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2007 05 18

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Converted from paper version of the Broad Ripple Gazette (v04n10)

BRVA Zoning Committee discusses future area development - By Ashley Plummer

posted: May 18, 2007

By Ashley Plummer

The Broad Ripple Village Association Zoning Committee met on Tuesday, May 8, 2007, to discuss upcoming property adjustment issues in the village area.

The first areas of discussion were properties located at 6159, 6161, 6165 and 6171 Winthrop Avenue. The land and the present homes have been acquired by PTP Enterprises, who were represented by Dave Gilman.

Gilman explained that his client plans to build two rows of condos on the land, 13 in front and 12 to the back, with common visitor parking in the center.

BRVA Zoning Committee discusses future area development - By Ashley Plummer

"We have made a substantial amount of changes since the last meeting with this group [BRVA Zoning Committee]," he said. "We are working with the Indianapolis Parks Department to create a method of access to the Monon Trail from the apartments, and we also added the common parking as a recommendation from this group.

Gilman also discussed numerous elevation and square footage changes as a result of cutting the number of condos down to 25 from the initial 27.

"We now have 25 two-story units on 1.5 acres, which puts us at about 16.76 unites per acre," he said. "Taking out those two units gave us flexibility to redesign parking and other space issues."

Gilman presented the committee with the current blueprints for the design of the building, which includes facades that will be similar to other Village buildings.

"Our architect took different components of what she felt truly represented Broad Ripple," he said.

Gilman and PTP Enterprises have their hearing with the City of Indianapolis on June 20, 2007. Numerous members of the zoning committee still seemed unsure about specifics relating to the new condos-including safety vehicle entrances and residential access to the Monon Trail.

The next property discussed was 6191 Broadway, which is land with residential zoning that Christine Hawhee hopes to transform into a beauty salon.

Mitch Sever, her consultant, aided Hawhee in her presentation by distributing a map that showed other sites in the area that had already received new zoning variances. He added that the church across the street from the property had given her potential salon idea its blessings.

"The church and the neighborhood are all behind and in favor of our project," Sever said. "When Christine buys the property, it will no longer be rented out-and as a property owner, she will take much better care of the house than the current tenants."

Hawhee added that behind a large amount of external and internal repairs that she would do to the house, the only thing she would ad to the exterior would be a 2-by-2 foot sign.

"The house is currently kind of an eyesore for the area," she said. "I plan to clean up and do major renovations, but I do wish to keep the property as residential as possible."

The committee had no major issues beyond the possibility of parking problems. Hawhee has not yet received a notice for her downtown hearing to change the zoning from residential to commercial.

The final property discussed that night was the commercial use of 1919 Broad Ripple Avenue.

The property was represented by Terry Monday, who explained that his client, Gary Leitz ran a small commercial roofing business out of his garage for years at the location, but never initially filed for the house to acquire a commercial zoning license.

"This is not a major commercial roofing business," Monday explained. "Gary is more likely to simply go clean out a neighbor's gutter than anything else, but zoning has become a profit business against him in the past years."

Monday explained that when the city decided to work on road improvements along Broad Ripple Avenue, almost every business and residence along the street received some sort of variance because the city's zoning laws have changed rather drastically over the years.

The next Broad Ripple Village Association Zoning Committee meeting is scheduled to be held on Tuesday, May 22, 2007, at 6 pm at Broad Ripple United Methodist Church.

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