Melissa Begley, Assistant Planning Director and appointed Hearing Officer, presided over the public hearing at 4:00 p.m. in City Council Chambers. The hearing officer process, enabled by Indiana state law, streamlines non‑controversial zoning cases and shortens the normal BZA timeline by about two weeks. All three agenda items were approved. A five‑day appeal window follows the decision.
So this is the uh Board of Zoning Appeals Hearing Officer meeting. Um, this is a uh process that is enabled by Indiana state law. It allows us to streamline certain cases that we consider to be, you know, from our perspectives not controversial, um, they meet all of the criteria, um, and so it it allows us to kind of shorten the normal timeline for the Board of Zoning Appeals, which the full board meets um at the end of the month. Um, so it cuts off about two weeks to the process. Um the hearing officer is appointed by the plan commission. My name's Melissa Begley, I'm the assistant planning director, and I'm the appointed hearing officer person. Um, all of the rules of the Board of Zoning Appeals apply to these meetings. Um, this is a public hearing, so we did send letters out to the surrounding property owners. Um, we did put a sign out on the property and run a legal advertisement. Um, in cases where there is conflicting interests or controversy, uh I can transfer the case to the full board if there's no sort of resolution or agreement. It's not exactly an agreement, but um if there's conflict, you know, it can be forwarded to the full board. Um, there is a five-day appeal after this meeting where if somebody decides that the decision that got made was in error or um they're not happy with that decision, they can appeal the decision within that five-day window by sending a letter to our office stating that they would like to appeal and their reasoning for that, and then at that point in time, it'll get formally transferred to the full board. Um that's just a little bit about the process. We have three items on our agenda today. Um, the first item is the Cedar Hearst Senior Living. It's a conditional use request from Dover Development to allow for a freestanding sign on their property. It would be located at the corner of Rocky Ford and Middle Road. Um again, the property is twenty-six oh one Rocky Ford Road. I know that and I know the applicant won't be here for this meeting today. Is there anyone here that has any questions or anything about this particular item? Okay. Um, again, non-controversial. No one's here for that. So um, based on that, we felt that that case did easily meet the criteria, and that we grant approval to the request. Um that's that's how simple it goes. Um I don't see the applicant for the annex. So we can we'll skip over it for for the moment. Um we can come back to that. So this third item on the agenda is for the foundation for youth. It is a request to allow for a shared housing facility, specifically a short term rental use for up to ten individuals in the AG Agriculture General Zoning District. Sure. Well, so the zoning ordinance allows you to have up to five unrelated individuals staying. Quiet time for that, which I don't with it without a noise noise order, it's I don't know how that would ever be enforced. Um so having that. Um I'll probably have them respond to the majority of your questions, but I can say that I know that um the measurement was probably from dwelling to dwelling. Yes, so not necessarily from dwelling to property line. So I don't know if that was your measurement. Well, I think he said the nearest, I didn't think it said dwelling, but it knows my property was closest. Yeah, I know the the dwelling to the south is that's one property, and I know you you're directly to the north. Is that yeah, yeah, I I imagine it was dwelling to dwelling. And I don't know if it was the one to the north or the one to the south that was a little bit closer, yeah. I think it was maybe just a little bit closer, but they were similar. Um but yeah, if you guys want to respond to the some of his questions about maybe what your leash will look like with people, um, if you've got a you know, an idea of what you imagine that's gonna look like. Um the road, he just won the the limbs trend the low hanging limbs and maybe some gravel. So that's right. Yeah. Yeah, I don't think we're talking about making it super wide. I think we're just redefining the road. Right. No, I mean for emergency service if that is why I defined, which I understand that because it is tight and a long line.