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Two requests for variances reviewed by the Warsaw Board of Zoning Appeals were approved Monday night, including one involving a sign for a monument and funeral company that has relocated to East Center Street.
Keith and Cristina Ousley, owners of Heritage Monument Company and Heritage Funeral and Cremation Services, petitioned the board for a variance to allow a sign in a Residential-2 zoning district at 1421 E. Center St.
The Ousleys want to place a sign on the property that is 5-feet wide by 3-feet high. The maximum size allowed for a sign in the area is 16 square feet.
Assistant City Planner Justin Taylor said R-2 zoning districts “typically do not allow signs of this kind, however, the Center Street corridor has an overlay district that describes restrictions in the physical appearance of home conversions. The intent is clear that properties along Center Street should be allowed to serve as minimally intensive office and retail, if they retain their residential character.”
He added that the property historically has served as an office and signage has been a part of that use.
“Numerous properties along the Center Street overlay district have applied for and have been granted variances to permit signage by this board. This request seems to be in line with past approved requests,” Taylor said.
He said the planning department viewed the request favorably.
Keith Ousley told the board they moved to the new location on Center Street after losing their lease for property on South Buffalo Street.
“We do not provide any type of services in the building. All we are professional services. We offer cremations and graveside services and funerals to families. Funerals will be held in churches off-site only,” he said.
Since moving to the Center Street location, he said they’ve had very low traffic at his business.
Ousley said it’s not a crematorium, and it doesn’t do any services on-site. Heritage does all of cremations through a crematorium in Ligonier.
“How do you get business? How do you get customers?” BZA Vice President Rick Keeven asked.
Ousley replied that they advertise and “we’re a $695 direct cremation provider, which is about a third of what the local funeral homes charge. We’re several hundred less than the local cremation.”
He said their customers come from Kosciusko, Wabash, Marshall and Whitley counties.
“They walk in the door of your office or they just contact you?” Keeven asked, trying to understand how Heritage got and dealt with customers.
Ousley said much of the initial business is done by phone.
Keeven asked, “So they will come to this location eventually?”
“To make arrangements,” Ousley said.
He said the most people that will ever be in the building at a time is 10 to 15. He said if a family chooses direct cremation, and a loved one’s body is in the Center Street building, “the law says that we have to allow you one more chance for a final goodbye and identification of the body.”
If a family chooses that, Ousley said the family will come in, see the body and leave.
“It’s licensed by the state of Indiana and approved,” he said.
“We do very, very low volume but we sell monuments. It’s all we do. There’s no production, no manufacturing, no nothing. Income for the company comes from monument sales and those two professional services for funerals.”
Parking is in the back.
With no remonstrators, the Ousleys’ petition was unanimously approved.
In the one other case, Jaime Davila petitioned for a variance for a 6-foot rear yard setback instead of 15-foot setback to accommodate a two-car carport behind the house at 111 E. Fort Wayne St.
In an R-3, the maximum lot coverage allowed for a single-family home is 65 percent. Davila’s proposed addition would bring the surface area to about 70 percent of the lot, according to Taylor.
Taylor said, “Lots in this neighborhood are generally small. These constraints can often create unintended limitations especially in areas where density is desirable. Additions to homes in this area should be encouraged to maintain value in a competitive market.”
He said the planning department supported the request.
BZA member Dan Smith said, “I went and looked at it, it looks good to me.”
With no remonstrators against Davila’s petition, Smith made a motion to approve it and it was passed unanimously.
