. So, the parcel looks like that in the red, the 5 uh3 acres, and the family owned the blue and the yellow uh and parcelled those off from what was referred to under your ordinance uh as a parent parcel. In other words, it was in 1994 where your ordinance takes a snapshot of ownership. It was all owned uh by the the Brandon family by the trust. Uh all of that land. We've sold off those two previous uh parcels uh legally. Uh but what that does is it it makes us now when we come in for this uh subdivision uh we can't use the minor subdivision rules, we have to use the major subdivision rules. So that's where why we're here for a major subdivision and that's what the flat looks like. Um, in that uh oddly shaped parcel, we have uh three parcels uh that are uh long and steamy and run from north to south. And then the two western parcels uh one faces to the west, has access to County Road 100 West, the other parcel faces also to the north, uh but doesn't

go all the way through. You can see there, um, if I can maybe use my handy dandy fancy laser pointer. Right through here is the pipeline and the bad soils are in the back as well. [clears throat] So, we we've done quite a bit. Um we came here to you uh earlier and received a uh design waiver actually 11 of them so that we could have this review uh done in a manner that is more like a minor subdivision than a major subdivision. This isn't, you know, 60 lots on 50 acres. Um, this is a a pretty rural agriculturally zoned subdivision. So, we don't need to study the entire watershed and drainage. We don't have to have interior roads. We don't have to have street lights. Uh, all of those things that are those 11 design waiverss. Um, you were gracious enough to grant. Uh, so now we appear in front of you with a major subdivision that feels and looks like a minor subdivision. frankly as it should because it's a major subdivision. We did go to the storm water advisory board and then followed uh to the storm water management board. Um the uh finding there was that the uh infrastructure uh that is virtually nil uh would be uh owned privately and maintained privately by the owners. The county is not assuming any drainage obligations. And then lastly, we were at DRC for an informal review on November 6th.

Staff of course reviews all these and we received clearance letters from the engineering review and the planner review as well. So, I believe that the plan is in order under the uh unified development ordinance and uh I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have or those that come from the public hearing. Thank you. At this time, I'd like to open it up to public comment. Do you want to read the

Sure, we can do that. So for tonight's meeting, we're going to have a series of public hearings. So this applies to all. At a public hearing before the commission, the petitioner proponent shall first present the facts and arguments in the support of the case. Those who propose oppose a petitioner shall follow. The petitioner shall have rebuttal. It shall be within the discretion of the commission to impose any time limitation either the petitioner or the respondent and to limit public comment to those determined by state statute to be interested parties. Written responses shall be accepted by the commission that need not be read into the commission's record. This then concludes the public hearing. To maintain orderly procedure, each side shall proceed without interruption by in presentation of a case. The burden shall be upon the petitioner to supply all information necessary for a clear understanding of the problem. The commission may continue the hearing when in its judgment the petitioner has not provided sufficient evidence on which to make a determination. Every person appearing before the commission shall abide by the order and direction of the president. Discourteous, disorderly, or contemptuous conduct shall be regarded as a breach of the privileges of the commission and shall be dealt with as the commission directs. And I would add that anybody speaking, we have microphones here and over there. Please state your name and address and your questions on the petition.

Do you have any comment before we go voted to comment?

Um, everything you provided was accurate. Uh, the DRC especially. Uh, we worked out some things such as the roadside swailes and the culverts under the driveway. I believe that was satisfied to the county highways engineer satisfaction. And as far as lot E goes when it comes time to apply permits they may need more soil warrants because they are bent on that pip and that pretty much cover. At this time I'd like to open up to public comment. Is anybody here wants to speak for or against this project? Take a microphone. State your name and address.

Right here. Just right over here. Right here. You can pick it up. Yeah. My name is Pete Buco and uh I live on 235600 West. I just got a question on uh the zoning since his property is zoned for agriculture. Now, when he gets goes to a platform set up, does it have to be reszoned? We'll go ahead and answer that. Okay. Everybody's done. Just wonder. Thank you. Is anybody else any pro or against who would like to speak? At this point, we'll go ahead and close the public comment. Uh Kevin, do you have any or we got it? You can't question.

Yeah. So, the A1 zoning classification uh does permit residential dwelling, single family detached dwellings. Um the minimum lot size in an A1 is 10 acres. So we all have five lots here shown and each one of them is 10 acres or more. So, we meet the zoning ordinance use requirements for the lots both in lot width, lot size and you know

no other than I agree with. Um that's why we have the unified development ordinance for various zonings. Uh it gives the stipulation for building setbacks, lot size, etc. up with this would [clears throat] comfortably fit it. I have no issues with it. I've seen this so many times between all the different boards, but I think we paired it down to getting all the uh issues and our concerns addressed from a technical standpoint, but also I think it's uh probably the best and highest use of this particular piece of land at this point. We're I don't have anything. No questions. Correct.

No questions. Commissioner, none. Anybody like to make a motion? I'll make a motion that we approve the primary flat uh for Brandon Ling Estate, Brandon Meadows Major Subdivision, MJ-2024-1. I'll second it. Mr. President, for the record, since we're recording from the room recording, we cannot get the equipment to run for a live stream. Okay.

So, that's the reason technical difficulties, but it is being recorded and it'll be posted on the website after. Thank you. Sorry. First time we got Hey in case number MJ 2024-1 votes are as follows. Kevin Brighty, yes. Bob Gillian, yes. Craig Cry, yes. Pen Mr. Fish, yes. Ed Morales, yes. Redstone, yes. 6. Motion passes. Thank you.

Great. Thank you very much. Happy holidays. Merry Christmas. Thank you. We'll move on to case Z-2025-31. Sean Minimi 550 South 450 West Valkarezone to reszone a partial of land to rural residential from the proposed purpose of a single family residence.

Good evening everybody. Kevin Cororos Associates 952 South State Road 2 Indiana 4685 here uh representing uh Sean Medine on this uh property. He'll be here to also answer any questions you guys might have. I don't have uh a beautiful PowerPoint like this fancy attorney uh ahead of us uh inside are abound in there. Um, so what we're here to ask you guys is for uh reszone uh recommendation favorably to the commissioners board on the piece of property formerly uh probably recognized by most as waterfall USA uh of which the family has owned for a couple decades uh I believe u 7 8 years almost a decade. Um we had a pread meeting with uh Mr. Jabbo and the tail uh back in end of October, beginning of uh November. Uh we discussed some options on this property. Uh with it being in the family, there was always intent to build on this uh parcel of land where uh probably really the east half of of these two quarter quarters uh reside. and uh it was ended up scrapped uh by uh the father and has now been picked up already parcled off and bought by Shawn here. Uh and we want to continue the movement to construct on this parcel. Soil borings have already been gathered uh from the previous uh site plan that was proposed uh to the county. We know that there is buildable area. Obviously, drainage is not an issue out here as uh there's a massive amount of of water being retained. The small area that's 5 acres that's

proposed to be reszoned and built off resides in that uh kind of the southwest corner of that quarter quarter there. I'm not sure if you guys have any documents in front of you or not. Um Mike, can we pull up the GIS cemetery? They have all

Oh, they do. Okay, perfect. Um so so that being said, you know that this is our first step of many to reach the finished goal here. We still have uh subdivision work to do uh as well as uh then the site plan itself and and everything that comes with those items. Uh so we're here to ask if you guys have any questions, we're here to answer them. Anything the public might have a question, I'm I'm here to answer. uh please let us know. Thank you. You have any comment there?

Yeah, maybe fill in a few of the blanks. Yes, this was a long process of uh working with Mr. Nine. Uh this is a greenway designation and when it first came across our office, we said, well, there's a purpose for that designation conservation preservation. Then we found as uh Mr. Coro said it was owned by a nonprofit conservation group called Waterfall USA and for some reason it went up for share of sale. Private individuals came across it. Mr. Matheni's father bought the two parcels somewhere in the midst there. The parcel lost 5 acres which as Mr. Corus said we'll have to deal with that after resoning. We'll have to go do some control at that time. uh normally for greenway a residential structure is allowed but only as a special use exception and then of course petition or any time if they wanted later accessory buildings and all that they would be continuing to come from the PCA grant that so that's one option we discussed but the more straightforward option that staff encourage with petitioners consultant petitioner himself to simply reszone it is RR which is very compatible next to [clears throat] this particular greenway zoning district. And so that's what's before you today. And as they said, they got many more steps to go before a building permit is pulled. This is just the first step of Thanks. At this point, I'd like to open it up for public comment. Is anybody like to speak for or against this project? Seeing none, we'll go ahead and close it. Kevin,

yeah, this uh Waterfall USA is a national organization and uh sadly they went bankrupt. They overextended themselves and their corporate offices being out on the East Coast pretty much decided we'll sell everything in the Midwest, especially this area right here. They got a lot of land. And it was uh big news back in the day that uh Brady bought it through the uh tax sale u or foreclosure I think.

How did he buy that? Um it was a silent auction they

Okay. But, uh, I just wanted everybody to be aware that there are two regulated drains, one east, one west. Uh, they don't really affect this parcel that much. This parcel's on higher ground. Uh, it was very disruptive to the watershed down in the Boone Grove area. In fact, uh, we had a lot of issues on County Road 550 South. Um, Commissioner Orales, yeah, very familiar with it was very frustrating all the things that were happening. Uh, we as a county had to come to some agreements with water USA to lower the level of those uh, ponds. Ironically, the geese and duck really like the water very shallow. They like to see their feet. So, uh, Don Roberts, the water US A and I went up, uh, lowered the water level, but still the damage was already done to a lot of the system as a consequence to the search charge from all the water there. There is a lot of water, but I think this has a potential for having a site, a building site. They've had the soil test done. We've seen this at BRC and uh started the uh preliminary reviews. So, uh I don't see any real issues with it other than my personal disappointment that Waterfall USA failed.

Great. Good. Thank you, Greg. Uh I don't have any have any questions. You know, we just like to say, I know Sean's a big outdoorsman. So, if there's anybody that you know would be great for 5 acres, I know it's I know it's you cuz I know you're loving nature and hunting and everything that you do. You know, I know I know the property will be in good hand. So, are there continuing drainage issues right now or has it been settled? I know I know you said you lowered the levels of the pond.

Yeah. Well, that that portion of it I think we resolved those issues and we made improvements on the drainage ditches around it, but yeah, that's this is part of what's going to impact. [clears throat] I have nothing commissioner.

No, I don't I don't have I mean I know that spot uh and you just want to build a home on that if possible and probably a barn at some point. Yeah, I'm familiar with that property. Um, you know, like Mr. Price said, there's been some drainage issues in the past, but it did seem to help. You know, when they lowered that, we had had mild winters. We'll see how that goes forward. But now questions.

Would anybody like to make a motion? I'll make a motion that we forward a favorable recommendation to the county commissioners to reszone uh the parcel on 550 South 450 West for case Zo 2025-31 to rural residential from Greenway.

I'll second Thank you. Not a problem. Usually Joy has a big stack of pens right there Yep.

For case 2022-31, those are as follows. Kevin Britky, yes. Gillian, yes. Henry, yes. Pamela Mish Fisher, Pamela Fish, yes. Redstone, yes. Vote carry six. Thank you guys very much for coming. This will appear in the meeting and agend.

We'll move on to case Z-2025-33 Good Oil Company, 597 West Highway 30, Val Morzo to reszone a parcel of land to moderate intensity commercial district for the proposed construction of a gas station, multiple office units and and parking lots. Good evening. My name is Adam Calpine. I'm with Calpine Consulting. My address is 298 East 400 North.

Cannot hear.

Okay. Speak it up. Um here tonight with me is David Gran. We get an opportunity gameplay solutions 218 service prop. So again, good evening. We're here to present a proposed reszone for this property. The property is located at the northeast corner of Highway 30 and 600 West. It is 8.2 acres approximately. And what we have provided to you is still a conceptual subdivision development plan, but I wanted you to get a sense of what we're proposing to do since we're proposing to resone the land. In addition, there's a threedimensional rendering, which is pretty [clears throat] early, but important again for you to understand what our vision is for this property as we consider and ask for your permission to reszone from CHM. And we can get into the differences between those two zonings if you wish. But for now, just talking about CM and the proposed site layout. Want to turn your attention to that. I'll be talking more about some of the engineering matters. I'll turn it over to my colleague Dave to touch on some of the other aspects surrounding the development um that should be feel should be considered with our request this evening. So, touching on a little bit about the site geometry, as you look at the subdivision development plan, you'll see we're proposing a gas station at the corner, typical to many gas stations you've seen, 5,000 ft building with

perimeter parking and a pump canopy and entrances off of Highway 30 and 600 West. Those two entrances would also be used and placed within easements so that the business owners at the eastern end of the site could gain access to their to their property and to their business. So it would be a shared easement, not a public one. It would be private held by all parties here on this property. And we're showing this is an eight lot subdivision. Although one of those lots identified as a storm water retention pond. So we've shown these lot lines are again still preliminary but um this is the reason that we need the CM zoning. The CH classification has a minimum lot area of 5 acres whereas CM is much below that and allows for this type of use. A little bit about utilities again. still preliminary, but it's important to know what we're thinking at this present time. Not shown or illustrated on this plan is a uh 12-in water man that's on the north on the west side of 600 West. So, that's nice. It goes up and ties into the school there to the north. Um, and we are intending to tie into that. We believe there's ample pressure. We've reached out to Indiana American Water uh at least preliminarily just to have the early discussions, but it will be these will be Indiana American Water customers that would tie in with the gas station and all of the proposed businesses. What we're proposing to do with wastewater is to create a shared septic field system that would be within the Eastman. We're showing it there at the west end of the development and the gas

station is the initial uh development to occur and and it would be in close proximity to it. But what we would do is we would create a stub out to the east uh for future extensions waste water. Um, and depending on how this subdivision is constructed, there may just be a road stub that goes off to the east. Um, until there's some traction with this development and then we would move forward with construction of the drive and the extension of that utility. But overall, uh, the bulk of the wastewater usage will be coming from the gas station and the others will be relatively light users, small businesses with relatively low of waste water. A little bit about storm water. It's within that middle 1 acre. Um it's a depressional area on the site. What you don't see are the contours. But my intention is to extend that uh to to store the detention for the storm water and then outlet to the west for 600 west. And we'll get into that more during final design. And you know, some of these lot lines may shift depending on what we discover during engineering. And with that, I'll go ahead and turn over to you, Dave, to touch on any mention.

Thanks, Adam. Uh, good evening, commission members, and thank you for having us here tonight. Um, again, I just want to talk a little bit about the uh the impact that this had with the rezoning. I think we're pretty familiar with this location and it history there. It's been many different types of uses and currently a a car dealership that's at the location that has many different restaurants and other uses there. I think you all remember what Lang was there and just has a major corridor to the uh Wheeler High School as well. Uh just driving here tonight uh with the dealership being closed. I thought that that intersection was uh very dark, desolate, and if you were looking to go to Wheeler Middle School or high school, uh you might have a little trouble finding that intersection there. But uh uh that's not why we're here today. we're here is off about the impact this can have and the height of that that shoots. Obviously, US 30 corridor being a designated state highway and commercial corridor carries already a large volume of vehicles on that corridor. So, the main use of this property is that it was talking about would be the fuel convenience store location there. So, that's not going to generate additional traffic. It's a you don't drive around to find your gas station. The gas station kind of finds you when you're in need of something like that and that you need something. Uh but that large parcel being 8 plus acres there uh gives it a unique opportunity for for county to think about long-term use and highest use of that property especially when it comes to tax base low option income tax other buckets that this commission member works for the vision of the comprehensive plan for pory county to look at what's the highest and best use for not only business owners but your residents who live here in your community as well. Um, so when you start to look at this plan here, uh, it does provide some unique opportunities for a a small business park there that provides anywhere from 10 to 12,000 square ft, which is right in that sweet spot for local mile shops that are looking to expand or build a business within your own backyards and not be competing with the large uh,

developments that might be nationwide. Uh, these are the fabrics, the backbones of your community, the residents who live here and provide businesses. Uh so when you start to break down uh what could possibly be at this location here, the gas station, convenience store could fit on this as its current zoning. Um but are you maximizing your tax base based on 5 acre because that's basically all you have based on the current zoning or could you look at a $15 million uh development here outside with all the combined uses on this location here? We would be very kind. Obviously, we'd be going back to this commission for site plan review. Uh, but we understand that with the residential neighborhood that does surround a little corner there, we have to be very cognate as well uh with landscaping, buffer zones, and things like that to make sure that we're good corporate neighbor and supporting their needs as well as this location as well. Uh some of the ideas that would be on this location would be some office space, showroom or warehouse capabilities uh where you'd have some uh large square foot spaces, but you'd have some office front things like that in the front. Uh it would be very pleasing to the eye to buy uh working with client commission uses of the bit of materials uh that would be what would be uh preferred for the this commission and the commissioners themselves. So that's a huge impact to the community itself. Think about the construction jobs that would be developed in this. If it was strictly just the one use in this property, you'd be looking about 60 construction jobs uh using local trades here in Northwest Indiana or we have 150 construction jobs. That's something to also think about when you start to think about zoning changes, permanent jobs when it's all said and done. the gas station with the convenience store doesn't necessarily make huge impact to the whole option and and uh jobs creations but when you start to combine that with the small business part that really does make significant impact. So we we can look at anywhere from 5 to seven jobs at the location or we can

start to look at 90 to 130 jobs that would make substantial contributions not only to uh other places in your schools and the economic engine that you have currently built here in county but it's going to add to that business. Uh then you start to look at the local option income tax that comes along with that. So there are a lot of different uh buckets here that can be looked at for positive impacts at this location here. And everybody knows, I'm sure the commission knows as well, but SU1 uh being something that's coming down here, you're looking at the future because your tax dollars are also being pulled from different directions when you start to support other services in your community. So, we want to be a good partner then. We want to provide uh quality, not quantity, quality. And as this being developed with hopefully a fair recommendation tonight to the commissioners, the commissioners will look at us as well. we will work with you on the site plan developments to provide something that everybody will be proud of in that corner uh for the time to come. So, we're here to answer any questions that they may come from commissioner members or the public that's here tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Back to you.

Yeah, if you staff report, I think it's pretty complete. Um maybe some additional color to that. Many people have been looking at this corner since I've been here last 19 20 months and I'm sure other people have before. Um, first of all, it's always been commercial sometime, probably even predating our 2007 uh latest zoning map. So, there's always been some commercial entity there. I'm I'm guessing when we created our new zoning [clears throat] districts in 2007 it was decided to be a high intensity and high intensity is what it means. It's generally uses if you look in your packet with high intensity I've got moderate intensity up on the screen. These are your high volume in and outs of of activity and things like that. Medium intensity is a little less. It shares a lot of the same uh acceptable uses that a high intensity one does. So uh there's some things that just correct for the record warehouse is not one of those in moderate intensity or medium intensity. It's only in high intensity. So we've just met with the petitioner pre-application meeting. Their desire is I think is to try and create other usable spaces on the lot. they have options. One option is they can go get variances for each of those and leave it at the intensity it is now and they would be dealt with on a case-by case basis based on variances. It seems though that also moderate intensity because the uses are somewhat similar than they are in high density. You know if you do that then you're then you can create lots as small as 15,000 square ft which is roughly about a third of an acre. Um the challenges uh they touched on some of those. Storm water management is going to be critical

because the space they got they've only got just about 8 acres. And then the utilities fortunately there's water there but then they're going to have to deal with sanitary sewers. So that's probably through the septic system some kind and that will be controlled by the state of Indiana health along with our health department. So you definitely traffic is going to be a concern. They're going to have to create their driveways there. That's in state highway. They'll obviously have to work within that in that prior prior traffic impact study at that time as will we. So we'll work hand in hand with what gets developed there in the future. Um so the choice is yours. You know the petition is to downgrade and [clears throat] the zoning classification from CH to CN. That's what's before you today. uh you are free after you hear all this at the end you know you could put conditions on it if you feel appropriate things like that but in summary that's staff's recommendation is happy to answer any questions

thank you at this I'd like to open this up to public comment uh anybody like for or against this project maybe one start there and the other on standby over here. Go ahead. You guys sir, you want me to go first? No, he go first, but you stand on still. Okay.

Yeah, you can wait. [laughter] Got trouble. My name is Ken St. I live at 618 West US Highway 30. Uh, our family's lived at that location since 1964. Um, I know that's been commercial property, you know, forever. They always owned it. I used to swim that swimming pool. Um, I have some real concerns about this and you mentioned it yourself that it's a dark and desperate uh corner and that's what we like about it. Um, the traffic, you know, I'm not sure. Yeah, I couldn't agree that about the high intensity, moderate intensity zoning, but I do have concerns about it being gas station. Uh, one of them would be the uh interference in my lifestyle with the lighting and the trucks. I've seen uh some of your stores. You have I think three stores and two side ATM order there. Um, and yet you do a lot of semi in your locations. And I was wondering if that's going to be something that's going to be in this location as well because we have that problem down Boulevard and Highway 30 where they bring in a lot of trucks and it just gets more and more and more uh in hour for the traffic. Uh, the school buses is a concern. uh the right from you know I mean I could write from that uh particular location now and I just see it being more and more of an interference what would you be doing to uh rectify that or to abuse that uh but so there's a lot of questions I have um I don't know how I'm going to go from a high

intensity to a moderate intensity with fat and you know having trucks. So, a lot of questions and I just need some answers. Great.

Yeah. My name is Pete Boyco again and I live at 235 North 600 West. uh basically south of uh proposed gas station which to me if he says it's a gas station instead of a gas and diesel where semis can park in there which he says a large parking lot or parking lots to me it looks like they park semis in there and then causing a place where you have uh I'm not going to say certain people coming there and then you have other situations where instead of being a gas station and that you have a motel type deal by them sitting in there all night. So, that kind of concerns me. Also, the traffic light back in the 60s when uh that light wasn't there, there was an accident there almost every week. And I know because during the time uh before this variance thing came up back about 10 years ago or so, there was a proposal to build a big 20 acre lake just south of me. And so I took a survey of all the traffic and everything and investigated and there was something like 30,000 to 40,000 cars, vehicles that pass that spot. So you're looking at a spot where traffic can have accidents, especially with the school. You got the grade school there, you got the junior high there, you got the high school. Yes, you have another route that goes out uh east away from there by the sand, but you have uh industrial uh bulldozers and all that other stuff going that way, too. So, they don't like to go that way. They come out 600. Now, 600 doesn't have a signal there. So, you're looking at just the yesterday, I was there sitting there at the light. The school was getting let out. I pulled up. There was three buses in front of me, four cars. So, I'm sitting there. Three buses were able to get out of there. So, unless there's a

signal there to help with the school buses and everything, and then you're going to have a gas station there where the kids can actually go and park and all that and sit and whatever they do, hang out. Then you're going to have all that traffic. Now, you want to put, excuse me, here uh office buildings there and units. Come on. I mean, how much traffic do you want there? Right now, they can't even handle just the buses coming out of the school or cars. I sit there at the light trying to turn to my house, I got to wait two or three times before it turns green. So, unless the state gets involved, sitting there with a a gas station there and office buildings and a big parking lot where anybody can park, now you're looking at a lot of traffic. And I am just talking one or two cars. Now, you go down to the other traffic area where uh what is that? where the speedway is. You can look there. They got a signal for there. Cars, 10 of them can go at one time. So, that's a big, you know, no no to me. It's not set up for traffic right now, unless they get all that set up with turn signals and all that other stuff. So, to me, he's talking about like taxes. Wait a minute. We just had a a proposition set up for a multibillion dollar data center. They were going to pour in all kinds of taxes. Wasn't going to improve our taxes. My taxes, my property taxes weren't going to get lowered. All it was going to do was raise it. So, he's talking about taxes. I don't think that's too big of a deal. Gas station, I could go with that, but not no office buildings and whatever else. So, you're looking at uh John that owes a property across the street. Now, I don't know if he's going to be talking about it, but he came in there for a variance just to build a big pole barn and there's 30 acres there and that got turned down. Now, what kind of traffic

does a a barn have? I haven't decided, but I know a gas station and office buildings and a big parking lot does, especially 8 acres. Now, it's up to you guys how you're going to vote and how you're going to deal with this. But for lights and that, he's right. There is no lights in there, but it's no big deal if you get the right traffic lights there. So, I just want to let you guys know I'm against whatever else is saying on that part. Gas station, okay. Diesel, semis, that's a no no for me. So, thank you. Great. Thank you. Yes, sir. Yes, my name is Mark 61 North and I'm building a gas station and also a truck stop also. I have concern like what the gentleman talk about the traffic impact is ridiculous and what kind of impact will it have on the environment also and I just feel as soon as thank you my name's Richard Ireland um I live just south of this property closest house to and south of it um 239 north 600 Now, I understand what's going on here in terms of the with the variance they're approving and there's a really good reason to want to change it from CS CH to CM and it is so that they can put so many businesses into this small spot. Um, it's 8 acres as we said is 15,000 square ft per business. So, they theoretically could have 20 businesses inside of the spot. I don't think you can fit that many, but we're talking about a lot of activity. And as Pete said, you know, that road, the elementary school, the high school, most buses come down there, they don't have all the way to the schools. It takes them, you know, half an hour to figure out there sometimes. So, even with modification, lighting system stuff, it's going to be complete chaos for them. Um, I understand they have right

to put a gas station there, but what they're requesting is a variance that really expands that significantly to a large project. Um, within that area, you know, this is a residential area. People move there for a reason. I just moved there a few years ago. I moved there for a reason. I know I'm close to 30. I know there was traffic noise. Um, but I'm also pretty far from the commercial activity. This property um is located more than a mile in any direction than any other commercial property. People live on. This is going to transform it. There's no other uh business parks or strip malls. And you know, when they say they want to use it as a business park, it's okay. But maybe there's going to be a taco builder and tattoo shop and whatever. Once this gets done, you know, it's pretty easy to get by the front of you guys and, you know, request a business that's already zone for. So, yeah, I think all of us would be right big problem with this. Um, certainly it's commercial, they bought the property, gas station, it seems like they're right to do it. Uh, as far as the truck traffic, if it does diesel, um, as Pete mentioned, uh, the speedway down the road, you know, in Lake County, um, that that if something like that, the trucks with the schools and everything else, um, yeah, that intersection has so that's all I have to say. Thank you. Take care.

Good evening. Uh, my name is Haley Shard. I also live at the exiting West Highway 30. In front of my house is the sign that tells you that there's going to be an intersection 600 West. That's how close we live to this intersection. It is already very difficult for us to get out of our driveway because of the increased traffic on Highway 30. You put a gas station in there, I will never get out of my driveway. If we don't have an access to get out of our our driveway, it's just we drive right onto Highway 30. It's already dangerous just to even come home on Highway 30 because we have to go on a turnabout to get back to our property. I've already got so much light pollution in our house from what it is now. There has not been active commercial there for a long time. It's being used that it's not like people are coming in here every day. is trucks are parked there. And it's been like that for years. I mean, I've been here in that house for 10 years. There's not been any active commercial use in that place where people are coming in. And now that will all change with this gas station. It's going to affect light. It's going to affect noise for the people that live on Highway 30. That's residential. You know, my feeling is if you're going to do that, then everybody on Highway 30 in that area ought to be commercial. We ought to be able to be commercial property because you've lost the ability to sell it as a homestead. Nobody's going to want to live it. Thank you. Anybody else like to speak? [clears throat]

Yeah. My name's John Dead Nash. I got the property there on 600 West and Route 30 30 acres, [clears throat] the northwest corn. Um, he mentioned something about the uh overflow on the storm water going to the west. Well, that'd be going through my property. The county has already destroyed a lot of my property by not doing our job properly. They turned it into a wetland. The original culvert was 8t down. It was a 4ft culvert. Now since nipco ran at high pressure gas line, the culvers are damn near on the surface. There's one 3-in culver. So that would increase the water coming into my property. So that just uh they just turned more of my property into a wetland. The county didn't inspect that ditch, the paradigm ditch when they put in the uh high pressure gas line. Cuz I checked what I did. There was nothing on any inspections. You have anything else?

No. Thank you. Would anybody else like to speak for against? I turn it over to you guys to answer some of the questions.

Yeah, there's some things we've run out of gateway. I think we can uh you know help alleviate some of the concerns for the residents who spoke here. First of all, I appreciate them coming out. Um it means a lot to be part of the process. Um this is not going to be a truck stop. So we can just this is not just this is going to be your typical 8 pump vehicle. You know there could be diesel for a diesel pickup truck. You know the passenger type of vehicle truck, but it's not a truck stop per se. Okay. No uh large 18 wheelers are going to be allowed on the property except for the delivery of the fuel. Um, so we want to have access to people that have trucks staying there overnight and truck place in the park and things of that nature. Um, the other part about the uh the lighting pollution, we're very tied in as well. Uh, the properties that we're talking about is as we move forward on our developments, we're trying to get dark ice, which means uh light pollution that's emitted from property stay in a property that doesn't encroach other people's property. So, we're trying to get designations of that. So the neighbors that see light coming from our properties windows and you know that's something we're trying to work with because we understand that when you have buffering areas especially on commercial corridor like that or residential is part of that fabric. Uh we have to be we do better commercially to to you walkway to those neighbors. So we will definitely be working with that as well to make sure that we're not impacting them in that way. Uh there is going to be a time study on this as well get there. So the traffic flow and the impact will be down there. We're going to have to be targeted at that as well from the IND perspective and from the planning commission itself and the commissioners uh as uh we look to do different things in this property. Um we're also not opposed to because we understand the business park here is strictly for small business owners. Uh hours of operation could be designated this as well that we're not going to be here uh during the night. So it's not going to be activity at night. uh you know, we're welcome to those opportunities as well to make sure that it's daytime, only time businesses. Uh

we're we're also uh welcome to a stricter listing of your uh from you on here. So, we're not putting restaurants uh in those other corridors in the business part. You know, we're looking at you know uh six buildings in here and we would designate that no more than six and maybe less if that's what the planning commission and and the commissioners would want. So, we're welcoming to put a canvas here of opportunity at this location here. We're showing you our cards right up front and we're willing to work with the the neighbors and working with commissioners here and the commissioners. Uh something that was also great from the ground level up level up level up level up level up level up level up level up level up level up level and one other comment just to build on that is that we've already reached out to DNS department of health and so early on you have to indicate a number of things uh to estimate flow so that they can based on the soil conditions tell you how big your septic system needs to be. So we're we're identifying these buildings as business park roughly 200 gallons per day or some order like that. The primary waste water user is going to be the gas station. But um so I just want to share that with you because you know there's there's no rest that's coming in that would completely um change everything with our with our coordination with the state department of health. So, uh, and that's a long process, but we've already started to to work toward getting this system designed. I believe there's some comments about storm water. Uh, you know, we're going to be cognitive the fact that whatever is being created on our property needs to be uh maintained on our property, then flow correctly uh based on your guys' ordinances on its release. Uh, so it uh it comes down to again, we're very early in this stage. Uh, you know, for us to come out here and say this is the final point of view. This was a misconception. Uh without the proper zoning, we can't come here and show you exactly what is going to be on this

property. But this is this is pretty much, you know, when you start look at the warehouses and and our office space that's on here and and the gas station is or the community store that sells gas. Um you know, all those release uh rates are still going to be competed based on what we approved. And we're going to make sure that we're better holding our our end of our storm water on our property and be better than itself. So we are approved for coordinators. Does anybody like Can I follow up on one of those? Yes. As long as it's new information. It's just responding. [clears throat]

So Rich 2396. So, I mean, you're you're promising that you're going to set this property aside for certain things, and I respect I appreciate that, but the request is for zoning variance change. That that's a significant part, but to me, it seems like they're asking for a significant alteration in the current zoning. As the property currently sits, if I understand the regulations, they can have one business here. This is substantially different. Even if they say certain things in certain ways, open box is open. commission could change over the years. Once they have this reszone, they in the future with plus various they have different business put in there under the CM zoning. So that really does transform. Thank you.

Thank you.

Anybody else like to speak on something a new question? I would just like to mention one thing and that is uh before you guys vote on this or whatever you're going to do with it in previous or in the future, can there be an assessment value of the property values that are going to be around this where they don't show that they're going to be going downhill instead of going up with the taxes also just because they're there. you know, with this office building, their playground, and their gas station with the diesel and all that. That's all I wanted to say. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else?

Yeah. John Nash. Um, when they had the restaurant there years back, it really didn't impact the u traffic. People would come into the restaurant, stay there for 2, three hours, and they'd leave one at a time. You know, I mean, it's not like a steady flow of a gas station where people constantly coming in and they're there 5 minutes and getting all Thank you. Anyone else?

Yes, sir. Marks again building gas station. Whatever the reason I feel too close to the school, I could be put in more traffic. I don't care if you know Carl be. I just feel too close to the school. Thank you. The other thing is right there next to this property is a fire station. Now us living where we live directly across 30 is very active all the time. They bring all this traffic in here with the gas station and the fuel pump. It's going to can it's going to interact with how fast the planner can get to that and

thank you. Anyone else would like to I just you know again as this process goes through whether there's no change comes or not when we're open it will um all the residents that are here will still be part of the process of the public hearings on site developments. Uh so we'll have additional information as we continue to hold our word on what we're trying to put in this property here especially the number of units and the types of uh businesses that would be protected after that location. and they'll have a better um results of traffic studies and the impact studies that we're going to have that is required of us at at that level.

Sure. So to go right at this time I'd like to close a public comment and like before you begin your deliberation maybe some comments. [clears throat] Right now it's high inensity commercial. They're asking for medium moderate or medium intensity commercial. if they can meet all the standards, they can come build the full building permit for gas station there with or without the zone. Um, it's greater than 5 acres. It's 8 acres. So, it meets the standard for CH zone. Uh, automobile, that's the key word, is automobile filling stations. It says nothing about trucks. So, trucks is a different story. So, we're going to be talking trucks. That'd be a different discussion. So, it's restricted to automobile use. Um, a comment was made, more than one business can go on that property. They just can't sell anybody. Someone would have to own the property. You could have the gas station and over here they could have an office space, etc. Anything that's approved under the standard of high intensity as it is today. The question becomes when they want to submit. if they want to sub at night, it would be impossible to do unless they pulled the variance with the CH standard. So that's really the crux of the discussion here today. Um, so we talked about the truck stop, the dark sky standards, things like that. That's all in our development standard. We're going to have to comply with all that. We have all that criteria already. This brings up the point if they got into subdivision they have to appear before you again to ask for subdivision control and it has to go to the commissioners. We all know how that works. So they got a lot of steps to do if they want to realize their total dream. They additionally have to be appear before the development review committee one or two times during this

process. And there's US30 arterial standards. US30 arterial standards has a lot to do with the aesthetic look of the thing. It's different than anywhere else. We want something that doesn't look like a square box. We want it to have a little character. Uh setbacks are greater. Landscaping standards are greater and a whole host of other things that they're going to have to meet. And if they can't meet it, then they're going to have to go to DCA and try to make their best case. Um and the traffic impact study that that will definitely be something in OBS for we will be too. So petitioner has and we were thinking this of staff ourselves but petitioner has offered the thing that he could put our restrictions on when business operates. stricter list. You can take your list that you see up there. You can choose and say these are allowed, these are not. You can put conditions on there. Just want to say gas stations already approved, [clears throat] you know, today. They want and the other is they talk about the number of buildings. So, that's a discussion I would encourage you to have with the petitioner.

Mike, I have a quick question. You speak in the mic. You said 8 acres, but I'm I'm looking at the paperwork and it says five acres. Is it that's Oh, wrong one. Sorry. Disregard that. Yeah. Sorry. 08 acres. Yep. Okay.

I make one last point before you guys go. I I I think Mike brings up a great point is the fact that if we had one owner of this 8 acre property, especially in the high intensity side, it we we'd have a lot more flexibility within those rules to do things that I don't think would be very good to to the neighbors. I think by us asking for the zone change, we're deferring to you and your commission members and the commissioners themselves to the the safeguards for your residents by going to that new zoning because you have all the checks and balances on your site versus our site. Uh and I really from you know the public side, the private side for us to just turn that over I think is a is a positive stretch. We're going to we're trying to be good neighbors here. and gray if we just had one over which you see here in front of you here D would would probably you know effectively could be approved as it sits today instead we're having you guys be part of the people helping us drive this car in respect to the neighbors that are here their concerns and what the heights and best use that you would see going forward by cherry picking some of those things on the list and some things you guys don't want to see in that corridor we're giving that autonomy to you guys Kevin, do you have anything to comment?

Well, I'd like to begin with I think this was zoned this way from the very beginning when they introduced zoning in 1960 and it's uh been uh the uh heavy commercial ever since. It was another roadside attraction restaurant for a long period of time with a motel next to it that had living units that that burned down many years ago. But uh and the car dealership that was there was there unlawfully. We pretty much told them that I think they had to cease and desist. They couldn't temporarily store vehicles there from their dealership. You couldn't sell vehicles out of it. The either type of zoning permits for the gas station but not for a truck stop. that would have to be a special exception or some kind of uh variance. The there's just so many issues with this to begin with. To start with, they needed sanitary sewer for this property. In my opinion, that's one thing that will always give me heartburn is having commercial property on septic systems. And ideally, it'd be great if they had a sanitary sewer run to them. Uh, I believe we will still have them do some kind of study, the due diligence to show why that's not a practical, but uh, White Oak Conservancy District may be able to handle sanitary [snorts] sewer. It's just undoubtedly going to cost your client more to extend the services, but that'd be the best way to service additional buildings. I disagree with you when you say we won't have much

control over it with the same thing like you have now. But we will sure to get your building permits. We look at every building that I I get your point. I we're saying we're giving even more than you already. Yes, I agree. There are good and bad things and normally can be oh great you want to down stone but the reality is you're basically creating more parcels in a subdivision way because you don't have to be at least 5 acres with the uh the zone you're requesting. [clears throat] There are many issues. They already exist. You know, Mr. Bed Nash is right with the the drainage as far as access. You're probably going to have to work some agreements with them. In the end, I think there's a natural flowage in that direction, but in a perfect world, we'd be looking at some easements along the way. and the responsibility for maintaining whatever infrastructure goes along with those seasons. But that's kind of getting away from the zoning purpose today. I'm kind of on the fence and I want to hear what everybody else says about this. Uh it's got its good points. There are some issues that I have with um I have issues with it as well. Uh um I I have a big problem with something. and big problems of detention on it. While I'm not an engineer, I sit up here and someone has 10 acres of of ground and they're trying to get a septic with 10 acres and there's problems and issues. I got to jump through hoops. Here's I mean, I own I own a 5,000t

building on 1 acre of land and I think that's as much as I can cram on on that. It's a it's in a CH1 designation. This is 10 20 30 40 50 60,000 if I'm reading that correctly. Correct. 10,000 per building. Yes.

Um that's that's absolutely way in my opinion. It's way too much. Um you know, when you when this is just from my point of view, you're buying property high, you know, the high intensity, you have every right to put your gas station on there. I understand you want to zone down to try and get more parcels on there. I get that. Um I just there's too much cramped in there for me. If it had been a, you know, a gas station with one building or something, I I I I could I could see that to try and utilize the other 3 acres of property, but this is way way too much for me. And I just, you know, I know everybody wants to come in here and, you know, get get a piece of property and and, you know, cram everything they can in there, but usually people are trying to zone up, not down. and we're zoning down so we can get more parcels of property on here, which I like I said, I don't like I I don't like it at all. That's just my That's my two cents.

Yeah, I agree with Red. Too many buildings on a small piece of property.

Well, I'm kind of running down the same road. We we went through a thing a few months back with a subdivision about ingress and egress in case of emergency. If you pack this many buildings with the only egress going out towards a gas station, we're going to have we need a better answer because if something happens to that gas station, all these buildings are never going to get out and they're going to be trapped. So if you're going to do something like that in my mind with this density, it needs another X amount onto another road. [clears throat] And without that, I cannot even cuz what we went through with that last subdivision rights right fair. So that's my thing with this commissioner. I feel the same way. It's just too much and too small of a piece here. I mean, you have a right to put a gas station, but I mean, it disturbs me a little bit that we're going with a septic system. Um, I mean, like, like I've heard so many times before, people fighting for septic systems on just a simple 10acre piece of property with a single family home. I I just I don't logistically this just doesn't make sense. Um, I'm familiar with that area. There is a fire station down the road. There is a school, great school, high school. This is this intersection has had its issues in the past, even though I understand some of those things possibly worked out, but in this form with zoning it down and adding, I do agree uh with you about the the entrance and the exit and just from a public safety standpoint of getting in and out of this. Um so yeah, I mean it's it's just not enough answers. um logistically it just it doesn't doesn't work for me as well. It's too much and too small of a

spot to tone it down, you know. So, I kind of feel the same. But, you know, those are all good comments, but board members are things, you know, to really take consideration. You know, you have options. You can vote to deny or approve. Um, you could also continue with less staff work to if you give the staff guidance on things you want to see before there's a solution like less buildings, less lots secondary access. Give petitioner time to rework their plan if that's something you would like to see. If not, then you can continue on and make your motions as you see today.

And we're making a motion to recommend to the commissioners. I'll know the commissioners will decide on this. They will, but you can recommend those conditions and send them off the commissioners with good reason. Well, I personally me I would just I would like I guess we're good. I I think I've said everything.

Do you like to add? Yeah, if we could just touch cuz these are all positive comments that you know we're hearing for the first time from the planning commission which are very valuable to us. Um, and just sitting here with us and the team here, we we would if three if we can go from six units to three units, which would put those units on one acre parcels, would that something that would be better on the appetite of the the commission here or would it be better at this point that someone considering to have this deferred to work with staff and bring them back with some of those other concerns you guys also had? I would suggest you ask for a continuous

I was going to ask if three we respect Dr. I said six is too many. We we get that. Okay. We heard it loud and clear. Um you know, it's it's the extra 3 acres outside the five that we're we're looking to develop here, right? To make the highest and best use for this entire parcel there. Um would would three units be better? We would make that commitment tonight if that if that's the plan we would want.

And I I appreciate that. I really do. I just it it it and this is just me personally. It just always sticks in my crawl. I know highest and best use, but um you know, like I said, I I don't want to be Lake County. I want to be Porter County. And that's why I'm very kind of I I just want to make sure that we have good developments, especially on Route 30. I think the access is is and I think if you buy a piece of property, you have have it as CH and you know, you're supposed to have five acres, you kind of know what you bought, you know? I mean, you know, you had eight acres, but you could, you know, build on the five acres. So, um,

well, it seems like it's it's not just an issue of the number of buildings, but as the commissioner had mentioned about, you know, the the septic issue and then drainage issue. So, I think there's more to it than just number of buildings. We I mean we might have to investigate how far that Kevin's point where the the sanitary is at see how cost provided that is based on the number of units there because obviously if we were if we were the commercial corridor the broad sanitary that location I can only imagine that these surrounding neighbors would be excited for the fact that they they might be able to someday get off their own septic too if we're looking at long-term planning. Correct.

Don't be shocked. I know there's a lot of my neighbors, you know, they've got they like their septic system cuz it's free cuz every every community is raising their septic rates. So, no offense, but I like my septic out in Liberty Township sewer line that goes schools out there. Yes. And I do like the building though. I mean I I like that you know

and that's the white oaks conspiracy district I mean we maybe have to ask for deferral if I mean not to say that's going to change your mind next day but they it would give us the ability to to talk to the residents work with them more take your feedback you provided which has been very very valuable to our team and see if we can do something that brings it back that's more appetizing to the display commission before we right vote and the worst case scenarios is we submit this back and and still doesn't meet your your criteria. You can still make your decision to the commissioners as you feel that fit but it gives us a little more time because you know we reached out to residents we had more comments here tonight than we had uh before which is very valuable and your comments are extremely valuable to our our team as well.

I was going to make the motion but I would like to make I would like to make the motion that we continue it. I do believe that we that by you coming here and and and working with us, I would like to see what what we could do um with, you know, with this. Um and I think, you know, that that that's always a good thing instead of just just denying it. I I always like to give the benefit of the doubt, but you know, that that would be my motion. I would just say continue. I think I give everybody a little time to

and I suggest you bring in more information about the traffic issues, the utility issues, and ultimately the drainage to make the motion. Red second. I'll take I think you can just do it voice. Okay. Okay. Kevin. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yes, sir. Commissioner.

So, we're just going to agree to maybe hear a different plan next time. Is that what we're correct? They can work with that. Give them a little bit more time to to to in my opinion, like I said, tear it down, get the utilities, get the septic, get the, you know, all that. We're going to need to know that anyways. Even if we put a gas station there, I mean, they know what we want. I'm I'm fine with that.

We're not ready to do anything tonight. I appreciate all the folks coming out tonight. My apologies, but I think this is a better way to do it. Now, if I could ask the board members in other meetings that give staff direction and the petitioner, what are the things you want? You can list those number of buildings, number of buildings, septic um egress,

drainage. Traffic traffic when you say what we're really talking about is secondary exit. Yeah. Emergency exit something. Yeah. Especially with that many buildings. Like I said, if it I mean just speaking like I said for me if it was if I was building the gas station I would have to ask for maybe one building and been happy with one. But

context, John Howal Drive, all facilization just north of two west of 49. Red Robin Hotel, several businesses are at the end of that street. It's a fair to get make a left-hand turn at that intersection. And this one would be the same. I would think it's just it's a challenge. I also want to get a pulse on from you guys. It's a long list of approved uses on there is something like a drive-thru or restaurant with a drive-thru. Well, they said they would have a restaurant.

Yeah, understood. But I just want to hear from you. Are what kind of what kind of business or operations based on? You know, Mike, and I know I'm new to the plan commission this year, but one thing I've always wondered is, of course, we're zoning down, which is going to make, you know, make you have part, you know, more more parcels, but it I always wondered when people zone up, in this case, you're zoning down. Um, everybody says, "Yeah, we're not going to do this. We're not going to do this." And then 5 years goes by and they say, "We have the zoning. We're going to do this." I just I that's what I' I've never liked that about the zoning. Like I think if you zone up or down, you should say here's my plan. This is what I want to do instead of zoning it and then five years later you find out there's storage units next to you because it's well zoned for that.

That's what we do zoning with commitments. There should be a list of commitments. Okay.

With it in this case, I suggest that the petitioner also have a list of uses that are not going to follow. I I think I get the grip. But to answer your question, Commissioner Stone, when they go into zoning, we have a list of permitted uses. They're free to put in one of those uses in they want. I've seen zoning before where they go in like around the hospital. I believe when that was zoned for the hospital, [clears throat] they had other zoning around the hospital, but they put a condition on the ones that had anything related to automotive could not be there. In other words, they couldn't have a gas station. They couldn't have auto repair, etc. like that they place those were allowed in those zoning classifications, but they put that as a condition upon the zone. And that's kind of what I'm suggesting. I think I get a feel for where you're going and we can work with the petitioner on a list and they can maybe present that to you. What would be for you to consider additional uses for this property? Would that be acceptable to you?

Mhm. Yes. Can I ask a question? Come up and ask a question. I know. Just ask. Okay. Question is as a gas station, not Speedway's got the subway in there or Burger King or whatever. Is this uh is that okay in a gas or convenience gas station? They can't have a drive-thru, but they can have a subway inside. Oh, okay. I'm just wondering.

But not drive through. Yeah. This is working. I just wanted before we start with I think we want to be very transparent because your res. We want to make sure that they hear this directly because we value their time to be here cuz I know it takes a lot of time for them to be here as well. Is that we're we are going to we appreciate the the vote for the continuous and we're going to try to work through those issues. If we cannot see a path to overcome your objections on on that for the reason, we'll probably just continue with the current zoning as is and file for petition our application for the uh community fuel station as it says today. Uh D just gets back to my point Kevin when I said you know the control uses and sources was the reason we give you guys so you can add those conditions on that reason off that listing at the home it we just want to make sure they know everybody here knows that we're going to have to make those decisions internally so if we decide to go route we'll formally then let uh Mike know and put a formal uh letter to our removal about that uh continuous is so we just want to be very transparent with that. So you guys have been great to us. It' be great for them to come out and we just want to continue that communication.

Great. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Happy holiday everyone. Moving on to staff report update on the comprehension plan. comprehensive comprehensive plan moves ahead. Uh I think I reported you last time we did have the steering committee and economic development people in the county. After the first year, we're going to be having some more public meetings to present some preliminary findings to the public and get that uh weigh in on that. Part of the comprehensive plan was also look at the Will Creek Road overlay district. It's a half a mile either side of the proposed Will Creek alignment. Last night we had that meeting was an openhouse style format. People were free to come. We had the workstation over there. We had four workstations total. Um I've got about 40 people showed up. We were there from 4:30 to 7:00 last night. A lot of people are concerned about the Willow Creek Road. So I just want to make it clear for the record. The design of Willow Creek Road is by another consultant going a different path. All this overlay was was a promise that the commission was made in 2023 when they had a public meeting that they would look at a land overlay if Will Creek Road went in. But that's a part separate. It's a different consultant. They're not even working with the designer. This is something we're doing ourselves as part of our comprehensive plan. As far as the Willow Creek Road, the design, we're still waiting for the federal highway and the Louisiana Department of Transportation to sign off on our preliminary draft of the environmental study. We're hoping that we will see that end of first quarters beginning the second quarter next year at which time we'll have a public hearing. You're staying to hear all

this. We'll have a formal public hearing where recordings will be made for the record. Um people from INDOT will be there just to monitor and take all the comments. Comments have to be incorporated into the final document for a final decision on that project. So, more to come on that later, but at least we had the overlay meeting, first overlay meeting, and we'll be asking for more input from the residents later. Mike, was the overlay meeting a public meeting or was that just We did send out uh uh notices to all the newspaper, news media such as the radio station. Okay. I didn't see one. You did did you invite any of the to? No, not personally.

Okay. Well, in email, but um two, it was also on social media. We did reach out. There's a small group of people that are have been against it and we've been working with them and we give it to them and they also posted it on their social media pages. I I just wanted to make sure because if I have uh somebody from Union Township call me and say, "Wait, did I mention it to them?" I think you noticed. So I

I I we sent it out to all the media forcing them to print. It's not like it was in the update on the plan commission subcommittee meeting. Some of you attended that meeting. I thought it went very well. We have 10 members, three citizen members, three professional members, and four members on this body right here. I think it was a good introduction of what we're going to be doing, what we're looking for, a little education along the way. Um, so we're going to hit the ground running come toward maybe the end of January next year. We're going to have some assignments. We're going to start bringing some places. Just a refresher. Point of the committee is it's a place for staff to run things by this committee before we bring it to you. Maybe we can vet it and fine-tune it. Make sure you know we got it pretty right before a comes to you with full explanation. Of course, anything that you do is simply a recommendation to commissioners. Commissioners will have a final say any changes. So, I think that's going well and it's very well appreciated. So, thank you for everybody attending. And then the last thing is approval of the 2026 meeting calendar. Did Monica send that out to you?

I haven't seen the time. I don't have it with me, but she didn't put it in the pack. I'm taking the place of three people here. So, I don't have it. So, I will distribute that and we'll maybe vote on that in the next. That's all I have. Unless you've got questions for staff. Do you navigate for the next meeting? Um I think it's the same same one. Yeah, I know that was in that last email. The third is it maybe what are we do? This one's a special meeting because we normally don't do the November meeting. We just do December. But let me

Yeah. But isn't that the fourth Wednesday of the month? I think you're right. Come look in October BGE meeting. It's on the 21st. That's the third. So, okay. Okay. So, October 1st. BCA is the third Wednesday. Correct. I believe land commission is the fourth Wednesday and therefore the Wednesday January would be the 28th of January.

Yes. Okay. So let's make that official. 28th of January. Yes. And we'll bring the rest of the calendar for the year which is always going to be the fourth Wednesday except November and December. So that's really what we uh anybody got anything motion to to second.