Porter County Plan Commission

Regular Meeting
August 10, 2005

M I N U T E S

The regular meeting of the Porter County Plan Commission was held on Wednesday, August 10, 2005 at 6:30 p.m. in the Porter County Administrative Center, 155 Indiana Ave., Suite 205, Valparaiso, Indiana.

Those members present were Eric Biddinger, Rick Burns, Tim Cole, Commissioner Bob Harper, Elizabeth Marshall, Herb Read, Dan Whitten and Robert Detert, Vice President. Those members absent were Kevin Breitzke. Staff members present were Robert W. Thompson Jr., Patricia S. Gibson, Attorney Karen Tallian and Fred Siminski.

Mr. Whitten moved to waive the reading of the July 13, 2005 minutes and approve them as received in the mail. Mr. Burns seconded the motion, which carried on a unanimous voice vote.

Pending Business:

Case 05-FP-13. Petition of First Site Development, LLC, c/o Todd A. Leeth, Hoeppner, Wagner & Evans, LLP, 103 E. Lincolnway, Valparaiso, Indiana seeking secondary plat approval for Mystic Springs Subdivision to be located on the Southeast corner of CR 550 N. and SR 149 in Center Township. (To contain 43 lots on 35.11 acres. Property is zoned R-1.)

Todd Leeth stated I am here on behalf of the petitioner and I am joined by Robert Palm of Palm & Associates the design professional for this project. He stated as you indicated we are here seeking secondary plat approval for a project called Mystic Springs Subdivision. He stated this received your primary approval in April of this year. He stated the secondary plat before you conforms exactly with the primary plat that was approved back in April and with the Subdivision Control Ordinance and requirements for secondary approval. He stated one thing that has happened since we were here in April is that the United States Environmental Protection Agency has approved this project for connection to the South Haven Sewer Works. He stated this is a project proposed to connect to that utility. He stated I think that you know that utility has been under some consent decrees and enforcement actions by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. He stated in June of this year (2005) this project was released for up to 80 connections to that utility. He stated as we have indicated we are far underneath that with the number of buildable lots in the subdivision. He stated with


that we would ask your approval of the secondary plat of Mystic Springs.

Commissioner Harper stated I have no questions.

Mrs. Marshall stated I have no questions.

Mr. Read stated I have a couple of comments. He stated I think that I should bring this up to everybody sooner or later. He stated the open space areas I have asked previous petitioners to run the wording past our attorney to make sure that it meets the requirements and intent of the open space ordinance. He stated so I ask that you do that as soon as you can so that point can be taken care of. He stated there seems to be some disagreement about whether pretreatment of storm runoff is required. He stated I was shot down the last time this came up. He stated with the open space that you have you have an opportunity to provide filter strips around your wetlands using native vegetation and so forth. He stated I hope that you will voluntarily do this. He stated the open space and these sensitive areas should be staked out so the people know where they are because it runs with the land and everybody who buys property should know that. He stated now we have one little complication down in the lower right hand corner where we have this meander. He stated I assume that it drains either East or West. He stated you have lots with setback lines on them and it is a good idea even if not required to make sure that the purchasers of those lots 22, 23, 27, 26, 21 etc. know where these lines are on the ground. He stated the setback also provides the opportunity for some filter strips back there. He stated I guess by law they are not supposed to build anything in this area. He stated the purchaser of the lots should know that he is not permitted to build his basketball court or his storage shed if it encroaches upon this line that shows on your map. He stated he should be advised of that up front so that he isn’t surprised at a later date. He stated finally I might mention that even the best of filter strips don’t last forever. He stated I would advise your POA to set the dues or the amount of money that they collect from the purchasers of the lots high enough so that you can set some money aside for long-term maintenance of the filter strip. He stated depending upon how much grease and oil and salt runs off it will last even with native plants five to ten years. He stated then you have to do some replanting. He stated I don’t know whether this is required, probably not. He stated I am asking you if you would voluntarily do this. He stated I think it is in your best interest to do this.

Mr. Leeth stated first of all let me address the issue of notice and making sure that the purchasers of these lots are


aware of the restrictive covenants and most specifically in your comments the location of the wetlands and what their rights and obligations are with regards to those wetlands and open space areas. He stated I think that is a marketing issue. He stated one that your ordinance doesn’t address and many times is overlooked but I encourage my clients to be cognizant of the fact that the purchasers of the lots whether they are at the closing table or simply visiting the site and interested in purchasing the lot know where the lot lines are. He stated if they are buying lot one what are the dimensions of that and where does it fit in the subdivision. He stated that is important. He stated also where are the limits of those wetlands and open space areas. He stated that is a concern that I have expressed to my clients and I know that they will take that to the marketing step recognizing that they are responsible for part of the marketing and they are responsible for controlling the brokers who actually control that part of the development but it is an important part. He stated it behooves them to do so because it only creates problems in the future that can come back to them. He stated they may not be responsible legally for any errors but nonetheless they are going to be trapped in the controversy and have to deal with it and that is not good business. He stated we have talked about that and they are aware of those issues. He stated with regards to the improvements the filter strips as you refer I don’t know if that is incorporated into the plan or not.

Bob Palm, Palm & Associates, 8888 E. U.S 20, New Carlisle. stated there is 1.5 acres of wetlands and they are creating another 1.5 acres and those are going to be enhanced with wetland plantings. He stated this will be engineered by a wetland specialist.

Mr. Cole stated I was just reading over the TAC minutes and you did submit a letter from the Army Corps of Engineers. He asked what was the nature of the letter from the Army Corps of Engineers?

Mr. Leeth stated the letter was from the United States Environmental Protection Agency. He asked is that the letter you are referring to?

Mr. Cole stated I really don’t know.

Mr. Palm stated that was the letter approving the wetland delineation plan.

Mr. Whitten stated I have no questions.

Mr. Burns stated I have no questions.


Mr. Biddinger stated I have no questions.

Mr. Burns moved to approve Case 05-FP-13 contingent on the bonding. Mr. Whitten seconded the motion, which carried on a unanimous roll call vote.

Case 05-FP-14. Petition of William and Laura Strand III, 90 E. 700 N., Valparaiso, Indiana seeking secondary plat approval for the replat of Lot 2 in Liberty Minor Subdivision 1825-A-1 to be located at 90 E. 700 N. in Liberty Township. (To contain 2 lots on 8.33 acres. Property is zoned R-1.)

Eric Banschbach stated I am here representing William and Laura Strand. He stated our request tonight is for secondary plat approval for this subdivision. He stated to refresh your memory you looked at this last month on the July 13 and approved it for primary plat. He stated basically the only contingency was the request of a conservation easement located across the east side to basically comply with the open space ordinance even though the open space ordinance in our opinion really didn’t apply to this particular development. He stated that conservation easement has been added. He stated we have gone back to TAC for final and they didn’t have any additional comments or information. He stated tonight we are asking for approval of the secondary plat.

Commissioner Harper stated I have no questions.

Mrs. Marshall stated I have no questions.

Mr. Read stated first of all I want to congratulate the petitioner in this case for voluntarily meeting the open space ordinance. He stated there was some question whether it applied to a replat or not. He stated I also noted that you have provided the request for an easement along the old Inter Urban Railway if and when sometime in the future the Porter County Park Department is able to put together a trail. He stated the only other comment that I have is be sure to submit to our attorney the wording of the conservation easement.

Mr. Cole stated I have no question.

Mr. Whitten stated I have no question.

Mr. Burns stated I have nothing.

Mr. Biddinger stated I have nothing.




Mr. Burns move to approve Case 05-FP-14. Mr. Whitten seconded the motion, which carried on a unanimous roll call vote.

Mr. Thompson stated in front of everybody there are two items. He stated one is the draft of the Rules and Procedures that Karen has developed and that will be on the agenda for the August 24 meeting. He stated also under public hearings will be the Contractors Registration Ordinance. He stated again Karen has prepared that. He stated the copy that is before you has the word licensing throughout. He stated one of the things I called Karen on is that this could be misinterpreted as being testing. He stated so Karen has already made a change so that licensing really is registration. He stated we are not going to be doing testing. He stated all we want to do is register the contractors so that way they show that they have their insurance in place and their bonding requirements.

Attorney Tallian stated when you get through these and you have any comments or anything that you can tell me in advance I know Bob sent me some things that seem to be slam dunk changes and I just made them. She stated if you have any comments like that that you could get to me ahead of time I will do it. She stated if it is something that needs to be discussed we can reserve that. She stated if it is typos or little things that you want me to add let me know.

Commissioner Harper asked is our fee that we are charging in line with the fees that Portage and different places charge? He asked is it enough to pay for itself?

Attorney Tallian stated that is standard. She stated there is also some limits on it by State Statute as to what a town or local government can charge.

Mr. Thompson stated we can hit them for a first time registration fee of $100 but after that renewal fees can only be $50. He stated that is set by statute.

Commissioner Harper stated I wonder if you could get the TAC minutes from Timberland from this time and the last time.

Mr. Read asked to clarify the difference between contractors’ registration and licensing.

Attorney Tallian stated when you issue the contractors a license…like the City of Portage does this. She stated you have to take a test. She stated with registration there is no test. She stated there is a requirement that you come in and provide a bond and you show that you have insurance. She stated there is no testing to see how much you know.

Mr. Read stated I do remember the five days that I went through for my architect license.

There being no further business the meeting adjourned at 6:55 p.m.

PORTER COUNTY
PLAN COMMISSION


S/ Robert Detert, Vice President

Attest: Robert W. Thompson Jr. AICP, Executive Director/County Planner