11-23-09 Common Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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REGULAR MEETINGNOVEMBER 23, 2009 speaking as an advocate to the Toll Road Industrial Park and that there are rules and regulations to create order and create a sense of fairness to all involved and as it relates to zoning ordinances obviously those are there for the protection of residences and commercial business and with these zoning laws there is always some room for flexibility and understands that, but what is being talked about tonight in his mind is more than just a Special Exception, this is an extra-ordinary Special Exception. Ziolkowski is not just asking to double the outside storage, they are not asking for quadruple; they are asking for property that is seventeen (17) times what is allowed anyone else in the Toll Road Industrial Park. He stated to him that represents more of a skirting than changing the zoning to what is truly is that is General Industrial and calling something like this Light Industrial that is truly not light industrial. Mr. Henning stated that he attended the zoning meetings and listened to what Mr. Danch presented. He said that Mr. Danch used Case Manufacturing as a similar company with heavy industrial uses, however what he failed to mention was that Case Manufacturing was grandfathered in. Case Manufacturing was built before the Toll Road Industrial Park was formed. He stated that all the other businesses in the Industrial Park are doing so with the context of Light Industrial classification. He stated that when Ziolkowski says all they want to do is be treated the same in not an accurate statement. He stated that the special exception would allow for them to increase their out door storage by 350% of their building size and that is extraordinary. He stated that he does agree with being treated fairly and would accept that if Ziolkowski would operate within the parameters of the light industrial classification. Mr. John Zhu, 3431 William Richardson Drive, South Bend, Indiana, spoke in opposition to this bill. Mr. Zhu stated that his business is located directly across from 4050 Ralph Jones Drive. He stated that Ziolkowski did not keep their property up at their location on Sample Street; it looks like a junk yard. He questioned how Ziolkowski will keep up their new location? Mr. Zhu stated that just because they amended and revised one of the variances from planting eight (8) trees to twenty (20) trees will not cover up the fact that a junk yard is a junk yard. Mr. Zhu questioned how Ziolkowski is going to keep those trees alive when they are not going to put in an in ground sprinkling system? He stated that he pays approximately $3,000.00 a month to the South Bend Water Works during the summer months to keep his landscaping alive and looking good. Mr. Zhu stated that rules and regulations are put into place and must be obeyed. He stated that he is firmly against this bill and urged the Council to vote against it. In Rebuttal, Mr. Danch stated that when they went through the Special Exception procedure they talked with the Area Plan Commission Staff as well as the Building Department and a couple of things that were brought up were a concern at the Area Plan Commission. He stated that they did not want them to go through with a zoning classification procedure for this property. They thought that it would be better to go through the Special Exception Procedure and the reason for that is that there are a lot more restrictions that apply to a Special Exception than a rezoning. That is why they went through this procedure of Special Exception. He also stated that by going through the Board of Zoning Appeals were held to higher restrictions than what is happening at the Toll Road Industrial Park today. That is why they added additional landscaping, additional berming and try to meet with the surrounding owners. He stated that Christian Davey did send out letters to the owners to try to get their feedback. Mr. Danch stated that they did PDF the final site plan to Mr. David Rhoa to get his feedback on everything that they had done and listened to their concerns and tried to do as much as possible for what they could do within the confines of the property that they have. He stated that he feels that they did do a good job of trying to mitigate what there concerns were regarding this piece of property. Mr. Danch stated that Ziolkowski Construction wants to stay within the City of South Bend. This is not something that Ziolkowski wanted to do, it’s because of the new development that was going on in the City and was basically forced to move. He stated that with the new site plan that was done with the variances that have been approved they are having a lot more restrictions applied than other owners within the Industrial Park. Even though they are a mixed use of other industrial owners such as a trucking operation, there is also a heavy equipment owner that rents equipment and has it right up against the 14