By PAULENE POPARAD

Chesterton Advisory Plan Commission member Sig Niepokoj said Thursday it’s time to make sure the Duneland School Board is aware of all proposed residential development in town.

While such notification has been made in the past on a less formal basis, the commission discussed having a petitioner seeking to build homes send the School Board a certified letter with the date of the project’s public hearing. Doing so would be made part of the petitioner’s checklist of requirements.

“(The School Board) can never come back later and say they weren’t notified,” said commission member and town planner Steve Yagelski.

Niepokoj raised the subject because town paperwork now asks if the school corporation can absorb the number of students likely to be added by a new subdivision; petitioners check yes. Niepokoj said he wants to hear that from the School Board itself.

Last night the commission set a public hearing for Nov. 15 for Springdale subdivision with 94 living units on County Road 1050N in Crocker. Members also continued a preliminary hearing for the second month at the developers’ request for potentially 360-home Sand Creek Farms on County Road 250E at the east terminus of Porter Avenue.

Continued as well was final action on Phases 6 and 7 of Sand Creek’s single-family residential area that would add a total 49 homes there off 250E south of Porter Avenue.

Duneland schools hired a South Carolina demographer this week to help determine where a new school should be located if it becomes necessary to build one. Duneland’s enrollment, which draws from all of Jackson, Liberty, Westchester and a portion of Pine townships, currently is 5,745 students.

Commission member Jeff Trout said Duneland should be kept in the planning loop, but Chesterton can’t force the School Board to respond even if it’s notified. “The schools have to do their part to participate.”

Trout also noted that although Chesterton represents a large portion of Duneland’s service territory, new residential development in Burns Harbor, Porter and unincorporated township areas contribute to overall student enrollment, too.

He questioned how far Chesterton should go in seeking input for a residential development petition. “Do we notify the Library Board, too? This thing could go on forever.”

Commission member Mike Bannon asked town staff to draft a proposed notification form a developer can send to the school corporation so it’s getting the same information for each project. Trout suggested asking the schools what information they want.

On another matter, Niepokoj suggested anyone wanting to be moved up on the commission’s agenda make that request in writing prior to the meeting, not verbally after it begins for their convenience.

Developers Rudy Sutton and Vic Roberts each asked to be heard early regarding guarantees for sidewalks in their respective Tamarack and Duneland Cove subdivisions. In both cases the commission voted 6-0 with George Stone absent to take the items out of order.

Action on Springdale,

Sand Creek

The Springdale subdivision brought by developers Larry Wright and Don Coker advanced Thursday to public hearing with 48 single-family living units and 46 total living units in paired-patio duplex homes. The site is one block east of State Road 149 and would abut Abercrombie Woods subdivision on the south side of 1050N.

Town staff made technical recommendations Thursday and Yagelski, who is also utility superintendent, asked Wright to reconsider his request that side-yard setbacks for the duplexes be reduced from 8 to 6 feet. Twelve feet between buildings is hardly enough room to maneuver construction equipment in the side yards if utility work must be performed, said Yagelski.

Bannon also said side yards need room so the grade can slope away from the building, not dramatically drop off, for drainage purposes.

Regarding Sand Creek’s Phases 6 and 7, subdivision platting was continued for both following last night’s public hearing because some construction drawings were incomplete including the lack of a proposed stormwater plan.

For that reason Bannon asked that public comment be reopened Nov. 15 if necessary based on newly submitted information. Commission attorney Charles Parkinson said that could be done.

Although no one commented pro or con on Phase 6, which was being reduced from a prior 57 homes to 34 homes, Michael Woods asked for clarification if the lot next to his would be affected by the new layout. Town engineer Mark O’Dell said its dimensions would not change, and Sand Creek attorney Clyde Compton said the covenants for both the existing pre-sold lots and the replatted ones would be the same.

Trout told Woods adjacent property values should increase because of the revisions being made.

Woods’ comments came during the public hearing on vacating, or setting aside, the formerly platted portions that Phase 6 will include. That petition was approved and the required findings adopted on a 6-0 vote. The primary developer of both Phases 6 and 7 is James Gierczyk of The Highlands of Sand Creek Developers, LLC and Lake Michigan Land Development, LLC.

Upon the vacation, the public hearings for platting, or establishing lot lines, for Phase 6 and 7 took place. No one commented and the petitions were continued. Fifteen-lot Phase 6 will be accessed by existing Brae Burn Boulevard, which will be gated, and Phase 7 to the west by an extension of it. Phase 7 will abut the Sand Creek golf course on all sides.

Compton said at the request of the Chesterton Park Board the developer will pay the town’s new per-unit $1,171 recreation impact fee for any homes built prior to the fee becoming effective March 24, 2008. Bannon said the Park Board did not want a donation of park land behind a gated entrance; an outlot for public open space for the new Sand Creek residents is planned.

Compton said in November he will be seeking both primary and final approval for Phases 6 and 7.

They have been before the Plan Commission multiple times already because Sand Creek’s existing development plan first had to be modified. That change also required Town Council approval.

Posted 10/19/2007