The Chesterton
Board of Zoning Appeals will meet at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 23.
At that meeting the
board will hold two public hearings.
The first will be
on the petition of the Horizon Bank branch--located at the northeast corner
of East Porter Ave. and Roosevelt Street in Morgan Park--for four variances,
to replace an existing freestanding sign with a taller, larger one,
combining both static and dynamic elements.
The variances
required: one to increase the height of the sign to 20’ 6’’, 2’ 6’’ higher
than the maximum height of 18 feet permitted by the Zoning Ordinance;
another to increase the gross surface area to 180 square feet, 100 square
feet more than the maximum of 80 square feet; a third to place the sign
within four feet of the east lot line, six feet closer than the minimum
distance of 10 feet; and a fourth to allow the erection of a freestanding
sign in the first place, since under the Zoning Ordinance as recently
amended a business in a B-2 zone located fewer than 30 feet from a public
right-of-way--as the Horizon Bank branch is--is entitled only to a
wall-mounted sign, not to a freestanding sign nor to a monument sign.
The top half of the
sign would be static; the bottom half would feature a changing LED board
which would promote only Horizon and its affiliates or community events. The
sign itself would be located slightly west of the existing sign.
The second public
hearing will be on the petition of Eric Robinson for three variances at 301
W. Morgan Ave., where he is seeking to build a townhome: one to increase lot
coverage for a corner lot to 58 percent, 18 percent more than the maximum 40
percent allowed by the Zoning Ordinance; a second to reduce the side-yard
setback to 7’ 10’’, four inches fewer than the minimum of eight feet; and a
third to reduce the front-yard setback to 14’ 4’’, 10’ 8’’ fewer than the
minimum of 25 feet.
Robinson wants to
build a townhome on the property--the previous home on the site, built in
1890, was demolished this past fall--and the variances are needed in order
for the garages to face the alley to the south, for a paved drive to be
installed, and for the building to line up with the other homes in the 300
block of West Morgan Ave.