- Okay, we'll call to order the meeting of the Ellsville Plan Commission for September 3rd, 2026. Steve,
- would you lead us in our Pledge of Allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States
- of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty
- and justice for all.
- Roll call, please. David Drake. Here. Dan Swafford. Steve Hale. Here. Zach Merkle. Here. Pamela Samples.
- Ryan Skaggs. Pat Resnick. Here. Okay, the first item on our agenda is approval of the minutes from our
- meeting on July 9th, 2026. So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye.
- Aye. Opposed? Hearing none, motion carries. We have no old business. We have one item of new business,
- primary plat approval for four lots consisting of 3.99 acres in the Blackwell subdivision at 3750 and
- 3820 West State Road Fit 46. Petitioner is Kenny Blackwell of Blackwell Contractors. Case number PC26-25.
- Subject parcels are located at 3750 and 3820 West State Road 46. The lots are zoned commercial 2, which
- is general business.
- Subdivision is accessed from West State Road 46. Individual lots will be accessed by a private drive.
- The lots will meet all size and dimensional requirements of the unified development ordinance. Technical
- review committee met on August 19th, 2026, and all items have been addressed. I would note, however,
- that after petitioners engineer made revisions to incorporate the technical review comments,
- The fire department advised that the drive serving lots one and two are required to be located 50 feet
- from the center line of the main drive. Due to the timing of the review, there was not sufficient time
- to incorporate this revision into the plans prior to the plan commission meeting.
- Staff will request conditional approval if the plans be revised to demonstrate compliance with the fire
- department's 50 foot access requirements for lots one and two. Petitioners engineer agrees with this
- conditional approval. The plan commission action on the primary plat can be in the form of approval,
- approval with conditions, denial or to continue the hearing. The plan commission has the final say in
- these matters.
- It is the staff opinion that the proposed primary plat will meet all required zoning and subdivision
- regulations. Therefore, staff recommends that the plan commission approve the primary plat for the Blackwell
- subdivision with the condition that the distance from the middle of the main drive to the individual
- drives be changed to 50 feet. Petitioners, representatives are here if you have any questions.
- And I'll go through the plans. This is the site plan. This is the grading plan. I put this on here so
- that when petitioner's engineer comes up to speak, she can explain to you how the drainage will work
- on those parcels. And this is the primary plat. And I think, yep, that's it. So if you need me to go back to
- One of those, let me know. So the way we do this is we all have our discussion, then we open it up to
- public comment for three minutes each. Why does it have a, why does it say 40 foot buffer on the east
- side of lot four, but not on the rest of the lots? There's a 40 foot strip on all of them, I thought.
- Okay. Maybe there wasn't originally, that's under the technical review meeting notes. Yeah, the one
- with the retention pond on it, I requested a 40 foot strip be put on that. But there was already a 40
- foot strip on the other ones? Okay. So there's a 40 foot buffer between the houses and the commercial
- lots. Exactly. Will that be landscaped at all?
- I didn't, I couldn't really tell from them. They'll have a mixture of, they're gonna put some along
- 46 frontage, has well be requested that, and there'll be some shrubs, but I think for the 40 foot buffers,
- trees at this point, that the engineer can explain that in case I'm wrong. Okay. When she comes up, not yet.
- Does anybody have any questions for today's street level for the grade? Yes, part of it. Yes. Where
- it goes up to behind lot one. Okay. Is the house gonna stay there? No, the house is gonna be removed.
- Well, I'm here to tell you that that place is going to be a traffic hazard. It's one right now.
- I've sat up there across the street from the apartments to right in and right out, and they just turn
- left and away they go, okay? My question is how far from the stoplight will the drive be? We can ask
- the engineer to answer that when she comes up. I'd have to look it up and she can answer it quickly.
- But NDOT has given their approval
- for how it has been designed. Now, put that in your packet. Well, I just think there's gotta be something
- done there versus just striping on the streets. I mean, there's gotta be something, you know, I look
- at Wester Street over there by Arby's, where they had the yellow piping, that's what you were to use,
- to show the different ways of going in and turning left, turn right. Is there something we can do here
- to do the same thing? I mean, I'm gonna tell you, people, you don't understand. You sit there and watch
- them. And them people, they don't care. Nope, they don't. I've watched them. We're at 35 miles an hour.
- And Zach probably can be the best one to say anything. I don't know who goes 35 besides me. Because
- I'm an old man, I guess. I go 35. These people aren't going 35. And what's going to, how, is the entrance
- going to be across from the other entrance where Arby's is at?
- Are you ready for the engineer to come up and answer all his questions? If you had anything for me,
- I can answer it. Just to clarify, this is primary plat approval. Are those issues such as the in and
- out gonna be addressed at the development plan stage? Well, at this time- Or do we have to do that now?
- So what they're going to be doing up on primary plat approvals applying for a grading permit. So they
- can get their infrastructure and the roads built in. I don't know if the petitioner and she can probably
- answer it is ready to finalize how the drive will begin with all the black top or if it's just being
- cut in at this point. But those issues are ones that we address
- development plan approval or not? Okay. This is just dividing the property up into four lots, basically.
- Plus the development plan approval, we can also request that NDOT come out and take a look at it to
- see if it adheres to how they wanted to drive before it's finalized.
- So would the petitioner like to come up? I'm not sure which one is the petitioner. So this is Katie
- Stein, petitioner's engineer. It's in a gradient so you can
- Okay. Okay. So you can just start out with whatever you want to tell us. Okay. Yes. Good evening. Yes.
- Thank you. Katie Stein with Smith Design Group. I'm the engineer for Kenny Blackwell, or Blackwell
- Contractors. So thank you, Denise, described this project very pretty clearly. It's pretty
- fairly straightforward. So this is only for the primary plan, the subdivision. This is not the development
- plans. This is not the commercial site plan. So the plan is
- do the masquerading that is shown on here that is the drive entrance up to where it stops to the lot
- on the very north side. This includes the detention stormwater drainage infrastructure. This extends
- sanitary sewer and water services to the site as well.
- Anything regarding the driveway, NDOT, or within NDOT's right of way, that's all under the direction
- of NDOT. We had contacted NDOT early on and said, hey, this is what we want to do. What do we need to
- do? Can we have a driveway here? And there were no issues with them.
- regarding the drive location. So this is right across the street from the drive location to the development.
- I can't recall the name of it, Richland Square directly to the south. It lines up with that driveway.
- So we have incorporated the improvements along State Road 46 per NDOTS requirements. So that is all
- that this is being requested at this time is the subdivision
- of this parcel, these two parcels into the four lots. And then the drainage. Drainage, yes. So there
- is going to be a common area lot lot four that will
- be able to detain and meet the stormwater requirements, with the exception of lot one, which is the
- one closest to the car wash, the southwestern lot. When that comes before this board for development
- plan approval, they will have to have their own detention system, water quality system at that time.
- Just elevation-wise, it does not work to provide detention for that lot with the common area detention pond.
- And for anyone who doesn't know, when she says NDOT, she means the Indiana Department of Transportation.
- They control State Road 46. We do not. Correct. Yes. And everything that we have done for that entrance,
- for that drive, has been dictated to us from them. If they want a traffic study done, they would have
- told us. They would have asked us for that information. And if they had wanted different driveway
- configuration, they would have told us at that time.
- when we requested the information from them. Okay, do you remember what Pat's question was? I've already
- forgotten. It was about the lines, how the lines will be to mark the lanes for turning out. And also
- he said on Third Street, there were. Yeah, Third Street, there's yellow plastic. Dillonators.
- whatever was on call. That was not mentioned at this time. We're requested from NDOT. Yeah. And then
- I don't recall, I don't know the distance from the traffic signal to this driveway off the top of my
- head either. So I apologize for not knowing that. What is the, what's like the overall vision for it?
- Is it two businesses or?
- commercial or what? It's all zone commercial, so it could be. There's been some interest with this,
- but nothing set in stone as to what is going to be developed here. Yeah, I guess I was maybe thinking
- farther ahead, but does Mr. Blackwell own that lot north of the car washes? The one up at the top? I
- believe so, yes. Yes, and Ellis Ridge. It might benefit everyone if there was some way to incorporate
- that drive to
- go west and catch into that existing road? I don't know that NDOT would approve a drive connection.
- I think the reason that they were okay with this driveway here is because it did not connect to any
- other developments. And I would add the subdivisions being requested at this time because I think some
- of the opportunities for those lots want to have the grading in place.
- Because theoretically, if you connect it over to Ellis Ridge where it has the right and right out, now
- you have a full access drive here. Everybody's going to come through there and now start turning left.
- Not to say that they don't in Ellis Ridge, but that could potentially be even more hazard, I guess,
- so to speak. And just to be clear, NDOT is the one that controls whether or not they extend that right
- turn lane like exists for Kemp Road.
- that's not right exactly any influence over that because I think that would help a little bit if they
- extended that down to where you guys I don't that may come up when we like my microphone just like right
- there didn't actually in my back I think I'm back yeah yeah
- That may be something that they determined when we go through the driveway permitting process that they
- want that. It seemed, what's the word I'm looking for? Because Camp Road is a road, so I think because
- of that, they requested that right turn lane where this is just a drive, so they, at this time, they
- have not requested that. Does it not have a standard for what Zach's talking about, a right turn,
- left to right turn in, right turn out? A 30 feet, 50 foot or whatever? Yes, they do depending on, I
- believe it is depending on the speed limit of the road. And then I believe it would have to be warranted
- by the number of cars they would anticipate the traffic going in and out of this. But I'm not 100% on
- that. That is in-dots determination. I can remember before Kemp Road and the
- PUD for the apartments and then there's houses back behind the apartments. There were meetings with
- NDOT engineers with what was best to do and handle that and the traffic for Kemp Road and this is what
- they came up with was what's existing. So. I don't think we ever asked that question either at that
- time. I don't.
- It was several, not several, two or three meetings. I don't know if you were in those meetings at the
- time. I was not in those meetings. But they were all on Zoom, online, and it was looking at this plan
- and looking at that plan, and that's what they found the issue to us. Well, you know, not to interrupt
- you, but that camp road that comes out that, I suppose, is turned right, okay, it's not from me to you. I mean,
- It don't even look like it's a right-hand turnout. I mean, there's cars that just turn left and they
- don't, they just basically go out a little bit of ways and turn left. I mean, that's my concern about
- this corner, is that when we're gonna do it, let's do it right. I mean, if it takes a little bit longer
- or if it takes something different, then let's put our heads together and figure out what we can do.
- Because if it's gonna be like Camp Roll, you're gonna have a mess. Or we're gonna have a mess, Portale.
- Okay, but keep in mind that the only thing we're doing tonight is dividing it into four lots. We're
- not doing any of the development plan approvals or anything like that tonight.
- Okay, anybody have any more questions for the petitioner or Denise? Okay, seeing none, thank you. Is
- there someone from the public who wants to speak? Come on up. Sign your name on that sign-in sheet in
- there and then tell us who you are. I'm Patty Jones Salter. And I live at 4285 North Centennial.
- and which is the second house off of forty six and uh... but blackwell subdivision and i have some serious
- concerns i feel like i have some buyers remorse right now i'd just uh... it will be a year saturday
- since i bought here my husband passed and i and needed to move closer to my daughter and uh...
- Soon as I got here I find out that the houses are being torn down behind me that couldn't actually see
- me and Then I heard about the annexation and Then Judy Sharp raised me 50,000 over 50,000 this year
- for my assessment. So Like I said, I have some buyer's remorse there but
- I do have some concerns about what is going on behind me, and now this may not be applicable right now.
- Just let me know. The first is, needs some mandatory privacy fencing. My bedroom, my sliding glass door
- is right in the back of my house where it would, but the property.
- I'm asking, I was going to say a six to eight foot fence, but the properties, both of them go down in
- a gully, so that wouldn't work, to provide some privacy. Also, and you were talking about a buffer easement,
- now I don't know
- I was against having any commercial waste dumpsters, loading docks and parking lots budding my property.
- And also lighting. My neighbor, it doesn't affect me, but my neighbor who couldn't be here, she just
- had surgery yesterday, but she was saying that
- The lights even from the car wash affects her. They don't affect me, but they do her. And she is the
- first house off of 46. So wanted to make sure that any future commercial establishments have downward
- lighting, downward and shielded lighting.
- to prevent it from bleeding into our homes there. And I know if it's apartments going up, there's going
- to be windows probably that's going to be looking right in my home. So I am concerned about what is
- happening there. But I have no concerns at all about somebody
- developing their property, and I respect that, but I do have those concerns, and I just wanted the Planning
- Commission to take that into consideration. Thank you. Okay, thank you. And once again, those are things
- that we talk about at the development plan stage. However, we do have lightning standards that they're
- required to maintain. It's supposed to stay away from the residential property. If the car wash is
- causing problems with your area. They can have our inspector look at it and make sure that they're meeting
- the requirements. The thing about a car wash, so our lighting standards mainly talk about like the pole
- lights that light up the parking lot. It's kind of different with the car wash because it's all, the
- car wash itself is all lit up. So I don't really know how that applies in the standards, but they can have,
- our inspector look at it and make sure that they're meeting the requirements. And then about dumpsters,
- privacy fences, those kinds of things are all things we talk about at the development plan stage. However,
- you might want to get with the young lady there and express your concerns to her about whether they
- can put a bunch of shrubs in there or whatever before they come back to us with their development plan.
- Okay. Thank you.
- Anybody else? Seeing none, as soon as I can find my piece of paper where I made notes at, I will make
- a motion that we approve case PC26-25 with the condition that the plans be revised
- following the plan to demonstrate compliance with the fire department's 50 foot access requirements
- for lots one and two. Okay, we have a motion. The second roll call please. David Drake. Yes. Steve Hale.
- Yes. Zach Michael. Yes. Pat Wesolowski. No. Motion passed.
- Oh, we do? Oh. So, it's a no action vote, so it rolls over to the next plan commission. I just thought
- it was of the majority, so. It's a majority. My bad. It's okay, it's a majority of the board, not a
- majority of the quorum.
- So in order for there to be a final decision from a planning commission or BZA, it has to be a majority
- of the board membership. So you have no final decision basically. So it just rolls over to the next
- meeting. Okay. Next item on our agenda is planning department update. Next meeting's October.
- First, there will be new business and this will carry over if they're ready. And that's about it. Privits
- of the floor. Anybody want to say anything that wasn't on our agenda? Plan, commission, comments? None,
- and we are adjourned.