26 February 2018 Dearborn County Plan Commission Meeting Notes

26 February 2018 Dearborn County Plan Commission Meeting Notes

Present: Dennis Kraus, Jr., Chairman, Russell Beiersdorfer, John Hawley, Mark Lehman, Michael Lynch, Jake Hoog, and Eric Lang

ABSENT: Bill Ullrich and Jim Thatcher

Also Present: Mark McCormack, Plan Director, and Andy Baudendistel, Attorney.

Board members introduced themselves to new board member, Michael Lynch.

Bill Ullrich is the new Council rep - replacing Dan Lansing.

Mark Lehman is now the citizen member who will serve on BZA and PC. 

ACTION ON MINUTES from- January 2018 meeting approved. 

Baudendistel read the Title VI statement as legally required.

OLD BUSINESS: none

NEW BUSINESS: none

ADMINISTRATIVE: 

Findings of fact form are now being used for tech review. Review and discuss proposed changes to the DC Zoning and Subdivision Ordinances regarding access to Arterial and Collector Roads and criteria for the BZA case items. Section 305 D. If there are 2 or less houses  and less than 30 vehicle trips per day, can go thru tech review rather than a hearing. If there is split involved PC if not BZA for the ones required. Small projects basically go thru tech review. They could also have staff review thru Engineer’s Dept. Listerman and County Surveyor also reviewed it. INDOT did not respond to this. These are all subject to the rules in Article 24. No public spoke. Plan Commission approved forwarding the changes with a favorable recommendation to Commissioners. 

Article 24 also had changes to conform with 305D changes and also other language changes to cover issues that have come up in recent applications. Tech review may reasonably modify up to 20% of the technical requirements. No public spoke. Plan Commission discussed and approved forwarding a favorable recommendation of the proposed changes to the Commissioners. 

Section 300 on the BZA was rewritten to conform with the state law changes and also added some more quantifiable language on conditional uses and developmental variances or use variances.Significant descriptions of the criteria for looking at the developmental standards to have findings of fact to be sure that they are recorded. I spoke on section 320 section c language  and the section e that was stricken. There reasoning was clarified. Plan Commission approved sending it to the commissioners with a favorable recommendation. 

Review and discuss proposed changes to the Interlocal Agreement with West Harrison, with respect to expanded Planning and Zoning related services. $5500 is now $10,000 for the fee. They could do a one time project based contract or expand. They also do code enforcement. McCormack said this is a good price for them. Town Board seems to be in favor of this. Plan Commission voted to approve the contract with some minor changes on membership and the auditor’s name change. Plan Commission approved it with the changes to forward it with a favorable recommendation to the Commissioners and Council. 

Comprehensive Plan Update- McCormack updated the Plan Commission- Vision Statement, Index, Elements, Key Issues, Goals, and Strategies, and Maps. Public Safety part is the only missing piece. It is about 40 pages of materials. An intern is working on the Land Use Map. They have 2/3 of the county done so far. Hoping the next intern is in year 4,5, or 6. Hope to have this done by the fall of 2018. 

McCormack noticed more permit requests and rezone requests and some plat requests. Morgan’s Ridge extension is one rezone coming in and a larger request may be coming soon. Miller Township has a lot of activity in permits over the past few years. About 200 enforcement cases including the cities or towns they enforce. They need to track how many enforcement cases go to court.

McCormack said that a couple bills going thru the state that he’s tracking. One for underground utilities seems to be trying to undo what the county did last year. The wireless towers can essentially be constructed without review by the locals.  The second bill has to do with timber and mining operations. Making them exempt from local review or permits. Including timber in flood plain for example. 

Meeting adjourned at 9:05 PM

Christine Brauer Mueller

Lawrenceburg Township