VANDERBURGH COUNTY

REZONING BOARD

OCTOBER 18, 2004

The Vanderburgh County Rezoning Board met in session this 18^th day of October, 2004 at 6:27 p.m. in Room 307 of the Civic Center Complex with President Catherine Fanello presiding. The rezoning petitions were heard during the course of the regular Commission meeting.

President Fanello: We will now hear our rezoning agenda. We do not have any first readings.

President Fanello: We have two final readings, the first one being VC-17-2003, 2751 Allens Lane, change from A to R-3.

Tom Bodkin: Good evening ladies and gentlemen, Tom Bodkin, 20 Northwest Fourth Street, counsel for the petitioner. This particular parcel of issue lies between St. Joe Avenue and Mesker Park on Allens Lane. You may recall about a year ago or so we were here rezoning a piece of ground just across the road from this, we went for a down zone there from C-4 to C-2. This is a zoning from Ag to R-3. It’s a very exciting condominium development for the northwest side of Evansville. To my right, your left is a schematic showing you what’s going to be there. This is what they’ll look like, to your right, and my left. The petitioner, Pete McCullough, his mom and dad and the Fehrenbacher family are the folks who are at work. Let me give you a bit of background about the units. This is going to be a condominium project. We met extensively with the staff of the Plan Commission to determine exactly what zoning category we needed for the condominium, and R-3 is that category. That’s why we’ve asked for an R-3. The units, I can tell you that the interior will not be public roadway, it will be private, so you won’t have any maintenance responsibilities for those roads. There will be two entrances to the area. One, I’ll walk over here and point to it for you and then I’ll come back. Those two entrances to the entire development. The major entrance matches up with the entrance right across the road with regard to the units we built, which are apartment type units, right across the road last year, that are under construction now. We’ve met with Bill Jeffers on numerous occasions to work out where the storm water needs to go, and I can tell you two things of interest there. Number one, the water will be taken under Allens Lane, through piping, and put into the little creek downstream of the bridge. That’s significant because that leaves the upstream area free for further development in the future. Secondly, Pete’s working with the Surveyor to deal with quality issues, because we’re acutely aware of your MS4 issues out there, and we are working with Bill to make sure we address those, as well as quantity issues. We’ve talked with your County Engineer, and with EUTS with regard to the roadway issues that need to be dealt with. There will be, as you can see, passing blister is the wrong word, excel/decel to get in and out. Those really get dealt with at site review, but we’re showing you where they’re going to be. These again are condominiums. It’s very exciting, because we don’t have a lot of those on the west side. The Plan Commission met on this matter a week ago, well, last Wednesday, a week ago almost. I believe the vote of the Plan Commission was to recommend it. That vote, save one abstention, correctly so, was unanimous. It’s an exciting opportunity for us. It’s an exciting opportunity for this area of the county. To our west, basically, is one owner who has no objection to this rezoning. To our south, where it says Leisure Living Condominiums, is property owned by Deig Brothers. There is, in fact, a big borrow pit there, as I recall, and some equipment sitting around. They have no objection. There’s some folks who live to our north who have no objection. And, I can tell you the Westside Improvement Association also, not only has no objection, they are here, they’ll talk, I hope, but are also in support of this project. There are no remonstrators. It is a good opportunity for us to move forward with residential development in this part of the county. Pete McCullough is here. If you have any questions in detail, he would be happy to answer them, as would I to the extent that I have that knowledge.

President Fanello: Are there any questions for Mr. Bodkin? Are there any remonstrators in the audience? I have to ask that question.

Fred Padget: In this case we are not going to remonstrate. I’m Fred Padget, and I represent the Westside Improvement Association. I did want to come down tonight because so many times we come in and ask for help or assistance, or we come in and have a problem, or we come in and we’re against something. I just wanted to come down and let you know that we’re not always against things. Here’s a project that we do fully support, and we think it will be a great asset to the west side. The developer, Mr. McCullough, he invited me to meet with him and review the plans way up front, which is exactly the way that we think it should work. We appreciate that, and we thank Pete for the invitation to do that. We reviewed the plans in quite detail, I guess, we spent, I guess, an hour and a half or so, took a walk around some of the other property and seen some other things he’s doing. But, this concept of the free standing residences operated similar to a condominium, I think, is a great thing for the west side. There is little maintenance involved with it. I think that will be attractive to a lot of people that would like to live in that kind of a setting. I guess, it’s unusual to use the word innovative and retro in the same sentence, but this design plan, to me, is kind of innovative, but at the same time, it’s retro. One of the things that I liked about it was that it kind of goes back to the old concept of a lot of neighborhoods in cities where there’s an alleyway with the garages facing the alleyway. So, that the front of the house is the only thing that you see from the main street. You don’t see the garage. They’re around behind. I think that’s quite innovative today, and at the same time it is retro. The drainage and traffic plans we went over those, but we’ll leave that to the technical people. Basically, it’s a good project. Many westsiders, I think, want something like this. I’ve had several people talk to me about they would like to stay on the west side, as they get older they don’t want the maintenance of a home, this kind of answers that question. We believe there’s a need for it, not only on the west side, but in Vanderburgh County. So, we think it’s a good project. We fully support it. Best of all, I guess, is that we have a developer here that is, one of the developers that tells us what he’s going to do, and then he goes and does it, and he’s responsive to us in the meantime. Thank you. If you have any questions, I’ll gladly answer them.

President Fanello: Thank you, Fred. Is there anyone else here wishing to speak to this rezoning? If not, do I have a motion to approve?

Commissioner Mosby: Motion to adopt VC-17-2003, and call the roll.

Commissioner Crouch: Second.

President Fanello: Commissioner Crouch?

Commissioner Crouch: Yes.

President Fanello: Commissioner Mosby?

Commissioner Mosby: Aye.

President Fanello: And I vote yes.

Tom Bodkin: Thank you ladies and gentlemen.

President Fanello: Next rezoning we have is VC-8-2004.

Jim McKinney: Good evening, Commissioners. My name is Jim McKinney, I’m president of Cross Pointe Commerce Corp. here to request a rezoning from agriculture to C-4, what we know as Lot E4. This is a piece of property, a part of Cross Pointe, which is on Virginia Street adjacent to the rest of Cross Pointe. Unfortunately through our process of rezoning, we had failed to get this one parcel rezoned C-4 with the rest of the development. It went before Area Plan Commission. I understand it was unanimous except for one vote, and that was only with regards to the fact that a private covenant was being requested, under which this parcel of ground would be in agreement by the owner to complete Columbia Street, when Columbia Street would be built to this parcel of ground. Which we are in agreement to. A few weeks back there was a comparable request with regards to the private covenant for a lot at the corner of Burkhardt and Columbia, and the private covenant has been drafted, has been provided to your attorney, it was show to John Stoll, both of whom I understand have approved it. It parallels exactly the agreement they had reached before, and I wish to offer this.

President Fanello: Are there any questions for Mr. McKinney? And everyone has seen the private covenant.

Commissioner Mosby: I guess, you’ve seen this.

Kevin Winternheimer: Just for the record, they, on the covenant, they’ve agreed to dedicate and build their half of the street when the other half is dedicated and built, or to be built. That was John Stoll’s request. He did not want half a street built too early. So, that was the change in the final covenant, and they put that in the agreement.

Jim McKinney: Do you want me to present the covenant to you.

President Fanello: I have a copy of one. Do we need, do you have one, Madelyn?

Kevin Winternheimer: We’ll have to give it to Madelyn.

President Fanello: Okay, yes, we will need that one. Thank you.

Commissioner Mosby: With that being said, I’ll make a motion to adopt VC-8-2004, and call the roll.

Kevin Winternheimer: Just before you call the roll, let’s note that there is no audience, so we have no remonstrators, except for the media, and he’s not saying anything.

Commissioner Mosby: John, do you want to remonstrate?

President Fanello: Thank you, Kevin.

Commissioner Crouch: I’ll second. Yes.

President Fanello: Commissioner Mosby?

Commissioner Mosby: Aye.

President Fanello: And I vote yes. Rezoning passes.

Jim McKinney: Thank you very much.

President Fanello: Thank you, Mr. McKinney.

Commissioner Mosby: Thank you.

President Fanello: Before we adjourn, I had, do we have any minutes to approve from the last rezoning?

Madelyn Grayson: We approved those at the Commission meeting following the last rezoning meeting.

President Fanello: Right. I did forget one item under consent items that someone had asked me to bring up. In regards to the voter outreach program that’s going on right now, I noticed that we signed a contract tonight for demonstrations at Eastland Mall. I think the Election Board a couple of weeks ago voted, which I think was a good vote, to have the voter outreach performed in a bipartisan manner. But, I’ve had a complaint from the person who has been hired as the Democrat appointee, that they are not getting paid the same as the Republican appointee. So, I don’t know, they asked me to bring that to the attention of this board. I believe ES&S is signing contracts with these individuals. So, I don’t know what we can do about that. But, I don’t think it’s fair that somebody get paid $25, and another person get paid $15, if it’s supposed to be a fair and bipartisan effort.

Commissioner Crouch: This is the first that I’ve heard of it. So, I don’t know how to respond to that. I guess, we could ask Kevin to look into it and see if there’s...I mean, is there any–

Kevin Winternheimer: Well, I was going to suggest Tammy.

Commissioner Crouch: Well, moving right along.

Kevin Winternheimer: I mean, they may have a reason. I think the appropriate thing to ask them is why they are differential, and see if they have a reason. I have no idea.

President Fanello: Can you check? I think it would be appropriate for you to check on that. Can you have a conversation with the appropriate people in the Election Office, and probably the person at ES&S would be Tom O’Brien, and Patty has his number.

Kevin Winternheimer: Okay.

President Fanello: But, if you could have those conversations and let me know, let us know in the next few days what you find out.

Kevin Winternheimer: I will.

Madelyn Grayson: Do you want me to pull that document?

President Fanello: No, I think the contract is fine, but that made me remember that somebody had brought that to my attention the other day. Do I have a motion to adjourn, if there is no further business?

Commissioner Mosby: Motion to adjourn.

Commissioner Crouch: Second.

President Fanello: So ordered.

(The meeting was adjourned at 6:37 p.m.)

CONSENT ITEMS:

         Jail Expenses:

         Williams Brothers Construction, Inc.: $740,777.27

         Peyronnin Construction Company: $238,252.86

         Mel-Kay Electric Company, Inc.: $ 184,950.00

         Integrator.com: $15,750.00

         Travel Requests:

         Center Assessor (1)                 County Clerk (1)

         Employment Changes:

         Cumulative Bridge (1)               Auditor (3)             Burdette Park (1)

         Prosecutor (2)                           VCCC (2)              Commissioners (1)

         Sheriff Department (4)              Circuit Court (1)

         Election Office: Voter Outreach Contract: Eastland Mall.

         Health Department: Renewal of STD Grant.

         Sheriff Department: Weekly Jail and Community Corrections Reports.

         Those in Attendance:

         Catherine Fanello           David W. Mosby             Suzanne M. Crouch

         Bill Fluty                          Kevin Winternheimer      Tammy McKinney

         Madelyn Grayson           Patty Avery                     Matt Arvay

         Kent Irwin                       Rob Faulkner                  Bev Behme

         Tom Bodkin                    Fred Padget                    Jim McKinney

         Others Unidentified         Members of Media

VANDERBURGH COUNTY

BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

Catherine Fanello, President

David W. Mosby, Vice President

Suzanne M. Crouch, Member

Recorded and transcribed by Madelyn Grayson.