March 16, 2006

By Lauren Heaton

Village Planning Commission members’ hands were tied on Monday as they reviewed concept plans submitted by developers Matthew Arnovitz and Ted Donnell for their business space at 102 Dayton Street, the site of the Linkhart grain elevator.

Plan board members expressed support for the development, called Village Station, which they said would provide needed professional and retail space downtown.

But commission members also said that restrictive standards in the Village Zoning Code prevented them from approving the developers’ preliminary plans.

Instead, the plan board agreed to recommend that Arnovitz and Donnell submit their plans to the Village Board of Zoning Appeals for a variance. The commission also agreed to write a statement to the BZA in support of the plan for Village Station, recognizing that the restrictions in the Zoning Code prohibit the Village from accomplishing its goals to support the downtown businesses.

Planning Commission members said they would add to their agenda the task of revising the code.

After the meeting, Donnell said that he intends to submit the concept plans in time for the BZA’s next meeting, on April 19, and request a variance for multiple aspects of the project, which involves a two-story building with room for eight retail and professional businesses.

Donnell, who is a member of the BZA, said he plans to recuse himself from participating in the review of his project.

He also said he was satisfied with plan board’s recognition that the Zoning Code is “laced with impossibilities to develop downtown” and that because of inconsistencies in the code, the BZA is often left with no choice but to grant variances.

“I’m very pleased with last night’s meeting and with Planning Commission’s approach and willingness to work and be creative,” Donnell said. “If you do the math on the maximum lot size, maximum building footprint and parking requirements, you cannot develop new buildings in the Central Business District without a variance. It’s an absolute goof on behalf of the Zoning Code.”

Several villagers spoke during the meeting in support of Village Station and the need for more business space downtown.

Chiropractor Mark Duckwall, who has operated a private practice in town for 30 years, said he is looking for a professional office space that would accommodate his expanded business.

Downtown property owner Bob Baldwin said, “This town needs Donnell’s business.”

Village Council member Judith Hempfling said the project would serve the community’s needs.

“This project would be a great benefit to the village, and they [the BZA] ought to consider granting a variance and having this go forward,” Hempfling said.

Village Planner Phil Hawkey listed the many ways in which Village Station does not conform to the Zoning Code’s standards for the Central Business District, and he dared any developer to present to him a downtown building proposal that would comply with the requirements.

Arnovitz and Donnell plan to build an 18,000-square-foot business space on a 31,000-square-foot lot, which exceeds both the code’s maximum building footprint of 5,000 square feet and the maximum lot size of 8,000 square feet. The building would also be taller than the code’s 35-foot limit, and the plan’s 33 parking spaces do not meet the 59 parking spaces that the code requires for a property of its size.

But local residents Beth Holyoke and Eve and John Sturm, each of whom own properties north and west of the Village Station lot, complained that 33 parking spaces were not too few but too many. The number of parking spaces would give the property a “strip-mall” feel, John Sturm said.

Holyoke also said the standardized design and uniformity of the Village Station building was “unattractive.”

Contact: lheaton@ysnews.com