Zoning Petition, 6476 N. College Ave., Variance request

[Linda Shikany]

I have been made aware of a zoning request, 2009-UV1-031. This is a residential area that is zoned D4. The petitoner is asking for a variance to allow a Day Spa. This location is on the West Side of College Ave and access is from 66th Street.

My concern is commercial creep in to our neighborhood. A line has to be drawn somewhere and once you give a variance you are opening up the ability for others to turn homes in to commercial entitiesin this area.

At one time someone wanted to tear down several of these homes and build a strip center.
Where does it stop? I think there is a place for commercial and residential area and this is designated as residential and should stay that way.

What do you think? The BRVA will hold a hearing on Tuesday, October 27th at 6pm. Contact the BRVA at 251-2782 to voice your concerns. The city planner is Ryan Hunt at 327-5241 and you can also voice you opinion with him. The Public Hearing is set for November 3rd, 1pm, at the City-County Building. Contact me for more info, 695-2958,

[Lynn Levy]

Linda - Are you saying that this is on the agenda for the next BRVA LUD meeting?

[Linda Shikany]

Lynn: This will be on the agenda for the next BRVA LUD meeting which takes place on Tuesday, October 27th. I spoke with Elaine Zukerman today. I also talked with downtown, Ryan Hunt, who is the city planner assigned to this petition.

[Doug Strachota]

Linda, Thanks for posting information about this zoning request. I am the neighbor who lives directly behind the petitioning property and would like to share a little more information with the community regarding the petitioner.

Her name is Lisa Kinnett, and she's brought this idea in front of the BRVA before, but it didn't make it that far. It didn't even make it past the zoning committee if my memory serves me correctly. After it didn't make it past the initial BRVA smell test, she went ahead and made the house into her hair salon by converting the basement and some rooms upstairs. She eventually moved out, and rented her home to another family who did the same thing--ran a hair salon out of the basement space.

She's been out of the house for about 5 years now and it has quickly deteriorated as she has had a string of bad renters and does absolutely nothing to maintain the property. If you take a walk down the alley behind her house, you’ll see exactly the condition with broken fences, missing siding, overgrown weeds, trash everywhere, etc.

Likewise, my wife and I worry about the commercial "creep" in the neighborhood which will only reduce our property values. My second major point of contention is with who is offering the petition. Lisa has been a poor neighbor and will obviously make a poor steward of the property as she has displayed in the management of this property. If she can’t handle the property as a rental, there’s no chance she can handle the property as a business.

My wife (Lisa Strachota) and I would like to help organize the opposition of this petition by gathering the neighbors together to discuss, as well as see the property in question.

Doug Strachota
523-1158

[Elizabeth Price]

Doug-

When I first read about the petition for variance, I didn't like the sound of it. Now that you've provided more background, I like it even less. Please let me know what I can do to help send the message that this variance is unnecessary and won't benefit our neighborhood- signing a petition, etc.

[Doug Strachota]

I just received word from a friend of mine who works at the Marion County Health Dept. that Ms. Kinnett's property at 6476 College recently received 2 citations for unmanaged property. TRA09-15289 and ROD09-00987.

The TRA order is a 'Trash' order for brush piles in both the front and back of the property. The ROD order is a "Repair Order" and is for the broken fence and a broken concrete step to the house. They gave her until Oct. 22nd to clean up the trash, and I'm not sure the deadline on the fence.

Linda Shikany and I spoke yesterday about organizing an effort to oppose the variance. We'd be happy to have a group of those interested in assisting us in the opposition of this proposal meet at our house on Sunday, Oct. 18th at 12:00PM. Lisa and I live at 6479 Broadway and would love to show off the improvements we made to our property as well as the current condition of the property requesting the zoning variance right behind us. Please let Linda or myself know if you are coming.

Thanks,
Doug & Lisa Strachota
523-1158

[Bridget & Chris Carson]

Hi Doug,

Chris and I will be happy to support the petition but I'm not certain I can make it on Sunday to your lovely home. Just let us know what you have planned and we'll support it. We all certainly can and should contact the city planners w/our concerns. The more people who voice their opinions, the better. Thanks to you, Lisa and Linda for bringing this to our attention.

Bridget

[Rhonda Finney]

I just want to add to the topic of landlords/renters in our neighborhood. I believe it's imperative to create some neighborhood association bylaws that would hold residents accountable for the maintenance of their property. Otherwise, we enable landlords to not properly take care of the home/property. That does directly affect all of our property value. Right now you can rely on Marion County's H&H (that is, if we involve them) to make certain lawns are mowed and trash/debris isn't building up in yards (as well as abandoned vehicles haven't been permanently left on a property); however, to really build on Warfleigh's overall reputation and attraction, I think this is an important issue to discuss and to deliberate. Believe me, it (rentals) has had an affect on our ability to sell our home. Certainly, if necessary, we can reach out to bordering neighborhoods (Meridian Kessler, Arden, etc.) to see how their bylaws are set up in regard to property maintenance. Perhaps BRVA can help, as well. (Warfleigh is under BRVA's umbrella.)

[Heather Lusk]

Thanks for posting this. I can't attend any meetings but I'd be very happy to sign a petition or have my name added to a letter of protest - just let me know how to do that.

[Rita Hupp]

Would it be helpful to get a petition signed to present at the BRVA LUD meeting on the 27th, and from there hopefully gain the support of BRVA at the Nov 3 zoning hearing? Perhaps we could post the petition on this site and divide up streets to pick up signatures.

[Doug Strachota]

We do have a petition drafted and have been circulating it around the area by our home. If you are able to help by walking this around in other parts of the neighborhood, then we'd gladly welcome you to assist us. We live at 6479 Broadway, the property directly behind the one seeking the variance. We have plenty of support documentation we can send along with those circulating the petition.

Please call me at 523-1158 if you'd like to help, or just stop by our house at 6479. It'll be a nice afternoon, so I'm heading out again shortly for more signatures.

Thanks,
Doug

[Doug Strachota]

Rita, Will you be able to help with this as you suggested? We'd love your help.

[Doug Strachota]

A group of concerned citizens have met to organize a plan to oppose this variance. I've listed here the most important items that you can do to assist us in defeating the proposal. As Linda describes in the first post, any new commercial usage in this residential area of College sets a unwanted precedent and once you let one in, there is no end in sight. Please help us by doing some or ALL of the actions below.

1. Attend the November 3rd zoning hearing at the City Council building. Nothing is more important than to show up. If you can make it, let me know and I will try to keep you notified in case there is a continuance.

2. Send a letter to Ryan Hunt via e-mail at . He is mentioned on the second page of the Zoning Appeal we received. The city planner assigned to a petition always keeps a file of input received on a case; that information is then conveyed to the members of the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) at the hearing. Feel free to call him with questions, he is very helpful. When I spoke to him, he told me that Staff's initial thought is to deny the variance, but as a neighborhood we need to be sure to also voice our opinion to the BZA.
Ryan Hunt, Senior Planner
Department of Metropolitan Development
City-County Building, Suite 1821
200 E. Washington Street
Indianapolis, IN 462 04
[phone]
[e-mail]

3. Neighbors can also attend the BRVA's Land Use and Development Committee meeting next Tuesday, October 27th, at 6 p.m., at which time this petition will be discussed. It's possible that the petitioner would drop the case before it ever gets to the city's variance hearing, if she realizes what she's up against. If the petitioner continues to pursue the variance, the BRVA will take a stand on the petition and speak at the hearing on behalf of its members.

4. Sign the petition which is circulating in the neighborhood, or stop by our house at 6479 Broadway in the evenings to sign it. You can help us by taking the petition around to some of your neighbors. Please let me know if you’d be able to help us circulate this.