“It can’t be this easy,” observed Porter Plan Commission president Lorain Bell when no one stood Wednesday to offer formal public comment on the proposed Porter Beach zoning overlay.

Beach resident Art Madzinski broke the ice and eventually five others followed for one hour before the commission voted 5-0 to forward a favorable recommendation to the Town Council that the 13-page overlay be adopted with minor changes.

The overlay is intended to guide future development at the beach and supplement the current town zoning ordinance, not replace it there.

Commission member and Town Council president Michele Bollinger said the council likely will consider the Porter Beach zoning amendments for final adoption at the Dec. 8 council meeting.

Also up for final council adoption will be separate revisions to the subdivision control ordinance and the zoning ordinance recommended by the commission last night following a brief public hearing with Jennifer Klug asking for clarification.

Porter Beach resident and property owner Jim Eriksson recused himself from the Plan Commission and stepped down during all overlay discussion and consideration; commission member Todd Martin was absent.

There was confusion whether emails and letters regarding the overlay submitted prior to the public hearing, even if addressed to the Town Council or department heads, should have been forwarded to the Plan Commission as well.

Mentioned last night but not read aloud was a letter addressed to the Plan Commission from Chesterton resident Dorothy Weidman Meyers which, in part, commended efforts to organize Porter Beach zoning and conserve its natural resources.

Bollinger said Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore superintendent Costa Dillon sent a letter to the Town Council, not the commission. Plan Commission member Matt Keiser’s motion to send a favorable recommendation specified that Dillon’s request be added to the overlay that INDU be notified of building permits sought for development adjacent to park boundaries.

Beach resident Ray Cahnman said he sent two lengthy letters to the town hall over the past weeks asking questions and stating his position on the overlay believing the letters would be distributed.

Keiser said it was miscommunication that Cahnman wanted them to go to the Plan Commission but the letters will be attached to the hearing’s public record.

Jamie Hogan, a Porter Beach resident who was a member of the Overlay Committee that over 12 months drafted the zoning recommendations, said it’s semantics to whom comment letters were addressed: the Plan Commission should have seen them, entered them into the record and the Town Council needs to see them now.

“I agree in principle but we can’t read letters we didn’t receive,” said commission member Greg Stinson. Cahnman said the public should be able to read any comment letters received as well.

Town attorney Patrick Lyp said the record is closed for the Plan Commission’s consideration so future correspondence should be addressed to the Town Council, which has 90 days to act on the overlay recommendation or it is deemed approved.

The second commission addition to the overlay was language to better clarify new landscaping and vegetation requirements. Emphasis still will be on native plants with an approved list developed at a later date, but planting areas for seasonal annual flowers will be allowed.

The revised overlay will be available on the town website and at the town hall; also available will be the proposed amendments to the Porter subdivision control ordinance and changes to the zoning ordinance regarding criteria for both a development standard variance and a use variance.

Town planner Jim Mandon and Bell, the latter who also sits on the town Board of Zoning Appeals, said beach property owners still will have the ability to ask the BZA to overturn/modify a building commissioner’s decision or waive a specific overlay rule, but the need to do so should decrease because of the overlay itself.

Lyp said since he was appointed in 2005, eight or nine zoning lawsuits have been filed against the town --- all but one originating from Porter Beach. “This (overlay) is a first big step in resolving the issues there.”

He also said it’s unusual that the overlay offers protection for currently non-conforming Porter Beach structures by being able to rebuild them under certain circumstances if or destroyed. “A lot of communities wouldn’t let you do that.”

Bell, Madzinski and Ericka Brandstetter questioned the overlay requirement that all wood exposed to weather shall be resistant to rotting, excessive fading or discoloration and shall be kept in a good state of maintenance. Enforcement would be left up to the building commissioner.

Said Lyp, “I can’t envision a scenario our building commissioner is waiting day and night to say (your wood) is fading. He has more important things to do.” Mandon said the overlay wording is similar to existing town property-maintenance codes.

Cahnman disagreed with Mandon and Keiser, both Overlay Committee members, on how the overlay would impact improvements to what Cahnman described as the relatively few undeveloped and under-developed beach lots. The overlay isn’t needed, he added, because it offers solutions for non-problems and fails to address problems thought to exist.

Cahnman also said the overlay would prevent him from improving 10 lots he has next to the Dearborn Street parking area, devaluing his expensive property by an enormous amount.

Mandon said the overlay relaxes zoning restrictions at Porter Beach where it makes sense to do that and is more restrictive in just a few areas.

“You don’t want this passed. You want to rescind the current zoning ordinance to do what you want,” Mandon told Cahnman. “Absolutely not,” he replied.

Overlay Committee member Elka Nelson said their group wasn’t looking to restrict use of property or diminish property values.

Nelson also said there are over 30 undeveloped parcels available for development without too much reassembling of lots and there could be more so overlay protections are needed. She and others urged the Town Council to address structures at the beach that encroach on public rights-of-way there, something outside the Overlay Committee’s scope and jurisdiction.

Gilbert Lehman of Porter Beach said the overlay is commendable but hasn’t gone far enough to preserve what’s wonderful about his neighborhood. “Save the dunes and let’s not conquer them.”

There’s general agreement past development at the beach has been haphazard with zoning regulations sometimes ignored. Mandon said the overlay’s goal is to avoid continued development that creates problems for either private or public property. “Private problems, if they’re not addressed, become public problems.”

Fifteen people were in the audience Wednesday. “I would have expected more people,” said Bell.

Posted 11/19/2009