City BZA variances OK’d for new users at old sites

It was out with the old and in with the new for the Greencastle Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) Tuesday night as it approved a pair of requests involving new uses for old properties.

The BZA granted a special exception for Breadworks to utilize the old First Christian Church sanctuary, 110 S. Indiana St., for recreational use, as in a banquet or assembly hall, while also approving the use and expansion of the old Joe Spiker Excavating and Contracting property on West Walnut Street Road as a contractor warehouse/self-storage facility.

Attorney Scott Bieniek and new owner of the old church, Rick Trejo, explained that the site and building generally will be used in a similar manner that was previously approved for a special exception for the old owners in 2017.

With the sale of the property, the previous special exception expires, even though the new owner plans to use the space within the facility in essentially the same manner. Breadworks would like to use the historic 1890s church building as an assembly/banquet hall and other Central Business District permitted uses as business opportunities present themselves.

City Planner Scott Zimmerman pointed out the availability of parking in the area, along with similar uses in the area (namely the Elks Lodge, movie theater, Masonic Temple, Moose Lodge).

BZA member Doug Wokoun made the motion for approval of a new special exception, which passed unanimously.

Meanwhile, Great Storage Buildings, owned by Brian Black and Jason Yoder, was granted a variance for light industrial use in a Single-Family Dwelling (SD1) District in the two-mile fringe just west of Greencastle.

The variance allows a like-use (mini-warehouse/self-storage) to be expanded from the legal nonconforming contractors warehouse/storage yard. With the property in the two-mile fringe means that Greencastle land-use standards must be met but actual building permits will be issued by the Putnam County Building and Planning Department.

Brian Black of Bonzer Properties plans to purchase the old Spiker property and “rent out the front office buildings and use existing buildings for secured storage now and build similar in the future.”

Represented by attorney Jim Ensley, Black explained he would “like to clean up the area and haul away things that are unsightly.” He said the operation in general would be “a little less impactful to the neighborhood.”

“We may end up doing it in stages,” Black added, indicating there are seven existing buildings on the site.

Wokoun asked about the cleanup. “I’ve lived in this town long enough to know what it was,” he said.

And for a long time that was a junkyard with old cars and trucks as far as the eye could see looking north from West Walnut Street Road.

“There were a lot of junk cars,” Wokoun said. “I waited to make sure you were aware of potential environmental concerns.”

“Our vision is to have it flat, clean and presentable,” Black responded, noting that a previous environmental survey of the site indicated no apparent problems. “We anticipate not to have to disturb the surface.”

The property will be fenced, Black said, adding for neighbor Mary Ann Inman’s benefit that “our long-range plan will be good for the neighbors.”

A motion for approval from John Phillips passed unanimously.

In other business, the BZA:

-- Denied a development standards request from Kenneth Hewitt, 208 E. Walnut St., for a seven-foot privacy fence in a Traditional Neighborhood (TN) District where six feet is the allowable maximum height. Chairman Andrew Ranck made the motion to deny the request, saying there was not a practical difficulty involved since headlights from adjacent parking areas blocked by the seven-foot fence, which had already been installed, would still be blocked by a six-foot fence. It was during discussion that board member Jon Clark, indicating he had not yet made up his mind, uttered the line of the night when he said, “I’m on the fence, I guess.” The remark brought laughs from the pun-loving BZA audience.

-- Adopted the 2023 BZA calendar which continues with meetings the first Tuesday of the month and begins with the first session set for 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 7 at City Hall.

-- Heard Chairman Ranck announce he has resigned his position as Putnam County Comprehensive Service executive director and will possibly be leaving town. Ranck said it is likely he will be “stepping off the board at some point.”

Ranck, Clark, Wokoun and Phillips were joined for the December meeting by City Attorney Laurie Hardwick, while board member Paul Champion was absent.