There were around 20 in attendance at the June 28, 2022, public meeting of the Broad Ripple Village Association [BRVA] Land Use and Development committee that was held in the basement of Northminster Presbyterian Church, 1660 Kessler Boulevard.

There were three items on the agenda, in bold below.

1035 Broad Ripple Avenue (Biscuits Cafe) - Cesar Guzman will be appearing, representing Biscuits Cafe. They are applying for a new license, going from a three-way license to a two-way license. (Note: This is an error in the agenda. It is an application to go from a 2-way to a 3-way license)

This request from Biscuits Cafe, 1035 Broad Ripple Avenue [I6 on map], is to change from a 2-way (beer/wine) liquor license to a 3-way (beer/wine/liquor). Biscuits had previously added a 3-way license in 2016. It later decided to sell that license and revert to only offering beer and wine. Recently the City of Indianapolis released many new 3-way licenses at minimum cost. Many restaurants have purchased these lower cost licenses to be able to offer patrons more options. Biscuits is one of those restaurants. There is no vote required from the committee. It is just a time for a discussion of the Broad Ripple liquor agreement document with the establishment obtaining a new license.

This request is to open a business in a house at 6520 Ferguson Street. The business would have three employees and manages an investment fund. The proposal is to leave the exterior as it is now, except for adding a rear deck and security cameras. Since there are many business types allowed under the requested C1 zoning designation, the committee asked the petitioner to add a BRVA-submitted list of excluded business types to the rezoning. The petitioner will come back before the committee for a vote in July with the updated rezoning request.

1060 Broad Ripple Ave (Reagan Outdoor Advertising) - Jon Campbell, representing Reagan Outdoor Advertising, will be appearing with a presentation on the petition filed for the following: Variance of use and development standards of the Consolidated Zoning and Subdivision Ordinance to provide for 40-foot tall, 672-square foot digital off-premise advertising sign (digital off-premise sign not permitted), within 16 feet of a protected district (300-foot separation required for off-premise signs, 600-foot separation required for digital sign), within 615 feet of another off-premise advertising sign (1,000 radial separation required) and to allow for digital messages to display for minimum of eight seconds (minimum of ten second display permitted). Case #: 2022-UV1-016, Hearing Date: July 5th, 2022 (changed to August 2)

This request is to change the standard billboard that faces west on Broad Ripple Avenue at Compton Street, between Joella's Hot Chicken and the White River [H8 on map], to a digital (electronic screen) billboard. Long-time residents may remember when this billboard was turned into public art when it depicted a large pair of glasses made out of junk for Ossip Optometry. The petitioner stated that Reagan Outdoor Advertising has only four digital billboards in the Indianapolis city limits. Those are at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, where the sign regulations do not apply. There are four other digital billboards in the county that are at the edges of the county on the Interstates.

The petitioner stated that Reagan is requesting a change to this existing billboard because new billboards are allowed in the City of Indianapolis.

The committee informed the petitioner that construction at this site will take place to move the parking lot entrance near this existing sign to align it with the Compton intersection, as part of the Broad Ripple Avenue project. It was decided that this curb cut change and the construction of the Riverwalk path under this sign would not pose a problem to either.

During the public comment portion of the meeting several attendees spoke in opposition to this proposal. A member of the Nora Community Council (NCC, which opposes digital signage) spoke up, answering a question ("Am I missing something?") asked by the committee of the petitioner, "Yes, you are missing a bunch (in reviewing this proposal to add a digital billboard)". He offered to connect the BRVA committee with the NCC person who has been studying digital billboard regulations.

The committee voted to table this matter until the July meeting so that further study could be done.

The next public meeting of the committee is scheduled for Tuesday, July 26, 2022, at 6pm, at Northminster Presbyterian Church.