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Some strange things going on at BZA meeting
They might as well have thrown a tent over City Hall and turned the November Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) meeting into a three-ring circus Tuesday night.
Consider this: Bret Hurley brought his dog. Rick Parrish brought his lawyer. And Aspire Building Group brought out a whole neighborhood to hear about its plans for 27 single-family and 20 two-family dwellings on 22 acres on Greencastle’s northeast side.
That’s just the half of it.
When Hurley came forward -- to receive unanimous approval in the only actual BZA decision of the night for a special exception to allow a two-family dwelling in a single-family district and a side yard variance for the primary structure at 3804 S. U.S. 231 -- his dog accompanied him to the podium.
“He thought he was going farming,” Hurley quipped about the canine that jumped into his truck for the jaunt to City Hall.
The first item on the agenda, a Scott Williams request for a use variance to allow a contractor warehouse/storage yard in an Agriculture/Rural Dwelling district in the two-mile fringe at Limedale (see separate commissioners story on the site in question) took nearly an hour before it was agreed to table the matter for a third straight month. That came despite the appearance by attorney Eddie Felling on behalf of Parrish, who opposes the project as it is currently outlined.
It was the Aspire project -- proposed by developer David Drake and builder James Carrell, both of Heritage Lake -- that brought out some 40 residents, creating the largest crowd the BZA has seen since an addiction recovery center attempted to go in adjacent to Tzouanakis Intermediate School.
But before Duke, Carrell and their attorney, Amy Comer-Elliott, even started detailing the project, it was suggested that it be tabled by the BZA.
City Attorney Laurie Hardwick said about two hours before the meeting she and Comer-Elliott had conferred and the developers agreed some modifications might be necessary as to the scope of the ambitious housing project that could ultimately connect Albin Pond Road on the north to Fair View Lane in Deer Field Estates on the south. It was then suggested the Aspire petition be withdrawn.
It was Hardwick’s suggestion that the BZA not hear the project at all Tuesday night since it was not technically the same one that had been advertised, and BZA members’ opinions shouldn’t be tainted by any preliminary discussion. Subsequently BZA members Andrew Ranck, Doug Wokoun, Paul Champion and Jon Clark packed up their materials and left the building, leaving the developers to chat directly with their would-be neighbors for nearly 90 minutes.
And those neighbors had plenty of questions about drainage, the minimum and maximum square footage of some of the planned dwellings and the closeness of the proposed condo-like patio homes.
Saying he’s lived there 15 years, Steve Paquin fears he won’t be able to back out of his Anthony Street driveway with all the traffic he perceives will be generated by the new residences and drivers using Albin Pond Road to Fair View Lane as a north-south cut through.
“You’re gonna take your life in your hands pulling out of there,” he said.
The developers noted that the patio homes -- different from condominiums in that they are subdivided lots for sale to the homeowner as opposed to only owning from the drywall in -- will be a minimum of 1,600 square feet and a maximum of 2,100 square feet.
The property is also expected to include a 1,200-square-foot community center/sales office.
Drake said he enjoys Greencastle and sees things like First Friday as an attraction for future residents. He pointed to a local need for new homes and a need for housing for the 55 and older community.
“We’re not trying to pull the wool over anybody’s eyes,” he stressed. “Everything that we do, it’s as if we’re putting our parents in it. That’s what we want.”
Drake also stressed that the layout shown to the audience was only a conceptual plan, noting that no borings have been done to determine whether or not the road can go where it’s presently shown on paper.
It’s all conceptual, he added, until an environmental survey and other studies can be done.
Asked about the construction schedule, Drake said the first concern is getting infrastructure completed. He sees the first wave of homes being the 17 single-family units near the clubhouse in the middle of the site. The second phase will likely be the patio homes to the south, followed by the custom-built single-family homes along the road to the north.
Although official no action was taken, it is expected the Aspire Building Group will return for the Dec. 7 BZA meeting with its revised plan.