Miller project step closer to reality with okay from BZA

Monday, October 7, 2013

With ringing endor-sements already in hand from the Greencastle City Council and Board of Public Works, plans to turn the old Miller School property into a senior housing complex have now won Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) approval as well.

With BZA approval of a special exception to allow a multi-family facility within a single-family zoning district, the three city groups have now endorsed Milestone Ventures' proposal to convert the 522 E. Anderson St. school building -- last used for classes in 1980 -- into 30 senior living units.

Milestone also received a development standards variance on the number of on-site parking spaces necessary. Strict application of the city ordinance would have necessitated 75 spaces.

Instead, Milestone will provide 50 off-street parking spaces (that's 1.5 per unit plus five additional staff spaces), noted Chuck Heintzelman, one of the Milestone Ventures principals.

Milestone plans 12 one-bedroom units and 18 two-bedroom units for persons age 55 and up or 62 and up, depending on how approval of the tax credits the Indianapolis company is seeking is determined.

Heintzelman again explained that his firm's proposal would not only renovate the old school building but also add a completely new two-story wing (with matching brick) to the southeast side of the structure.

That will require the razing of the two additions to the southeast side of the building, areas not deemed historic and last actively used when occupied by the Area 30 Career Center.

"We plan to redevelop the school building, preserving the historic front portion and demolishing the two additions," Heintzelman told the BZA, "preserving the look of Miller School, so as you drive down Anderson Street, you still see that familiar facade."

What won't be seen much longer is the wide, zigzagging handicapped ramp on the north side of the building. It is expected to be demolished, Heintzelman said, since it detracts from the historic appeal of the building and the new facility will include an elevator anyway.

In fact, the main entrance to the apartment complex will be in back, off the parking lot, rather than through the historic front along Anderson Street.

"Typically we won't have a lot of people coming in the front of the building," the developer noted.

BZA member Doris Miller, who taught at Miller School (named for longtime local educator Delilah Miller), questioned Heintzelman about the design of the interior.

"Everywhere you went in that building there were stairs," she said.

The developer said those stairs will be preserved while the classrooms will be retrofitted into one- and two-bedroom units.

He estimated that the one-bedroom units would go for up to $540 a month, while two-bedroom apartments would run up to $590.

Heintzelman added that the one-bedroom apartments would range from 600 square feet in the old building to 675 square feet in the new area, while the two-bedroom units would be 725-750 square feet in the old part and 875 in the new wing.

Since Milestone is treating the project as one building, the timeline will likely see construction start approximately a year from now, "on or about Oct. 1 next year," Heintzelman said.

That schedule should allow for construction completion and the start of leasing by October 2015.

No one spoke against the requests by Milestone at the October BZA session. On a motion by John Phillips, the variances were unanimously approved.

City officials will continue to negotiate a purchase price with Milestone on the building and nearly three-acre parcel of real estate adjacent to Greencastle's Robe-Ann Park. All five original bidders on the site offered in excess of the $40,000 appraisal the city had received on the property.

The building was last known as Miller Education Center, used as the Greencastle Community Schools Central Office until those facilities were moved to Ridpath Primary School in 2010.

The developer also must make application to secure tax credits for the senior housing project by Nov. 1. The proposal is contingent upon that happening, so actual sale and transfer of property aren't expected until the calendar rolls over to 2014.

Milestone Ventures recently conducted the first of two public input sessions with neighbors. The first one at the Inn at DePauw was attended by 23 residents, Mayor Sue Murray and City Planner Shannon Norman.

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