The Lake County Board of Zoning Appeals met on September 16, 2026, at 6:30 p.m. to hear ten petitions including one special exception and nine variance requests. All items were decided, with the first petition deferred to a future meeting and the remainder approved unanimously.
Steve. Ready. I'd like to call the Lake County Board of Zoning Appeals. Wednesday, September 16th to order. Everybody rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. For which it stands, one nation under God, individual liberty, and justice for all. Go to the second floor and exit the building. Do not enter an elevator in an emergency. If you require assistance, a plan commission employee will escort or assist you. Please silence any cell phones during this meeting. If you receive a call during this meeting, please excuse yourself with as little disruption as possible to these proceedings. Do we have a record of those present? Did everybody receive their August 19th minutes? Yes. Do I have a motion? Motion to approve minutes. Second. All those in favor by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed, same sign. Under communication, Steve. Under communication, I first want to welcome uh Andy James. He's replacing Key Streeter to the Board of Zoning Appeals here. Hopefully, you enjoy your time here in our uh work with uh the community as we always do here to make good decisions. Um the other thing under communications, I understand that there's uh we need to kind of hold off on items two, three, and four. Uh the attorney representing those petitions is here in the building, but he's got a other committee's trying to square up via Zoom, so I don't want to get too in-depth and personal into that. But um, if we could uh I guess hold off on items two, three, and four until the end of this evening's agenda. No, that'll be fine. So I don't think we have to take no action on it. And then uh item number one, of course, so those of you that were here, uh there was a deferral of the uh item number one twenty six-scero six. Uh the Van Cawker Family Limited Partnership, owner of foundry works energy storage petitioner. Uh the properties located approximately two-tenths mile north of East 181st Avenue, State Road 2, on the east side of Clay Street Neal Creek Township. The request for a special exception from the unincorporated county unified development ordinance, title 154, article sixteen, additional regulation of general applicability. Chapter 10, better energy storage systems, best b submittal requirements for better energy storage facilities are permitted only in the following zoning classifications, C D conditional conditional development district by special exception, and the purpose is to allow better energy storage system, B ESS. Um that was deferred by the plan commission. So this will be pushed back to the following to the next month's meeting, which is on October 21st. So at the October 21st meeting, if the plan commission forwards this to the plan to the Board of Zoning Appeals, that that time this body will take action on that request. So just to clarify, no action tonight, it'll appear on the agenda for the October 21st Board of Zoning Appeals agenda. Um I guess that concludes communications with that adjustment of the items two three and schedule. So that'll move us to item number five. Item number five, uh six and seven are all related. Item number five is petition number twenty-six-v-15. Joseph and Trish Kaufman are the owners and petitioners. The property is located approximately two tenths mile west of Klein Street on the south side of West 89th Avenue, also known as 8123, West 89th Avenue in St. John Township. The request is a variance from development standards for the unincorporated county unified development ordinance, title 154, Article 9, accessory use and structures, chapter 20, detach accessory garage and storage buildings, Section E, Area and Height. Maximum floor area, 1,525 square feet permitted, 2400 square feet is requested. The purpose is to allow a 40 by 60 accessory building for personal use. Also number six, petition number 26-V-16, same owner, same petitioner, same property. This is also a variance from development standards from the unincorporated county divided development orders.