Burns Harbor Advisory Plan Commission member Cliff Fleming said the town needs to get its act together.

“Other communities that are growing and grown have adopted a policy and a procedure to do this,” he told the commission Monday. “We need to revisit the process we use so when people come before us, it’s a pleasant experience and not one that goes on and on.”

What prompted his suggestion was a pending petition from Verizon, which through consultant Karol Fahey is seeking a special exception to co-locate additional antennas on an existing communications tower at 1175 Rak Rd. and to add an equipment shelter.

Fleming, a zoning attorney, said if Burns Harbor department heads met weekly to review the status of pending petitions like Chesterton officials do, the petitioners could go over checklists and be better prepared for the boards and commissions that hear their requests.

That’s well and good, said Burns Harbor Plan Commission members Jeff Freeze and Jim Meeks, but it’s the Town Council that controls the purse strings and it would be their decision whether to authorize expenditures for additional staff hours.

Commission secretary Toni Biancardi said checklists and requirements already are contained in the zoning ordinance to assist petitioners, and commission member Terry Swanson said often the information is being provided by them but not always in a format that matches the checklists.

Fleming also called for the town to keep better engineering records so developers like himself aren’t penalized for the deficiencies of others. “I’m caught in between three engineers and spent about 20 grand to keep everybody happy,” he stated.

A requested bond reduction for phases of Fleming’s The Village in Burns Harbor subdivision was on the agenda. Town engineer Hesham Khalil said he can’t make a bond recommendation to the commission because records from previous town engineer Haas & Associates aren’t clear enough. The Village was begun under then-town engineer Lee Nagai.

After discussion it was agreed commission attorney Chuck Parkinson will contact Haas about the matter. Khalil said inspecting during construction looks at materials and methods while inspecting for acceptance of improvements looks at their as-built function.

As for the fate of the Verizon special exception, Khalil said all his technical questions about the proposal haven’t been answered; last night Fahey addressed his individual concerns but signed easements and other details were still outstanding.

The Plan Commission will make a recommendation to the Board of Zoning Appeals on Verizon’s request, and Fahey said she could have the missing information for the Nov. 24 BZA meeting. Instead, commission members required Fahey to return to them a third time with a completed petition Dec. 7 and if so, a recommendation would be made for the Dec. 22 BZA meeting.

Parkinson said under a new zoning ordinance future special exceptions will go directly to the BZA without Plan Commission involvement so Verizon could withdraw its current petition and refile there.

Fleming said Burns Harbor is experiencing growing pains and everybody needs to take a deep breath and get through it.

Lakeshore Ford/Toyota owner Bob Kerr agreed Monday to have contractor Rudy Sutton make temporary repairs to alleviate flooding on Old Porter Road that occurred after construction of the now-abandoned Ludington Nissan, which was built on land Kerr subdivided east of his dealership.

Kerr noted the town approved Ludington’s plans but didn’t go after that dealership when flooding developed at its new south entrance onto Old Porter. “You’re coming after me to fix his problems.”

Meeks told Kerr yes, the town should have acted sooner, but the Nissan owners are gone. “My concern is safety. Nobody said it’s your fault.”

Parkinson said it’s Kerr’s subdivision and he committed to making the public improvements.

The commission eventually voted unanimously with members Jim McGee and Louis Bain absent to reduce Kerr’s bond from $150,000 to $41,361 and to release his former letter of credit but not to recommend any improvements be accepted at this time.

Posted 11/3/2009