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PORTER COUNTY PLAN COMMISSION
Regular Meeting M I N U T E S The regular meeting of the Porter County Plan Commission was held on August 27, 2008 at 6:30 p.m. in the Porter County Administration Center, 155 Indiana Ave., Suite 205, Valparaiso, Indiana. Those members present were Kevin Breitzke, Richard Burns, Tim Cole, Robert Detert, Elizabeth Marshall, Herb Read (6:40 p.m.), Rita Stevenson and Commissioner Robert Harper, President. Staff members present were Raymond S. Joseph Jr., Attorney Scott McClure and Patricia S. Gibson. Mr. Detert moved to waive the reading of the June 25, 2008 minutes and approve them as received in the mail. Mr. Burns seconded the motion, which carried on a unanimous voice vote. Mr. Detert moved to waive the reading of the July 9, 2008 minutes and approve them as received in the mail. Mr. Burns seconded the motion, which carried on a unanimous voice vote. Commissioner Harper stated at this time it is my understanding that Case 08-P-4 has been tabled. Mr. Joseph stated there were some issues that were missing. They did not receive permission from INDOT to cut into the SR 2. Commissioner Harper stated that was just learned today. Mr. Breitzke moved to table Case 08-P-4. Mr. Burns seconded the motion, which carried on a unanimous roll call vote. Mr. Joseph stated they will have to renotify the property owners by first class mail. Commissioner Harper stated Mr. Burns informed me before the meeting tonight that he did not feel that the Committee on the Tree Preservation Ordinance has completed their work. Mr. Burns stated I would like to table Case 08-M-4. Mr. Burns moved to table Case 08-M-4. Mr. Detert seconded the motion, which carried on a unanimous roll call vote.
New Business: At this time, Commissioner Harper read the rules of conduct for a public hearing. Case 08-Z-7. Petition of Clint and Michelle Johnson, 3515 W. 150th Lane, Crown Point, Indiana for a proposed amendment to the Master Plan to rezone a parcel of land from RR, Rural Residential to A-1, General Agriculture to be located at 699 W. 100 N. in Union Township. Clint Johnson stated I am the petitioner for the rezoning. My address is 3515 W. 150th Lane, Crown Point, Indiana. Doug Homeier stated I am with S & H Engineers and Surveyors. My address is 7805 Taft Street, Merrillville, Indiana. What my client Mr. Johnson has is a parcel of land that is a total of 40 acres that has already been divided into two key numbers, a ten (10) acre parcel and a thirty (30) acre parcel. The ten acre parcel is where the existing house is. The property is accessed by a twenty-foot (20) strip of property which he owns in “Fee Simple” that extends off of CR 100 N. in line with CR 700 W. to the property. We are looking to make a total of three parcels that would include the existing house that is on there. The parcels would range from greater than ten (10) acres to over twenty (20) acres where the existing house is. The configuration of the parcels is due to the natural ravine that goes through the property would be advantageous that you can have a home site on the east side of the ravine that goes through there and one up on the west side of the ravine off the existing drive that goes in there. If you so choose to rezone it back to AG, we will have to come back for variances for inadequate lot frontage and inadequate road way. Mike Breaz, 104 N. 687 W. Mr. Breaz is concerned about the drainage onto his property, the wildlife and the dirt road not being maintained. Kathy Grimes, 108 N. 687 W. At this time, Ms. Grimes submitted to the Commission a letter from a neighbor who could not attend this evenings meeting. Ms. Grimes is concerned about the logging that is being done on the property and how much of the deforestation they are going to take with them. She is also concerned on how much natural life is going to be disturbed. Ms. Grimes is concerned about the wetland on the west side of the road. She is also concerned about the major flooding that occurs there, the bridge that is in disrepair and emergency vehicles getting to the lots on this narrow road. She also submitted to the members a copy of the minutes from 1991 where this property was divided. Lolita Rivera, 107 N. 687 W. Ms. Rivera is reiterating what the other neighbors have said. She is also concerned about the logging that has been going on out there. She is concerned that this is going to contribute to the flooding. Don Blackwell, 106 N. 687 W. Mr. Blackwell agrees with everything that has been said by his neighbors. He stated when the previous owners owned this property there was no flooding. Since there has been logging there has been flooding. He is totally against it. Michele Johnson, 699 W. 100 N. Mrs. Johnson stated that she is the previous owner of the property and she is not related to the new owners. Also, there is a great amount of wetlands on the property. When she and her husband wanted to build there home they had to go through the Army Corps of Engineers and several different permits to go through wetlands and to provide tunnels and everything. The location of the home where it is now was determined by a lot of information that was discovered. We asked for a few more homes and they said no because of the 20-foot road frontage. We were granted two lots and we were lucky to get that. Tom Rivera, 107 N. 687 W. Mr. Rivera has concerns about the logging that has taken place there, the wildlife being affected, the flooding that has gotten worse since the logging, the 20-foot wide access road. Brian Svetnoff, 108 N. 687 W. Mr. Svetnoff is concerned about the nature and the deforestation. He agrees with everything that has been said by his neighbors. Mr. Homeier stated as for the flooding this property is all down stream. The trees that have come down are weather related. If these people have flooding problems it is not due to the forty acres. They have their own problems and they exist now before anything has been done. The runoff on two more homes is going to be insignificant. As for the wetlands there are low lying areas. There are 40-acres out there and there is more then ample room to put two houses out there. No wetlands will be disturbed and the driveway already exists. Clint Johnson stated as far as the logging goes when we bought the property last year the tornado that went through wiped out tons of trees. As far as the road and emergency vehicles getting out there, I didn’t have a problem with my heavy truck getting in and out of there and I don’t think that is as big of an issue as what the neighbors are saying.
Mrs. Grime stated he did have standing trees that had not fallen down and he did log those. Also, how are two vehicles going to go down that road? Mrs. Johnson, 516 Walnut Ridge Court. As far as the flooding, I lived there for 17-years and we did not have the flooding that our neighbors have right now. As far as the road, one car can pass fine, but it is only one car. They do have logging going on. Mike Breaz, 104 N.687 W. Mr. Breaz concerns are that Mr. Johnson doesn’t live on the property and the neighbors feel that he bought the property to log it. He would like to know how many more trees are going to come down. He is concerned about the flooding that is taking place there. Mrs. Rivera stated I did not have a flooding problem before the trees came down. Mr. Johnson stated I took down 80 trees and I am in the car business not the logging business. The public hearing was then closed. Mr. Burns stated I believe that this is a case that definitely should go through subdivision control with the drainage issues and the wetlands. After reading the minutes from 1991, there is some reference and concerns of the wetlands back then. Mr. Detert stated I feel the same way. Mrs. Stevenson stated I feel the same way, also. Mr. Breitzke stated we need some clarity. On the application it says Clint and Michele Johnson. We have Michele Johnson appearing who apparently is the former owner of the land. There is no relation to the two Johnson’s. The issue of the road could possibly be overcome. You are dealing with an existing roadway through wetlands. There is an issue with the drainage. He does have the right to lumber. It is an agricultural product in Porter County as well as in Indiana. To some degree I’m incline to agree with Rick but for different reason. I don’t know if a favor just rezoning something for the sake of enabling subdivision. Mrs. Marshall stated there is an issue with the road. I don’t think all the way back did I see a place where a car or truck could pass each other. The question that I have is why are
Mr. Homeier stated one of the things is in the subdivision control regardless of what you do the storm water detention is maintained holding back 100-year storm event and releasing two-year undeveloped. In order to put that in and hold back 100-year storm event for 40-acres that you are barely going to touch, first you are going to dig up the wetlands and put it down there and permit that to tear that up and second you are going to wipe out more trees. To put a pond and it would have to be several ponds on this property based on the configuration of it for the purpose of putting one additional house did not make any sense. The best way to do that and wanting to put one more house back there was to go and rezone it to agricultural so that we didn’t have to do that process. We are fully aware that the driveway there would need additional turnouts that you could create passing areas along it which was fully going to be intended to do. Mrs. Marshall stated in 1991 you were granted two houses. Is that correct? Mr. Homeier stated they were granted that. Mrs. Marshall stated now you want to have four houses. Mr. Homeier stated no three. The second house was never built. They were granted two houses and the other one hasn’t been built. We want to be able to build three instead of two. Mrs. Marshall asked in 1991 did you have to go for a variance on the width of this driveway. Mr. Homeier stated I am not aware of exactly…those minutes were given to you. Mr. Johnson has only owned this for about one year. Mrs. Marshall asked how long has it been RR zoning. Has it always been RR? I would like to know that. Mr. Read stated I have no objection to two or three houses and ten acres per house or fifteen acres per house. I am concerned that with the rezoning if you are granted the rezoning what can happen to the land. My understanding for these ten- acre cut outs were for people who wanted to continue farming but that land doesn’t strike me as suitable farm land. It seems to me
Mr. Johnson asked what do we have to do to get it subdivided. Mr. Read stated you can do a ten-acre lot under the subdivision ordinance. I encourage you to forget the AG rezone and find some other way of doing what you say you want to do without going to AG zoning. Mr. Cole stated there are a number of issues that are connected with this property. I don’t see this going forward with a 20-foot easement a quarter of a mile long. Who was your logger? Mr. Johnson stated that was last year. His name is Art White. Mr. Cole stated in the State of Indiana timber buyers must be licensed and registered. Mr. White is a good timber cutter and he would probably recommend that you do not cut all of the available harvestable trees. You have forty-acres and you can do quite a bit with that forty acres until it impinges on your neighbors and the only impingement would be noise, dust, dirt and some destruction of water courses that might go through their property and might affect their water courses or water tables. Mr. Detert moved to forward Case 08-Z-7 to the Board of Commissioners with an unfavorable recommendation. Mr. Burns seconded the motion, which carried on the following ballot vote:
Breitzke - Yes Burns - Yes Cole - Yes This case will be heard by the County Commissioners on October 7 at 6:00 p.m. It is a requirement that the petitioner mail out by first class mail notices to the neighbors of this meeting. Case 08-M-8. Petition of the Porter County Plan Commission, 155 Indiana Ave., Suite 311, Valparaiso, Indiana for an amendment to Ordinance No. 07-05, the Unified Development Ordinance, Chapter 7, Subdivision, Development Plan and PUD Design Standards; Section 7.15 EC-01 (Erosion Control Standards; General).
Attorney McCLure stated just so everyone is cleared we have the Unified Development Ordinance itself and then that reference is the “Joint Resolution between the City of Valpo, Lakes Area Conservancy District and the Board of County Commissioners.” In that joint Resolution it lays out a little bit more specifically. Basically there will be a unified storm water plan established and then once that is established then it will be an independent review of construction plans and onsite inspections during the actual construction process to ensure that the storm water plan including the erosion is being followed. To be clear in the joint Resolution the cost for the review of the construction plans and to conduct the onsite inspections would be born by the developer. I would just add that in our amendment to the Unified Development Ordinance that we would just add the following sentence at the very end of this paragraph it would state as follows, “The cost of the independent review shall be the responsibility of the developer.” No one spoke in favor of this petition. No one spoke in opposition to this petition. The public hearing was then closed. Mr. Burns asked who has the final say in the development. Attorney McClure stated what will happen is that there will be a unified storm water plan that the three entities will be dealing with and that will be agreed on by all three. If it comes in and it is in the county we have final say. Independent review happens our independent review tells us whether or not it is matching and what the standards are then we have the say. If it is in the city they are using the same unified storm the same independent review the city has final say.
Mr. Detert moved to forward Case 08-M-8 to the County Commissioners with a favorable recommendation. Mr. Breitzke seconded the motion. Discussion: At this time, Mr. Breitzke and Mr. Cole congratulated Commissioner Harper on this good idea. Mr. Detert stated I would like to clarify my motion to indicate that this motion approves it as corrected by the attorney. The second agrees. Motion reads as follows: Mr. Detert moved to forward Case 08-M-8 to the County Commissioners with a favorable recommendation and with the corrections made by the attorney. Mr. Breitzke seconded the motion, which carried on the following ballot vote:
Breitzke - Yes Burns - Yes Cole - Yes This case will be heard by the County Commissioners on October 7, 2008 at 6:00 p.m. Mrs. Marshall stated Mr. McCauliff owns the Hop & Stop on Route 30 and Lake Eliza Road and several years ago he bought the house right behind it. When he bought the house behind it was C-4 zoning. Now he is going to update and he came to the Plan Commission and finds that it is down graded to an R zoning. I have asked in the past who was on the committee, what the rules were and why the rezoning in ’07. You will realize that I have never signed the new Master Plan because I have never gotten an answer. Again tonight it is on the agenda. We have the Johnson’s who paid to get a rezoning and yet Mr. McCauliff was never notified and now wants to do something. He bought it with a price tag of “C” zoning even though it had a house on it but houses come down. Now he comes to the Plan Commission and was told that this happened in ’07. I want to know the reason. I also would like to demand tonight the people who were on that committee, the rules that were used and the parcels that were rezoned. We were told that there was no down zoning. The Plan Commission itself had a petition in Washington Township to rezone and that was not successful.
Commissioner Harper stated we are going to give staff to our next meeting to come up and give the explanation on what happened there. Herb McCauliff, 258 N. 550 W. I purchased the Hop-N-Stop on CR 500 W. and Rt. 30 and it was zoned C-4. There was a piece of property next to it and I purchased that and it was also zoned C-4. I purchased that with the intention of someday soon I would like to develop the corner to enhance it and bring jobs to the township. At this time, J.F. Schrader, 978 Meridian Rd., asked a question to the Commission on a 660-foot tile that he has that the Drainage Board took without his permission. He would like this looked into. There being no further business the meeting adjourned at 8:00 p.m.
Attest: Robert W. Thompson Jr. AICP, Executive Director/County Planner |
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August 27, 2008