Special Exception - 3636 Gagnon St. - B & J Industry, Inc

Home Browse Search

2 2). From the requirement of providing screening of outside storage areas and providing perimeter landscape deciduous trees at a minimum spacing of 40 feet on-center along the East, North, West and South property lines to providing no screening and landscaping along the North, West and South property lines, to using the existing vegetation as screening and landscaping along the West property line and to using an evergreen screen and a berm along the East property line running from Gagnon Street on the south to the North property line. Property is presently zoned "LI" Light Industrial District. The Petitioner is the owner of the real estate parcel shown on the attached site plan and as shown in the records of the St. Joseph County, Indiana Auditor's office. The Petition property presently has a Zoning classification of "LI" Light Industrial District. The Petitioner has been the owner of the property for the last several years. When the property was purchased, the zoning of the property was "D" Light Industrial. The original zoning of the property allowed for outside storage and required very limited landscaping. The Petitioner provides services for their clients, which includes processing of steel rods into truck axles and related parts for the automotive industry. The Petitioners main client and user of said automotive parts is the Eaton Corporation, which is located adjacent to and West of the petition site. There is a driveway on the West side of the petition site, which connects to the Eaton Corporation property. Due to the volatile nature of the automotive industry, inventory of materials required for processing, can vary greatly from month to month or quarter to quarter of a calendar year. Due to this fluctuation, the Petitioner desires to have the ability to store materials on-site that is used for processing. Over the past several years they have been doing this, but due to the change in the City's Zoning Ordinance for Industrial sites, there have been restrictions placed on industrial properties. More specifically, outside storage has been limited to 20~k of the size of the existing structures located on the property. There are also landscaping requirements for screening such areas. In order to meet there clients needs, the Petitioner desires to have the ability to increase the area of their site that can have outside storage. The attached site plan shows the areas of the property to be used for said storage. For the past several years, the Petitioner has been using approximately 35,000 square feet of the site for outside storage. They would like to increase this outside storage area to 84,975 square feet. Based on the New Industrial development standards, the Petitioner would only be allowed to use 4,540 square feet of their property for outside storage without the approval of a Special Exception. This is based on the existing building size of 22,700 square feet. As stated above, the Petitioner understands that in order to allow for the additional requested outside storage area, a Special Exception is required. There would also be Variances required for flexibility in