There were about 30 in attendance at the October 2016 public meeting of the Broad Ripple Village Association (BRVA) Land Use and Development committee. There were four items on the agenda and two routine liquor license transfers. The agenda from the BRVA is in bold italics.

A. 6357 Guilford Avenue, regarding a variance to legally establish and provide for commercial uses with 2 parking spaces (9 required) and a zero front set back (10 feet required) and maneuvering within the right of way (not permitted). Petition #2016-DV1-048. Hearing Tuesday, November 1, 2016.

This request is a relaxation of requirements of parking and distance to the property line for an existing building between brics and Untitled Ink tattoo parlor [E4 on map]. This building, with a Guilford address but is actually on Cornell, has previously been Shear Uphoria salon. The plan is to open a small retail women's clothing store at this location. The committee voted to support this request.

This project is the remodeling of the old Broad Ripple Steakhouse/La Chinita Poblana/old New Paradise Cafe at the southwest corner of Westfield and Winthrop. This was the 3rd or 4th time this has been presented to the committee and few changes have been made to this now final plan. There was a long discussion about parking. The arguments included - when do we stop granting variances for parking when they may exceed the capacity of the parking garage, and conversely, we should plan for a future where employees live nearby and walk/bike/bus to work. The petitioner agreed to send a final parking document to the committee and then the committee would take an electronic vote.

This was the second appearance before the committee for this project. It is a proposal to lease approximately 25 parking spots on the roof level of the Broad Ripple Parking garage for an Enterprise Car Rental location. It would be a 5 year lease with options to extend to 20 years. The committee expressed concerns that this garage was built with public funds to provide for public parking. While the garage may be underutilized currently, Village expansion will rely on this parking space in the future. The committee delayed a vote on the matter. After parking statistics are received, the committee will take an electronic vote. The hearing before the zoning board downtown was continued until December 6 at 1pm at the City-County building.

This is the second appearance before the committee for the proposal to convert the doctor office building just north of the canal [E4 on map] to a restaurant. There would be 170 seats inside and 65 seats on the patio. The restaurant would be similar to Tavern on South. After a long discussion about parking, the committee voted to support the petition with some conditions.

The next public meeting of the land use committee is planned for November 22, 2016, at 6pm at Northminster Presbyterian Church.