FORTVILLE – Fortville Town Council heard and discussed at the March 18 council meeting the first reading of a rezone from commercial neighborhood one to industrial light to allow for a property at the west end of Broadway Street.
Adam Zaklikowski, planning and building director, said the request is to rezone approximately 7 acres, and that a few months ago, the town’s code enforcement official discovered that there were some improvements being made to the buildings at the back of this area. Zaklikowski said that after speaking with the representative, it was discovered that they were in the process of renovating to have heavy truck repair and said that it would require a state design release and a rezone.
“The main parcel … is zoned commercial neighborhood and the type of use that they’re doing would be something that would not be allowed in that zoning district,” Zaklikowski said. “So in order to remedy that situation, they are seeking a rezone from commercial neighborhood to light industrial and are proposing some enhancements to the property along Broadway.”
The farmland located near to the property belongs to the same owner and is grandfathered in, zoned as business-one, which is like commercial neighbored. Zaklikowski said that as of now, the owner wanted to rezone that piece of land as well despite not having any immediate plans.
In addition to the heavy auto repair, they would like a space in the back to store those vehicles and the option to allow semi-truck parking with fencing as a later addition.
Chris Badger, engineer and representative for the request, said they did get the state release and are pending a permit due to the status of the current rezoning request.
Badger said it made sense to add in the farmland that has partial fencing in with the rezone, and that the petitioner is proposing to repave the driveway, adding more parking in the front of the property and repairing the office.
Badger said that, along with the vehicle repair on the property, they also have a stone cutter for cutting counter tops, with storage owned by a contractor and some additional extra storage space.
They would also like to add a sign that lists all the tenants on the property and add landscaping to see as someone enters Fortville.
“We’re hoping to come up with a plan and then would be bringing a development plan in front of you, but at this point we kind of backed into it through the red flag on the permit so we want to go ahead and get this taken care of so we at least have the correct zoning on the parcel were doing the industrial work on,” said Badger at the meeting.
Badger said that they would want to coordinate with the expansion of Broadway Street and give the right-of-way over for the expansion, also putting in the money for a multi-use path across.
Another request from the petitioner, Badger said, was to coordinate working a timeline of when work would be done with Broadway Street because they would hate to lay asphalt and then watch it get torn up later.
Badger said that their first response would be to clean up the property – removing any dead trees and items that are sitting out there and not currently being worked on.
Zaklikowski said that even if the petitioner successfully gets the rezone, the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) would still need to grant a special exception to allow the proposed use.
With the future use of the farmland, Badger said there have been different options presented to the property owner – one including semi-truck parking — but has not settled on anything.
Toyna Davis, town council president, said that they would not want to see torn-up trucks sitting there, mentioning that once the new library is built, it will back right up to this property, so they want it to look nice.
Fred Fentz, town council member, said that the area has not been cleaned up for the past 10 years, and would have liked to see some cleanup process before asking for a rezoning
Fentz had mentioned a property on CR 350N, under the same LLC, that has semi tractor storing on approximately 7 acres and that he had cleaned it up since he last saw it.
Badger said in response that the owner has already been hiring cleanup and a company to come in to remove the dead trees, some of the requirements to be made to the property if the rezone is approved and they are to move forward with the process and development plans.
“I’d rather not see a semi repair spot or a truck repair shop there,” said Fentz, mentioning the businesses and buildings that have recently been added to the area, including Scooter’s Coffee, the BP gas station, the fire station, community gardens and soon-to-be new location of the library.
Ryan Rummel, town council vice president, said that he is for making the property better than it to remain the same.
Rummel motioned to approve the first reading of the rezone, passing with a 3-2 vote, Fentz and town council member Vanessa Battaglia voting no.
A public hearing for this rezone request will be held during the plan commission meeting on March 26.
