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The request of Gast Fuel and Service Inc. for a use variance was approved by the Warsaw Board of Zoning Appeals Monday, with conditions.
Dick Kehoe, a representative of the company operating the Center Quick Sales at the corner of Center and Reed streets, Warsaw, said the house at 110. N. Reed St. has been removed.
He told board members he did not appear at the last meeting because he was told the meeting was at 7 p.m. and arrived at 6:50 p.m. that evening, when the meeting was over.
Kehoe noted the Center Quick Sales sign has been removed, banners in violation of city ordinance have been removed and the lot where the house stood has been covered with gravel, and, after a compaction period, will be paved.
The Reed Street property is to the north of Center Quick Sales and Kehoe said the company intends to install a landscaped buffer to the rear of the property, screen the trash area and combine the two properties by covenant.
Kehoe said a 10- by 12-foot accessory structure is planned, aligned with the west edge of the business, to the north. The storage building cannot be erected until the property is combined.
Board member Dan Hampton said he was uncomfortable because no site plans were provided.
The use variance - to have a commercial use in an R-2 zone - was approved, providing the landscaping, trash area screen and "hard surface" are installed by Nov. 1.
Kehoe also asked the board to look at other businesses with sign violations, commenting that they should be brought into compliance with the code, too.
Local residents continued to express concern about delivery trucks leaving the business and traveling west on Main Street to Ind. 15.
Melissa Ryan, who lives just to the north of the property, said she thought the whole idea of taking down the house was so that traffic would move around the building.
She said a vehicle accident at the east-west alley and Reed Street just last week involved her chain link fence.
Betty Gilbert said a semi truck went down the north-south alley last week and couldn't make the turn down Main Street. The driver went to a resident's house and asked that a vehicle parked at her home be moved so he could pull out. The resident, who is bedridden, was unable to move her car, so the driver took the truck up onto the curbing on the north side of Main Street.
Ron Gilbert said Main Street is not for through trucks and some of the semis traveling through the residential area are in violation of federal hazardous materials handling regulations.
Board president Bruce Woodward said ingress and egress is an item for the traffic and plan commissions and wouldn't be addressed by the BZA.
In other business, the board also approved:
• A church in a C-2 zoned district as requested by Ronald Konkle at 1211 E. Smith St.
• An excavation business in a R-1 district and construction of a 40- by 60-foot accessory building at 619 Austin Drive, as requested by Mike Loher.
Loher wishes to operate a business there when the current 32-acre tract is divided into three tracts.
• A church and day care ministry at 502 E. Winona Ave., a C-2 district, as requested by the Rev. Jodi Lozano.
At one time the former Bartel Printing was operated on the 1.2-acre property.
• A lawn care business, used car sales and a residential single family apartment in an I-3 zone at 936 N. Detroit St., as requested by tenant Russel Brown Sr.
Brown is already living in the building, owned by Union Tool, and is operating both businesses there.
The board approved the use variance, providing a hard surface is installed on the gravel surface, all outside storage is screened from public view and a landscape buffering strip be installed along the west side of the property by Nov. 1.
• A variance from developmental standards as requested by Melvin Connolly at 951 E. Clark St. Connolly is installing a 4-foot high wood picket fence 5-1/2 feet from the property line along the back half of the property. The standards require a 10-foot setback.
• A deadline extension to hard surface the parking lot at 1310 E. Clark St., as requested by Dennis Weaver.
Weaver has renovated a former group home used by the Cardinal Center into a duplex.
Weaver said the Cardinal Center also used the property as a duplex and the parking lot was gravel then, as are duplexes down the street.
Weaver was told the Cardinal Center was exempted from the ordinance, and properties are being brought into compliance as they come before the board.
Weaver said he could have the parking lot asphalted by this time next year.
BZA members are: Bruce Woodward, Dan Hampton, Richard Keevan and Alan Clingan. Tom Heuer was absent.
