The Broad Ripple Village Association (BRVA) Land Use and Development Committee held a meeting on August 28, 2012, at the Broad Ripple United Methodist Church. The meeting was called to order shortly after 6pm.

The first petitioner was Mr. Thomas Vander Luitgaren, representing Dr. Gary Halberstadt, for the property at 6527 Carrollton Avenue. The property is currently vacant and contains two rental dwellings. Dr. Halberstadt plans to convert the building at the front of the property into a medical office for his pediatric practice. The building at the rear of the property will remain a rental. He requires approval of variances of both use and dimension to allow him to close on the purchase agreement on the property.

The rear dwelling is currently in violation of the zoning ordinance for the required distance of setback from the right-of-way of Coil Street. The building, known locally as the Grist Mill (although historic research shows that this structure was not the grist mill, but instead a garage with a 2nd floor added in the 20's), was placed at that location many years before the ordinance was in effect.

The city is requiring that the parking area be moved from the Carrollton side of the property to the side bordering Coil. To accommodate the number of spaces desired, the plan is to remove part of the privacy fence in front of the rear dwelling and extend the existing parking area east. This is the point where the Committee began to show its collective concerns. There are several trees and landscaping elements along the Coil side of the property that they would not like to see removed. There is also a utility pole which may need to be relocated or worked around. Instead of allowing pull-in parking from Coil, they would prefer that a sidewalk be put in along the Carrollton side with a driveway leading to the parking area from Carrollton. They would also prefer some kind of landscaping element along the southern perimeter to act as a buffer and screen the parking area from Coil. The intent is to preserve the "quaint" alleyway appearance of Coil Street. Mr. Luitgaren agreed that these are points on which Dr. Halberstadt would be willing to work with the Committee.

Because of the upcoming deadlines, the Committee asked for a 30-day continuance to give them time to work with Dr. Halberstadt to come up with a good compromise that everyone could be happy with. Unfortunately, the purchase agreement expires before that and Mr. Luitgaren couldn't represent that Dr. Halberstadt would agree to a continuance, especially in light of the fact that the time had already been extended once before. After some discussion and working up a rough sketch of what they would like to see, they agreed to communicate their recommendations to the City Staff the next day in an effort to get the situation worked out before the deadline of September 4th, 2012.

The next petitioner was David Gilman, on behalf of David DuBow, part-owner of Broad Ripple Ice Cream Station (BRICS). They plan to expand their outdoor patio deck to increase the total number of seats to 78. According to city ordinance, this would require 24 parking spaces. They currently have 9, and those are considered substandard due to the way cars are required to maneuver into the right-of-way of Cornell Avenue, so the city counts them as having zero spaces. This variance would allow for them to expand their seating as planned without any additional parking.

Mr. DuBow explained that the overwhelming majority of customers at BRICS come there on foot. They are either pedestrians and bicyclists using the Monon Trail, or customers from the other establishments in the neighborhood, walking there for an after-dinner snack. And, unlike most restaurants, due to the nature of the refreshment served there, the majority of customers have a short stay. He is certain that the increased seating capacity wouldn't cause any additional strain on the parking situation.

There was some discussion of the spaces nearby designated as public parking. These spaces are controlled by the Indy Parks and several Village businesses claim to be renting the spaces. Of these, 5 are designated as parking for BRICS and are included in their lease with the Indy Parks. Given the lack of evidence as to which other businesses have rights to spaces, the exact number of public spaces available was unable to be determined.

Mr. DuBow assured the Committee that existing landscaping in the area to be developed will be moved and/or reused, and the overall standards of appearance will be maintained. After this, the Committee affirmed their trust in his judgment and moved to support the recommendation for the variance. The motion passed unanimously.

Following this, Committee member Tom Healy gave an update on the Envision Broad Ripple project he's been a part of. After four years of working on it, they are finally ready for their first public meeting to present the final plan. The meeting will be held on September 24, 2012, at 6:30pm at the Indianapolis Art Center. After this, it can go to the Metropolitan Development Commission, who will then make their recommendation to the City-County Council. After their committee debates it, the proposal will go back to the MDC. There will be opportunities for public input at each stage of the project. This project will present the "Master Plan" for the path the BRVA wants any future development in the Village to follow. The Committee members are very excited to see this finally coming together.

Next, was discussion of the plans LOR Corporation has for its property at Broad Ripple Station. They are planning on installing a new sign, and there is an issue both with the BRVA and the City regarding it. LOR Corp. plans to include an electronic message screen as a part of the sign, and there is an ordinance against it in this neighborhood. Both the BRVA and City Staff do not want to allow a variance for this because not only do they find it aesthetically displeasing, they also do not want to set a precedent for other neighborhoods that have similar ordinances against such signs. Other than the electronic portion, the Committee found the general designs presented to be attractive.

Finally, there was a discussion of the flood wall project and the levees that are being constructed to mitigate flooding in the neighborhood. Until the levee project is complete, Broad Ripple is considered to be in a flood plain, and therefore, any new construction projects must be built to those standards. There was discussion back and forth regarding the details of the levee designs. After agreeing that this is a contentious issue that will no doubt continue to be debated by all affected parties for quite some time into the future, they called for the meeting to be adjourned.

The next meeting is scheduled for September 25, 2012, 6:00pm, at Broad Ripple United Methodist Church.