Pair of local parking lot issues get BZA approval

Friday, October 7, 2016

A pair of parking lot issues -- linked to the growth of their ownership -- won Greencastle Board of Zoning Appeals approval this week.

The BZA, meeting for the first time since May, granted unanimous approval to:

-- An administrative appeal for the Greencastle Community School Corporation (GCSC) relative to its staff parking area at 310 N. College Ave., adjacent to the old bus barn.

-- Three development standards variances for Crown Equipment Corp., 2600 State Road 240, on the required size of parking stalls, a reduction in the width of an interior drive and an increase in maximum mounting height for parking lot lighting for an expansion of the parking lot west of its facility.

The GCSC request centered around allowing the staff parking area adjacent to the bus barn, currently rocked, to remain unpaved pending construction of the new bus barn facility and relocation of transportation services to that Tennessee Street-State Road 240 site by the start of the 2017-18 school year.

According to the original variance GCSC received on the North College Avenue property in 2015, the school corporation would have been required to pave the lot by the end of November.

However, since the property will be put up for sale and likely returned to residential use, paving it as this point would not only be counterproductive but an unnecessary use of taxpayer dollars, local attorney John Zeiner explained on behalf of the school corporation.

City Attorney Laurie Hardwick and City Planner Shannon Norman recommended a waiver of the paving requirement be extended through Dec. 31, 2017 (or earlier should a buyer take possession of the site since the variance ends when GCSC ceases to own the property). After that time, the parking lot would be required to be returned to grass.

“The school’s intent,” Zeiner noted, ”is not in any way to not return this to residential.

“We’re not talking huge dollars here,” he added, in reference to the funds that would be required to remove six inches of rock and restore the site to grass, “but they are taxpayer dollars.”

As part of the discussion, interim GCSC Superintendent Jeff Hubble said the new bus barn project is moving along. The school corporation has closed on the property and a bond issue is set to go between Oct. 15 and Nov. 1, he said.

Plans are to break ground soon thereafter, likely in November, with the project completed in July or August, Hubble said.

Meanwhile, he said four people have expressed interest in acquiring the old bus barn site on North Vine Street, including at least one with designs on also acquiring the parking lot on North College Avenue.

The school corporation, he said, also has been approached by a charitable group, asking GCSC to donate the property for its use.

The waiver of the paving requirement was unanimously approved by the BZA on a motion by alternate member Bill Hamm with a second from Margaret Kenton and a third aye vote from John Phillips.

BZA members Wayne Lewis and Donnie Watson abstained because of conflicts of interest through personal connections to the school corporation.

In the Crown Equipment petition, the decisions proved much easier with the parking stalls reduced from 9 X 20 feet to 9 X 19 feet to accommodate 110 additional spaces in the 124 X 288 foot lot west of the building.

The interior driveway was also approved for a reduction from 26 feet to 24 feet, while the maximum lighting mounting height was okayed for an increase from 25 feet to 39 feet.

“Unfortunately we’ve outgrown our parking lot, particularly at shift change,” Crown facilities and maintenance manager Jeff Lambert told the BZA.

“But it’s a good problem to have,” he acknowledged.

Crown has added 100 employees in the last year, Lambert said, explaining that it now has a total of 600 workers and operates multiple shifts.

The development standards variances are the identical to those Crown received during a 2013 expansion of the parking area, Norman said. “This will mimic what’s in the parking lot now,” she said.

The parking lot project will not include any additional ingress or egress onto State Road 240, Norman noted.

All three variances were approved unanimously by the BZA.

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