26 June 2023 Dearborn County Plan Commission Meeting Notes
Present: Dennis Kraus, Jr., Chairman, Russell Beiersdorfer, Mark Lehman, Joe Vogel, Jake Hoog, Dan Lansing, Jim Thatcher, and Eric Lang
ABSENT: Jeff Hermesch
Also Present: Nicole Daily, Zoning Administrator, and Andy Baudendistel, Attorney.
Baudendistel read the Title VI statement as legally required.
ACTION ON MINUTES Minutes from May 22nd meeting were approved with correction of Stenger’s comments changing “is” to “as” on page 5 from Beiersdorfer regarding storm water requirements in major subdivision.
OLD BUSINESS: none
NEW BUSINESS:
Request: Zone Map Amendment from Residential to Local Business (B1) Applicant/Owner: Maxwell / Michael and Malisa Rauen Site Location: 24564 & 24606 Stateline Road Parcel: #15-01-34-104-007.001-006 Township: Harrison Size: 3.88 acres Zoning: Residential
Nicole Daily presented. Owner wanting to rezone portions of the property that are residential to B-1. 0.75 acre was zoned B-1 in June 1980. There was a nursery business there also. Revised plan was submitted and staff had concern with access points. It’s being considered for a standalone Skyline Restaurant. Tech review was please with getting rid of some of the 6 access points and narrowing it down to 2. They would limit the access into the nursery once the Skyline is in place. The pond on the property is shared by residential properties- so will look at that in the permitting process.The maps of the area show the current access points. There is residential structure there also where the proposed Skyline will go. Friendship State Bank has a piece near here too. Daily also posted the criteria for a zone change recommendation to the commissioners.
Lehman asked about the lot they had changed in 2022 and they had put a condition on the access points at that time. They have some issues with how to line up the access points with the bank - which has not been built yet. They are in the concept stage. They will have to come back to get those changed to the board. Friendship could get 2 access possibly on Sneakville to alleviate the issue on Stateline.
38 letters sent out- and 6 were unclaimed. 2 were unclaimed as of 6/23. Speed limits change right at this property. Todd Listerman said they may do a study on that to push the speed limit line further towards N Dearborn. He wouldn’t so anything until things were built out there.
Jeff Lyness- represented Maxwell for the owners. He discussed the number of businesses in the area now and things are tightened up over time. The owner is willing to commit over the development of the property to fix accesses. But they do want to keep it open to the nursery. They need large access to the barn in the back.. Trailers need to get back there for trees etc. They are willing to change back to one access on nursery if that business ceases to exist in the future. They are eliminating 2 curb cuts where the Skyline is - and it will have one access. Continued discussion about matching up with Frienship. Lyness stressed that it was not fair to stipulate the access across from Friendship as a condition of the rezone. He thinks it should be part of the process of the development stage when they go thru tech review. The problem is the pre-existing non- conforming conditions. Drainage from Skyline will not go into the current pond.
PUBLIC COMMENT Opened
Kevin Herscbom - 24545 Park Place Estates- lives adjoining it and he doesn’t want to have it there in his back yard- Noise from the drive thru speakers an issue. Has $60k in his back yard
Doug Brown 24563 Park Place- Now we will have grease trap smell and cars all ion their back yard space.
Pulled up map- Park Board owns a space between the properties. It does not stop the noise per the neighbors. They can hear the gas station music too.
Closed Public Discussion
Board members: Mark Lehman- said it has business around it and it meets the requirements for section 540 plus it is in character. There is a lot of wooded area on the back side. The topography of the park space shouldn’t be developed per Eric Lang.
Lehman motioned for a FAVORABLE Recommendation with conditions that detention flow doesn’t go into exiting pond and if the north landscape business changes that the entrances be reduced to one. Also citing section 540 findings of facts. Beiersdorfer 2nded. Approved with Thatcher Abstaining as usual citing he votes at the Commissioners Meeting. July 18th meeting will be on the Commissioners Meeting Agenda.
ADMINISTRATIVE: started at 7:15 PM
DEARBORN COUNTY PROPOSED ZONING TEXT CHANGES – To review and discuss proposed ordinance amendments and updates to the Dearborn County Zoning Ordinance and Zoning Map, specifically with respect to the text(s) of: Articles 9 and 10, regarding Agricultural and Residential Zoning Districts; Article 25, regarding General Standards and new Use Development Standards; Article 27, regarding Definitions.
Daily put a large amount of material in the board packets. They will start with Kelso Township because of the petitions received and the larger number of people from there present. She said she tried to put their requests into the map to show what the petitioners were asking for. This is area up around the high school and Dogridge Rd, Sawmill, SR 46 etc. She stressed how long they have been working in these maps. The map that was shown was the draft map. We did not get to see her map of what the petitioners were asking for.
Lang was talking about Ag Homestead being what we really have now as Ag. [NOTE: That is incorrect.]
Beiersdorfer said that Ag Homestead does not allow CAFOs (confined feeder operations) but Ag will allow them. He also said he does not see that happening as we don’t have lots big enough in Ag to meet the setbacks for one. So this should not be a problem in Dearborn County.
Certified surveys can be done on a property each year currently.
Daily said they wanted to be more conscious of preserving Ag, Rather than being only pro development. There are a few R3s that are existing. There are areas of proposed R2 on the new maps.
Lehman said they were also trying to eliminate all the pre-existing non-conforming uses too. ( Grandfathered?)
Since 1965 we have had 1 Ag and 1 R district. [NOTE: There needed to be R2 and R3 for denser residential developments. These densities are currently conditional uses in an R1. ]
There are different ideas and concepts like tiny homes that needed to be included in the texts.
PUBLIC DISCUSSION
Steve Perrine - Could you just run down the list of what you can’t do in Ag Homestead that you can do in Ag. - Answer- They couldn’t do that easily tonight. Will try to get that to people after that if you sign up email. [NOTE: That should be something they fleshed out when they created the zone. Ag Homestead looks a lot like R1 when you see the purposes and uses. The difference is that it is next to Ag ???]
Greg Hyland- 258 acres and 160 on Hyland and 98 at end of Dogridge. Thanked Nicole for helping him understand zoning. My road has a one lane bridge with a 16 ton limit. When you change the zone you facilitate more development. You should get infrastructure up and then talk about changes.
Mark Hall- at the end of Dogridge where I was raised. 2 farms there where my family (kids) lives and a business near SR 46. He lives in New Alsace . He says there is no infrastructure on Dogridge. Most people here are on Ennis, Dogridge, Hyland, and Kraus. We want to get this area to stay strong Ag. Four signs and then petitions brought these people here. Maps and definitions went out to the people for the petitions. They did not blindly sign. My son found out they want $150,000 to run water to his farm
Gary Denzler- Dogridge Rd- Talked to 17 different residents in our area roads and they did not want this.
Robert Herth- Look at the subdivision that is by the high school. There is not enough density to get the turn lanes in at Trojan. Beneker Rd could have too much traffic for my farm equipment. Agree- we have to do infrastructure first - not the other way around. Beneker Rd is not big enough for 2 way traffic. Per Kraus Jr,
Gregory Hyland- thanked the board and Nicole for the process. Two more points. Soils and conservation. We have best Oak trees in the country. Kelso is not growing as fast as the other areas. That Ag H buffer is wider than it needs to be.
Debra Petra- Your Township- wondered about what the change on Burzelbach Rd is? Subdivision? Road is narrow. Answer- this was a request from someone to change their zone. (This was probably Lyness property there)
Josh Holland- Sparta- When Mark left- Nicole came in- what changes were made? Answer: Daily- she used the mapping program to get it more exact than the conceptual ones we began with. There were no drastic changes. She had them in the system before he left the dept.
Greg Whitaker- Kraus Rd- speaking on behalf of all the yellow- We don’t want that. The signs did work. We’d like to keep it a farm. There is no sewage or water on Kraus Rd. No yellow line on the rad either per Kraus Jr. There is no sewer on a lot of Hyland either.
Karen Herth- Kelso- Work at they BP in St, Leon. It’s a great town to stop and visit. They want affordable housing. Just like the affordable housing that you can’t afford down on SR 1 that Casey is building. We saved all our life to have our farm. You want to build apts- $1200 a month to live in. Answer- Kraus Jr said this board doesn’t necessarily want to develop. Wuestefeld has a subdivision. Singers have a small one. Old Hickory is going to be divided. People selling will open development sometimes.
Rob Herth- Colors are driving development into the area.
Schools are the interstate will drive development per Daily.
Rob Herth- Kraus asked his reasons for not wanting it to be residential. He discussed issues with lifestyle and issues with people who move in expecting more urban amenities, etc. I missed some of his details here)
Mr Lamping sp ? - people did not know about these meetings. Newspaper and the Beacon. We’ve never received any letter. The means you are using to notify are not working.
The people moved out here for a reason. We like it that way. We drive to get our supplies. Developers have a lot of money. Businesses don’t help as they get abatements. What is the purpose of changing zoning? ANSWER - cannot use the same rules as 60 years ago. We need to update.
Mrs Whitaker- We are Ag and now you want it to be R. Currently living on her grandparents. Infrastructure is not there. Traffic is terrible when school lets out, More will make it worse.
Melissa Miller- When were we going to be notified that we were going to R from Ag. I went to the EC meeting and signed up for emails. No notifications till today when se heard about this meeting. Answer- Kraus gave her background on why they did it. We were not planning on making every one in the county. Too expensive.
Greg Hyland - again- I just want to read the descriptions of Ag and Ag homestead. This showed clearly that the Ag is for heavy use Ag and no urbanization while Ag Homestead is for low density development near Ag. [NOTE:The actual purpose of each district is clearly stated in the first paragraph of the text. ]
Jenny Kirchner- Ennis Rd- Where can we find them same kind of data and review for these zoning changes that you used at the earlier zone change request in Bright.. Answer-Kraus Jr. there is not anything like that planned. Kirchner- I am an engineer- having data to show why this change is being proposed. Answer Lang- we had a list of criteria like sewer, water, etc and what was high or lower priority. There were 8-9 things like this.
Steve Perrine- Lawrenceburg Township- would still like to keep me in Ag rather than Ag Homestead.
Beiersdorfer grew up in Peach Grove Ohio now where 74 and 275 meet. I hate to say it- St Leon is like a sleeping giant. Our board makes sure infrastructure is going to go in at the developers expense. [NOTE: This is generally the rule, and the developers build the roads to county specs. After roads are accepted into the county road inventory, the taxpayers will pay for repaving as needed.]
Harland Burlage- So what about housing TIFs? Answer- there is none in the unincorporated county. (Big pause) [NOTE: The Crossings at Tanners Creek on SR 1 in Greendale is a HOTIF. (Housing Opportunity Tax Incremental Financing. Some of the other cities and towns are also talking about setting one up. It’s apparent that the infrastructure may not be entirely at the developer’s expense in these cases. In fact it cuts into the taxes that would go to the schools and other services that they housing development taxes should be paying for.]
Jeff Stenger- (former chairman of Plan Commission and former county surveyor) concerned about minor subdivisions missing from the Ag zone. Also asked about the 150 versus 200 ft frontage for Ag and burning up the farm land. [NOTE: This is one are that the AG zone changed in this proposed text. There are ways around this- but it seems that Ag is the only zone where a minor subdivision is NOT allowed in the proposed texts. This mistake could be easily corrected to keep that option open for those families that wish to put succession plans in place BEFORE death to assure estate settlements are done according to their wishes. In one case for a map change, there is a request to go from Ag to Ag homestead just to get this minor division option.]
Josh Holland - Sparta- spoke again regarding his area- and likes what they are looking at as much better than what they had previously.
Close Public Discussion.
No Decisions.
Nicole said they will have a case next month so that will be at the beginning of the meeting. Then we can continue this discussion and the other townships.
July 24th is next meeting at 6 PM.
Meeting adjourned at 9:15 PM
Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township
