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HomeMy WebLinkAbout11-12-18 Zoning and Annexation . , fC j.yx PEACE a xx -, 1865 OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK KAREEMAH FOWLER, CITY CLERK ZONING &ANNEXATION NOVEMBER 12, 2018 4:30 P.M. Committee Members Present: Oliver Davis, John Voorde, Gavin Ferlic, Jo M. Broden (late) Committee Members Absent: None Other Council Present: Karen White, Tim Scott, Jake Teshka(late), Regina Williams-Preston(late) Other Council Absent: Sharon L. McBride Others Present: Kareemah Fowler, Graham Sparks, Bob Palmer Presenters: Angela Smith, Stephen Studer, Kuljit Singh, Tim Corcoran, Michael Divita, Brian McMorrow Agenda: Bill No. 56-18- Old National Annexation Area(Previously Bill No. 12-17) Bill No. 18-58- Old National Annexation Area Fiscal Plan Committee Chair Oliver Davis called to order the Zoning and Annexation Committee meeting at 4:30 p.m. He stated,Thank you for being here on this Veteran's Day. Are there any Veterans here today? No Veterans were present. Committee Chair Davis continued, Alright, thank you and we are glad for their service. He then introduced members of the Committee and opened the floor for main motions. Committeemember Gavin Ferlic made a motion to hear together, for purposes of public hearing, Bill Nos. 56-18 and 18-58. Committeemember John Voorde seconded this motion which carried by a voice vote of three (3) ayes. Committee Chair Davis then gave the floor to the presenters. Bill No. 56-18- Old National Annexation Area (Previously Bill No. 12-17) Bill No. 18-58- Old National Annexation Area Fiscal Plan Angela Smith,Deputy Director of the Area Plan Commission with offices located on the 11th floor of the County-City Building, stated, The petition before you is a rezoning and annexation at the northeast corner of the intersection of State Road 23 and Douglas Road. The area is outlined here in red (referencing a slide in a presentation which is available in the City Clerk's Office). It was the former Old National Bank. INTEGRITY' SERVICE'ACCESSIBILITY JENNIFER M.COFFMAN BIANCA L.TIRADo JOSEPH R MOLNAR CHIEF DEPUTY/DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS DEPUTY/DIRECTOR OF POLICY ORDINANCE VIOLATION CLERK EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 1227 W.Jefferson Blvd.I South Bend,Indiana 46601 I p 574.235.9221 I f 574.235.9173 I www.southbendin.gov CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK Councilmember Jake Teshka arrived at the meeting at 4:32 p.m. Ms. Smith continued, It is currently zoned C, Commercial subject to a site plan in the County so it has only been allowed to be used as a financial institution.There is very little wiggle room there plus the use of the City services made it appropriate to be annexed in. We appreciate you guys meeting with us this evening to keep this moving. This (referencing a picture on a slide of the presentation)is the bank as it looked well over a year ago as we have been working on this project for that long. Again, from the corner you can see there is the new daycare center in the back there. The site hasn't changed much. The site plan that is on the screen here is what was proposed to the Area Plan Commission and what the recommendation was based on. There were concerns at that point about setback issues, landscaping, access points and with all those concerns, it came to the Council from the Area Plan Commission with an unfavorable recommendation. I believe the site plan has changed since then and the petitioner can talk a little bit more about that. Committee Chair Davis asked, When the siteplan has that manychanges, it does not go to Area Plan again, it comes directly here, right? Ms. Smith replied, Correct, it does not have to go back. If for some reason they weren't able to meet any of the development standards, they have the option to go to the Area Board of Zoning Appeals after the zoning passes, but it does not have to go back to the Area Plan Commission for anything. Stephen Studer, Partner with Krieg Devault with offices located at 4101 Edison Lakes Parkway, stated, Here are some handouts(which are available in the City Clerk's Office). I will be happy to go over the changes and I apologize for the overkill,but we want to make sure that Council has all the information. Right now, this property was the Old National Bank building. It was sold with a deed restriction so there could be no other uses other than a bank. It has been vacant since 2017. Right now it is in the County and is zoned C, Commercial. We would like to bring it into the City as CB and have it annexed. With me are Mr. Brian McMorrow with Abenmarch Consultants and then Mr. Patel and Mr. Singh, the owners of the property. They are doing another project within the City as well. One (1) of the things I would like to note is, if you've been by the site, you've noticed it has been vacant since 2017 but it's always mowed and the landscape has always been kept up even through it has been vacant. So we did meet with Councilmember Davis and Broden. There were some concerns about the access.We move this access down here(referencing a picture on a slide in the presentation). The new site plan has moved this another sixty (60) feet to give additional sight. We are not asking for any variances. We did have five (5) neighbors that spoke out against this at the Area Plan Commission. One (1) of those was from North Liberty. Another one(1)owned a competitive C-Store.The other three(3)we talked to and they have indicated they have no issue with the project going forward so long as we weren't asking for a lot of variances that were going to make the character of the neighborhood different. Committeemember Jo M. Broden arrived at the meeting at 4:35 p.m. Mr. Studer continued,We aren't asking for any variances. Each of you have a book here(of which copies are available in the City Clerk's Office) and I would be happy to walk you through the key facts. I will point out that we have also entered into commitments with the City and those follow. One (1) of the concerns that Area Plan had at the time we had entered into the commitments, we EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p574235.9221 f574.235.9173 I ID574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 2 CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK have now done that. They have been signed and are committed to the City, subject to the rezoning process. They are wanting to be annexed into the City to take advantage of investment that the City has previously made in connection with infrastructure work up there. So it will be on City utilities. We have also worked with City officials and the Department of Community Investment to tone down the colors. Exxon usually has bright red canopies and they've asked we tone that down to browns and to be more in the nature of the neighborhood there. We can do that. We have made, we think, all of the accommodations. We have worked with the neighbors. We've worked with Councilmember Davis and Broden to look at the site plan and make changes. We think this is good for the City. We think bringing it into the City at this point in time would be beneficial to the City. It makes total sense given the location of this property. It can no longer be used as a bank. As I said, it's been vacant and we ask for your approval. Committeemember Ferlic asked,You said they are working on other developments and own other stores in the City, what are those developments and stores? Mr. Studer replied, They are building an Exxon Station down by the new casino. Kuljit Singh, 14612 Carrington Court, Granger, IN, stated, We have another store in Goshen and a liquor store in Mishawaka. Mr. Studer stated, And this is the first (15Y) time Exxon is making a foray into the local market. And if you see on tab two(2)by the way(referencing his booklet handout),you can see the visuals of what it will look like. It will fit very much with the character of what is already there. We will comply with all the ordinances, landscaping, lighting and etcetera. We are not asking for any variances. Tab three (3) is an updated site plan if you would like to look at that. We have also talked to the neighbors on Douglas and we have letters of support from those neighbors. They initially spoke in objection at the Area Plan meeting,we talked to them,and they no longer express any objections to the project. And then tab five (5) is something you probably don't necessarily care about anymore, but as you know, I care very much about the environment and I just added that information in the back to let you know that modern US underground storage tanks are completely different than they were twenty-five(25),thirty-five(35)or forty(40) years ago. They have a wall and a great number of security features to them. We were able to get one(1)right next to Juday Creek. They have a double wall so that if there is any leakage from the first wall, it gets into the area between the first(1St) and second (2nd) and it sends an alarm so it never gets out into the environment without them knowing that there is a leak. I just provided that for your own information. Committeemember Voorde asked, Is that the one(1)by Tangled? Mr. Studer replied, No this is the one(1) over by Douglas and Fir along Juday Creek. Committee Chair Davis asked, In the event that the business closes, what happens to the tanks? Mr. Studer replied, The tanks are generally taken out by the gas company if they can't resell it as a gas station. But these tanks have a long-term life. They have alarm systems and these are consistent with the State requirements for underground storage tanks. We are very far,by the way, from any public receptor. We are almost a quarter mile from Juday Creek. So they are monitored and we take this very seriously. EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION I INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f574.235.9173 TTD574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 3 ®CITY OF SOUTH BEND . OFFICE OF THE CLERK Committeemember Jo M. Broden asked, I appreciate the double wall tank information but what about surface run off since it is a gas station? Is there any curbing around the property or anything that would contain anything in the event that, say, Joe Shmo drives away and has an accident? Or just the repeated gasoline vapors and all that stuff? Mr. Studer replied,Well,the reason there are canopies nowadays is that if there are still,there isn't rain water and snow dropping on it to force it into the underground storage. Typically there is an underground tank that will pick up all the run off and gather that up. But there are techniques and technology for the hoses called breakaway hoses. If the car drives away and it comes out of the car, it stops. The other thing is gasoline is made up of compounds that vaporize. They are volatile organic chemicals so they vaporize immediately as soon as they hit the ground. We are not doing any oil changes here so there is none of that. At the old fashioned stations there were pits where oil changes would happen. Gas tends to vaporize immediately. There is very little chance of accumulating any large spills. The State has regulations for notifications of spills within twenty- four(24)hours. Committeemember Broden followed up, So no oil changes but there is no commitment with regards to that? Mr. Studer replied, No commitments but it is designed as a C-Store. So the old fashioned service stations had bays where they would do that. This is not a service station,it is a C-Store where there are sandwiches and things of that nature. Committeemember Broden then asked, And if that were to change, it would need to come back to us? Ms. Smith stated, I believe that is a permitted use in that district. Mr. Studer stated, We could add a commitment if that is an issue for you. Committeemember Broden replied, I think that would be of interest to some of the neighbors with some of the concerns they have given me, thanks. Committeemember Voorde asked, Just to reinforce, the State has approved the distances from the intersection? Mr. Studer replied, Yes, we talked to them specifically and they were fine with that. The other thing, Councilmember Broden asked about this and the development to the east that may or may not take place, we have a written commitment to share that driveway. So if another business goes in there,they will use the same driveway to eliminate the need for an additional curb cut there. We moved ours sixty(60) feet down and they've agreed to use that. Committeemember Broden stated, Last question, I think. This did not go back before the Area Plan Commission in terms of these revisions, correct? Mr. Studer replied, Correct. We aren't asking for any variances, either. EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f574.235.9173 TTD 574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 4 10 CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK Committeemember Broden then asked, So with regard to those curb cut changes, the Department of Community Investment and Engineering have signed off on those? Tim Corcoran, Director of Planning for the Department of Community Investment with offices on the 14th floor of the County-City Building, stated, I am not aware of whether Public Works has seen this. We've worked with planning with Brian and his group about some of the written commitments. But, as far as I know, I can't say whether Engineering has any say on whether or not the curb cut suffices. I do know the State is responsible for the one (1) on State Road 23 and I think they see it as an existing curb cut. There were concerns about the one (1) on Douglas Road and I cannot say for our Public Works Department whether they still have concerns about that or not. Mr. Studer stated, At Area Plan, City Engineering made a favorable recommendation for this project and the curb cut wasn't an issue for them at that time. We just decided to move it further back from the intersection. And part of the written commitments with the City are in tab one (1). The last commitment states the curb cut will be at least two hundred (200) feet from the intersection. We moved it from one hundred and forty(140) to two hundred (200) feet. Committemember Voorde requested the petitioner to work with Council Attorney Bob Palmer in adding the written commitment pertaining to automotive service repair on site. Michael Divita, Planner for the Department of Community Investment with offices on the 14th floor of the County-City Building, stated, This fiscal plan is for a one point nine (1.9) acre annexation that has been requested by the property owner of one(1)parcel located at 17730 State Road 23. This meets the State's contiguity requirements. No capital improvements are currently planned by the City as part of this annexation.Water is already available along both State Road 23 and Douglas Road. Sewer is available along Douglas, as well. The adjacent portion of Douglas is already within City limits. A portion of State Road 23 will be annexed but will still need to be maintained by INDOT. The annexation area will be added to the fourth (4th) Common Council District and served by Police Beat Eleven (11), Fire Station Three (3), Emergency Medic Three (3) and Code Enforcement Area Four (4). These and other non-capital services will be in place within one(1)year of the effective date of the annexation with response times comparable to other areas in the City. I ask for Council's adoption of the fiscal plan and I'd be happy to take any questions you might have. Committeemember Voorde stated,That is a stretch for Station Three(3)on McKinley.Might they rely on mutual aid from Mishawaka? Mr. Divita replied, That is possible. The Fire Department reviews each one (1) of these and the general comment was that, yes, this is on the edge of their service area. Committee Chair Davis then asked, But follow what Councilmember Voorde said,do we ever rely on Mishawaka? Mr. Divita replied, If there is a larger fire or an emergency, there is a mutual aid agreement. That is standard procedure for Mishawaka and Clay Fire. EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574235.9221 f 574.235.9173 TTD574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 5 •CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK Committeemember Broden stated, I have additional questions. So with regard to the double walled tanks, I think the importance is the monitoring. I may have missed this and I apologize for arriving late but is this a commitment that this tank system will be used and that the monitoring system will be in effect during the duration of it? Mr. Studer replied, Candidly, I don't know any of the decisions. Burns does the installations but we've just asked them to use the same systems we've worked with. I think it would be almost impossible to have a system that wasn't double walled as that is part of the State regulations. Committeemember Broden then asked, And I assume the monitoring is an add on feature? Will that be a part of this station? Mr. Studer replied, I assume it would be part of the package and I would think that Exxon wants that as well. They don't want any bad publicity. Committeemember Broden stated,That is significant to me and I don't know if it rises to the level of putting it in as a commitment but I think in this day and age, I would rather be safer than sorry. I'll just put that out there as a comment. Brian McMorrow,Partner with Abonmarche Consultants with offices located at 750 Lincoln Way East, stated, I was here to answer any questions if need be. The revised plan did arise out of conversations that occurred at and then after the Area Plan Commission meeting. Tab number two (2) (referencing the booklet Mr. Studer handed out) shows, graphically, the architectural commitments that are being made. The use of materials, the roof slope and the like, it will be the most attractive looking gas station in the City. The materials and roof slope are similar to the bank building that is there. The property that is now undeveloped to the east will most likely be developed as a car wash. We are working with the developer on that one. That is also in South Bend. Committee Chair Davis asked, And what restaurants will be inside the gas station? Mr. McMorrow replied, It will be a sandwich shop. Committee Chair Davis followed up,No brand name yet? Mr. McMorrow replied, There is a brand name. They are down from Indianapolis. Councilmember Tim Scott asked, What kind of ice cream? Oh, sorry, that was last week. Committee Chair Davis then opened the floor to members of the public wishing to speak in favor of or in opposition to the legislation. There were none. He then turned the floor back to the Committee for further comment or main motion. Committeemember Ferlic made a motion to send both Bill Nos. 56-18 and 18-58 to the full Council with favorable recommendations, subject to the one (1) additional written commitment. Committeemember Voorde seconded this motion which carried by a voice of four(4) ayes. EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f 574.235.9173 TTD574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 6 0 CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK With no further business, Committee Chair Davis adjourned the Zoning and Annexation mittee meeting at 4:53 p.m. Respect 0 lly Submitted, ` li. IFDavi. / ommittee Chair EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION 1 INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f574.235.9173 TTD 574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 7