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HomeMy WebLinkAboutDepartment Report 08-23-215 of 7 CARMEL BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS – REGULAR MEETING DEPARTMENT REPORT MONDAY, AUGUST 23, 2021 (UV) Recovery Auto. The applicant seeks the following use variance approval: 1. Docket No. PZ-2021-00135 UV UDO Section 3.01 Prohibited Uses in Overlay, Automobile Sales & Display requested. The site is located at 10601 College Ave., at the northeast corner of 106th St. and College Ave. It is zoned B2/Business and Home Place Overlay District, Business Sub-Area. Filed be E. Davis Coots of Coots, Henke & Wheeler, PC on behalf of Dianwei Wang and Meili He, owners. General Info & Background: The applicant seeks use variance approval (with a 3-year time limit) to continue to use the vacant land for automobile sales & display, where they will park cars for sale. The Overlay District prohibits this land use (the underlying B2 zoning allows it). The lot would become an extension of the existing grandfathered car sales use just to the east of the site. The Petitioner would like to use the lot in the interim for automobile sales; however, the Petitioner contemplates a proposed near-future redevelopment of the site. Please see the Petitioner’s info packet for more detail on the use variance request. The site is located at the northeast corner of 106th St. and College Ave. The site used to have an automobile repair shop on it. That building was demolished, and the site was remediated for being a brownfield. The surrounding land uses are an auto sales dealer to the east, a tax preparation office to the west, a vacant lot and auto repair shop to the south, and a parking lot and office use to the north. The original BZA use variance request, Docket No. 18120010 UV, for the prohibited automobile sales & display land use was approved by the BZA on February 25, 2019, with the condition of a 2-year time limit. Then, the Petitioner asked for a one-time 6-month administrative extension, which was granted, and that approval expires on August 25, 2021. Analysis: The Home Place Overlay Zoning District was created and adopted in 2002-2003. The Automobile/Boat Sales land use is and has always been an excluded use in that district. A prior auto repair shop / oil change shop existed on this site since the 1970s or so. This prior use ceased around 2013, and the lot and building were vacant for more than a year (causing that land use to become nonconforming). Then, the building was demolished, and brownfield remediation of the site occurred in 2018. The street intersection of 106th and College is the heart of Home Place and is the center of the Home Place Business District Subarea. Per Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) Section 3.01, the district intent of this subarea is to foster urban neighborhood village-like commercial activity, in keeping with the intention of the Comprehensive Plan. It is to contain office and retail uses that are of an intensity and scale compatible with the surrounding residential areas, both in scale and architecture. These commercial uses should provide services and support the existing residential areas and nearby US 31 commercial corridor. The purpose of the Home Place Business Sub-Area standards is to provide site design requirements that orient buildings to the street and are pedestrian in scale (making it pedestrian friendly). The object is to align buildings in order to create a sense of an outdoor room, encompassing sidewalks and the street. The Carmel Clay Comprehensive Plan guides growth in the City. The Home Place Subarea plan promotes a neighborhood-serving commercial district. At the core of Home Place (College Ave. and 106th St.) is a commercial district that historically has been home to a grocery store, gas stations, offices, institutional uses, and miscellaneous retail uses. The current uses do not function well as neighborhood-serving commercial and are not as bicycle- or pedestrian-friendly as they once were. The City encourages more mixed-use development 6 of 7 that provides a more bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly environment and that provides goods and services to the residential community within walking distance. One of the design guidelines of the Home Place Area Plan is to ensure development and redevelopment of the Home Place core is comfortable and safe for bicycle and pedestrians. Another design guideline is to require buildings in the core to be built to the front property line, have ground floor retail or office uses, and have large transparent windows at ground level. Encouraged is upper story residential or employment uses in the mixed- use core to support pedestrian vitality at the street level. The Planning Dept. can support this Use Variance request with the condition of a 1-year time limit, as well as the Petitioner dedicating street right of way required for the roundabout. Petitioner’s Findings of Facts: Please refer to the petitioner’s Findings of Facts included in their info packet. Recommendation: The Dept. of Community Services recommend positive consideration of Docket No. PZ-2021-00135 UV, with the conditions of a 1-year time limit and dedicating street right of way required for the future street roundabout, along with the adoption of the findings of fact submitted by the Petitioner.