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BZA approves variances for Maple City packaging expansion on Highway 39 North
Summary
On May 13 the La Porte City Board of Zoning Appeals approved a use variance and development-standard variances to allow Maple City Paccaje to expand a packaging facility on Highway 39 North, reducing required landscape setbacks and lowering parking requirements with city-imposed conditions.
The La Porte City Board of Zoning Appeals on May 13 approved variances to allow an expansion of a packaging facility on Highway 39 North now within city limits.
Attorney Dave Ambers, representing Maple City Paccaje, told the board the business moved to the community in early 2021 and now seeks to expand an existing powder-manufacturing operation. Ambers said the property was recently annexed by the city and that the petitioner requested a use variance to continue and expand manufacturing in an R-1B district, plus development-standard variances to reduce landscape setbacks and required parking. "We believe that the both petitions match the ordinance, won't unduly compromise the comprehensive plan and let a new employer for the community continue to grow and expand this business," Ambers said.
Under the approved variances (use variance numbered on the agenda as 25-01 and development-standards petitioned as 25-05 in the staff report), the board approved reducing the south landscape setback from 50 feet to 20 feet and setting a 10-foot landscape buffer on the east where ordinance standards would require 50 feet. The board also approved a reduction in required parking from 50 spaces to 20, a change the petitioner said reflects actual staffing needs rather than the ordinance-calculated requirement.
The business representative told the board current staffing is about 18 employees and that a future second shift could increase staffing to about 25 employees; he said there would be no shipping or receiving during a potential second shift. The petitioner said the requested expansion would allow more on-site inventory and could enable a second shift but that the immediate employee count would remain the same. He said he hoped construction could be completed by year end and that he already has a contractor quote.
Board members asked questions about staffing, truck traffic on a potential second shift and whether the petitioner accepted the conditions placed by city staff; the petitioner confirmed acceptance of the conditions listed in the staff report. The board voted to approve the use variance and then the development-standards variance with the proposed 10- and 20-foot landscape setbacks and the reduced parking, each vote recorded as passing by the members present. The approvals were made with the conditions noted in the city staff report; the board did not record additional amendments.
