The Burns Harbor Advisory Plan Commission has not yet finished its work with the draft of the new Zoning Ordinance.

At its meeting Wednesday night, the Town Council voted 4-0 to approve the draft in principle but return it to the commission with a list of 15 proposed amendments for planners’ consideration. Member Cliff Fleming recused himself from any discussion of, or vote on, the draft Zoning Ordinance, after noting that one of his colleagues suggested he do so.

Town Attorney Chuck Parkinson said that he did not find any legal conflict of interest in Fleming’s voting on the document, although he added that “it’s within Cliff’s discretion to recuse himself.”

Parkinson told the Chesterton Tribune after the meeting that planners will have 45 days either to formally approve the council’s amendments; to take no action, in which case the Zoning Ordinance as it stands will take effect; or to reject the amendments, in which case the draft will go back to the council for another vote.

Some of the amendments:

*Regulate adult uses more strictly.

*Establish a maximum of three lots per acre.

*Forbid the planting of any tree in a public right-of-way unless the tree is found in an approved list of trees maintained by the Building Commissioner.

*Permit cemeteries by special exception only in R (traditional residential) districts.

*Add RC (neo-traditional/commercial) district and CR (mixed use/commercial/residential) district to those districts permitting business signs.

*Add “corner lot fence” language from the current Zoning Ordinance to the draft document but reducing the maximum height of corner lot fences from four feet to three feet.

*Re-define “Sign, Billboard” to read “A structure or accessory structure.”

The council did re-affirm the following:

*No apartments may be built anywhere within the town except for the CR district, and apartments may be no taller than two stories and no larger than eight units.

*The Downtown district does not include Boo Road, Lively Lane, or McCoy Lane, which will remain residential.

In other business, Member Toni Biancardi announced that Lakeland Park is now open every day and that the first day camp has been scheduled for June 22-26 from 9 to 12 p.m.

The camp is free to kids 4 to 10 years of age. “We have lots of fun,” Biancardi said.

Burns Harbor residents only may now obtain from the Clerk-Treasurer’s Office applications for town scholarships for post-secondary school.

Completed applications are due by June 30. The town annually awards a total of $3,000 in scholarships to residents.

Residents interested in attending the Small Town Summit on Tuesday should contact Fleming.

Bids for demolishing the old Standard Oil Plaza on U.S. Highway 20 are due July 8.

The council scheduled a special meeting on the 2010 budget for 4 p.m. Monday, June 29.

Clerk-Treasurer Jane Jordan noted that the budget process this year has been accelerated by around a month, after the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance ordained that taxing units must advertise their 2010 budgets in early August, rather than in September, as has been customary for years.

Fire Chief Bill Arney told members that the Burns Harbor Fire Department donated a total of $1,200 to the Hoosier Burn Camp, $400 of that amount raised at a car wash.

In May the BHFD devoted a total of 98 hours to training, responded to 18 calls, spent 11 hours, 40 minutes at emergency scenes, and logged 746 training and response miles on vehicles.

Arney, as Director of Sanitation, also told members that a sewer backup was reported by a resident of Carol Street in the Harbor Trails subdivision. Arney contacted Eagles Services, which pumped down the line, and an attempt will be made to video the line to find the break.

But responsibility for repairing the rupture belongs to Harbor Trails developers Dick Davis and Don Coker, Arney said, since the town has not yet accepted the subdivision’s infrastructure.

Posted 6/11/2009