Town Of Plainfield

PLAINFIELD BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS AGENDA
For December 21, 2009

CALL TO ORDER
Mr. Monnett; Would like to call to order the Plainfield Board of Zoning Appeals meeting for December 21, 2009.

ROLL CALL/ DETERMINATION OF QUORUM

Mr. Monnett; I will now ask our board secretary to do roll call for determination of a quorum
Mr. Carlucci;
Ms. Duffer- here
Mr. Cavanaugh - here
Mr. Gibbs- here
Mr. Monnett- here

We have 4 members present, we have a quorum.

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

APPROVAL OF MINUTES (November 16, 2009 meeting)

Mr. Monnett; I'll ask our members of the board for the approval or changes to our minutes for November 16, 2009.
Mr. Gibbs; I move that we accept minutes as written for November 16th.
Mr. Duffer; Second.

Mr. Monnett; I have a motion and a second. All in favor say aye.

Mr. Carlucci; May I raise a point of order.
Mr. Monnett; Yes
Mr. Carlucci; You were not at the last meeting
Mr. Monnett; True
Mr. Carlucci; And since we (inaudible)
Mr. Monnett; I will second that
Ms. Duffer; I will withdraw the second
Mr. Monnett; I will second the motion Mr. Gibbs made for approval.
Mr. Carlucci; We still need a quorum of the board to be approve.
(inaudible)

OATH OF TESTIMONY

Mr. Monnett; I will now ask our town attorney to minister the Oath of Testimony tonight.
Mr. Daniel, read the Oath of Testimony.

PUBLIC HEARINGS

Mr. Monnett, read the guidelines for public hearings.

PETITIONS FOR PUBLIC HEARING

BZA-09-018 Hitesh Patel

6109 Cambridge Way, requests a
special exception to allow the serving of alcohol in a hotel in the GC district.

Mr. James; Good evening Mr. Chairman and members of the board. First petition, the petitioner Hitesh Patel of the Best Western Atrea. This is the new Best Western, it's been open about a month now. The address is 6109 Cambridge Way, it's at the southwest corner of Cambridge Way and Manchester Street in the northeast quadrant of the 267, I-70 interchange. Requests a special exception to allow the sale and serving of alcoholic beverage for on-site consumption at the Best Western. They did add a small bar down and near the lobby area by the front desk. They have already obtained a liquor license from Hendricks County and the Indiana alcohol and tobacco commission. They are seeking a special exception tonight to allow the sale of serving alcohol from the small bar those hours of the bar; Monday-Saturday 5PM-12AM. Stated that they have to be 21 to sit at the bar, sit or stand at the bar. With that I will have a seat, one of the owners, Hitesh Patel who is the petitioner and is here tonight and I'm sure he'd be glad to answer any questions you might have.

Mr. Monnett; Please state your name and address please.

Mr. Patel; Hitesh Patel, 6109 Cambridge Way.

Mr. Monnett; When did you get your, when was your liquor license granted by Hendricks County? Was it this month or last month?

Mr. Patel; It was 2 months ago.

Mr. Gibbs; The only question is on the hours of operation or to serve this, it's from 5PM to Midnight?

Mr. Patel; Correct.

Mr. Gibbs; So that is 5PM to 12AM.

Mr. Monnett; If there is anyone in the audience that would like to speak for or against this petition, please come forward now.

Mr. Monnett; Our other board member Mr. Cavanaugh has arrived so there will be 4 members tonight.
And if there is no one that wants to speak for or against this petition, I will close it to the public and open it up to our board for a quick discussion or a motion.

Ms. Duffer; I have no discussion but I'm prepared to make a motion if Mr. Cavanaugh is ready.

Mr. Cavanaugh; Yes, I am ready.

Mr. Gibbs; The only thing I might ask a question on, is typically when we make these motions. Don't we put those hours in that motion?

Mr. James; We have on occasion but (inaudible).

Ms. Duffer; Are you comfortable without the hours?
Then I move that the Board of Zoning Appeals approve BZA-09-018 as filed by Hitesh Patel requesting a special exception to allow the sale and serving of alcohol beverages for the Best Western Atrea hotel located at 6109 Cambridge Way. Subject to the following condition. The special exception is limited to the Best Western Atrea at 6109 Cambridge Way and is non transferrable to a subsequent owner or operator of the establishment.

Mr. Gibbs; Second.

Mr. Monnett; I have a motion and a second. Mr. Carlucci would you please pull our board.

Mr. Carlucci;
Ms. Duffer- yes
Mr. Cavanaugh- yes, and I'd like to apologize for my tardiness and follow up with yes, I have read the petition and a couple others (inaudible) special requests.
Mr. Gibbs- yes
Mr. Monnett- yes

We have 4- ayes, None opposed, motion is approved.

Mr. Monnett; Since Mr. Cavanaugh has arrived, I will open it up to our board for approval for changes of our minutes from our board meeting from November 16, 2009.

Mr. Cavanaugh; So moved.

Mr. Gibbs; Second.

Mr. Monnett; Motion is second, all in favor say aye.

BZA-09-019 Sign-a-Rama

2100 Stafford Rd., requests a
Variance of development standards to allow wall signage to exceed the linear width and
Sign surface area of a façade plane.

Ms. Duffer; Mr. Chairman, I want to excuse myself from this petition.

Mr. Monnett; Yes mam.

Mr. James; You might want to tell the audience that.

Mr. Monnett; Yes, I will, that our member excused herself from the (inaudible), our town attorney will please do that?

Mr. Daniel; Since Ms. Duffer has excused herself, this is a 5 member board. To take any action on a petition requires a majority vote of the full board, which is normally 5 members. We only have 3 members tonight present and available to take an action on this petition. So if the petitioner would like to continue this matter until more members of the board is present, this is your opportunity to do so, or you can go forward with the 3 members with the understanding that it will take a unanimous vote of these 3 members to take any action one way or another.

Ms. Sprague; This one is for the new State Bank of Lizton, it is 2100 Stafford Rd., it's zoned general commercial and is primarily surrounded by general commercial, although the Stafford Point Apartments are to the Southwest. The request is similar to the Hardee's petition we heard in August. They want to put their signage on the gable of the building and the signage exceeds the façade plain that is just formed by the gable itself. In the front, the sign would be 26.26% instead of the allowed 10% and in the rear it would be 44.51% instead of the allowed 10%. Just to show, and you've seen them in your packets, but the gable area is the façade plain by definition in this case and that is why it's exceeded. If the whole building were counted like the language, our ordinance had before that actual percentage would only be like less than 3%. So according to our old language the signage would be approved in both cases. The signage is mostly the same size, except for the logo, the diamond, it is slightly smaller on the rear, that is why that one is so much larger, and the gavel is so much smaller in the rear. So in comparison to the Hardee's, they also asked for the variance for the façade width which is allowed 80%, I've counted the base of the triangle as the width and they don't have a problem meeting that width. The area in this case is the only thing they (inaudible). The Hardee's signs were approved at 22.88%, they had the bonus of having the whole tower count as the area where as the gable in this case is a lot smaller area. The signage looks have been designed to fit in a particular location on the building and that is why we believe that the variance is probably doable in this case and also we may have come up with a solution for this in our ordinance so that we won't have to have people come in for variances quite so often. Get with Joe on that and try to work that out. But in the meantime, these guys were asking for a variance at staff's request. And I know they are here if you have any questions.

Mr. Monnett; Is there somebody here representing the petition?

Mr. Mongell; My name is Les Mongell, President of the State Bank of Lizton, we are located 2100 Stafford Road.

Mr. Monnett; What color are the letters going to be?

Mr. Mongell; Letters are going to be blue, the larger letters are blue and the smaller letters are grey.

Mr. Monnett; And the star at the top, is it going to be white?

Mr. Mongell; No, it is a combination of blue and grey.

Mr. Monnett; There will be a light in there though, right?

Mr. Mongell; There will be a white light, LED light.

Mr. Monnett; Your signs the same on the other banks?

Mr. Mongell; That's a new logo.

Mr. Monnett; That's what I thought.

Mr. Mongell; We are changing out our other offices during the year 2010.

Mr. Gibbs; There used to be a pole sign, has that been removed, that is not in any of the equations (inaudible).

Mr. Mongell; That was a large 4 way sign, that had to be removed. The building had been vacant for over 6 months. And it has been taken down.

Mr. James; He knows the ordinance better than I do. It (inaudible). The sign was not used for 6 months so it has to be removed.

Mr. Cavanaugh; If I understand that drawings correctly, all the letters of State Bank of Lizton will be individual letters (inaudible)?

Mr. Mongell; Yes, that is correct.

Mr. Monnett; Thank you sir, I will open this up to the public now for anyone who wants to speak for or against this petition, you may do so at this time. Seeing none, I will go ahead and close that portion and open this up to our board for any further discussions or a possible motion.

Mr. Gibbs; They've done a lot of work down there it looks nice.

Mr. James; If you look at it as the size of the building, and that Gabel, it will meet the standards it would be a pretty small (inaudible).

Mr. Gibbs; I move the Board and Zoning Appeal approve BZA-09-019 as filed by Sign-a-Rama, requesting a variance for the development standards of the sign regulations to allow wall signage to exceed the assigned surfaced area and the linear width of the façade plain on the State Bank of Lizton at 2100 Stafford Road.
1. Substantial compliance was sign specifications filed dated November 19, 2009.
2. Prior to the installation of any sign and (inaudible) permit by LP is required.

Mr. Cavanaugh; Second.

Mr. Monnett; I have a motion and a second, Mr. Carlucci will you please poll the board?

Mr. Carlucci; Ms. Duffer has excused herself this evening.
Mr. Cavanaugh- yes,
Mr. Gibbs- yes
Mr. Monnett- yes

We have 3 ayes, none opposed, one recusal, motion carries.

Mr. Monnett; Mr. James

tonight.

OLD BUSINESS/NEW BUSINESS

Mr. James; That's all we have tonight, under old business/new business, I was just going to let you know that we had changed the meeting date for December 2010. I think I sent the schedule to everyone last week.

Mr. Daniel; That schedule will reflect the new date. The one you sent has the new date on it Joe.

Mr. James; Yes, That is all I have

ADJOURNMENT

Mr. Monnett; Thank you. Motion for adjournment, since there is no other business.

Mr. Gibbs; I move that we adjourn.
Ms. Duffer; I second.

Mr. James; Thank you and I'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and we will see everyone next year.