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HomeMy WebLinkAboutJPC May 27, 2025 MINUTES OF THE JEFFERSONVILLE PLAN COMMISSION May 27, 2025 Call to Order Board President Mike McCutcheon calls to order the Plan Commission meeting. It is Tuesday, May 27, 2025, it is 5:30 pm in the City Council Chambers, Jeffersonville City Hall, 500 Quartermaster Ct., Jeffersonville, Indiana. The meeting was held in person and streamed live on the City's website and City's Facebook page. Roll Call Board President Mike McCutcheon and board members Duard Avery, Bill Burns, Donna Reed, David Schmidt, and Steve Webb were present in the City Council Chambers. Member Chris Bottorff was absent. Also present were Planning & Zoning Attorney Les Merkley, Planning and Zoning Director Chad Reischl, Secretary Shane Shaughnessy, and Planner Shelby Walsh. (Secretary's Note: All plat maps, public letters, photos, etc. presented before the Plan Commission on this date can be found in the office of Planning & Zoning.) Approval of Minutes Approval of the minutes from April 29, 2025. Mr. Schmidt made a motion to approve the April 29, 2025 minutes, seconded by Mr. Burns. Roll Call vote. Motion passed 6-0. Approval of the Docket Motion to approve the agenda made by Ms. Reed, seconded by Mr. Burns. Roll call vote. Motion passed 6-0. Old Business None New Business PC-25-21 Primary Plat Jackie Conard filed a Primary Plat application for the property located at 5102 Charlestown Pike. The application is for a 5-lot attached single-family residential subdivision. The current zoning is R3 (Single Family Residential: Small Lot). The Docket Number is PC-25-21. Erik Merten with Paul Primavera and Associates presented the case and stated they were asking for approval of the Dasilva Farms Primary Plat with a modification for 0-foot side setbacks to create attached housing. He said they would be for sale and owner-occupied. The site was rezoned to R3 earlier in the year. He said that there are two commons areas to help buffer from the existing drainage and for a detention basin. He said the site is 0.9 acres and would have 5 single family attached homes. He said the plat would meet the standards of the Comprehensive Plan and that the houses would be priced around $275,000-$325,000. Mr. Reischl said that this is a very small subdivision that is immediately across from two significantly larger subdivisions that have been approved and said that Staff does not have an issue with this subdivision. 1 Open Public Comment Jason Weisenauer of 5008 Charlestown Pike stated that he is a neighbor of the property. He said that he would prefer it if there was only one house on the lot. He said they have a horse farm and are adjusting to having neighbors to their farm and that having one neighbor would be easier to work with than five. He said his wife runs two businesses on the property that would be impacted. He also has concerns about drainage and said that this is a very large drainage area and the land is very wet. Close Public Comment Mr. Merten said that they would like to move forward with the 5 unit subdivision and said that by right in the R3 zoning district, they would be able to build 4 houses. He said that the attached housing would help to bring something different to the area as is prescribed by the Comprehensive Plan. He said he is very familiar site and that the dentition area is specifically designed to complement the site's topography and that they would go through all of the Drainage Board approval processes prior to construction. Mr. McCutcheon asked Mr. Reischl to confirm that if the item was denied that the applicant would still be able to build 4 houses there which Mr. Reischl said was correct. Mr. Webb asked what the lot sizes for the larger subdivisions that are across the street which Mr. Reischl said that those subdivisions are also zoned R3, though they have different sized lots, the lots are around 5,000 square feet on average. Mr. Webb asked what the sizes of the proposed lots are which Mr. Merten said the end lots would be larger than the minimum and the interior lots would be around 2,500 square feet which is similar to the attached housing planned for the Hilton Farms subdivision across the street. Mr. Schmidt made a motion to approve the Primary Plat with the modification for 0-foot side yard setbacks, seconded by Mr. Burns. Roll call vote. Motion passed 4-2 with Mr. McCutcheon and Mr. Webb opposed. PC-25-21, -22, -23, -24 Rezoning Hoosier Fairway Investments, LLC filed multiple Rezoning applications for portions of the property located at 1820 Charlestown Pike (Area 1-3). The current zoning is PR (Parks and Recreation); the proposed zoning is R1 (Single Family Residential — Large Lot). The Docket Numbers are PC-25-22, -23, and -24. Hoosier Fairway Investments, LLC filed a Rezoning application for a portion of the property located at 1820 Charlestown Pike (Area 4). The current zoning is PR (Parks and Recreation); the proposed zoning is R2 (Single Family Residential — Medium Lot). The Docket Number is PC-25-25. These items were tabled by the applicant ahead of the meeting. Mr. McCutcheon asked the Commission to make motions tabling the items. For Area 1, Mr. Burns made a motion to table the item, seconded by Mr. Schmidt. Roll call vote. Motion passed 6-0. For Area 2, Ms. Reed made a motion to table the item, seconded by Mr. Burn. Roll call vote. Motion passed 6-0. 2 For Area 3, Mr. Schmidt made a motion to table the item, seconded by Mr. Burns. Roll call vote. Motion passed 6-0. For Area 4, Mr. Burns made a motion to table the item, seconded by Mr. Reed. Roll call vote. Motion passed 6-0. ZO-25-04 Text Amendment The Department of Planning and Zoning submitted a text amendment to the Unified Development Ordinance for recommendation to the City Council. The proposed amendments are for Article 4, as they pertain to Overlay Districts. The Docket Number is ZO-25-04. Chad Reischl presented the case and stated that this is an amendment to Article 4. Recently the Jeffersonville Census Bureau site was listed on an accelerated disposition list by the federal government and the Planning Department would like to ensure that the reuse and redevelopment of the site is of a high quality and use to the City and move forward the objectives of the Comprehensive Plan as it relates to the site. He said that the site had been listed in 2017 as a site that would likely be sold off at some point but is now is moving faster than had been expected. He said that they are making changes to the zoning overlay districts to encompass the Census site. The Downtown Design Overlay would be expanded to much of the site and surrounding properties to ensure that design guidelines that cover commercial and multifamily developments would also apply to this site as well as expand the list of permitted uses. The Census Bureau occupies around 60 acres of land and has two main components- one that fronts 10th Street south of the railroad tracks and ones off Dutch Lane that are north of the railroad. The properties off Dutch Lane are zoned Industrial— Neighborhood which allows legacy industrial uses and the properties near 10th Street are zoned Institutional which is a zone district that allows for churches, schools, and government facilities but does not allow for redevelopment in an easy manner. This update focuses on the properties south of the railroad near 10th Street. There are a number of zoning overlay districts in the area and this update will do some shuffling of them. The first step is shrinking the 10th Street Traditional Marketplace overlay district which specifically prohibits new auto-centric uses such as repair shops or auto sales on the 10th Street corridor. This would remove the portion of 10' Street between Spring Street and Main Street from the overlay. The second step is to take the Downtown Design overlay district and expand it to include the southern portion of the Census Bureau site. The Downtown Design overlay does not talk about uses, but rather talks about how buildings in the district are designed. The third step is to create a new Quartermaster/Census Overlay District which would put some use standards in to assist redevelopment of the site and adjacent properties. Additionally, they are adding a 15 foot maximum setback standard to the Downtown Design overlay to assist in making the area more walkable and pedestrian friendly when redevelopment occurs. In the 10th Street overlay district, updates were made to the intent statement, reworded the prohibited uses to match the current verbiage of the UDO, added liquor stores and smoke shops to the list of prohibited uses, and removed outdated language pertaining to historic gas station reversion. The new Quartermaster/Census Overlay District includes the list of prohibited uses from the 10th Street Traditional Marketplace overlay as well as adds alcohol and smoke shops to those prohibited uses. Additionally, the overlay would add multifamily uses and small scale commercial uses that are in the Commercial — Neighborhood zoning district as permitted uses. Allowing these two types of uses over the base zone district will help someone redevelop in a manner that is more mixed use and compatible with the surrounding neighborhoods. 3 Ms. Reed asked about the Institutional zoning district that is in place on the Census Bureau site as there have been issues about it allowing for rehab clinics and asked if those uses would still be allowed as part of this proposal. Mr. Reischl said those uses are still permitted if a Special Exception is obtained but also have to meet distance standards from residential districts which the site is surrounded by which means there would likely be few areas of the site where those uses would be possible. Mr. Burns asked when the main Census building was built which Mr. Reischl responded he thought it would be in the early 1940s to early 1950s. Mr. Avery said the location was highly significant as it was close to downtown and said that this proposal would help work as a deterrent to any sort of negative issues. He said that he thinks the existing buildings on site are structurally sound and could be rehabbed and redeveloped which would help the site. He said that redeveloping this site has a lot of potential to be a significant site in downtown Jeffersonville. Mr. Reischl said they will see how the disposition process works but that they wanted to get ahead of it and make sure that it can more easily transition into something useful to the community. Mr. Burns asked about the future site of the Census Bureau in River Ridge which Mr. Reischl said that the site isn't finished but is under construction. Open Public Comment No comment Close Public Comment Mr. Avery made a motion a favorable recommendation, seconded by Mr. Schmidt. Roll call vote. Motion passed 6-0. Administrative Review Update Mr. Reischl said that the Department had recently approved a Development Plan for Dick's Sporting Goods in Jeffersonville Town Center, a new Dairy Queen on Veterans Parkway, a new Taco Bell at 10th and Spring, an apartment complex on Thompson Lane called The District which met all zoning standards and was already zoned multifamily. He said they had also approved a number of new plats including Woodstone Creek Section 2, Ellingsworth Section 6, and Stacy Springs Section 5. He said they were also working on approving the new middle school. Mr. Webb asked about the number of banks along 10th Street and if the banks meet all of the standards, that the Planning Department is still approving them. Mr. Reischl responded that if all the standards, the Department must approve them, but said he recognizes that there have been a significant number of them opening along 10th Street. He said that ultimately it would be up to the developers to decide who to sell property to, but it is unfortunate that they have chosen to not diversify the types of businesses they sell to. Mr. Merkley said that because these areas are in Planned Developments, it makes changing those uses trickier than if they were in base zone districts. Mr. Reischl said that he struggles with putting restrictions on banking institutions as they tend to be good community partners and the buildings they build can be more easily repurposed compared to other uses. Mr. McCutcheon said that it is difficult seeing such prime real estate being used for similar uses rather than for restaurants or other services but recognizes that the market is driving these uses. Mr. Reischl said that there is some commercial wisdom that brings similar uses to collocate next to each other, similar to how Dick's Sporting Goods is moving next 4 to Academy and Sierra. Ms. Reed said that most banks build branches for the image and marketing rather than in-person services as most people do their banking online. Mr. Webb asked about the site across from Hops and Harbor which Mr. Reischl said that he has had some preliminary meetings about the development and is expecting to see a Development Plan shortly. Mr. Webb asked about the Elks rezoning status which Mr. Reischl said that he had a discussion with the applicants and they felt that they needed to make some revisions and tabled the matter until next month's meeting. Report from Director's and Staff None Adjournment There being no further business to come before the Plan Commission, the meeting was adjourned at 6:03 pm. kAy Mike McCutcheon, Chair Shane Shaughn ssy, secretary 5