TOWN OF PLAINFIELD BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS January 19, 2009 The Plainfield Board of Zoning Appeals met on Monday, January 19, 2009. In attendance were Ms. Duffer, Mr. Cavanaugh, Mr. Gibbs and Mr. Monnett. ROLL CALL/DETERMINATION OF QUORUM Mr. Carlucci administered the Roll Call. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE APPROVAL OF MINUTES Mr. Gibbs made a motion to approve the minutes of the December 15, 2008 Board of Zoning Appeals meeting as submitted. Second by Ms. Duffer. Motion carried. ELECTION OF OFFICERS Mr. Carlucci asked, do we have a motion to elect a President of the Board of Zoning Appeals for 2009? Mr. Gibbs made a motion to nominate Mr. Monnett as President of the Board of Zoning Appeals for 2009. Second by Mr. Cavanaugh. Mr. Carlucci said there is a motion and a second to have Mr. Monnett as President of the Board of Zoning Appeals for 2009. All those in favor signify by aye. None opposed. Motion carried. Is there a motion to nominate a Vice President for the Board of Zoning Appeals for 2009? Mr. Monnett nominated Ms. Duffer. Second by Mr. Gibbs. Mr. Carlucci said there is a motion and a second to have Ms. Duffer as Vice President for the Board of Zoning Appeals for 2009. All those in favor signify by aye. None opposed. Motion carried. OATH OF TESTIMONY Mr. Daniel administered the Oath of Testimony. PUBLIC HEARINGS Mr. Monnett reviewed the Guidelines Governing the Conduct of Public Hearings. Tonight our first petition is BZA-08-025. Ms. Sprague said as I understand it we need to waive the 15 day notice. They did get their notices out by the 10 day period, which is the State requirement but in our ordinance we have a 15 day requirement as well. Ms. Duffer made a motion to waive the 15 day requirement. Second by Mr. Gibbs. Motion carried.! 1
Ms. Sprague said this is about Concrete Ink, which is a tattoo shop that is on Main Street. The location is next to the Plainfield Animal Clinic across from the Wal-Mart. They actually only moved two doors down. I personally don t know which direction they moved but when they first moved into Plainfield, we didn t have the Special Exception requirement in the ordinance. So, that is why we are asking for it this time but did not the first time. They are surrounded primarily by General Commercial. Behind them is the Deerfield Mobile Home Park. Basically, I believe at the time that these guys moved in there was also another tattoo shop that moved in way down on the east end of Plainfield and that was what prompted this because there wasn t anything in the ordinance at all about this kind of business. So, they were added as a Special Exception I believe just after these guys probably moved in. They have stated that they are in good standing with the health department and I haven t heard anything otherwise from them. I did call and ask just to make sure. We haven t received any phone calls or any complaints from residents in the Town. Mr. William Bufore said my address is at 1054 Huntwick Lane. Mr. Monnett asked, where is Huntwick Lane? Mr. Bufore said it is Huntwick Subdivision off of CR100. Mr. Monnett asked, is that Plainfield? Mr. Bufore said it is actually an Indianapolis address but I think they are changing that to Plainfield because after they put the roundabout in at Morris there is a new sign there that says Welcome to Plainfield. So, I think it is Plainfield. Mr. Carlucci said all of those subdivisions (inaudible). Mr. Bufore said it s in Hendricks County but I still have an Indianapolis address for my mail. I really don t have much to add to what she said. The shop that was down the street farther on the east end hasn t been there actually for over three years now. It was after they closed that I opened up at the spot that I was at. Mr. Monnett asked, how long have you been doing this? Mr. Bufore said professionally since 1999. Mr. Monnett asked, all here in Indiana? Mr. Bufore said yes. Mr. Monnett asked, does the body piercing coincide? Mr. Bufore said yes. Mr. Monnett asked, what percentage of your business would that be do you think, the body piercing verses the tattoos? Mr. Bufore said money wise I would say probably 50/50. There is more piercings but they don t cost as much as tattoos so it kind of evens out.! 2
Mr. Monnett asked, have you ever had to turn anybody away that may not have been of age? Mr. Bufore said yes. I do piercings with the parent s consent; they both have to have identification proving who they are and sign a medical release. Ms. Duffer asked, under what age, 18? Mr. Bufore said under 18 yes. Ms. Duffer said and you ve had no concerns with the health department like Jill said? Mr. Bufore said I ve owned my own shop since 2001 and I ve never had a complaint here or in Marion County either because I ve had a shop there too. Ms. Duffer said but currently you only own one shop. Mr. Bufore said yes; I only own one shop in Plainfield. Mr. Monnett asked, what are your hours or does it vary? Mr. Bufore said Monday through Saturday noon to ten; no Sundays. Ms. Duffer said and your business is good enough to withstand going forward in the economy? Mr. Bufore said yes. Mr. Monnett said I was reading your letter that you had sent. It said something about you are a little happier with this landlord and rent. Mr. Bufore said it is about a thousand dollars a month cheaper than the other place and the building looks nicer. The landlord at the other building never cut the grass or anything and it looked trashy. Mr. James said (inaudible). Mr. Bufore said (inaudible). Ms. Duffer said so you own the sign. it. Mr. Bufore said we don t own the sign; we just put the letters in Mr. Monnett said this is a little personal but are you paying by lease or how does that work? Mr. Bufore said it s a year lease where we are. Mr. Cavanaugh said (inaudible). Mr. Bufore said I don t think the landlord would have a problem with that. We can contact him ourselves.! 3
Mr. Daniel said I think it would be a good idea not to have that as a condition (inaudible). Mr. James said (inaudible). Mr. Carlucci said we could send the property owner a letter saying that business is not there; you cannot advertise a business that is not there. Mr. James said (inaudible). Mr. Daniel said unless Mr. Bufore decides to take it upon himself to go there and take that sign down he can do that. Mr. Carlucci asked, are you still at the old location? Mr. Bufore said no; we are actually at the new location. Mr. Monnett asked, is there anyone in the audience who would care to speak on this matter? Being no one coming forward I will close the public portion of this hearing and open it up for further discussion or a possible motion. Mr. Cavanaugh made a motion that the Board of Zoning Appeals approve BZA-08-025 as filed by William Bufore requesting a Special Exception to allow a tattoo shop at 2326 E. Main Street which is zoned General Commercial subject to the following conditions: 1. This Special Exception is non-transferable to any subsequent owner of the property or establishment. Second by Ms. Duffer. Roll call vote called. Ms. Duffer yes Mr. Cavanaugh yes Mr. Gibbs yes Mr. Monnett yes 4-ayes, 0-opposed, 0-absent. Motion carried. Mr. Monnett said the next petition is BZA-08-026, T-Mobile Wireless. Mr. James said this request is a Special Exception to install a new 120 tall monopole cell tower at 1915 Gladden Road, which will be behind the Plainfield Sports Center. It is zoned I-2, Office/Warehouse Distribution. Article 4.6 of the Plainfield Zoning Ordinance provides standards and special regulations for the installation of new wireless telecommunication facilities and cell towers. So, in the Staff Report we have gone over the plans and checked the plans against all of the standards in Article 4.6. One of the requirements is that the petitioner must show that it cannot be co-located on an existing tower or structure and there is no tower within 5,000 feet of the site. And that they need the tower to provide service for the area. The Design Review Committee reviewed this petition and plans and recommended approval for the plans as submitted.! 4
Here is the site; about 1.4 acres. Here is the Plainfield Sports Center on the back road. The tower will be in the southwest portion behind the building. It is going to be a 50 by 50 compound. The setbacks comply. It will have a utility easement and also an access through the parking lot of the sports center. To install their antenna they don t have to have an equipment building but it will just be on a cabinet. But they have shown two locations for two additional equipment buildings if needed with two more co-locations on the tower. Article 4.6 provides that the tower must have the availability to colocate at least a minimum of three towers on the new cell tower. It will be 120 tall. This is the array at the end of the tower. The antenna can extend up to 15 feet above the 120 height. The tower also complies with the Plainfield air space overlay district. The site is within the airport conical surface area of the airspace overlay district. The height can only be so tall starting at a height of 150 feet. Their engineer has looked at the ordinance and has provided calculations that it would comply with the airspace overlay district. Mr. Carlucci said (inaudible). Mr. James said they have submitted before the FAA. This is a photograph of one of the equipment buildings and what it would look like. It is a standard prefabricated building that is used for the cell tower. They have to do a Level 3 landscaping. What they proposed complies around the whole perimeter of the compound. They have to do a security fence. They are going to do a six foot tall security fence around the compound. It will be gated. They provided this advantage point and views from these certain advantage points; Gladden, the parking lot and then south of the site. This is before and after. This is Gladden without the tower and then what the tower could look like. If you didn t know any better, you would just think it is another parking lot light and then again without the tower and then with the tower. It looks like it could be a parking lot light. Here is south with the tower and then without the tower. Existing buildings will have screened the tower and then SR267 buildings and foliage along SR267 will have screening as well. One of the requirements is they show a coverage map. This is a map without the tower and here they have a dead spot in this area showing justification of the tower. With the tower you can see how it improves coverage in this area. Also, they had to provide a master plan showing other tower locations that there are no towers within 5,000 feet and then future sites for towers. These are three future sites. They will be in residential districts, which I will discuss a little bit more of that later. Here is the site within a 5,000 foot radius showing there are no other towers within 5,000 feet. They did approach the Town about colocating on the water tower at the fire station on SR267 but we have the 911 communication equipment up there. We thought it could be an interference issue. There is an existing tower at Andico. We had another request there but will talk about that later. So, there are no other towers within 5,000 feet. So, they provided a map of a 5,000! 5
foot radius, a master plan showing the area with the tower and without the tower for justification. They couldn t co-locate on the water tower or another structure and the proposed site and plans do comply with all of the standards of Article 4.6. It blends with the surrounding environment and reduces visual impacts and then finally future sites are residential areas and what can be done to mitigate potential impacts in these residential areas for these future sites? Their representative is here from T-Mobile, Wende Chaille and I m sure she would be happy to answer any questions that you might have. Mr. Carlucci said (inaudible). They ve always had lots of trouble over parking where they have to borrow parking from next door. (Inaudible). I don t know how much this takes up on the parking lot (inaudible). It s good to get as much on those towers as you can (inaudible). There s just not a lot of room; it s tight. (Inaudible). Mr. James said if they did need equipment buildings for other antennas, they would be within the proposed 50 by 50 compound. The compound would not have to expand. I don t have an answer for you about the parking. Mr. Carlucci asked, will the 50 by 50 take up parking spots? Mr. James said Wende can probably answer that for you. Ms. Wende Chaille at 28602 CR50, Nappanee, Indiana said our proposed site will extend to about right there so we are not taking up any parking places at all. We thought about going in the parking lot but the owners of Plainfield Sports Center said the same thing that you did that they had problems with parking in the past. I can t speak for them but I know that back here we thought about going back here also but they had talked about putting more parking back there. Again, I can t speak for them but that is what they are thinking about doing and that is why they told us that we could not go back in the rear part. They told us we couldn t go back there because they are considering adding parking. Again, our 50 by 50 is going to be right there. We need the setbacks, the front and the side setbacks but yet we do not go into any of the parking places. I prepared a presentation but Joe covered most of it so I will just take questions. Mr. Gibbs said (inaudible). Ms. Chaille said if you will look back here, where you see the peak triangles that is where it is located right now. Those are structures that are already located there. This is our proposed location. These triangles and all directions of proposed directions are where we have antennas right now. If you look right here (inaudible). T-Mobile is already located on that tower and as you can see by the green surrounding it we do have good coverage in that area. If you go on north of that site, you see it is between this site here and this site here and that is the area where we don t have good coverage. To just explain the colors real quickly. The green area is the best coverage that we have. So, that is where we have good building coverage, if you are in a commercial building or you are in your office. You have good coverage if you are driving. The yellow represents where we have fair coverage but if you are in a commercial building or office or maybe in your home in the basement (inaudible). The grey is where you are going to have (inaudible). Then the yellow is! 6
poor coverage. So, you can see in these future locations (inaudible). The cell phone towers only cover so much area. Mr. Gibbs said (inaudible). Mr. Chaille said yes you require that we build our towers to hold two additional co-locators so that AT&T can come on board, Sprint, someone like that but we wouldn t put more antennas up there. That s what these towers here are. For example, (inaudible). So, there are several different people on that tower and again your ordinance does require that. I know the DRC brought up a concern of these being residential areas. These are future areas for consideration. There s not been a (inaudible) to go out and find a spot in those areas. I deal with difficult areas all of the time. I m a contractor and that s what they hire me to do is go out especially in the more difficult areas and find something. T-Mobile as well as other people that I contract with their first goal or first objective is to always colocate on something and that means that we co-locate on an existing tower; maybe there is a building in the area that is five or six stories high that we can co-locate on. I don t think in that area there is. But if I were in Indianapolis, I would look for tall structures and tall buildings. In an area that is totally residential, we are dealing with one of those in Indianapolis right now, sometimes I will go in and I will look at the schools in the area and maybe I can put a flagpole in. I m also working on a situation now at the Zionsville Middle School where we might be replacing a light pole at the football stadium so we will take an 80 foot light pole and take that out and replace it with a 150 foot monopole and put the lights back on it and put our antenna ray at the top. So, we do different things and when you are in a residential area like that, you have to be creative. So, we do a lot of different things. If you are in Indianapolis, I know the Second Presbyterian Church actually has antenna rays on the steeple and with their camouflage you probably wouldn t know it if you were driving by it. But I know there was some concern by the DRC about these being residential areas and if and when those search rings are released, I will have to be very creative. Mr. Cavanaugh said on the site plan I notice that you have a utility easement going out there (inaudible). Ms. Chaille said I didn t like how they threw that in there. That is confusing. They didn t label it very well the first time I got these drawings. I had them go back in and write in if that is a proposed utility easement that no gravel (inaudible). And again I am saying proposed because when we call in IPL or whoever the electrical company is or whoever the telephone company is out there, they tell us where they are going to come from and they may end up coming from a line over here or a line down here. But as it stands what we think the best way to do it is to come off Gladden Road and come right down here but that is proposed. As soon as we work through all of this and pull our building permits, we will do what is called a utility walk and we will have ILP come out there with us or Cinergy or whoever it is and they will tell us because they are in charge. They will tell us exactly what they are going to do and where they are going to come out. Mr. Cavanaugh said your primary access (inaudible).! 7
Ms. Chaille said an existing drive there and then right here we will have to do a gravel drive, I believe it is 12 by 28, it is a very short gravel drive just to get us outside of that (inaudible) area. Again, the compound is 50 by 50 and that is enough space for us to put our 5 by 15 concrete pad. And T-Mobile uses cabinets so that picture that you saw a second ago of the shelter that is not what ours is going to look like. Ours is just a cabinet that you walk up to. You don t want inside of it. Joe had me turn in that photo of that shelter to show you what it might look like if other carriers come on board such as Sprint or AT&T. But again that is not what T-Mobile looks like so if you drive by there in a couple of months and see it, you are not going to see one of those out there right now; that is what other carriers use. For some reason T-Mobile just uses short cabinets. Mr. James said (inaudible). Ms. Chaille said I talked with Ed Rudolphi who is the building inspector and he asked me to provide him specs on our cabinets. They are 6 by 5 by 3. So, again it is not a structure that you walk into. Mr. Monnett asked, is there anyone in the audience who would care to speak on behalf of this petition? Being no one coming forward I will close the public portion and open it up to our board for discussion or a motion. Ms. Duffer said my only comment was everything the Staff made comments about T-Mobile had complied with and since the DRC recommended it as well I think I m in agreement with this. With that I move that the Board of Zoning Appeals approve BZA-08-026 as filed by T-Mobile Wireless requesting a Special Exception to allow the installation of a 120 tall monopole cell tower and compound facility at 1915 Gladden Road subject to the following conditions: 1. Substantial compliance with the master plan, site plan, equipment building elevations, construction plans and landscaping plans submitted file dated December 19, 2008. Second by Mr. Gibbs. Roll call vote called. Ms. Duffer yes Mr. Cavanaugh yes Mr. Gibbs yes Mr. Monnett yes 4-ayes, 0-opposed, 0-absent. Motion carried. Mr. Monnett said our next item tonight is BZA-08-027, Crown Castle South, Inc. Mr. James said this request deals with another cell tower but this is an existing cell tower at 681 Tower Road in the Andico Industrial Park. Another carrier would like to co-locate on an existing tower and in this case they do need an equipment building to co-locate the antenna. But the compound is not large enough. It is a 60 by 64 compound but they have to expand it to 80 by 80 compound. But the petitioner, Crown Castle owns the whole lot, Lot 5C of the Andico Industrial Park so it is not going to encroach into another lot.! 8
The setbacks comply. The existing tower is legal nonconforming. That means it was installed before the current Zoning Ordinance when it went into affect. The fact that they have to expand the compound to install this other equipment building is why we are here tonight. To expand the legal nonconforming use this requires a Special Exception. One reason that they have to expand the compound is because there is an existing conduit that they cannot build over. So, they have to move it about 18 feet to the south. Here is the site. Here is the Andico Industrial Park. Crown Castle owns this whole lot. The existing compound is 64 by 64 feet. They are going to expand it 80 by 80 feet. This is Vandalia Trail. This is another lot in the industrial park and then you have the residential area over here. I went out today to take some pictures but the camera quit on me so I was unable to take some pictures. But you can see the compound and the trail and probably a six foot tall berm that hides the compound and then this is heavily wooded through here too. So, they are going to expand this about 18 feet and it will not encroach into another use. It complies with the setbacks with Andico and from the trail. In Article 4.6 the Plainfield Zoning Ordinance provides regulations for new sub towers and also allows co-location and provides standards for co-locating antennas. But you can do that with just an ILP, Improvement Location Permit. It doesn t require another Special Exception. So, if the compound didn t have to be expanded down in this area, we wouldn t be here tonight. I would have approved this with an ILP. In fact, I did jump the gun and I did approve an ILP. When I first saw it, I didn t realize that the compound had to be expanded. When I first looked at this, I didn t know Crown Plaza owned the whole site so I said let s put the trees over here. I didn t think they had room to put them on the south so they have agreed to go ahead and put trees, a Level 3 on the east side. And DRC recommended that they move these trees to the west side. So, they have agreed to install a Level 3 perimeter on both the west side and the east side. They will do another fence matching the existing fence. They don t have to add any additional signs or lights other than what is required by the FAA or FCC. This is the tower. It is legal nonconforming. They can add additional antennas. They don t need a height variance. This is over 120 feet tall so you can co-locate and add antennas as long as they are not higher than the existing tower. This is a photograph of the quick building they want to install. Again, it is the standard prefabricated structure that they use for these cell towers. In Article 4.6 the Town policy supports the colocation of antennas on existing towers whenever possible to avoid installation of new towers. An existing conduit is creating the need to expand the compound to the south to make room for the co-location and the equipment building. Crown Castle South owns the whole lot so that reduces the impact of the uses. And then the plans comply with Article 4.6 as far as the screening and the fence and then DRC recommended approval with the condition of landscaping to the west and they have agreed to install the landscaping on both the west perimeter and the east perimeter. Ms. Mona Couch is here representing Crown Castle and I m sure she would be glad to answer any questions that you might have.! 9
Ms. Mona Couch with Crown Castle South, Inc. said we are located at 3077 E. 98 th Street, Suite 230, Indianapolis, Indiana. I think Joe did a great job explaining our request. We are requesting a Special Exception to expand our existing compound to allow for co-location, which is encouraged by your ordinance. Mr. Monnett asked, how many carriers are on there now? Ms. Couch said currently we have AT&T, Rebel, Verizon and T- Mobile. Mr. Monnett asked, how many can you put on a tower like that? Ms. Couch said it depends on the spacing and where they need to be with relationship to their network. Ms. Duffer asked, you didn t have any questions or concerns with moving the landscaping from the south to the west? Ms. Couch said no. Mr. Carlucci said (inaudible). I have noticed at times that part of that (inaudible). Ms. Couch said Joe mentioned that to me when I came in and I told Joe that I would make sure that I would get with our operations manager, his name is Randy Bolen to insure that the (inaudible). Mr. Carlucci said (inaudible). Ms. Couch said I will be more than happy to give Joe my card because I am the property specialist here for the Indiana district. So, if there are any questions or concerns, I would be more than happy to take care of it. Mr. Carlucci said it s not going to bother anybody on the trails (inaudible). Ms. Couch said absolutely and also I will advise our office too because we have several employees that are out there whether they are construction managers who are working with the carriers. We have project managers and then we have our field techs too so there shouldn t be any reason why Mr. Carlucci said they go in the gravel right into the road. (Inaudible). They can get in and they don t care. They are there to do other work other than (inaudible). Anyway that would be great. Mr. Monnett asked, is there anyone in the audience who would care to speak on this matter? Being no one coming forward I will open it up to the board for discussion or a possible motion. Mr. Gibbs made a motion that the Board of Zoning Appeals approve BZA-08-027 as filed by Crown Castle South, Inc. requesting a Special Exception to expand the cell tower compound to add a 300 square foot equipment building at 681 Tower Road subject to:! 10
1. Substantial compliance with the site plan, building elevations and photographs, construction plans and landscaping plan submitted file dated January 14, 2009. Second by Mr. Cavanaugh. Roll call vote called. Ms. Duffer yes Mr. Cavanaugh yes Mr. Gibbs yes Mr. Monnett yes 4-ayes, 0-opposed, 0-absent. Motion carried. Mr. Monnett said on the middle petition that we had with T-Mobile and their tower how tall is the wind turbine? Mr. James said it was 50 feet. OLD BUSINESS/NEW BUSINESS None. ADJOURNMENT Ms. Duffer made a motion to adjourn. Second by Mr. Gibbs. Motion carried. Meeting adjourned. Mr. Greg Monnett, President! 11