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To: Sub-Division Committee
From: Eric Seidensticker
Re: Agenda items 9/4/2007
Concerns over C2 Rezone on 3rd Ave SW (Old Town District)
Q Building Height concerns around Manon trail.
" Current 22% commercial vacancy. Increasing pressure to those unfilled properties
by building more competing buildings.
II Negative impact on city center development and arts and design district as the
major developer is struggling to complete projects near this area.
D Removing light-industrial from the City of Carmel may have negative impact on
the balance of the community in general.
Concerns over Holiday Inn Express Project:
e Parking is not nearly high enough, pennitting ''borrowing'' of spaces from an
adjacent property owner should not be allowed. Suppose the property is sold and
doesn't want to lend those spaces to the HIE.
D Increase in traffic to 136th Street is not necessary. This street has plenty oftraffic
from the High School and others. With the Justus property on-line, the traffic will
increase morning and evening drive times to the already increased traffic flow
from the High School.
. Ground usage in excess of what is permitted. Majority of the land covered by
asphalt or concrete creating significant water run-off issues?
o The increase in traffic and volume of people is too close to adjacent residential
areas.
Please accept these concerns in your discussions this evening. As I am new to this
process and have not had nearly enough time to prepare and educate myself as-to the-
intents of the Planning Commission, I respectfully ask that these concerns be addressed.
State Code requires us on Planning Commission to put the Health and Safety of our
citizens first. To this end I appreciate your careful consideration.
Respectfully Submitted.
Eric Seidensticker
Carmel Common Council
District 3
August 30. 2007
David L. Sanders
13587 Kensington Place
Carmel, Indiana 46032
Mr. Eric Seidensticker
Cannel Plan Commission
560 3Jd Avenue SW
Cannel, Indiana 46032
Dear Mr. Seidensticker:
I am writing you to express my opposition to the proposed Holiday Inn development at
136lh Street and Pro Med Lane. I have attended all of the Planning Commission meetings
concerning this and the Justus Office Building project. In order to be as brief as possible
I am outlining my reasons below:
P ARKING ~ The project does not meet the parking requirements. The applicant,
through its attorney, Dave Coots, acknowledges that they are over 40 short of the needed
spaces. They are proposing to share parking v.>ith the already approved project of the
Justus Office building so the requirements are satisfied. This is wrong. They either have
the required parking or they do not. In my opinion, this is just a ploy by the applicant and
Justus to try to get the project approved. Consider this scenario; I am a guest at the
Holiday Inn and arrive to fmd that the regular parking lot is full and am told 1 can use the
Justus Office parking. The only condition is that I must be out of the lot by 8;00 a.m. the
next day so the employees of the Justus Office building will have a place to park.
This is not realistic. It is interesting that the Holiday Inn project was filed in May before
the Justus Office Building project and then was tabled twice and presented after the
Justus Building was approved. I also question the applicant's response to a question from
a member of the commission regarding the number of employees who would need
parking spaces. The representative of Midwest Hospitality said that there would only be
4 or 5 employees there at one time during the week and 7 or 8 employees on the
weekend. If it is true that dining, cleaning, maintenance, and desk responsibilities are to
be done by this number of employees, I would not recommend this hotel to relatives and
friends.
In his rebuttal to the opposition to the project, Attorney Coots also said that the residents
of Kensington Place would not be affected because it was one property removed, yet he
proposed parking of the overflow guests in the Justus lot adjacent to our neighborhood.
All night parking and the related noise and lights obviously would directly affect our
residents. In fact, it would practically be in some of our residents' very small backyards.
When the Justus Office Building project was approved, our neighborhood association
president spoke on our behalf and welcomed the project because we knew someday there
would be development there and the project was one that appeared to be neighborhood
friendly and have minimal disruption to our lives. It now appears that since the Office
Building project was approved Justus, owner of the entire property site, is doing
everything possible to assure that the 2.7 acres to be used for hotel brings the maximum
profit from sale.
~ ..
2
TRAFFIC - The prqject would bring too much additional traffic to an already congested
intersection of Old Meridian Street and Smokey Row Road (136th Street). Our
association president addressed this issue in opposition comments at the last commission
meeting. A traffic study was ordered that should confIrm our contention. It should be
noted, however, that traffic at this time at that location is less than normal because of the
temporary closures of Old Meridian Street and Smokey Row Roads for major
construction projects. On this subject, I also question Mr. Coots' response to the
opposition. He stated that the full service restaurant would only be available to guests
through vouchers and the conference facilities 'would not be available to anyone not
staying at the hotel. Thus, there would be no additional traffic or disruption to the
neighbors created by outside persons. I know of no other hotel with full service
restaurdIlt and conference rooms that are limited only to guests.
65% RULE - There is no way this project meets the requirement of this rule. From the
minimal information presented, it appears that the hotel building and the parking lot will
engulf almost the entire 2.7 acres. There would be little, if any, room left for landscaping
and tree preservation. I question if this is the reason the landscaping, aerial views and
other related plans have not been submitted to the commission. The project is simply too
large for the site.
I respectfully urge that your do not approve this project if it comes to a commission vote.
It is the wrong project for this site. The residents of Kensington Place realize that this
property is Zoned B6. We knew that when we purchased or built our home here.
Most of us are retired and we were looking for a nice place with minimal maintenance,
convenient location, and minimal disruption from surroundings. At the time, there were
office and medical buildings to our South. We knew that the woods on the site would not
always be there, but we believed and trusted that any business that would eventually
locate there would be in keeping with the present buildings and would be proper for the
site. As I previously stated, we accepted Justus Office building because it appears to be
proper for the area and our neighborhood. The Holiday Inn project is not!
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
~/~
David L. Sanders
Page 1 of2
Conn, Angelina V
From: Dorman, Jay
Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2007 9:49 AM
To: Conn, Angelina V
Subject: C-2 rezone
Please inform the members of the Subd committee of my feelings regardin~-2 r' zone. . ~
In sum, I'm ok with all rezone requests except for the following:.}, I~ ,Lr, M{!/'J-'h (JI~ ~~J-:J.
r .tOw;@\.t-1r.'1 tn. 'f V
.--- IV' v . r :
~: Confirm...somehow..perhaps In writing....that the VFW wants to be included, and
/ . The parcel that should NOT be included is the farthest west single parcel on 1 st St. SW. I believe the address to be
V 11 First St SW. It is a single parcel sitting by itself and is presently zoned R-2.
Otherwise I support the re zone of large contiguous parcels. The one piece on First St SW does not makes sense.
Regards,
Jay
From: Conn, Angelina V
Sent: Tue 8/28/2007 9:01 AM
To: Dorman, Jay
Cc: Hancock, Ramona B; Stewart, Lisa M
Subject: RE: Agendas for September 4 Committee meetings -
Thank you for letting us know.
Angie Conn, Planning Administrator
Dept. of Community Services - Planning & Zoning
1 Civic Square, 3rd Floor
City of Carmel, IN 46032
p.317-571-2417 f,317-571-2426
aconn@carmel.in.gov
From: Dorman, Jay
Sent: Monday, August 27,2007 10:29 AM
To: Conn, Angelina V
Subject: RE: Agendas for September 4 Committee meetings
I will NOT be able to attend on September 4th.
From: Conn, Angelina V
Sent: Fri 8/24/2007 1: 11 PM
To: 'Angie Malt'; Boone, Rachel M.; Brewer, Scott I; 'Bruce Smith'; 'Carolyn Schleif; Coy, Sue E; Donahue-Wold, Alexia K;
Dorman, Jay; Duncan, Gary R; Hancock, Ramona B; Heck, Nancy S; Hollibaugh, Mike P; Holmes, Christine B; 'John
Molitor'; Keeling, Adrienne M; 'Kevin Heber'; 'Kevin Rider'; 'Leo Dierckman'; 'Linda Burdett - Ham Co PC; Littlejohn, David
W; 'Madeleine Torres'; 'Marilyn Anderson'; Molitor, John R; 'Richard Heck (webteam@heckweb.net)'; 'Rick Osborn'; 'Rick
Ripma'; 'Ron Houck'; 'Sally Shapiro (SallyShapiro@indy.rr.com)'; Seidensticker, Eric; 'Steve Stromquist'; Stewart, Lisa M;
'Susan Westermeier'; Tingley, Connie S; 'Wayne Haney (Haneywh@aol.com)'
Cc: 'Nancy Long'; 'Todd Erb'; 'Reis, Paul'; 'staceyf@deboyland.com'; Michael L. DeBoy; 'dolmstead@stoeppelwerth.com';
Olds, Les; 'jenny@theginkgotree.net'; 'HARTMANN_CARL_E@LILLY.COM'; 'Jim Shinaver'; 'Thomas Mesuk';
'tslakes@mirandacanstruction.com'; 'DavidDean@usadv.net'; 'Reis, Paul'; 'Darci Pellom'; 'Dave Coats';
8/29/2007
Page 1 of 1
Keeling, Adrienne M
From: Keeling, Adrienne M
Sent: Monday, July 30,200711 :13 AM
To: Stewart, Lisa M
Cc: Coy, Sue E; Hollibaugh, Mike P; Conn, Angelina V; Brewer, Scott I; Hancock, Ramona B; Brennan,
Kevin S; Littlejohn, David W; DeVore, Laura B; Lillard, Sarah N; Holmes, Christine B;
'jmolitor@prodigy.net'; Boone, Rachel M.; Tingley, Connie S; Duncan, Gary R; Olds, Les
Subject: Docket No. Assignment: (Z) SW Old Town C-2 Rezoning (#07070024 Z)
I have issued the necessary Docket Number for (Z) SW Old Town C-2 Rezoning. It is the following:
Docket No. 07070024 Z $0.00 (exempt)
Total Fee: $0.00
Docket No. 07070024 Z: SW Old Town C-2 Rezoning
The applicant seeks approval to rezone 57 parcels from R-2/Residence, B-1/Business, B-2/Business,
B-3/Business and 1-1/lndustrial to C-2/0Id Town.
The sites are located in Old Town and along Third Avenue SW.
Filed by the Carmel Department of Community Services.
1. This Item will not be on an agenda of the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC).
2. Published Public Notice occurred Friday, July 27, in the Indianapolis Star.
3. Fifteen (15) Informational Packets will be delivered to Plan Commission Secretary
Ramona Hancock no later than NOON, Friday, August 10, 2007.
4. Proof of Notice will be received by this Department no later than Noon, Friday, August
17,2007.
5. The Item will appear on the August 21,2007 agenda of the Plan Commission (under
"Public Hearings").
6. The Item will also appear on the September 4,2007 agenda of the Plan Commission
Special Studies Committee.
7/30/2007