The Chesterton
Advisory Plan Commission will hold a public hearing next month on the
petition of Bartronics LLC--owned by Bruce Resteau and in the business of
installing communications systems in emergency-response vehicles--for a
re-zone of three lots in the 100 block of South 12th Street: from R-3 to
B-2.
As Resteau’s
attorney, Greg Babcock, told the commission at its meeting Thursday night,
when Resteau purchased the building at 128 S. 12th Street in 2006--the
former home of Jim’s Lawn & Garden--he also bought the three adjoining lots
to the south, zoned R-3.
Now Resteau is
interested in building on those lots an 1,800-square foot addition to his
business, roughly the same height as the existing structure. But first he
needs the three lots on which he would put the addition re-zoned to B-2.
Planner George
Stone noted that “the only people who might have a problem” with the re-zone
are the neighbors, but added that the sideyard setback for both B-2 and R-3
is eight feet.
Asked by planner
Fred Owens whether more parking would be needed, Babcock was unsure but said
that Resteau would have a better idea at the public hearing. It’s possible,
however, that there is already sufficient parking at the existing structure.
Members accordingly
voted unanimously to hold a public hearing on the proposed re-zone at their
next meeting, 6:30 p.m. Thursday, July 18.
Obstructed Sign at
Residences of Coffee Creek
In other business,
members heard from a representative of the Residences of Coffee Creek, Frank
Joachim, who informally put to the commission a request for permission to
erect a taller monument sign than the one originally authorized by the
planned unit development ordinance in 2016.
Which is already
taller than the tallest monument sign allowed under the Zoning Ordinance.
Turns out, the sign
is obstructed by a paddock fence along Ind. 49 and can’t clearly be seen by
northbound motorists, Joachim said. Somehow the person who designed the sign
didn’t take into account the height of the pre-existing fence. “We hadn’t
realized there was an obstruction there. It wasn’t obvious at the time. We
didn’t realize until literally we put the sign up.”
Now, however,
motorists see only the nursing home’s insignia at the top of the sign and
think the facility is a hotel, Joachim said.
Planners weren’t
especially sympathetic. Thomas Kopko recalled how the commission
specifically permitted the erection of a taller monument sign precisely so
that it could be seen from Ind. 49. “I have this remarkable sense of
deja vu,” he said. “We’ve been here before. We already granted you
one variance. If we grant you another, then the next guy is going to want a
taller sign.”
“That fence has
always been there,” Kopko reminded Joachim. “We even offered to let you guys
put a sign on the side of the building and you turned us down.”
Owens, for his
part, observed that a nursing home is not really the sort of place a
motorist turns into casually, like a McDonald’s. It’s instead a specific
destination. “So there’s not really any traffic stopping by, needing the
sign,” he said.
Stone suggested
that some other solution be found. “You’ve got some sense about how the
board feels about changing the sign,” he said. “I would suggest that you
look at all other options.”
President Sharon
Darnell concurred. “Try to stick with what works for the community instead
of kicking the bee hive,” she urged.