The August public meeting of the Broad Ripple Village Association (BRVA) Land Use and Development committee was held on August 27, 2013, at the Broad Ripple Park Family Center at 6pm. There were three petitions on the agenda.

5915-5925 College Avenue - Petition 2013-CZN-821 and 2013-CVR-821. This was the second time this matter has been presented to the committee. Previously it was for information only. It is back on the agenda now that the petition has been filed and a hearing is set for September 12 with the Metropolitan Development Commission. It was announced that the petitioner will file for a 30 day continuance which will move that hearing to October. This will give time for further development of the building plans. The proposed project is to raze the two homes at the above addresses and build a 2 1/2 story commercial building. This is just to the north of the Fox Glass building at Kessler and College.

There were remonstrators in the audience tonight that expressed very strong objections to this project. They was stated that if this residential tear-down and commercial construction is allowed, then it will not be possible to stop further tear-down and building along the rest of College Avenue. They further stated that the residential feel of this neighborhood is critical to the charm of Broad Ripple and the stabilization of property values.

The petitioners countered that this proposal is unique, in that the new commercial building (and the Fox Glass building) will only occupy a similar portion of the block going north of the corner, matching the west side of College. On the northwest corner of College is Binkley's, Ubër, and Fine Estate Rugs. This mimicking of the commercial development on opposite side of the street could mean that further development in the middle of the block could have convincing arguments for being denied.

Remonstrators said that the BRVA Envision Broad Ripple plan calls for stopping all residential razing. The BRVA said that actually the plan calls for College to be a transit corridor with a concentration of commercial development at the nodes (such as Kessler and College, Broad Ripple Avenue and College, etc.).

The issue was tabled until the September meeting when the completed plans will be presented for this project.

618 E. 60th St - Petition 2013-HOV-034. This is a variance request for a two-story addition with a garage. The variance is needed because the property will only have 56.25% open space after the construction and the law states that the property must have at least 65% open space. The city staff said that this property should be allowed this variance because it is a small lot in the area and it would be a hardship for the property to meet the general open space requirement.

The BRVA committee vote to support this petition.

911 Main Street - no petition yet filed. This project was presented for information only, to get feedback from the committee. It is a proposal to build a one-story addition for a conference room and a deck that includes ADA ramps to the building that was previously Fur Bee at Main and Cornell Streets. The variance requested would be for zero on-site parking spots, where four are required. Considering the location of the property, the small number of parking spots needed and the availability of parking on Main Street, the committee was in favor for future support for it.

Liquor licenses have been requested by Taverna (beer, wine, liquor) at 1859 Broad Ripple Avenue (previously Khoury's) and Hotel Broad Ripple (beer, wine) in the 6500 block of Westfield Boulevard. Both signed the BRVA agreement.

The next public meeting of the Land Use and Development committee is scheduled for September 24, 2013, at 6pm in the Broad Ripple Park Family Center.